The Source of Our Hope
Notes
Transcript
Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.
I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.
I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.
For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?
So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.
And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.
But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
Introduction
Introduction
The world we live in is a world full of hard things.
Until the return of Christ, it will not be any easier.
Ecclesiastes faces these difficulties head on and gives no quarter for looking away.
We began with Solomon, who is called the Preacher or Qohelet, commenting on the problems of our lives on this earth.
Qohelet uses a couple of words that are necessary for us to understand any portion of this book, so I will remind you of them here.
He uses the word hevel, which is usually translated vanity, to describe the brief, vapor like, aspect of man’s life on this world.
He begins in chapter 1 with
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
And he goes on throughout the book showing how our lives and what they are filled with is short.
It doesn’t mean futile or worthless, it means like the steam coming off of a pot of boiling water, soon absorbed into the air and disappearing.
You grab for the steam, trying to hold onto something, and come back with nothing solid or lasting.
Of course we know that life is more than that, but makes sure that he tells us that he is pondering that life lived under the Sun.
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
When we only consider and observe what is happening in this life, it does seem vapourous.
We place value on so many things that in the end won’t matter, and life seems to go for a long time after we are forgotten.
A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
Like the waves on the beach, before one wave crashes into the beach and retreats back into the sea, another is already forming and preparing to crash right after it.
So the Preacher tries to figure out what will bring satisfaction in the hevel of a life under the sun.
He places on his scientist’s lab coat and experiments with the things that men do to fill up their lives.
He seeks wisdom and philosophy, but he couldn’t make the crooked things straight again.
He tries all kinds of ways to indulge himself, wine, women, orchards and forests, but nothing lasted very long.
He thought about what he would leave as a legacy to his sons, but then considered that they would probably waste it all and he would have no control on it from the grave.
So then he sees that there is something more to this life. There is someone above the sun.
God is there and He is orchestrating a time for everything that happens.
And we are tasked with toiling under this system.
What gain has the worker from his toil?
I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;
also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.
That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
But it is difficult to live this way, right?
Extremely difficult.
This looks good on paper, but what about all of the hard things?
How do we go from the very real pain of living in a sinful world, a world of hevel, into a life of joy and good.
The only way for us to do that is to look at this life with eyes that look above the sun.
To realize that...
Every believer must look to God for hope.
Every believer must look to God for hope.
Because God is the judge of everything. v. 3:16-17
Because God is the judge of everything. v. 3:16-17
Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.
I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.
One of the first thing the young child learns is the concept of fairness.
Usually, this involves a strong sense of getting justice for themselves, more than justice for others.
They cry out with all the sincerity they can muster, “That’s not fair!”
But when others make the same accusation, they may remember what their parents taught them and say, “Life’s not fair...”
The preacher looks out into his world at the seats of justice, the judges, and doesn’t find the sense of fairness you would hope to see.
Qohelet’s world was full of injustice from the places where there should have been only justice.
God had made important laws and rules for judges in the Kingdom of Israel.
In the very beginning of Deuteronomy God lays out how those who judge cases in Israel should behave.
And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him.
You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’
But Qohelet didn’t see impartiality in judgement, he saw wickedness in the place of justice, and wickedness in the place of righteousness.
He reiterates this problem in chapter 8 verse 14
There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.
And not only is wickedness found in the place of judges and judgement, but every institution that is intended to promote righteousness, instead we find sin, wickedness, being promoted.
We can relate to this as we look at our world as well.
We live in communities, where the standard is to love one another.
Not just the church, let’s not forget the way the whole world is intended to work, outside of sin, we are all commanded to love one another.
And when we do not act in a way that is loving to another, there is injustice, there is wickedness.
The government, the laws, the workplace, are all institutions where injustice and wickedness towards others reigns instead of justice and righteousness.
At every level and in every relationship, we find injustice.
Injustice in the government.
We look across our own government and we weep at the wickedness of what it not only allows, but promotes.
We get used to the debate and it seems so obvious to us, but the murder of the unborn goes on and is celebrated.
We have gotten numb to the atrociousness of what is done, as it has been pushed to the realm of politics and we debate over how far and how soon and for what reasons it should be allowed.
And as we get angry over hearing the news about this politician said this or that about it, over 3000 completely innocent lives a day are taken away across this planet.
The very thing our government is tasked to do for us, protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, legislated away for the sake of taking the gift of God, sexual pleasure and procreation, and saying no, we want to do it our way.
Injustice is legislated in our government.
In our churches.
How many times have we heard of injustice in our churches.
There are men and women using God’s church as a platform for making money.
The place where the gospel is supposed to be proclaimed, and the worship of our gracious God is supposed to be paramount, man’s ideas of righteousness are substituted.
