The Vanity of Time

Call to Worship: Psalm 23:1-6 // Prayer

Adoration: Good Shepherd, King of Love: your goodness never fails; when we walk off into sin, you restore us, and lead us in paths of righteousness by your Spirit; you lead us in love, and for your name’s sake; when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil because your shepherd’s rod and staff stand between us and the darkness; in the outpouring of your glory at the crucifixion of your Son, you have prepared a rich feast for us in the presence of our enemies; your love pursues us all the years of this life; Good shepherd, may we sing your praise forever!

Confession: And you know that we, like sheep, have gone astray. You have rescued us by your Son’s death on our behalf; yet we have gone back to filth of our sins. We confess to you that this past week we have sinned in thought, word, and action. Good Shepherd, forgive us, for we have sinned against you.

Thanksgiving: And we remember that we are the sheep of your pasture, and that no one can take us from your hand. Your Son’s sacrifice for us has made us clean forever, and forgiven us from all sins. You have rescued us, and we praise you!

Supp: Yet as sheep in a world struck by sin and the curse, many of us are hurting. Father, we lift up to you the hurting among us: brothers and sisters suffering physically; wrestling with the sorrow of loss; struggling in difficult situations — please sustains us, O God, with your presence and help until the day finally dawns and all things are made new // and we ask for Lauralwood Baptist Church up in Vancouver — as their pastors are setting their hearts to lead the congregation away from pragmatism and toward biblical church life, we beg you to strengthen their hands and give them patience, peace, and success, that you might be all the more glorified in that church // and we ask for our fellow saints in Iraq and Syria: protection, truth, and boldness, that they might speak the gospel to their neighbors for the salvation of many, for the glory of your name // and in our own state, we pray for Governor Kotek, that you might protect and bless her and bring her to a knowledge of your salvation, and as you have said that the heart of the king is water in your hands, we ask that you would direct her heart toward justice and righteousness in all her governing, and especially that you might change her heart toward protecting unborn life // and now, as we turn to your word, please sanctify us by what we hear, that we might grow in humility, joy, and worship.

Family Matters

Music ministry lunch next right after the service

Benediction

1 Timothy 1:17 ESV

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon

Read: Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Intro

Seeking eternity is vain.

Now wait a minute — that doesn’t sound very Christian. What do I mean by it?

When I was elementary school age, my family and I lived in a remote location in the island nation of Palau. The only real grocery stores were in the capital city. And to reach the capital, boat was a much more reliable way than car. And the boat we normally used was a fiberglass hull — maybe 20 feet long — with a large outboard engine on the back. When it got up to speed, it would skim and bounce across the wave tops and the wind would whip across our faces. And you needed an experienced driver at the helm — someone who knew the rout and wouldn’t run aground on a reef.

I always enjoyed going to the capital city—it was a special treat, and I only got to go a couple times a year. I remember the boat driver as a quiet man, very strong and with a steady hand. And I, the scrawny little kid, would sit on the bench seat right in front of the driver’s console, just trying to survive the 40 minute ride, but with no watch, and so way to tell how much time was left. No way to tell the end from the beginning, and no control over the course of the boat.

But imagine if, in my frustration to get there sooner, or because I was uncomfortable, I tried to grab the throttle to slow down or speed up. Or if I tried to tell, from the endless bouncing waves, exactly where we were in the ride. It would have been pointless. It would have been in vain.

So also, there is a vain path like this in our lives, that our hearts can get sucked down. We were made for eternal life with God, but our bodies rarely last more than a century. And this results in frustration. And so we can be tempted to go down a path where we try to see the end from the beginning, or to grab control over the course of our lives. But this, Solomon teaches, is smoke which cannot be grasped—vanity.

And so, just like last week, where Solomon closed the false path of achievement for us, today he will close the false path of trying to transcend the bounds of time. But once again, he will not close this path to leave us in despair, but to lead us to wisdom and joy. And so while he will show us that seeking eternity is vain, he will also show that fearing God and enjoying his gifts is good.

Seeking eternity is vain; fearing God and enjoying his gifts is good.

