WEBVTT 00:00:04.248 --> 00:00:08.134 Let's take our Bible and go over to the book of Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes. 00:00:08.134 --> 00:00:12.324 Is this turned up enough for all of you? 00:00:12.324 --> 00:00:13.266 Is that better? 00:00:13.266 --> 00:00:14.932 Yeah, thank you, enoch. 00:00:14.932 --> 00:00:29.332 I've been excited about our journey through the Word of God as we go down Route 66. 00:00:29.332 --> 00:00:48.825 And we come to the book of Ecclesiastes this evening, and the opportunities that we have in this are to get not only a good overview of different books of the Bible but sometimes a necessary correction to maybe some gathered insights or understandings that we've had about particular books. 00:00:48.825 --> 00:01:00.414 Hopefully, during this journey along Route 66, you've stopped at least once or twice, maybe more times, in saying I never really understood that book. 00:01:00.414 --> 00:01:02.142 Now I do. 00:01:02.142 --> 00:01:10.498 I think, mike, you'd talked to me about 1 Chronicles, wasn't it Ezekiel? 00:01:10.498 --> 00:01:25.287 There was somebody that talked to me about Chronicles and, ted, you just opened up 1 and 2 Chronicles to them in a way that they'd never really captured before and said that they were really, really enjoying going back and reading it with the kind of help and understanding that you'd given them. 00:01:25.287 --> 00:01:30.120 I don't remember who that was now, so if you're in here, please forgive me for forgetting. 00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:33.629 It was you that told me, but we're in Ecclesiastes. 00:01:34.510 --> 00:01:41.332 Ecclesiastes is one of those books that I think, often brings a lot of question marks more than answers to some people. 00:01:41.332 --> 00:01:51.272 Someone said it's simultaneously one of the most fascinating books of the Old Testament, but also one of the most perplexing books of the Old Testament. 00:01:51.272 --> 00:02:09.247 It really does offer us, when you read commentaries on it, just what seems to be an extremely wide spectrum of understanding, even among those people who spend a lot of time and effort drilling down into the book. 00:02:09.247 --> 00:02:27.953 Someone described it this way, said that Ecclesiastes is like a desert sphinx it teases us with questions, yields its secrets only grudgingly and will not allow us the luxury of easy answers, and I think that's true. 00:02:27.953 --> 00:02:37.879 One person said of Ecclesiastes it's thoroughly irritating but at the same time also mesmerizing. 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:38.981 In its appeal. 00:02:38.981 --> 00:02:46.152 It draws me toward it by mirroring the perplexity that I feel as I grapple with life. 00:02:46.152 --> 00:02:53.367 Right, and I think you can, if you're familiar at all with Ecclesiastes, understand where that author was going. 00:02:53.367 --> 00:02:57.229 So opinions about Ecclesiastes vary widely. 00:02:57.229 --> 00:02:59.826 It's very true about life. 00:02:59.826 --> 00:03:06.151 It speaks honestly about the difficulties of life, and so Herman Melville called it the truest of all books. 00:03:06.151 --> 00:03:13.733 But then on the other side was a German author who said that it is a book that digs its own grave. 00:03:15.015 --> 00:03:20.211 Wow, well, why do we call this book Ecclesiastes? 00:03:20.211 --> 00:03:28.313 That sounds like maybe some Episcopalian gave it a title, right, ecclesiastes. 00:03:28.313 --> 00:03:41.603 Well, the English word Ecclesiastes comes from the Latin verba Ecclesiastes or from the Greek remata ecclesiastitu. 00:03:41.603 --> 00:03:49.675 So both Greek and Latin kind of force us into the direction of calling it Ecclesiastes. 00:03:49.675 --> 00:04:05.611 But those translations take a Hebrew word, koheleth, and transliterate it, and we translate it into Ecclesiastes, which is now then transliterated into our Ecclesiastes. 00:04:05.611 --> 00:04:07.455 So what is Koheleth? 00:04:07.455 --> 00:04:19.622 Well, koheleth is a word derived from a root word which means to assemble people, right, to assemble people. 00:04:21.807 --> 00:04:25.494 Now, what's the connection between Ecclesiastes and assembling people? 00:04:25.494 --> 00:04:34.733 Ecclesia, a church, is not a building but a gathering of people, right? 00:04:34.733 --> 00:04:44.872 So when we call ourselves the church or when we go to church, what we mean is what we should mean is that we're going to the assembly of God's people. 00:04:44.872 --> 00:04:48.223 We're not going necessarily to a building. 00:04:48.223 --> 00:04:55.884 We could go to church in the field, across the road, as much as we could inside this structure. 00:04:55.884 --> 00:04:59.752 So an ecclesia is not a building but a congregation. 00:04:59.752 --> 00:05:01.641 It's a gathering, an assembly of people. 00:05:01.641 --> 00:05:07.920 And so the term Hebrew term koheleth, which means to call an assembly. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:19.425 That's where we get the connection, and so the term means one who speaks or one who calls an assembly together. 00:05:19.425 --> 00:05:32.928 This is why sometimes you, when you read Ecclesiastes, for instance in the CSB, in verse 2, chapter 1, you'll see a term there the teacher. 00:05:32.928 --> 00:05:36.567 Right, that's the term koheleth. 00:05:36.567 --> 00:05:59.312 Other translations will call koheleth the preacher, other translations will call it the convener of the assembly, trying to bring in that idea of one who gathers a group of people for the purpose of conveying some instruction. 