Ecclesiastes Conclusion

“The war in Vietnam is going well and will succeed.” Robert Mcnamara, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1963.

Race not to the swift . . .

We are a people that love predictions, political poll predictions, sports team predictions which start for the next season the moment the season ends (if not before), weather predictions, predictions about our future, predictions about our children, predictions about the church, predictions about the country.

In part, we love predictions because it helps us feel like we have some control. We imagine we understand the world, we can see how it is going. The problem is how bad we are at them.

1825 – Quarterly Review “What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stagecoaches.”

1943 – Thomas Watson, Chairmen of IBM, said he predicted there would be a world market for about 5 computers.

1956 – Richard van der Riet Wooley, Renowned British Astronomer, said “Space travel is utter bilge.” (rubbish)

It has been calculated that 2/3 or more of the predictions made by American social scientists have been incorrect.

Rich Strike wins the Kentucky Derby (was he just secretly the fastest and the experts didn’t know it . . .)

Ukraine doesn’t go down in less than a week to Massive Russia as was supposedly inevitable

Georgia actually beats Alabama

Most importantly: The last place Braves lost their best player and then win the World Series

Shrug – We dunno “The race is not to the swift . . . time and chance happen to them all”

We live in a world where cause and effect are often visibly in connection with each other. I press a light switch and the light comes on. The swift usually win the races. Because of this, we start to get the idea that somehow the universe can eventually be mastered by us, and we say, yeah I know what’s about to happen. Control is seductive.

2 Ways we Seek Control

2 False Gospels of Control (not gospels like Matthew Mark Luke John, but the gospel message, the good news of salvation)

2 Reasons to Yield Control

Qohelet says there’s basically 2 methods people use to try to gain control

Knowledge/Wisdom

We say, the problem is I just don’t understand enough, so I need to gain more knowledge, Qohelet says that wisdom is certainly better than folly, but it does not allow us a comprehensive account of reality and thus provide a means somehow to control it. Its good to increase in knowledge, but that won’t solve the control problem. In fact, it’ll probably make it worse, because you’ll be frustrated by more stuff.

1:16-18 – We know this to be the case – if ignorance is bliss, what is knowledge? There is truth in the idea that knowledge makes life more difficult and stressful. Or just think about it in terms of a job promotion that results from knowledge or competency, that’s nice, but almost always, your responsibilities and therefore stress increase.

7:23-24

Ends book with reminder of this – 12:12 – Beware of much reading (summer reading, religiously opposed to it)

Know more stress more, not know more have more control

Wealth

We all say, well if I just had more money, and yet, you have more than you did 10 years ago, and have your stresses greatly decreased? Do you know feel like you have control?

5:10-11 - Fill in the Blank, Mo Money Mo __________ Control? Lol - Problems

One cannot guarantee one will attain wealth, and even if he does, one cannot guarantee that one will be able to keep it, or use it, or pass it on, and then if you are able to pass it on, who is to say that that will be Good for your child or grandchild and not make them complacent and entitled? One of the sociological facts that we now know most clearly and surely is that the possession of wealth does not inevitably lead to the possession of fulfillment and joy. In fact, as one sociologist put it, suicide seems to be a privilege of the rich.

2:1-11, 17-23, 4:7-8. 5:10-17, 6:1-6

Don’t live a life of pursuing knowledge, don’t live a life pursuing wealth, live a life pursuing God, and if he intends, the others will come from this.

The promise of control lies at the heart of much of the advertising with which we are every day deluged. To control our lives, it is suggested, we need only buy this product, eat this kind of food, and avoid that sort of drink. No longer need we be the victims of our frailty and mortality. This food will make you live longer, this product will make your hair grow back, this book will bring you happiness again.

The church often plays the same game, we advertise control, we just do it by way of religion.

The clearest example of this is the Prosperity Gospel. If you are a Christian, you’re a prince and God wants you wealthy and healthy! Biblical illiteracy required. People don’t come for God, they come for control over God, they come for control over disease, control over financial problems, control over relational problems. Control over loss…

And the apostles and historic church collectively roll their eyes at such reasons to come. Come for prosperity? Which Jesus are you following that experienced prosperity?

“Well I don’t believe that, I am good.”

Man-Centered Gospel (which we all fall prey to at times)

When we think of the gospel, we think primarily about ourselves, we see ourselves as the center.

Get God’s things rather than get God. Prodigal – younger son was trying to get control by leaving and disobeying, older son tried to get control by staying and obeying.

If in your heart of hearts you say, “I try very hard. I try to obey. I go to church. I pray. Therefore God you owe it to me to give me a relatively good life, to answer my prayers, and to take me to heaven when I die,” then Jesus is your model, your example, your boss, but not your savior. You’re seeking to be your own savior. All your morality, all your religion is just your way to get God to give you what you really want, which is not God himself.