***(if new folks) By the way, since we have some new folks this morning, I’d ask for your patience in this sermon. Ecclesiastes is a hard book of Scripture, which often says counter-intuitive things. It’s OK to feel disoriented by it. That’s part of Solomon’s teaching method. But I promise you two things: first, it may be a hard book, but the gold is worth the digging; and second, it may say strange things—but a careful, humble study of it will show that it does not contradict the faith once and for all handed down to the saints. So stay with me as we unfold from chapter 3 how seeking eternity is vain; fearing God and enjoying his gifts is good.

God’s Providence Over Time

[God’s Providence Shown and Explained] Now, the first step in understanding Solomon’s point in chapter 3 is understanding the poem at the beginning, in vss. 2-8: “a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up,” and so on. I’d be willing to bet that many of you have heard this poem many times. It’s commonly read at funerals, for example. But if you’re like me, you didn’t realize what it meant until you heard it in context.

It’s not just a poem about the different seasons we encounter in life…

It’s also not telling us that we need to do certain things at certain times—tearing and sewing, speaking and keeping silent… that’s what I thought it was at first…

But what does actually mean? The meaning is made clear in verses 10 and 11:

Ecclesiastes 3:10–11 “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.”

Do you see that? Each of these times in the poem is something that God has given, and by his divine wisdom he has organized all of it so that it fits together with beauty.

So then, the point of the poem is that God ordains—that is, he plans out and causes to happen—each of these seasons in our lives. These seasons are, according to verse 10, the business that God has given us to be busy with: birth and death, killing and healing, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing, tearing and sewing, loving and hating—

And notice, it’s not just that he sort of tosses these elements into our lives and lets them fall where they will, or lets us arrange them. But verse 11 says, “He makes everything beautiful in its time”—he weaves every element of the course of our lives, and of the course of human history together in an exact way, to make them beautiful.

And just to make sure we get what he’s saying, a little further down in vs. 14 he adds:

Ecclesiastes 3:14 ESV

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.

What’s he saying? That each season of life is brought to us exactly on God’s timetable and exactly in God’s way. And we can neither add to it nor take away from it at all.

Traditionally, this is called God’s “providence”—meaning, the fact that he superintends every aspect of the world, and none of it is ever outside of his control. Not one molecule, not for a split second.

That’s the point of this opening poem, then: God’s Providence directs the course of the universe, and of each of our lives, down to the tiniest detail of fabric torn or sewn up, or of a single word spoken or withheld. All of it has been ordained by God, and he brings all of it to pass.

In this way, from his eternal being, he directs the time-bound course of our lives.

The Vanity of Knowing Providence, the Joy of God’s Gifts

And that’s where the question in verse 9 comes from:

Ecclesiastes 3:9 ESV

What gain has the worker from his toil?

In other words, if we are bound in time, beneath the mysterious providence of God, can we make any lasting gain through all our labors in this life?

Solomon answers the question first by looking at the vanity of trying to know God’s providence, and then at the vanity of trying to change God’s providence.

[God orders and fills our lives] So first, the vanity of trying to know God’s providence:

Here we are, living lives full of the business that God has made us busy with. And there’s a beauty to the busyness—yes the world is often a dark place, but it’s still God’s world, and he still cares for it, and most especially for us. And there is a beauty to the way he puts our lives together.

[The tension in our hearts] But there’s something else as well. Verse 11 says:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “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.”

Do you hear the tension in that verse? On the one hand, eternity is in the heart of every person—we were not originally designed to die, but to live eternally, knowing God and doing his will in his creation. We have eternity in our hearts by design.

And yet, we live within the bounds of a short life span. And so our design for eternity is frustrated in this life, and God’s mysterious Providence is mostly hidden from us. We may want to know and understand his plan and purposes, but largely they remain a mystery to us, which we cannot find out from the beginning to the end. So says Solomon.

And this frustration says more than one thing to us:

Kids: when you get frustrated with the hard stuff in life, stuff that you don’t know why it’s happening—it’s because God put eternity in your heart when he made you: it tells you that you are very valuable, but also that there’s a lot wrong with this world and with your own heart too—you need God to rescue you.

Believers: yes, we know the history of salvation as we have it in the Bible. But there is still so much we don’t know, isn’t there? So many mysteries of God’s Providence, questions both positive and negative about why he has done what he’s done in the world. Why did the Lord provide so many things so faithfully for you? And why did he ordain that friend of yours to die young? These are questions which, for now, will remain unanswered to us—though we long for answers. As Moses said, “The secret things belong to the Lord.”