00:05:59.312 --> 00:06:05.103 So our Koheleth. 00:06:05.142 --> 00:06:10.894 Here the question arises is this a title or is this a name? 00:06:10.894 --> 00:06:15.951 Is this person's name Koheleth or is his title Koheleth? 00:06:15.951 --> 00:06:19.189 Well, I think it can be both, right? 00:06:19.189 --> 00:06:39.166 So if someone back there yelled out hey, preacher, micah and I probably would both turn our heads, because there's something about the role and the title that gets attached to us in a way that you could almost use it as a name, right? 00:06:39.166 --> 00:06:47.552 I discovered that when Pat MacArthur yelled at John MacArthur one day by using the word preacher and he turned his head. 00:06:47.552 --> 00:06:51.951 If you want to know more about that story, I can tell you later, but it was pretty funny. 00:06:53.081 --> 00:06:55.550 So we find the English challenging. 00:06:55.550 --> 00:06:56.903 Is it preacher? 00:06:56.903 --> 00:06:58.528 Is it teacher? 00:06:58.528 --> 00:07:01.526 Is it convener of an assembly? 00:07:01.526 --> 00:07:11.021 Yes, but it's not teacher like a classroom, and it's not preacher, like a pulpit. 00:07:11.021 --> 00:07:14.608 So it's a little different than that. 00:07:14.608 --> 00:07:31.112 It's someone who's gathering a group of people to convey instruction, but does it by way of saying I took myself on a journey and as I took myself on a journey I learned some things that gave me wisdom. 00:07:31.112 --> 00:07:41.810 And as you go on your journey, I asked you to enter into my journey so that you might have the kind of instruction I've gained. 00:07:41.810 --> 00:07:50.245 So that's why teacher I think probably of all of the terms probably works out the best, right? 00:07:51.728 --> 00:08:01.829 Well, let's talk a little bit about the author In Ecclesiastes 1.1, the words of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem. 00:08:01.829 --> 00:08:07.321 So naturally we're going to think of King Solomon, king in Jerusalem. 00:08:07.321 --> 00:08:08.904 So naturally we're going to think of King Solomon. 00:08:08.904 --> 00:08:19.286 We might think of some of the other kings who are of the lineage of David, but this is the only physical first-generation son of David who was king in Jerusalem. 00:08:19.286 --> 00:08:34.712 And as we read through Ecclesiastes, there are a lot of things that we read there that really do line up perfectly with Solomon, chapter 1 and verse 16, I've acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me. 00:08:34.712 --> 00:08:37.767 That sounds like Solomon. 00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:53.451 Solomon was promised because not only a wise and discerning mind, but he would also have riches beyond compare, and when we read Ecclesiastes, there's certainly a person here who has great resources available. 00:08:53.451 --> 00:09:09.133 As we read here, the teacher goes on to describe houses that he built and gardens that he planted and the power and luxury that were just seemingly in his hands in fullness. 00:09:09.133 --> 00:09:30.104 The description of this teacher in Ecclesiastes 12.9 talks about him gathering together wisdom, which reminds us of a statement in 1 Kings 4.32, which talks about him, solomon, weighing and studying and arranging proverbs with care. 00:09:30.104 --> 00:09:35.601 So, from the earliest days, a lot of people have seen this to be Solomon. 00:09:35.601 --> 00:09:43.144 Now, if you know the track of Solomon's life, you know that there isn't just wisdom in Solomon's life. 00:09:43.144 --> 00:09:44.528 There was also a lot of folly. 00:09:44.528 --> 00:10:20.885 His life and his leadership were sidetracked by the pursuit of various inappropriate activities, and so a lot of people think that this is Solomon not in the vigor of his strength, not in the rush of early years of monarchy, but at the end of his days, as he's come to the end, hopefully repentant of his sins, returning to a right and proper understanding and fear of the Lord. 00:10:20.885 --> 00:10:37.582 And so this is perhaps his final testament of the Lord, and so this is perhaps his final testament, maybe his words, given even directly to his son, rehoboth, to give him the wisdom that he was obviously lacking, when the day would come when he would become the king. 00:10:37.582 --> 00:10:43.922 I've kind of introduced this to you already, but let's talk about its place for a minute. 00:10:44.342 --> 00:10:48.812 This is within the corpus of what we call the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. 00:10:48.812 --> 00:11:04.715 Ecclesiastes is definitely one of those books that is meant to provide to us wisdom and understanding and discernment how to live our lives rightly before God, in full honor and respect, and even fear of Him. 00:11:04.715 --> 00:11:11.384 It repeats that refrain in Proverbs the fear of the Lord's, beginning of knowledge, right, the beginning of wisdom. 00:11:11.384 --> 00:11:14.063 Ecclesiastes 3.14,. 00:11:14.063 --> 00:11:16.672 God works so that people will be in awe of him. 00:11:16.672 --> 00:11:19.104 Ecclesiastes 5.7,. 00:11:19.104 --> 00:11:22.272 Many dreams bring futility, so do many words. 00:11:22.272 --> 00:11:23.546 Therefore, fear God. 00:11:23.546 --> 00:11:26.609 And then Ecclesiastes 12.13. 00:11:26.609 --> 00:11:35.511 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this Fear God, keep his commandments, because this is for all humanity. 