one28 PodcastYearning for Eternity
A Case for Staying the Course of Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 1:1-7:14; 12:13-14
2007.09.30
one28 Sunday worship
Back in the summer I was thinking about the upcoming year. The theme was still undecided and I was preaching sundry sermons on idleness, the fear of man, and fear or circumstances. During those days I seriously thought about abandoning Ecclesiastes mid-stream, middle of chapter 7, just a paragraph or two beyond the middle of the book.
The last time we made week to week headway in Ecclesiastes was January, and we’ve been on and off in the book since back in April 2005. The most recent progress in our study was one isolated message in GBC am worship on July 1 from 7:1-14 on the Advantage of Adversity, but otherwise this year has basically been filled with our study on Calvinism or the Intern was speaking or I was doing something else topical.
So I wondered if we should make the pracitcal abandonmnet official. Besides, I don’t always get the feeling that you guys care about Ecclesiastes or that you’re paying much attention to Solomon. Perhaps even some of you feel like Sunday after Sunday of sermons from Ecclesiastes is the embodiment of vain repetition.
But I believe repetition of the truth in Ecclesiastes is the farthest thing under the sun from vain. We often need remindeders more than we need instruction. Solomon deals with life and death issues, so there is no way I’m going to abandon ship. I’m committed to staying the course of Ecclesiastes with Solomon and want you not just to come along for the ride, but to get a passion for the destination.
If you want to build a ship, don’t summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs and organize the work, rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery
We’ve got some work ahead of us, some choppy waters to navagate, but let me tell you about the destination and why this series on Ecclesiastes is key to getting us there.
Yearning for Eternity
The aim of Ecclesiastes is to get us ready for eternity. God has put eternity into every man’s heart (3:11) even though we can’t figure it out on our own. For all of Solomon’s observations and advice about life under the sun, he clearly is trying to prepare us for somewhere else; for eternity. Consider Solomon’s summary in Ecclesiastes 11:9.
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
There is coming a day when our time on this celestial body will be complete. How you live now makes a difference then when we will be faced with God’s judgment. Solomon presses the point all the way to his final sentence on the last page of the book, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
This is the terminal and primary passion of the preacher. It is the end of the matter; all has been heard. This is it. There is nothing more to say. So here’s what you need to do: Fear God and keep His commandments. How you think about God and how you follow His instruction is the main thing. A proper attitude and obedience is what life is about.
There are two reasons for this. First, at the end of verse 13, for this is the whole duty of man. This is what we were made for. As His creatures, our purpose on this planet is pretty simple. The meaning of life is not a mystery: we are made for Him; we are made to worship. And the second reason comes in verse 14, For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. We’re back to the concern of judgment in 11:9. However much we may try to avoid it, however much we try to destract ourselves with various pursuits and pleasures, however proud we are of our own accomplishments, we cannot escape the One with whom we have to do.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 is a major part of our theme for the year: Playing for Keeps: Eternally. There are serious things at stake and we need to start living like it.
At best we are temporary residents on earth. A generation comes and a generation goes. But the “going” generation doesn’t leave into soul sleep or non-existence. They go into the immediate and obvious presence of God where they are judged to forever punishment and misery or they are rewarded with an incomprehensibly joyful inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading. In His presence there is fulness of joy and at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. That’s the place to be. There is nowhere better, and you can get there, if you fear God and keep His commandments.
Solomon is teaching us to yearn for the wonderful, boundless joy in God in eternity. But other than telling us about the destination, does he have any help for us to get there? I think he does. And without reviewing the first seven chapters point by point, let’s consider:
3 Reasons to Stay the Course of Ecclesiastes
The Ecclesiastes series is:
1. A sail filled with Scripture in futile waters.
A sail is a massive piece of material extended on the mast to catch the wind and propel/move the vessel. If you were a ship, what fills your sail? What drives you? What impels you? What gets you going?
We are in futile waters. In other words, we live in a culture of pointless and useless nonsense being published on MySpace and promoted on TV and presented in movies and proclaimed in pop music. Some of you are just adrift out in the water, lost at sea. You are tossed to and fro by waves of opinion, going with the flow of the crowd. No clear direction and no real force to move you on any course.
But God’s Word is a powerful force. It aims us and propels us. And there is something special about verse-by-verse, line upon line, sequential exposition. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with systematic study, or study of Scripture by subject. We do that a lot. We did that with the Lord’s day series and we’ll do that with Godly Man and Godly Woman Wednesdays. But there is benefit to be had by examining this Old Testament, wisdom literature, almost 3000 year old inspired document.
I’m unwilling to jump the ship of this series because I think that’s a horrible example. Where are men who are faithful to finish? How will you learn to be driven by Scripture if the preacher isn’t? Like I said, as timely and beneficial studies by subject can be, there is something special about investigating God’s Word in God’s intended order and proportions, seeing how God arranged it. How much attention He gives to something relevant. It’s about context and grammar and flow of thought, and there’s no more suitable study than getting the point of the paragraph and assessing its connection to the next.
I want this series to be an example of that kind of Bible study. It can be hard. It is tough, at least for me, to always figure out what in the world God is saying through Solomon. I don’t always understand his connections or his points. Maybe you remember that in the summer and fall of 1526 Luther took up the challenge to lecture on Ecclesiastes to the small band of students who stayed behind in Wittenberg during the plague. He wrote to a friend,
Solomon the preacher is giving me a hard time, as though he begrudged anyone lecturing on him. But he must yield.