What are we supposed to do with this tension? There are at least two wrong answers:

On the one hand, with this tension in our hearts, we might say that this life is just no good. And then we basically give up on it, and withdraw from the world around us

On the other hand, we might try to fix the problem—to figure out some way around the limits God has placed on us.

Maybe pushing ourselves in a mad scramble to do everything possible to be healthy, so as to have a slightly longer lifespan

Maybe looking for transcendent knowledge through spiritual practices like ayahuasca trips or dreams or prophecies

In the end, those kinds of things will end up as vapor and vanity.

So then, what should we do with the tension in our hearts between eternity and frustration? Solomon answers:

Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 ESV

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.

So what should we do? Be joyful, and do good. Eat and drink and enjoy your work. All of it is God’s gift to you!

Be joyful and do good, instead of grasping at eternity.

Have you ever gotten to the point where events on the news have consumed you? What’s happening there? Your heart is grasping for eternity—for some way to explain it all, or protect yourself from it. But it is vain to be consumed with worry over the news! It does nothing! According to Solomon, you may need to turn it off, put it down, and go enjoy dinner with someone.

Grasping for eternity is vain, but enjoying God’s gifts is good.

The Vanity of Changing Providence, the Goodness of Fearing God

***So, trying to know God’s providence is vain. But also, trying to change God’s providence is vain.***

[God orders and fills history] Verse 14 says,

Ecclesiastes 3:14 “I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it.”

“What God does endures forever.”—In other words, before the world was made, God ordained everything that he would bring to pass in world history, all the way through to eternity. He planned out everything that his Providence would bring to pass, and all that he planned will happen.

And Solomon says that we can do absolutely nothing to add to or take away from God’s Providence. Nothing. Not the shrewdest world leader, not the mightiest military, not the most advanced scientific laboratory, not the most decisive political revolution—nothing. A human being trying to alter the Providence of God is like a gnat trying to move the Pyramid of Giza by beating it’s head against one of the cornerstones.

So trying to changing God’s Providence would be as vain as trying to know God’s Providence. And yet, if you understand this rightly, it won’t lead to despair, but to the fear of God. As verse 14 says, “God has done it, so that people fear before him.”

Now, I want to stop for a moment to consider what this means: “the fear of God”—often Christians explain the word “fear” here to mean reverence. And in a way, it does mean that. But it is a reverence so severe that it can properly be described as fear.

How so? Think, for a moment, about the power of God: that he has ordained everything that happens, and that he brings it all to pass, and that nothing can even begin to challenge his power. And think about how this power is applied in perfect wisdom: that he weaves all things together in such a way that, in the final analysis of things, it will turn out that it was all woven together in perfect beauty. As the song says:

The perfect wisdom of our God Revealed in all the universe: All things created by His hand And held together at His command. He knows the mysteries of the seas, The secrets of the stars are His; He guides the planets on their way And turns the earth through another day.

Once you catch a true glimpse of God’s power and wisdom, you’ll have a reverence for him so strong that it can be truly described as, “the fear of God.”

But what’s the point of fearing God in this way? It changes how you look at things. Now you see that all times and seasons are in his hand, and that his power to direct them cannot be challenged. And so your heart stops scrambling to challenge his wisdom and change his sovereign plan.

Instead of that kind of anxious scrambling, your heart is humbled to trust in God. Solomon’s father, King David, wrote:

Psalm 131:1–3 ESV

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

When you fear the Lord because you recognize his power and wisdom, that’s when you will be able to trust him and worship him, rather than grasping at eternity for yourself.

Grasping at eternity is vain; but fearing God is good.

God’s Providence Gaining What We Can’t Gain

So now, let’s revisit Solomon’s opening question in vs. 9

Ecclesiastes 3:9 ESV

What gain has the worker from his toil?

The answer is: none. No gain that is able to break beyond the bounds of time and Providence.

And really, this is Solomon answering the same question again that he already answered in chapters 1 and 2, just from a different angle: none of our labors in this life bring us lasting gain or are able to truly fix what is crooked in the world around us.

But does that mean that there is no gain to be had at all? Not quite.

[Circular and Redemptive Providence] Look at verse 15:

Ecclesiastes 3:15 ESV

That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

So when Solomon reminds us that nothing is new—it’s all been seen already—he’s reminding us that human effort never really makes any true gain against the crookedness of the world. Each generation continues to cycle through the same triumphs and mistakes. The worker really doesn’t gain anything permanent from his toil. The world continues to roll on as it has since the fall.