You don’t want God, you want God’s stuff – you think this whole thing is mainly about what God is going to give to You, you still think its all really about you in the end

This message (Bible) is not about you. When the true gospel is preached, you know the only part that is directly about you, the ONLY part – You were dead in your sins

Imagine that all of existence is a play, and they are handing out roles/parts in the beginning – you get to be the dead guy. This play isn’t about you.

The Gospel isn’t primarily about what you are to do, but about what He already Did.

Biblical faith, and the Biblical gospel is not about control. It isn’t about manipulation of God so that God will do as we wish.

Biblical faith is the radical abandonment of our whole being in grateful trust and love to God. It is bowing to God and saying THY WILL BE DONE, not, I’m going to follow these steps so that MY WILL BE DONE. It is at bottom the admission that I AM NOT GOD! I AM NOT IN CONTROL!

God is God and we are not, that God’s ways in the world are beyond us and beyond our control is the message.

1. Chaos will come, but will be used for God’s Glory and Your Good.

Sometimes we can see reasons for chaos. Sometimes, God brings chaos to life to draw us back in, lift our eyes, discipline us, or simply to remind us that we are not in fact those gods who control the present or the future. Every time a prediction fails, every time the swift do not win a race or the strong a battle, every time our health breaks down, or we find ourselves poorer rather than richer, or we discover we are miserable rather than happy, every such occasion is a moment of grace and an opportunity to look reality straight in the eye. It is a moment in which we are helped to remember who controls the times.

2 Corinthians 1:8–9, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

2 Corinthians 4:17, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

God is angered by sin, and never approves of evil, but the perfectly good God does allow it.

Chaos may come to rid you of idolatries, and so that you may realize that God is Your ONLY lasting treasure, the only sure and stable thing in the universe.

Psalm 73:25–26, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

Chaos is often a call for us to repent and bow, taking again our proper place in front of God. – Luke 13:1-5

“There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.’”

But quite often, we cannot see the reason for any particular chaos, but just because we cannot see one doesn’t mean there isn’t one.

The goal of the Christian is not to escape Chaos or to understand the universe, we don’t follow God because we want a good life, we don’t follow God because we want wealth or health, we follow God because He is God. It is this reality that gives us our true hope that despite all the trials and puzzles of life, things will work out well in the end.

Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” - That is either true or it isn’t.

Lamentations 3:21–24, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”

2. Our God has Entered the Chaos so that He can Walk with You in It

As I said last week, we don’t know what is coming, and that is terrifying.

The greatest fear in my life was realized for many parents last Tuesday.

When things like this happen, our human response is to frantically look for reasons why that could not happen to us, to give ourselves a sense of control over our fears, I would have seen that drunk driver earlier, I would have had my gun ready if he came in my church, I wouldn’t have tried to reach for that thing in the floor while I was driving, I wouldn’t have lost sight of my kid for a moment like that, my school is different than that school. That is what we do, to try to convince ourselves that this cannot happen to us like it happened to them, that we have some control.

Our political grandstanding is of the same vein, if they would just get rid of guns, if they would just give everyone a gun . . .

Of course you should make wise decisions, but the truth is that you don’t have control, and those parents didn’t deserve this any more than you would have. The proper response is not to convince yourself that you have more control than you actually have, it is to acknowledge that you don’t, and look to God.

This is where we come to the place where we have more knowledge than Qohelet. He knew it was useless to seek control that we do not have, but he did not know how God was going to make things right in the end, or even that God would know personally how painful it often is to be human.

Mass murder is why Jesus came into the world the way he did. What kind of Savior do we need when our hearts are shredded by brutal loss? We need a suffering Savior. We need a Savior who has tasted the cup of horror we are being forced to drink.

And that is how he came. He knew what this world needed. Not a comedian. Not a sports hero. Not a movie star. Not a political genius. Not a doctor. Not even a pastor. The world needed what no mere man could be. The world needed a suffering Sovereign. Mere suffering would not do. Mere sovereignty would not do. The one is not strong enough to save; the other is not weak enough to sympathize.

So he came as who he was: the compassionate King. The crushed Conqueror. The lamb-like Lion. The suffering Sovereign.

Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 53:3–6, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief

Romans 8:35–39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The truth is, I don’t know why God allowed that to happen Tuesday, but I do know this, God is closer to all of those people than he has ever been, Christ is mourning and in pain with them, as a man of sorrows very familiar with grief, and I know that this will be redeemed.

12:13-14– Fear God and Keep His Commands, for God will bring every deed into judgment, whether good or evil.

In the movie Shakespeare in Love – at various times in the movie, characters are moved to proclaim their belief that everything is going to work out. When asked how this will happen, they reply “I don’t know, it’s a mystery.” Christians know something of this mystery, but not all.