Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

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One Certianty (1-6) 

Ecclesiastes 9:1–6

1 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Vs. 1 refers back to what has come before

Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs Original Meaning

The point of verse 1 is to emphasize that the righteous and the wise, perhaps against their expectation, will experience in life both “love and hate,” which may simply be another way of saying “good and evil.” Their experience is in this respect no different from that of the wicked and the foolish—everyone has a mixed experience of life.

Just before out text, the preacher has been confronted with this reality.

Ecclesiastes 8:12–14

12 Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. 13 But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. 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.

Both the righteouss and the wicked experience both ‘love and hate’.

The wicked seem to prosper whilst the righteouss sometimes receive according to an unrighteouss life.

Here is a stark reminder that faith is not a golden ticket to an easy life.

False Promise of the Prosperity Gospel

I fyou just had enough faith you would be able to twist God’s arm.

The prosperty false gospel has packed the good news as a religoius product:

Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs Bridging Contexts

offering “peace of mind,” “how to get to heaven,” “health and prosperity,” “inner healing,” “the answer to all your problems,” etc. What is promoted as “faith in God” often turns out, on closer inspection, to be a means for obtaining emotional security or material blessing in this life and an insurance policy for the next.

Faith is not about manipulation - an attemt to control God to meet our own ends.

This is Idolatory! (SIN)

Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs Bridging Contexts

… At the heart of idolatry is the attempt to manipulate “God” or the unseen “spiritual world” in order to obtain security and well-being for oneself and one’s “group” (whether family, business corporation, ethnic community or nation-state). Biblical faith, in contrast, is the radical abandonment of our whole being in grateful trust and love to the God disclosed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: so that we become his willing agents in a costly confrontation with every form of evil and unjust suffering in the world.

This vain idolatory is sin, -

ONly God is God.

This is one of the big key points of ecclesiastes, the preacher has come out to crush our futile attempts and silly little delusions that convince us that we are God or we are like God.

No! None is like him.

And how does he prove it… again?

One thing is certain - you will die.

You will cease.

To die well means that you realize death is the limit God has placed on creatures who want to be gods.

Only God is God - you are not.

You are not in control. Faith is not about manipulation of God so that God will do what you wish.

This is one of the great lies of the prosperity gospel.

idolatory - making a god to serve your own desires.

to promote and sell a faith that is all about personal gain and benefit is a false gospel.

This promise that if you live by faith you will expereince, prosperity, health, wealth and hapiness - is outrightly false.

as vs. 1 says - both the righteous and the wicked do not know whether thier coming days will involve hate or love.

It is not better than making out God to be a god of the rain so you have a good harvest - Baal.

Many uncertainties (11-12)

Ecclesiastes 9:11–12

11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.

Enjoy the simple Gifts and the Giver (7-10)

Ecclesiastes 9:7–10

7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.