And when we leave the path that is set out for us in scripture, sin and wickedness is the inevitable result.
We see the southern baptist convention, that has to have committees and studies to decide if Paul meant what he said.
We have abusers being moved around and hid from the authorities, for political reasons, and the abused going without justice.
Let me make something very clear. If anyone is found to be abusing one of these little ones, or one of our sisters, I will visit you in prison to preach the gospel to you, but the authorities will be called.
We have a duty before God to deal righteously with one another, and to care for the weak and the suffering, not to hide the wicked so it won’t look bad in the papers.
In every relationship.
Our world is full of sin and sinners, and there will always be injustice and wickedness, under the Sun.
Until there isn’t.
I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.
Some of us will experience great injustice in our lives. Some of us will be sinned against by the people that we love, or by complete strangers.
Solomon looked under the Sun and saw no satisfaction in judgement here.
But when he lifted his eyes above, he saw that one day and in His time, God will judge the righteous and the wicked.
This is one of the hardest lessons we have to learn as believers.
Our hearts and souls cry out for justice, our backs are weak from carrying this wickedness around for our entire lives.
But God calls for us to wait and trust in Him. To have faith that He will judge righteously and completely in His time.
That is the hard part, isn’t it, in His time.
Paul exhorts us in Romans 12 to wait.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
We will, like Solomon, find no satisfaction for what the world sees as justice, but we will one day be eternally satisfied with God’s justice.
He will have perfect judgement and we will all face it.
Everyone of our sins, even those against others, are sins against God’s holiness.
Each one of those sins will be met with the full wrath of a holy, just God.
If you are here this morning as a believer, the full wrath for those sins you commit, past, present, and future, has been poured out on Jesus Christ.
And all the injustice and oppression that hasn’t been paid for by Christ’s loving sacrifice, will be paid for under God’s righteous judgement.
In light of that, we find the basis of our forgiveness of others and our hope for the future.
So in trusting that God is the judge of everything, we can find hope through the greatest of injustice that we experience in this world under the Sun.
Also, we find hope...
Because God shows us the truth about our purpose. v. 3:18-22
Because God shows us the truth about our purpose. v. 3:18-22
I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.
For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?
So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
Qohelet shows us here one of the reason’s why God allows injustice in the world.
God wants to show us the truth about ourselves.
I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts.
As sentient beings with a fallen nature, we are masters at self-justification and self-delusion.
One of the biggest delusions we suffer from is thinking that we are basically good people at heart.
Any study of the past shows that any person, from any culture, from any point in time, even those we least expect it from, are capable of the most heinous sins.
We look at cultures where murder and human sacrifice are everyday occurrences.
Armies of everyday people have commited terrible acts against others and are celebrated in victory.
If you listen to an interview of a family-member or neighbor of a serial killer, many times they will say they had no idea what was happening and that the murderer seemed so normal.
Our education system is designed to educate the badness out of children, because there is no true understanding of human nature.
But when we are confronted with the reality of injustice, we are to learn that our natures are fallen.
We are meant to see that man is sinful.
We all now what sin is when it is done against us, and when that happens we have a natural longing for justice, but in our sinful nature we refuse to look anywhere where true justice can be found. Our gaze is stuck looking under the Sun.
This is why we were given the law by God, it was to be our guardian, or tutor as the NASB says, until Christ comes.
So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
It was there to show us we can’t do it, we have to look elsewhere.
The preacher sees that injustice shows us that we are no different than the animals when it comes to being righteous.
It’s a dog eat dog world out there.
Man in his sin, deludes himself to think nothing will happen to him when he dies.
And in this delusion, Solomon says no, we all die, just like the beasts.
For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.
All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
And we have to reckon with this.
The unbeliever looks at death, or rather tries to ignore it, and believes that this is all there is.
Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die and return to dust, and nothing happens after this.
Get all you can, find your own meaning in life, live by your own truth.
We are so confused by the propaganda of demons that we work, work, work, for a false purpose and a false hope that nothing will be waiting for us at the end of our life.
But we are all affected by the curse, and to the dust we came from, we go back to.
Just like the animals we will die, but we will not suffer the same destination.
Verse 21
Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?
This is a difficult verse, that we have to look at the context to interpret.
He is not throwing up his hands and questioning whether there is any difference between the destination of the man and the animal after they die.
He’s not doubting that there is something after the grave for people.
It is clear he understands this.
In verse 11, he says God has put eternity in man’s heart.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
In verse 17, he says God will judge the righteous and the wicked after this life
I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.
He is not questioning that as the translation seems to indicate.
The fact is, the understanding of the truth for what happens after we die is a revealed truth.
It isn’t observable in this world. We can’t ask those that have gone on already.