But in a culture where opinions are free and emotions are high and distractions abound, we want our sail to be filled with Scripture. Studying Ecclesiastes is a sail to thrust us toward eternal joy.
2. A map drawn by Solomon for young people.
No matter whether you think this book is applicable for you, Solomon clearly intends this as a guide for young people:
Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;
His focus is on those who still have the critical decisions of life ahead of them. Though full of Solomon’s end of life reflections on his life and pursuits, he intends for us to learn the proper philosophy of life before making all the mistakes he did. As we studied, this is a tale of searching, of experimenting, of groping for meaning. It wasn’t done in isolation in some library cubicle or the seclusion of his palace den. He pursued his education in the “university of life.” He had been there, done it, had it.
And this preacher is no punk pundit. Solomon possessed the greatest mental, material, and political resources ever combined in one man, so he was qualified beyond all others to write this book on the proper life perspective.
It is always good to get counsel from people with experience. The map he makes for young people will help them navigate through trials, temptations, and toil.
A Map for Trials
He’ll help us get through trials. In the latter half of chapter two Solomon realized that couldn’t take anything he worked for with him and that his successor likely would deserve none of it. In chapter three wickedness prevails where righteousness should have been. In chapter four there is no escape from oppression, everyone is motivated by envy, people are lonely and unhappy, and nobody will remember you. And in chapter five Solomon warns against irreverent worship, government conspiracy and exploitation, and the uncertainty and unhappiness of money. Chapter seven covers the adversity of death, rebuke, corruption, and chronic struggles. How are you going to get through those kind of difficulties without a guide?
A Map around Temptations
He’ll help us avoid temptations. In 2:1-8 Solomon recounted his expiriment with pleasure. He searched for happiness is a bottle. He worked to find meaning from his work. He tried to get joy by getting more stuff. He chased pleasure in women and music/entertainment. In all these pursuits he surpassed everyone before him in Jerusalem. Whatever he wanted he got. He devoted his life to finding the right toy or the finest possessions. He was spoiled; or rather, he spoiled himself. Not only was he in a position to get for himself anything he wanted, he actually did. He exercised no restraint, no self-denial, in his pursuit of sensual pleasure. He looked for life in all the wrong places. How are you going to pass by these allurements of the world (that the whole world pursues) without a guide?
A Map through Toil
Finally, he’ll help us enjoy toil. Work and labor and difficulty and toil is a major theme of Ecclesiastes. Life is hard (and then you die). If anyone had the resources to avoid toil, to have others do the work, to take long vacations, etc., it was Solomon. But joy doesn’t come by getting out of work or receiving a larger paycheck. It comes through toil and embracing the lot God has given us. How are you going to know what to do without a guide?
3. A life jacket given by the Sovereign for God-fearers.
The book of Ecclesiastes has a very simple, and depressing, motto: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” The dominant chorus is that everything under the sun is full of futility and striving after wind. This three thousand year old message is as relevant as ever. Our own day has no shortage of broken lives and bitter people. For all our busy activity and organized routines and relaxation strategies and bottomless consumption, our culture is still plagued by unrelieved emptiness. So many live their days in a thick fog and are drifting away with the world. It is actually about as depressing as you can imagine.
But throughout the book we come to passages and truth that bouy us back to the surface, that lift our heads above water long enough to fill our lungs with oxygen, that sustains us in the midst of great difficulty.
Ecclesiastes 2:24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God
Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.
You may remember that the can of peaches and the can-opener are distinct gifts, and some men only get the can and are totally miserable. He’s got warehouses full of cans, and no ability to enjoy them. There is a difference between the “thrill” of white water rafting with or without a life jacket. One way you can actually enjoy.
The effect, or the outcome, of the gift of joy in toil is that a person doesn’t even think about how hard, short, and miserable life is. The pain is more than dulled, the pain gives way to God-provided pleasure and joy. They say time flied when you’re having fun. That should be updated: Time flies when you’re having joy from God. You will get to the end of your life, whenever that might be, and won’t be badgered by regrets and resentment, instead you will not much remember the days of ‘your’ life. And the reason is not because amnesia or Alzheimer’s disease, but because God keeps ‘you’ occupied with joy in ‘your’ heart!
God makes it so that everything works to make your heart glad, no matter what it is. The joy is not merely external and not just a distraction, but a soul-satisfying, untouchable kind joy. The biggest thing is, it’s a joy that will be eternal. Ecclesiastes provides us with the life jacket of joy.
Conclusion
So we’re going to stay the course of Ecclesiastes. This series is significant because it
- keeps us advancing
- keeps us aimed
- keeps us afloat
As we consider the destination, this series
- spurs us toward eternal joy
- steers us toward eternal joy
- sustains us for eternal joy
Today we’ve been reminded that Ecclesiastes is
- From: God through Solomon
- To: Young People
- Subject: Fear God for the sake of your eternal joy.
Set your course for eternal joy and you’ll get joy in the process. Make up your mind that you’ll try to be satisfied with stuff under the sun, you’ll loathe this life and lose eternal life.
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