00:11:38.220 --> 00:11:43.346 Like other parts of wisdom literature, ecclesiastes is reflective. 00:11:43.346 --> 00:12:08.115 It's looking at God's world and God's works and reflecting upon those things in order to understand better this life, this world, by way of God's point of view, and so it overlaps with other wisdom literature in doing that, but it also does so in its own very unique, distinct way. 00:12:08.115 --> 00:12:20.734 It has some correlations with, say, the book of Job, for instance, where Job speaks about this puzzling thought that a righteous person could suffer. 00:12:20.734 --> 00:12:27.951 Well, ecclesiastes says that's not just something Job alone experiences. 00:12:27.951 --> 00:12:30.703 There are a lot of righteous people who suffer. 00:12:30.703 --> 00:12:42.346 But it also goes to the book of Proverbs, where Proverbs lays out how life should run in expectation of wisdom. 00:12:42.346 --> 00:12:51.017 Right, but then Ecclesiastes goes to the exceptions of those expectations. 00:12:51.017 --> 00:13:09.095 The race is not always to the swift, the battle is not always to the strong, and so we find this wisdom literature unique, especially as we see it in its sort of journey motif. 00:13:11.841 --> 00:13:14.029 And that leads us to the structure question. 00:13:14.029 --> 00:13:16.668 How does this story get told? 00:13:16.668 --> 00:13:23.692 This is one of the most vexing issues for people who spend a lot of time with Ecclesiastes. 00:13:23.692 --> 00:13:27.644 And it's perhaps one of the most vexing issues for people who spend a lot of time with Ecclesiastes, and it's perhaps one of the most vexing issues for you as you read it. 00:13:27.644 --> 00:13:30.291 What is its structure? 00:13:30.291 --> 00:13:35.841 I don't feel it taking me anywhere in a linear way. 00:13:35.841 --> 00:13:50.062 Some people get discouraged by that, seeing it and feeling its seeming disorganization and even its contrary nature to itself at times. 00:13:50.062 --> 00:13:55.291 Some Bible scholars have said this. 00:13:55.291 --> 00:13:59.743 There is no progression of thought in one section to the other. 00:13:59.743 --> 00:14:07.634 The author offers no universal or satisfactory answer to any of the problems that he raises. 00:14:07.634 --> 00:14:15.173 Well, if that's true, that would be a very discouraging perspective. 00:14:15.173 --> 00:14:24.224 Added to that, as I said, are these puzzling contradictions that are inside of it, distractions that are inside of it. 00:14:24.264 --> 00:14:38.030 For example, in chapter 2 and verse 13, the teacher speaks about wisdom in a very, very laudatory way and yet two verses later questions whether wisdom is valuable at all. 00:14:38.030 --> 00:14:44.534 How can it both be profitable and not profitable at the same time? 00:14:44.534 --> 00:14:50.398 He talks about pleasure in chapter 8 and verse 15. 00:14:50.398 --> 00:14:59.179 But he also says in chapter 2 and verse 2 that pleasure is useless. 00:14:59.179 --> 00:15:07.107 So which is it Right? 00:15:07.107 --> 00:15:08.254 He praises life in chapter 9 and verse 4. 00:15:08.254 --> 00:15:09.559 Praises work in chapter 8 and verse 22. 00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:17.485 But then, in chapter 2 and verses 17 and 18, says that he hates both work and life. 00:15:17.485 --> 00:15:32.787 Now tell me if that doesn't resonate with some of your own thoughts as you take the conglomerate of your days and try to distill them all down to statements, does it not? 00:15:32.787 --> 00:15:45.866 So, instead of finding some sort of linear movement, I think it's better to be able to feel some structural features that I want to introduce to you. 00:15:46.509 --> 00:15:52.586 First of all, there are some things that are very much structural in their placement. 00:15:52.586 --> 00:15:59.182 For instance, there are two voices that we hear in the book of Ecclesiastes. 00:15:59.182 --> 00:16:02.568 The first voice listen to it. 00:16:02.568 --> 00:16:05.173 Look at verse 12. 00:16:05.173 --> 00:16:10.653 I, the teacher, have been king over Israel. 00:16:10.653 --> 00:16:20.715 In Jerusalem, I applied my mind to examine and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven. 00:16:20.715 --> 00:16:25.866 Okay, so this is a first person statement, right? 00:16:25.866 --> 00:16:28.451 I, the teacher. 00:16:28.451 --> 00:16:36.148 Chapter two, in verse one, I said to myself go ahead, I will test you with pleasure. 00:16:36.148 --> 00:16:43.466 Then, in chapter six, verse one, I have seen another evil under the sun. 00:16:43.466 --> 00:16:47.173 Chapter 9, I have reflected on all of this. 00:16:47.173 --> 00:16:54.307 There's this first person voice, but it's not the only voice in the book. 00:16:57.220 --> 00:17:00.791 Ecclesiastes begins with a different voice. 00:17:00.791 --> 00:17:12.481 Let's look at verse one with me, the words of the teacher, son of David, king of Jerusalem. 00:17:12.481 --> 00:17:19.275 This voice sounds like it's somebody else's voice talking about the teacher. 00:17:19.275 --> 00:17:24.267 That's reinforced in chapter seven, in verse 27,. 00:17:24.267 --> 00:17:30.266 When we get this little note that says there, look, says the teacher. 00:17:30.266 --> 00:17:33.252 This is what I've discovered. 00:17:33.252 --> 00:17:36.968 So somebody's talking about the teacher. 00:17:36.968 --> 00:17:43.132 Now, right, not just mentioning the teacher, talking about the teacher. 00:17:43.132 --> 00:17:52.030 And then, when you get to chapter 12 and verse 9, listen to these words and tell me if this doesn't sound like a second voice. 