Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
Ecclesiastes 6:1-12
KIDS - At one point today, I’m going to go thru many passages in the Bible. When I get to that point, I’ll wake you all up, OK? As I say the passages, I want you to count them, OK? I want you all to keep up and listen at that point. That point means I’m almost done and you guys can start getting hungry for lunch.
If you remember last time, we were finishing Ecclesiastes 5. Ecclesiastes 5 and 6 shouldn’t really be separate chapters to me, they run right together. They talk mainly about the fact that what you do with your money matters. Do you strive for it? The more it will distract you. The more you have, the more you want. Do you spend it? The more you have, the more you spend and you fill your life up with stuff. Do you think it will bring you happiness? The more you have, the more you worry. Do you hoard it for yourself? The more you have, the more you lose. Remember, we went to Jesus’ words in Luke 12:13-23 “13 Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” 15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” 16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. 22 Then He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. 23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.”
Solomon was reminding us that loving money was bad, right? It was father’s day, and to be honest, most of the words that came out of my mouth were not my words. What I had written down was not where I went. I actually prepared to finish this chapter also. Go figure, Jesus, take the wheel every week, amen? Shut this shell of a man up…I pray you realize the heart of this church body is not to collect people. We want to prepare you for the work of ministry. We want your children to see the interest you have in the Lord and what He can do in and thru you, to prepare them for the fight that’s consuming this world. Many of you can lead a Bible Study, many of your kids are ready and want to serve. Let’s start storing up riches in heaven today, amen?
Pray
1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: 2 A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil affliction.
Oh my, I want SOOOO bad to break this down intellectually. To take you to Solomon’s day, but, being the Bible scholars you are, go to 1 Kings 4 and read it for yourselves…how much it took to feed Solomon’s kingdom (just the government, not the people.)
Finishing Chapter 5 Solomon says Ecc 5:18-20 “18 Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. 19 As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.”
Which is is Solomon? Is this arbirary? The Lord Giveth, and the Lord Taketh…Vv 18 is the key Ecc 5:18 “18 Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage.” This is their portion, their slice of life. Moderation.
3 If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he—4 for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. 5 Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, 6 even if he lives a thousand years twice—but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place?
King Solomon would know this right? He’s a serial father. And what is this talk about no burial? What does that mean? In Jewish times, a proper burial meant you were at rest now. It was so important to the Jewish culture. Did you know that’s part of why people couldn’t be buried on the Sabbath day? It was not only about resting for the living, BUT, for the dead. That puts into perspective the rushed trial and crucifixion of Jesus. The Jewish leaders knew they were up against a hard stop. The body needed to be buried prior to sundown because that was the rule. Deut 21:22-23 “22 “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”
A burial was an important thing, it put the soul to rest. Solomon goes on to talk about a stillborn child, because that child doesn’t have to work for anything…none of it’s life was wasted. How empty is this man? Remember the term he uses for God thruout this book. It’s not Yahweh, it’s not a personal God, it’s “The Creator.” This is the greatest lie anyone can tell themselves. “It would be better if I had never been born.” Some of us have felt that feeling. I’ll just hasten myself there, it’s where we’re all going, right?
Verse 6 ends with so much doubt. Do not ALL go to one place? Do we? Do we all turn to dust? Is this life meaningless? Do you believe that? How dare you? God doesn’t make junk. Yahweh took time to fashion every cell in your body. Colored by number the hairs on your head. He knows when he’s calling you home, but look at the care. God doesn’t make junk. We do. He sent us a redeemer, so we could show the world His power, because if he can take a loser like me and use my broken pieces to give someone else hope, that’s power this world has trouble understanding. Why? Why would the Lord send His Son to save me? Why? Look around. He saved me, He changed me to show you “If this idiot can be used to bring people to the Cross, think of how much more He could use me?” You’re not Junk. You’re fearfully and wonderfully made. You’re the new model, hot off the assembly line. I’ll tell you, the classics always make a comeback too!