God is trying to teach us that truth, by putting this search for justice and righteousness in our hearts, and having us find no complete satisfaction for that longing in this world.
He is pointing us to the truth outside of ourselves and what we can observe under the Sun.
Solomon cries out in desperation, where is the one who gets it? Where is the one, who is it that knows, that man goes up to be judged by God and the beasts go down into the ground finally?
There is wisdom in understanding this and living your life in light of this truth.
And that is Qohelet’s point, live your life in light of the real purpose of man, which goes beyond the grave.
If we go to Walmart and stand outside of the door, and ask all those coming out of Walmart, “What happens after we die?”, what do you think the number 1 response will be.
“I don’t know...”
What a devastating response! What a tragedy! To live your life with no real purpose outside of this unjust world!
And so now it makes more sense to Solomon why people are living the way they are.
So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
What else can they do, but live for all those things that Solomon tried in chapter 2?
Self-indulgence, philosophy and education, building careers, and making art… to what end?
Where is the satisfaction if this is all there is?
But we know that this isn’t all there is.
We have been shown the truth about what happens after the grave.
We will be, by God’s grace, ushered into an eternity of living in the presence of our great God!
And so, we live for more than the fleeting pleasures of this life.
We enjoy the things that God has given us to enjoy in this life to there full potential.
We find eternal significance in our family, our work, and our lives.
We find hope through the most terrible circumstances, because our hope is not in this life.
We find our hope in God, because God has shown us our purpose, God is the righteous judge and will judge all evil in this world, and
Because God is the only giver of true hope. v. 4:1-3
Because God is the only giver of true hope. v. 4:1-3
Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.
And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.
But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
And Qohelet doubles down in his waking us up to the reality of the pain of this world.
Our false hopes are dashed when we look at the plight of the oppressed.
Under the Sun, there is no comfort for them.
They shed tears with no consolation.
No one seems to care about them.
And the ones who are oppressing them seem to have all the power.
No one is standing against them, no one seems to care.
Everyone is forgetting the one who is hurting.
He mentions their lack of comfort twice to really make the point that they feel alone.
We look at the world and we see man oppressing man. We see governments lording over people.
The ones in power, abusing it for personal gain at the expense of those under them.
Great leaders and businessmen are caught in scandal after scandal, over and over again.
We know the realities and we see them everyday.
Our leaders divide us into groups and pit us against one another for political and financial gain.
Oppressed by violence, men are killed and families are torn apart.
And there doesn’t seem to be anyone to help or anyone who even cares.
Have we had enough of trying our ways to fix this and failing?
Will we get the message that there is no hope in this world or in its systems?
If all we look to is ourselves to fix it, Solomon finds that it is better for us not to be here.
And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.
But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
But this is not a call for euthanasia or abortion, may it never be!
This again is a call for us to look outside of ourselves and to the One who will end all oppression and is their to comfort us.
casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
This is a call for us to be the church and care for one another, to not leave someone to the throws of this life and world, but to lift one another up and carry each other’s burdens.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
This is a perennial issue that all of humanity, of all times, have had to face to varying degrees.
Asaph the psalm writer had this dilemma when he saw the power that the oppressors had.
He felt sorry for himself, and thought that God was blessing everyone but him.
Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.
Why? Because he was jealous of those that were arrogant
For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
He goes through a whole list of sins that God was looking over in the lives of his oppressors.
They died strong and with little pain, they were fat and healthy.
They didn’t have troubles like everyone else, so they were prideful.
They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.
And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
There riches seemed to increase with their sin.
Is God unjust? He knew he couldn’t come out and say it, he would have been rebuked by everyone around him, but this is how he really felt.
He racked his brain to make sense of it all, then this happened.
But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.
Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.
Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.
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.
For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Asaph discovered the true comfort of knowing God.
He took the truths that the Preacher is teaching us here and applied them to his way of looking at the world.
He rested in a purpose outside of himself and his life under the Sun.
He made the Lord his refuge.
Nothing outside of him changed, but everything inside of him changed.
Conclusion
Conclusion
And this is the message of Qohelet.
Learn from everything under the Sun, that your only hope is above the Sun.
Rest in Christ and His care for you.
Bear each others problems and care for each other in Christ as we walk through this wicked and oppressive world.
And remember, if you are in Christ, all of your sins were paid for on the cross, you have no need to be in desperation anymore.
If you are not in Christ, you have every need to wake up to the reality that the grave is not the end, and that God is a perfect judge.
He will judge all of your sins and the guilt will be laid where it is deserved.
Look to Christ and hear the good news that you don’t not have to bear the load that you cannot handle.
Place your load on Christ’s shoulders and He will take it from you.
He is gentle and lowly and will not turn you away.
Romans 15:13 (ESV)
Romans 15:13 (ESV)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.