00:17:53.500 --> 00:18:00.109 In addition to the teacher being a wise man, he constantly taught the people knowledge. 00:18:00.109 --> 00:18:05.131 He weighed, explored and arranged many proverbs. 00:18:05.131 --> 00:18:11.053 The teacher sought to find delightful sayings and write words of truth accurately. 00:18:11.053 --> 00:18:18.353 Ah, now it really sounds like a second voice talking about the first voice. 00:18:18.353 --> 00:18:25.353 So one thing that we can feel here is that there's something going on. 00:18:25.353 --> 00:18:35.410 There's Solomon and his journey and somebody else helping us see Solomon in that journey. 00:18:37.773 --> 00:18:38.755 But there's more to this. 00:18:38.755 --> 00:18:41.582 Structurally, there's also some bookends. 00:18:41.582 --> 00:18:44.404 Let's go to verse 2 of chapter 1. 00:18:44.404 --> 00:18:54.574 Absolute futility, says the teacher. 00:18:54.574 --> 00:19:04.420 Absolute futility, everything is futile. 00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:13.761 Chapter 12, the last chapter of the book. 00:19:13.761 --> 00:19:15.865 In verse 8, absolute futility, says the teacher, everything is futile. 00:19:15.865 --> 00:19:18.371 So there's kind of a bookend there. 00:19:18.371 --> 00:19:19.553 Right, there's bookends. 00:19:19.553 --> 00:19:24.304 The front starts with futility and it ends with futility. 00:19:26.746 --> 00:19:46.769 But if you move a little deeper into chapter 1 and a little earlier in chapter 12, you'll notice that there's also two poems that follow this, beginning in verse 4, a generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 00:19:46.769 --> 00:19:49.451 The sun rises and the sun sets, panting. 00:19:49.451 --> 00:19:59.092 It hurries back to the place where it rises, gusting to the south, turning to the north, turning, turning goes the wind and the wind returns in its cycles. 00:19:59.092 --> 00:20:10.848 When you look at the closing poem that begins in chapter 12, or perhaps even in chapter 11, near the end of it, you'll see a bunch of similarities there. 00:20:10.848 --> 00:20:22.579 The first one speaks about generations coming and going, like the endless repeating patterns of the sun and the wind and the rivers no-transcript. 00:20:22.579 --> 00:20:33.926 In the second poem, at the end, you also get this sense of impermanence and futility that's contemplated directly and comes to the very end of it all with death. 00:20:33.926 --> 00:20:45.708 There's also words that are common to both poems, words about the sun, words about the wind, words that call us to remember. 00:20:45.708 --> 00:20:48.463 So there's a lot of connecting points there. 00:20:49.736 --> 00:20:50.819 So what do we have? 00:20:50.819 --> 00:20:51.403 What am I saying? 00:20:51.403 --> 00:20:54.585 We have two voices and bookends. 00:20:54.585 --> 00:20:58.025 We have an introduction and an exit. 00:20:58.025 --> 00:21:02.365 We've got these statements about vanity. 00:21:02.365 --> 00:21:06.365 We've got these poems with similar themes. 00:21:06.365 --> 00:21:09.461 What about the inside? 00:21:09.461 --> 00:21:12.021 What about all of that in the middle? 00:21:12.102 --> 00:21:21.242 Now, now that we've seen there's some cohesion and coherence and connection between chapter 1 and chapter 12, what do we do with 2 through 11? 00:21:21.242 --> 00:21:32.805 Well, this is where it gets a little more complex and this is where, truly, those who are trying to find a structure really, really have to wrestle with it. 00:21:32.805 --> 00:21:40.282 I think the answer is not to look for structure, the way we think of structure, but to remember who's teaching us here. 00:21:40.282 --> 00:21:52.066 This is the Kohelet, this is the teacher, preacher, convener of an assembly, this is a person who's inviting us into their journey. 00:21:52.066 --> 00:21:55.403 None of our journeys are linear. 00:21:55.403 --> 00:22:04.826 Our journeys are filled with all kinds of twists and turns and side roads and returns back to the main roads, right? 00:22:04.826 --> 00:22:13.404 So when we're taught here by this teacher, we're brought along on that kind of journey. 00:22:14.615 --> 00:22:20.444 He's not laying it out systematically, line upon line, like we might expect. 00:22:20.444 --> 00:22:29.724 He's wanting us to just go with him as the wind carries his life through all of these discoveries and understandings. 00:22:29.724 --> 00:22:40.817 So when we talk about preaching and teaching, there's more than just a good outline that captures our attention. 00:22:40.817 --> 00:23:04.749 Right, good outlines are helpful, but someone can be a dead asleep listener to a good outline If the preacher doesn't modulate his voice, doesn't have something interesting to say, doesn't use perhaps rhetorical skills or gestures or whatever to try to keep people's attention. 00:23:04.749 --> 00:23:08.303 A good outline won't do that. 00:23:08.303 --> 00:23:18.926 So this teacher moves away from the easy outline but uses a lot of rhetorical devices to keep our attention. 00:23:21.556 --> 00:23:34.798 He wants to maintain our interest by using words like hyperbole, by speaking about things to the extreme and causing us to think. 00:23:34.798 --> 00:23:53.144 By using this hyperbole, For instance, in chapter 2 and verse 8, I hated all my work that I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the one who comes after me and who knows whether he'll be a wise man or a fool. 00:23:53.144 --> 00:23:58.480 Well, you're kind of like yeah, yeah, me too. 00:23:58.480 --> 00:23:59.704 That's going to happen to me too. 00:23:59.704 --> 00:24:06.742 Yet he will take over all my work that I've labored skillfully under the sun. 00:24:06.742 --> 00:24:10.008 He will take over all my work that I've labored skillfully under the sun. 00:24:10.008 --> 00:24:12.372 So that kind of hyperbole there. 