God's Order

As you’ll see this series in Ecclesiastes will be similar to the James series in that, in Wisdom literature fashion, the topics are a bit sporadic and don’t seem to flow sequentially, so we will be moving around a bit to see the points that Qohelet makes and repeats.

But First: totally unsurprisingly, I did a poor job explaining what I meant in the last Ecclesiastes sermon, there were good questions afterward which showed me that I was not clear enough, so let me spend the first part here summing up what we’ve found in Ecclesiastes and clarifying.

I want to make these statements simple and clear.

All is Not Meaningless, All Is Hevel

You don’t have control

1 Cor 10:31

Your life will have no surplus

Sun river wind, no extra.

Everything is needful that he gives, nothing can be needful that he withholds

The River isn’t anxiously striving to make sure it gets to the ocean on time, why would it be anxious, there will be no surplus, it will do it again tomorrow.

Anxious striving has no place here, whether it comes to your joy, or your salvation, both find their rest entirely in God.

The point of your life isn’t GAIN/PROFIT

Good to work hard, to make profit, but the profit isn’t the point, it’s the work that’s the point, the profit is a possible result, but it might not be the result, but good news, it isn’t the real goal, the real goal is the task itself that God has assigned to you.

It’s a product of the sunrising that plants grow, but the sun is faithful and content in his normal work of rising, if the plants die the sun wasn’t less faithful or less contented in his daily assignment

It’s a product of the riverflowing that fish are able to live, but the river doesn’t flow so that fish can live, but it flows because God has told it to and it is contenting itself in its daily task

It is not sinful to work to make profit, it’s good, but your joy and contentment should be more in the work than in the profit, which may or may not result.

My task as minister is an easy example of this. I work and pray for growth here, spiritual growth first … numerical growth also, but I don’t have control over that at all. If I am faithful to the task I’ve been given, I am not less faithful or pleasing to God if no one grows and no one comes than if everyone grows and everyone comes because God controls the growth. Well Rene if you do all that they’ll come and grow, really? Tell that to Noah or Jeremiah. GOD IS IN CONTROL OF THAT. I am but a Sun rising, a river flowing, wind blowing, and God is in control of results.

Your task is no different than mine. You are in control of being faithful to the assignment given to you today, you have no control over what you get from that work, as much as you want to convince yourself that you do.

NOT LICENSE TO BE LAZY – in fact its almost the opposite, the River flows vehemently, the wind blows with fervor, the blazing fire that is the Sun rises loyally, the Christian should be the hardest worker in his office, because he works hard for very different reasons than everyone else works hard, and thus finds motivation no one else can find.

REST IN THAT GOD IS THE ONLY ONE THAT HAS CONTROL. Not you, not your enemy, not the Devil.

God has given you a task this morning, be faithful to it, freely, knowing he handles the rest.

Content yourself in the task given, if the task is to help the company profit, then that’s the task, but the task IS the end, not just a Means to profit. Your faithfulness, your joy, lies not in the profit, but in the contended work.

2:24-26

5:18

8:15

“Eat and Drink” – ORDINARY, Normal, Daily

God Given and God Grounded

3:9-15

God has Ordered Things Beautifully

3:9-11a

Probably not referring to God making things intrinsically beautiful, like pretty sunsets, though He did that of course, but this doesn’t seem to fit the context, He is likely saying the Creator has orchestrated all things beautifully, elegantly, as all things make their way through time like a great symphony to the Glory of God.

God has Ordered Things so that We look to Him

3:11b

We try and try but cannot discover the almanac that would enable us to predict and control the times, even though God has given us a sense of this Great Time, Great History, that no other animal has.

It is interesting that we have been given this awareness and curiosity that other animals have not, other animals don’t think about the animals before them, or the foundations of the world, or the meaning and purpose to all of this, they don’t think about the Great Story that exists here like we do, and yet, this awareness is only enough to let us know that we don’t understand it and are powerless over it. God has placed this awareness in our hearts so that we will look to Him, glorify Him, rest in Him, the only One that understands and is able to order things.

Classic RomCom movie line is something like “I was perfectly happy before I met you, but now I’m miserable without you.” Its like that, the animals are perfectly fine as they lack awareness of the Greater things of which they could not comprehend, but we are aware, and so we look to the Creator for joy and answers in a way that the animals do not.

Joy is Found by Resting in God’s Order

3:12-15

That God and NOT human beings controls the times is a fundamental biblical conviction. Israel’s history in the Bible does not focus on the social or political or military forces or on the great heroes that shaped its direction, but it is a story of how everything was shaped by God, who is at all times moving everything forward to its goal.

Human beings may scheme and plot as they like, but the plans of God are the ones that will be enacted.

We see this in the OT, maybe most clearly with the GREAT KINGS of Babylon . . . “It is God who gives kingdoms to whoever he wishes”

We see it in the New Testament as well as Jesus lets the people know repeatedly that he knows exactly what is about to happen to Him, and He is pushing forward precisely because of that plan and order.

The only rational response to God’s sovereignty is to revere God, live a life centered on God, acknowledging that He is the Creator and we are only creatures – He is the one whose work is ultimate and always effective, ordering things.

Scholar Iain Provan says, “It is indeed the appropriate response to the reality of the times that are beyond our control, but lie in the hands of God, that we should cease to worry overly much about how things are going to work out and concentrate on living joyfully in the moment that is currently given to us.”

The message is almost a Christianized carpe diem – seize the day – it is a seize the day that is centered on God instead of on us. When someone normally says carpe diem they mean, youre gonna die one day, so do what you can today. But this version is a realization that daily life comes to us as a gift from God, and that we should patiently and joyfully embrace it.

Far too often Christians have given the impression that this life is just an ascetic one . . . repress life now to gain life in the future, but this was never the message, this life is a gift. The Christian life has thus been defined by many in America by the activities in which we may not engage, rather than by the glorious freedom and joy that is the inheritance of God’s children both now and forevermore.

Biblical religion speaks of a God who made the world beautiful and fruitful to be enjoyed by his creatures in fellowship with Him, a God who says You are Free to eat from Any tree of the Garden, with but a single exception. We focus on the exception rather than the massive gift and freedom.

We are, of course, called by Jesus to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily, but that is a call for the displacement of self from the center of the universe and of my life, a message also preached in Ecclesiastes. It is not a call for misery in this beautiful gift of a world God has given us.

Whatever we do as Christians, including not doing some things, should be done out of joyful response to the God of extravagant blessing and grace, as we live the abundant life that stretches all the way into eternity.

Provan - “Only when what is done under the Sun takes account of and responds to what is done by God can it be anything other than pointless.”

Come we that Love the Lord and let our JOYS be Known! Join in a song with sweet accord . . . let those refuse to sing that never knew our God, but children of the heavenly king may speak their joys abroad