7 All the labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied. 8 For what more has the wise man than the fool? What does the poor man have, Who knows how to walk before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
I heard a story of John D Rockefeller at the end of his life. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he an assistant bookkeeper, but a brilliant businessman. He started the Standard Oil Company, one of the largest at the time and was the most wealthy and prominent man of his time. Well, a story goes that a man was at a restaurant and recognized him, and he was picking away at some soup, which he was notorious for eating very little, and it took him a very long time to eat as well. As he was eating, he looked across the restaurant at a young man, who happened to be one of the waiters sitting down preparing to eat a thick, juicy steak. That boy was one of the servers at the restaurant. The man paused and saw that all the riches that this man had, and he couldn’t consume much more than a bowl of soup, but this server, making a modest wage, was eating like a king and enjoying his life.
What does the poor man have? The NIV reads like this: What do the poor gain by knowing how to conduct themselves before others? Matthew 5:3 “3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” They know how to walk before the living. The poor know they’ve got nothing to loose. I think of the Cratchet family in “A Christmas Carol.” They were poor, but they had their family. That was important to them. They didn’t want to know the finer things in life. They lived on faith, and it was sweet.
Better is the sight of the eyes - this is about vision. Most of us change our minds so much. We can’t see thru to the end. How many open-ended projects do we have going? If my wife doesn’t give me a honey-do list, I never get anything done at home. I have this wandering desire to start something here, or there…but no clear vision, and this makes us like a dog chasing his tail. We rarely learn our lessons.
Interesting fact about John D Rockefeller though. After his long dinner meal, he always did the same thing before moving onto his next relaxing task. He sat down with 3 of his favorite books and read out of them. First, the Bible. Then from a book of his favorite poems, and then he would read from a book of his favorite sermons. With all of his money, all of his busy lifestyle…he took time every day to be in the Word and let that tend to him. How is your devotion time? Change that. Get serious about it. It will change you. It’s changing me. Let me be another example to you…don’t do as I did!
10 Whatever one is, he has been named already, For it is known that he is man; And he cannot contend with Him who is mightier than he. 11 Since there are many things that increase vanity, How is man the better?
How do we know the Lord has a plan for our lives?
Jeremiah 1:5 “5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.””
Jeremiah 29:11 “11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Romans 8:28 “28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Proverbs 16:9 “9 A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.”
5 Ecc 3:1 “1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:”
Prov 19:21 “21 There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.”
Psalm 32:8 “8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”
Psalm 37:23 “23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.”
Eph 2:10 “10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
10 Php 1:6 “6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
Isa 14:24 “24 The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, so it shall stand:”
Psalm 33:11 “11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations.”
Prov 16:3-4 “3 Commit your works to the Lord, And your thoughts will be established. 4 The Lord has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.”
Isa 43:18-19 “18 “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. 19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.”
15 Psalm 139:16 “16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”
Psalm 138:8 “8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”
Isa 55:8 “8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.”
Job 42:2 “2 “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”
2 Tim 1:9 “9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,”
20 Micah 6:8 “8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”
1 Cor 10:13 “13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Isa 43:1 “1 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.”
Is 41:10 “10 Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”
Is 46:10 “10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’”
25 - Matt 6:25-34 “25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
1 Thes 5:8 “8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.”
Isa 61:6 “6 But you shall be named the priests of the Lord, They shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, And in their glory you shall boast.”
Php 4:13 “13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Heb 10:36 “36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:”
30 Genesis 1:26 “26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.””
Eph 1:4 “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,”
Php 4:19 “19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 11:36 “36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
Daniel 4:17 “17 ‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers, And the sentence by the word of the holy ones, In order that the living may know That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, Gives it to whomever He will, And sets over it the lowest of men.’”
35 John 9:1-3 “1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”
James 1:12 “12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
Genesis 50:20 “20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
Do you want to wrestle with that? Can you yield? That’s 37 verses. Who can wrestle with that? Most of these verses came after Solomon. Some were written by Solomon! The Lord has a plan, especially a plan for your pain.
Julissa -
12 For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun?
Who knows? Who knows…Time flies, doesn’t it? It slows down though when those important times come. Those times we see as so insignificant…picking up and swinging a child…Never underestimate the time you spend with people. Don’t waste those moments.
What will happen after YOU under the sun? Is it vanity? Or will there be moments where the people around you can see what the blood of Christ has redeemed. When they see you stand in that trial and know that God planned this for YOUR LIFE, to bring Him glory. Maybe it’s to bring you closer to him. Maybe you don’t know what it’s like to walk with the Lord. To let Him guide your steps. Is that blind faith? Your eyes are wide open, right? - CLOSE