00:24:12.372 --> 00:24:21.295 Right, did he really hate all of his work simply because he couldn't see it through to the next generation and put it into skillful hands? 00:24:21.295 --> 00:24:26.667 No, no, he talks in other places about actually being able to enjoy work. 00:24:26.667 --> 00:24:30.653 No, he talks in other places about actually being able to enjoy work. 00:24:35.123 --> 00:24:38.355 But the hyperbole is there to make a striking statement, to cause us to think. 00:24:38.355 --> 00:24:45.303 He also uses some common figures of speech, like simile, like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot. 00:24:45.303 --> 00:24:51.151 So is the laughter of the fool, chapter 7 and verse 6. 00:24:51.151 --> 00:25:03.240 Our metaphor, for instance a live dog's better than a dead lion. 00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:10.355 Now is he really taking us to the vet's office and asking the veterinarian so which is better here, a live dog or a dead lion? 00:25:10.355 --> 00:25:15.342 A veterinarian, so, which is better here, a live dog or a dead lion? 00:25:15.342 --> 00:25:16.584 No, he's using that metaphorically, right? 00:25:16.584 --> 00:25:17.164 Or he's using metonymy. 00:25:17.164 --> 00:25:20.430 Get it out of my mouth, metonymy apart for the whole. 00:25:21.835 --> 00:25:23.298 Ecclesiastes 10.18,. 00:25:23.298 --> 00:25:26.988 Because of laziness, the roof caves in and because of negligent hands. 00:25:26.988 --> 00:25:35.990 10.18, because of laziness, the roof caves in and because of negligent hands, the house leaks. 00:25:35.990 --> 00:25:38.595 Now is Solomon simply telling us about how to have a well-constructed house? 00:25:38.595 --> 00:25:43.319 No, he's talking about how to have a well-constructed life, and the house could stand for our whole life. 00:25:43.319 --> 00:25:45.904 If our house is a shambles, our life is a shambles. 00:25:45.904 --> 00:25:48.128 So the part stands for the whole. 00:25:50.215 --> 00:25:58.402 He uses vivid numerical figures to help us understand the power of things Chapter 4 and verse 12. 00:25:58.402 --> 00:26:03.027 If someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. 00:26:03.027 --> 00:26:05.943 And what's the next part? 00:26:05.943 --> 00:26:15.015 A cord of what? 00:26:15.015 --> 00:26:16.136 Three strands is not easily broken. 00:26:16.136 --> 00:26:16.676 Why do you remember that? 00:26:16.676 --> 00:26:19.520 One, two, three, it's simple as that. 00:26:19.520 --> 00:26:21.502 It's a rhetorical device. 00:26:21.502 --> 00:26:26.969 He also uses humor, including ridicule and sarcasm. 00:26:29.994 --> 00:26:31.618 Ecclesiastes 10.3. 00:26:31.618 --> 00:26:41.830 When a fool walks along the road, his heart lacks sense and he shows everyone he's a fool. 00:26:41.830 --> 00:26:42.432 Verse 15. 00:26:42.432 --> 00:26:45.739 The struggles of fools weary them, for they don't even know how to go to the city. 00:26:45.739 --> 00:26:58.980 You can imagine this person who's like wandering around in such foolishness he can't even make his way down the street to get where everybody knows he should be going. 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:10.815 But something else that the teacher does here besides use these rhetorical devices, there's one that he likes to use the most and that is to ask questions. 00:27:10.815 --> 00:27:12.381 To ask questions. 00:27:12.381 --> 00:27:25.525 Now, a lot of people think that these questions are thrown out there simply for rhetorical effect, that as if the answer is an automatic no. 00:27:25.525 --> 00:27:28.580 What does a man gain? 00:27:28.580 --> 00:27:33.307 Well, people would say, well, the answer is simply nothing. 00:27:33.307 --> 00:27:36.101 I don't think that's true. 00:27:36.101 --> 00:27:45.567 We have to ask ourselves every time a question is thrown up there is it a rhetorical question or is it a genuine question of investigation? 00:27:48.496 --> 00:27:51.546 Don't assume it's one or the other immediately. 00:27:51.546 --> 00:27:59.365 When he says who knows or does a man gain? 00:27:59.365 --> 00:28:03.005 Don't automatically assume the answer is a negative answer. 00:28:03.005 --> 00:28:08.721 He might be seriously asking the question and then providing the answer. 00:28:08.721 --> 00:28:10.951 He might be seriously asking the question and then providing the answer. 00:28:10.951 --> 00:28:15.663 For instance, in chapter 6 and verse 12, who knows what is good for a man. 00:28:15.663 --> 00:28:22.221 Well, the rhetorical answer would be nothing in that negative kind of frame. 00:28:22.221 --> 00:28:31.643 But if you read after chapter 6, you find out that he actually answers the question and says there are things that are actually good. 00:28:31.643 --> 00:28:36.721 So it's an investigative question, not a rhetorical question. 00:28:39.875 --> 00:28:45.882 Another example in chapter 1 and verse 3, what does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 00:28:45.882 --> 00:28:54.086 Is he rhetorically denying that there's any gain or is he asking the question genuinely? 