But then he says, “God seeks what has been driven away.” Now, that phrase is a little tricky.

It could just be a way of saying that God takes events which have already happened in the past and causes them to happen again in the future.

But more likely, it means that God is seeking after his people, to some day restore us to the eternal life we’ve been driven away from.

Now think about that for a moment: all the power and wisdom of God, working to redeem the world. So there is gain to be had! Not from our labors, but from God’s work to redeem things

[Providence Working Toward Judgement] And notice what he says next:

Ecclesiastes 3:16–17 ESV

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.

So he looks out on the world and sees injustice and evil—even in the places you’d expect to find righteousness and justice. And you don’t usually have to look too far to find that kind of thing.

But Solomon is confident that God will bring a day of judgement—a day in which all evil will be judged and defeated.

So again, there is real gain to be had—the redemption of the world! But we need to understand something about this gain:

It does mean the defeat of all evil—and that’s a good thing! But the problem is, we also have evil in our own hearts. And so if that day of judgement is to be gain for us, our evil must be forgiven first.

And God has made this possible: he planned and carried out our redemption by sending his Son to die in our place, that all who turn from sin to trust in him are forgiven and restored to God and will be redeemed on that final day of judgement. That is the gospel.

But even as Solomon presents it here, the gospel serves to emphasizes his main point: that we can do nothing to reclaim what was driven away at the fall: God must do it. And we know that the day of redemption is coming, but we don’t know when. And so we are still people with eternity in our hearts, but with no way to know or change God’s providence in when he’ll actually do these thing. And so for us, still, Grasping at eternity is vain.

Our Inability to See the Gain

And that’s the note that Solomon closes the chapter on, because that’s his main point: grasping for eternity in this life is vain. It’s a foolish path. And to help us see this, God tests us. Solomon explains in vs. 18:

Ecclesiastes 3:18 ESV

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.

That’s heavy.

What test is he talking about? The fact that we cannot see what God has done from beginning to end; the fact that we cannot change God’s providence in our lives one bit.

And this test shows us what? “That we are but beasts.” Solomon goes on:

Ecclesiastes 3:19–21 ESV

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?

Now some of that is very troubling. It may even seem to contradict the rest of Scripture—at first glance. But stay with Solomon here: he’s saying something important to us. And two observations will help us see it:

First, look at that phrase in verse 20: “All are from the dust, and to the dust all return.” That’s a quote from Genesis 3:19, which is part of the curse God pronounced on human kind when we rebelled against him. Speaking to Adam, God said:

Genesis 3:19 “…you are dust, and to dust you shall return.””

So here, Solomon is explaining something about the curse to us: it brought physical death. And so, as far as what we can measure or see by ourselves, the death of animals and the death of people are the same. They both return to the dust.

Second, look at verse 21.

Ecclesiastes 3:21 “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?”

At first it sounds like he is denying life after death. But actually, later in the book—in chapter 12—he directly affirms that when a person dies, his or her spirit returns to God who gave it. So he’s not denying life after death, here. Instead, he’s just observing that we can’t see or detect it on our own power.

If you’re a believer, you take God at his word that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But you have no way to observe or confirm that, apart from faith. You can’t see into eternity.

So his overall point in this section is that you cannot see beyond your own mortal life into the things of eternity. All you can observe or measure is that when a person dies, that person returns to the dust. You can see nothing of what comes after. It’s the same frustration again: God has placed eternity in your heart, and yet you are not able to find out his works from beginning to end. If you seek eternity in this life, you’ll be frustrated, because it’s a vain quest. That’s why the chapter ends with, “Who can bring a man to see what will be after him?” Seeking eternity is vain.

And that’s a heavy, bitter truth. But you are willing to grasp it, it will do something for you. It will calm and quite your soul, and make way for real joy in this life. Because instead of grasping at eternity, you’ll fear God and look to him for the gifts he provides—you’ll trust him to bring redemption at the time that he has set, and in the meanwhile, as you live life in this crooked world, you’ll be able to take joy in whatever he gives you in food and drink and work to do. And so, seeking eternity is vain; but fearing God and enjoying his gifts is good.