00:28:54.086 --> 00:29:00.219 Well, when you read further on, you find in chapter 2 and verse 13 that there is some gain. 00:29:00.219 --> 00:29:02.825 Chapter 5 and verse 9, there is some gain. 00:29:02.825 --> 00:29:05.618 Chapter 7 and verse 12, there is some gain. 00:29:05.618 --> 00:29:07.766 Chapter 10 and verse 10, there is some gain. 00:29:07.766 --> 00:29:09.896 So he's answering the question. 00:29:15.644 --> 00:29:18.630 So this teacher takes us on a journey. 00:29:18.630 --> 00:29:33.746 He asks questions, he uses rhetorical devices, he goes to hyperbole and the metaphor and metonymy, he goes to simile, he goes to questions both rhetorical and true and genuine. 00:29:33.746 --> 00:29:43.568 But he also makes some observations and draws some conclusions and casts those observations and conclusions along the way. 00:29:43.568 --> 00:30:10.690 Along the way, when he makes observations, we read words like I saw right, and when he makes those observations, predominantly those observations are more on the negative side, seeing human weakness and transitoriness, that our lives are really brief and fleeting, obligatoriness that our lives are really brief and fleeting. 00:30:10.690 --> 00:30:18.916 But he also has instructions, and those instructions aren't negative, they're actually more positive. 00:30:18.916 --> 00:30:39.289 And those instructions help us to be wise and a certain kind of wisdom, a wisdom of prudence, a wisdom of discretion, a wisdom of moderation, a wisdom that understands what it means to be even keeled in a topsy-turvy world. 00:30:39.289 --> 00:30:59.758 So look for those, and when you look for those observations and those instructions, you will actually see, within the middle of this book, four cycles of observation, instruction, observation, instruction, observation, instruction. 00:30:59.758 --> 00:31:14.768 Now, they're not as neat, cut as that, they kind of bleed over into each other, but there's a predominance of observations followed by a predominance of conclusions and instructions in four different cycles. 00:31:14.768 --> 00:31:30.022 Now that gets me right to the heart of what I think is probably the most important thing to understand, and how to understand this book. 00:31:30.714 --> 00:31:33.183 Let's go back to chapter 1, in verse 2. 00:31:33.183 --> 00:31:43.627 None of our English translations really do this justice. 00:31:43.627 --> 00:31:59.690 Justice. 00:31:59.690 --> 00:32:15.240 There's one Hebrew word that's mentioned five times in one verse, in chapter 1 and verse 2 of the CSB absolute futility, absolute futility, everything is futile. 00:32:15.240 --> 00:32:17.241 That's actually one Hebrew word being repeated several times. 00:32:17.241 --> 00:32:23.750 Havel, havel, says the teacher, havel, havel, everything is Havel. 00:32:23.750 --> 00:32:29.717 Now the question is what does Havel mean? 00:32:29.717 --> 00:32:34.679 Chapter 12 and verse 8, remember the? 00:32:34.679 --> 00:32:56.256 This is one of those observational points, and I talked about the observations and the instruction cycles. 00:32:56.256 --> 00:33:04.598 Well, 23 of the 38 uses of Havel are in those observational sections. 00:33:04.598 --> 00:33:08.107 Eight of them are in these two verses. 00:33:15.598 --> 00:33:17.080 What does this word mean? 00:33:17.080 --> 00:33:20.234 It's used dozens of times. 00:33:20.234 --> 00:33:34.838 Well, the word Havel, translated literally, means a mist or a vapor or a breath, literally. 00:33:34.838 --> 00:33:42.398 And you go to other places in the Old Testament where it is a mist or a vapor or a breath. 00:33:42.398 --> 00:33:57.136 Where the interpretive question comes is where the interpretive question comes is what do we do with the very concrete vapor, midst or breath, and turn it into a metaphor. 00:33:57.136 --> 00:34:01.432 Metaphorically, what is it referring to? 00:34:01.432 --> 00:34:12.635 Metaphorically, it could mean speaking about something that's fleeting or elusive. 00:34:12.635 --> 00:34:17.271 Right, what is a vapor? 00:34:17.271 --> 00:34:29.237 Royal had our freezer open and we have a bottom level freezer and an upper level refrigerator, and when I was down in what we call our den, I could look up the steps. 00:34:29.237 --> 00:34:42.655 And when I was down in what we call our den, I could look up the steps and when she pulled the freezer, there was condensation rolling out from under the bottom of the freezer and it drifted and faded away within a few feet. 00:34:42.655 --> 00:34:51.827 It's Havel, it's a mist, it's a vapor, it's a breath. 00:34:51.827 --> 00:34:54.054 There for just a little while and gone. 00:34:57.715 --> 00:35:10.378 So take out the words absolute futility of verse 2 and put in these words vaporous, vaporous, says the teacher. 00:35:10.378 --> 00:35:11.364 Vapor, vaporous, says the teacher. 00:35:11.364 --> 00:35:16.197 Vaporous, vaporous everything is mist. 00:35:16.197 --> 00:35:24.257 Does that sound a little different to your understanding than absolute futility? 00:35:24.257 --> 00:35:45.315 Absolute futility gives it a negative moral tone, whereas Havel carries more the idea of transitoriness and brevity, without the moral connotation. 00:35:45.315 --> 00:36:00.646 What is our life? 00:36:00.646 --> 00:36:02.307 It's a puff of wind. 00:36:02.307 --> 00:36:04.030 What is our life? 00:36:04.030 --> 00:36:04.391 It's a vapor. 00:36:04.391 --> 00:36:13.762 More than just futile, chaotic, empty, useless, meaningless. 00:36:13.762 --> 00:36:19.115 No, it's something different than that. 00:36:19.115 --> 00:36:32.434 All of our lives, every single one of us, every single human on earth lives a Havel life of brevity. 00:36:32.434 --> 00:36:37.400 We're just mists that are here for a little while. 00:36:37.400 --> 00:36:52.119 There's not a single aspect about our human existence that is not touched by that transitory nature of our life. 00:36:56.067 --> 00:37:02.751 If we give ourselves to wisdom, we'll only be wise for a little while we give ourselves to work. 00:37:02.751 --> 00:37:09.974 We'll only work for a little while we give ourselves to pumping up our bodies with exercise. 00:37:09.974 --> 00:37:15.844 We'll only be strong for a little while we give ourselves to our families. 00:37:15.844 --> 00:37:18.934 We'll only be in our family for a little while. 00:37:18.934 --> 00:37:23.875 If we have money, we're only going to have it for a little while. 00:37:23.875 --> 00:37:28.744 If we enjoy the pleasure of an ice cream cone, it's going to melt, and so will we enjoy the pleasure of an ice cream cone. 00:37:28.744 --> 00:37:32.713 It's going to melt, and so will we. 00:37:32.733 --> 00:37:50.824 This is what Solomon is driving at, more than just saying life under the sun is absolutely meaningless to actually saying life under the sun is just brief, it only lasts a little while. 00:37:50.824 --> 00:38:03.715 And how can you gain wisdom when everything just seems slipping out of your hand all the time, when none of it seems like it really hits you in the satisfaction spot? 00:38:03.715 --> 00:38:07.731 That's the journey. 00:38:07.731 --> 00:38:13.891 That's the question he's dealing with more. 00:38:13.891 --> 00:38:27.092 Yes, he gets into the realities of human existence and the vexations that we feel and the challenges of making sure that we don't make gods out of all the stuff that's here. 00:38:27.092 --> 00:38:41.795 Yes, he gets there, but he wants us to know more than just this sort of negative, nihilistic framework that says life sucks and then you die. 00:38:41.795 --> 00:38:44.556 It's more than that. 00:38:44.556 --> 00:38:47.452 He wants to take us on this journey. 00:38:52.505 --> 00:38:59.438 So he immerses himself in work and finds out that work in and of itself is just not it. 00:38:59.438 --> 00:39:30.414 He immerses himself in acquisitions and finds out that that's just not it, and he goes into pursuit after pursuit after pursuit after pursuit Some legitimate and some seemingly very illegitimate and comes back saying I didn't find anything there Because it's fleeting and I'm fleeting. 00:39:30.414 --> 00:40:11.485 So how are we to live a life in this fleeting world, in this one that's given to change, when we're given to change, when expectations don't always come to pass into change, when expectations don't always come to pass, when you rally behind a leader and then that leader becomes corrupt, when you gain some money and find it has to go, when you enjoy your job and then you have to work right, how do you find any of this? 00:40:11.485 --> 00:40:21.954 How do you find help in the middle of an elusive, ephemeral, enigmatic life that's going to end in death? 00:40:21.954 --> 00:40:26.456 Well, what does he tell us? 00:40:28.539 --> 00:40:37.835 He said there's wisdom in caution, there's wisdom in moderation. 00:40:37.835 --> 00:40:51.233 Don't go fully any one direction, thinking that somehow you found the secret because it won't be there. 00:40:51.233 --> 00:40:55.576 The answer will not be in any one of those pursuits. 00:40:55.576 --> 00:41:06.838 So step back a little bit, be moderate, be cautious, be even keeled. 00:41:06.838 --> 00:41:12.572 He goes into that in some ways. 00:41:12.572 --> 00:41:15.434 He examines, for instance, your youth. 00:41:15.434 --> 00:41:19.690 Enjoy your youth, but remember you're not going to have it forever. 00:41:19.690 --> 00:41:24.510 Enjoy your job, but remember it's going to be repetitious. 00:41:24.510 --> 00:41:27.927 Enjoy. 00:41:28.309 --> 00:41:40.719 He goes there, but he gives you those moderating tones all the time because what he's trying to teach you is these things are gifts, but they're not gods. 00:41:40.719 --> 00:41:44.728 They can't give you what only god can give you. 00:41:44.728 --> 00:41:48.791 But there are gifts from the God who does give you everything. 00:41:48.791 --> 00:41:59.902 So work and money and friends and relatives, and life itself, health, vitality. 00:41:59.902 --> 00:42:07.530 All of these things are to be welcomed as gifts, but not as gods. 00:42:07.530 --> 00:42:16.905 Be moderate, be moderate, but not as gods, be moderate. 00:42:16.905 --> 00:42:18.367 But he also tells you that it's okay to take pleasure in those things. 00:42:18.367 --> 00:42:23.052 Counter to this sort of negative, meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless perspective. 00:42:23.873 --> 00:42:35.818 Solomon interjects many different times that there truly are pleasures to be had, even in the fleeting moments of life. 00:42:35.818 --> 00:42:37.528 Let me read a few of these for us. 00:42:37.528 --> 00:42:39.193 Ecclesiastes 2.24. 00:42:39.193 --> 00:42:45.981 There's nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. 00:42:45.981 --> 00:42:54.530 This I saw, is from the hand of God, for, apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 00:42:54.530 --> 00:42:55.972 Ecclesiastes 3.10. 00:42:56.853 --> 00:43:00.527 I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 00:43:00.527 --> 00:43:03.072 He's made everything beautiful in his time. 00:43:03.072 --> 00:43:10.206 Also, he's put eternity into man's hearts, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 00:43:10.206 --> 00:43:20.257 I perceive there's nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, and that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all of his toil. 00:43:20.257 --> 00:43:22.710 This is God's gift to man. 00:43:22.710 --> 00:43:26.360 I perceive that what God does endures forever. 00:43:26.360 --> 00:43:27.282 Nothing can be added to it. 00:43:27.282 --> 00:43:28.005 What God does endures forever. 00:43:28.005 --> 00:43:29.588 Nothing can be added to it. 00:43:29.608 --> 00:43:31.032 Ecclesiastes 3.22,. 00:43:31.032 --> 00:43:36.213 There's nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities, because that is his reward. 00:43:36.213 --> 00:43:50.373 Ecclesiastes 5.18, I've seen what is seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil to which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given him. 00:43:50.373 --> 00:44:03.452 Ecclesiastes 8.15, I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. 00:44:03.452 --> 00:44:14.253 Ecclesiastes 9.7, go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. 00:44:14.253 --> 00:44:18.652 Let your garments be white, let not oil be lacking on your head. 00:44:18.652 --> 00:44:29.737 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your life that he's given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 00:44:29.737 --> 00:44:32.789 Ecclesiastes 11.7,. 00:44:32.789 --> 00:44:34.413 Light is sweet. 00:44:34.413 --> 00:44:36.436 It's pleasing for the eyes to see the sun. 00:44:36.436 --> 00:44:42.795 Indeed, if someone lives many years, let him rejoice in them all and let him remember the days of darkness, since they will be many. 00:44:45.851 --> 00:45:10.929 All this repetition, all this repetition these are the conclusions in the journey of a ephemeral, vaporous life that there are real pleasures to be had when you take life, in the full picture of it all and understanding its temporary nature, but that God gifts you with things even in the middle of it. 00:45:10.929 --> 00:45:16.536 So enjoy your food, enjoy your drink, and understanding its temporary nature, but that God gifts you with things even in the middle of it. 00:45:16.536 --> 00:45:22.344 So enjoy your food, enjoy your drink, enjoy your work, enjoy your marriage, enjoy your health, enjoy your strength, enjoy your youth. 00:45:22.344 --> 00:45:25.072 You're not going to have it forever. 00:45:25.072 --> 00:45:27.702 You're not going to have any of it. 00:45:27.702 --> 00:45:28.364 You're going to die. 00:45:28.364 --> 00:45:31.750 I'm going to die. 00:45:32.190 --> 00:45:33.831 Don't get lost in the details. 00:45:33.831 --> 00:45:37.237 Balance your life out. 00:45:37.237 --> 00:45:40.706 Work, but take a vacation. 00:45:40.706 --> 00:45:45.871 Work out, but don't get angry when you can't go to the gym anymore. 00:45:45.871 --> 00:45:55.422 Use your money not just wisely and for the future Remember you may not have one. 00:45:55.422 --> 00:45:58.449 Use part of it for pleasures today. 00:46:01.273 --> 00:46:15.657 This kind of balanced, holistic perspective about life is the kind of wisdom that Solomon, at the end of his days, when he tried to make a God out of everything, realized that it was better just to think of them as temporary gifts. 00:46:15.657 --> 00:46:21.626 And that brings us to the end of the book. 00:46:21.626 --> 00:46:24.972 How can you do that? 00:46:24.972 --> 00:46:41.038 By ordering your life under the sovereignty of God, by giving yourself to Him rather than giving yourself to your pursuits. 00:46:41.038 --> 00:46:56.038 And only when you're rightly oriented with God can you be rightly oriented with your money, with your pleasures, with your family, with your work, with your health. 00:46:56.038 --> 00:47:00.052 It's the only way. 00:47:00.052 --> 00:47:12.840 This is why, at the end of Ecclesiastes, he says that this teacher is constantly teaching people knowledge. 00:47:12.840 --> 00:47:26.099 He weighed, he explored, he arranged Proverbs, he sought to find delightful sayings and to write words of truth accurately. 00:47:26.099 --> 00:47:29.728 This is where he wants us to end up. 00:47:29.728 --> 00:47:36.039 Can I love it, even though I have to leave it? 00:47:36.039 --> 00:47:54.943 Yes, you can, when you first know that God is sovereign, both in your pleasure and in your pain, your pleasure and in your pain. 00:47:54.983 --> 00:47:55.284 Let's pray. 00:47:59.244 --> 00:48:02.672 Father, we thank you for giving us a perspective about life that doesn't paper over the realities of its challenges and difficulties. 00:48:02.692 --> 00:48:11.237 We thank you that you speak honestly and truthfully to us, but you also grant us something that we wouldn't understand otherwise. 00:48:11.237 --> 00:48:17.318 You give us a wisdom from above so that we might know how to live under the sun. 00:48:17.318 --> 00:48:50.427 Lord, I pray that you would help us to recognize that all of our simple things in life are actually sacred gifts from you, that the things that we enjoy can be enjoyed when they're put under your sovereignty, when we are looking to you as the first in our life and not trying to make those things which cannot be first, not trying to make those things which cannot be first. 00:48:50.427 --> 00:48:59.432 Lord, I pray that you'd help us to appreciate these gifts from you, to appreciate life while we have it, strength while we've got it. 00:48:59.432 --> 00:49:18.110 Money while we can use it, work while we're engaged in it, family while we're in it, the body of Christ, while we're here, even in the midst of our vaporous lives, and we pray this Father in Christ's name, amen.