Remember Your Creator

Ecclesiastes 11-12

Please keep in mind as we go through this, I could find many references, connections and the like in these 2 chapters. But it is 2 chapters. And an overview study. Thank you.

Now remember the preacher tells us what he has deduced and it’s always, anything done under the sun is? Vanity! Morals cannot save, evil things unselfish, selfish, you still die and it’s all VANITY. relief is found only in doing everything as to the lord, “ And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Colossians 3:23, Ecc. 9:10)

Ecclesiastes 11:1–2 

1 Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days. 

2 Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, For you do not know what evil will be on the earth.

Israel was to preach to the world about Yahweh. Their Lord is the One True and Living God. Yet they did not. They withheld. They kept back. The command to send out the bread of life is an old one.

After refusing to bear fruit in what the servants were given, Jesus said in Matthew 25:26–30  “ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. 29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

The preacher calls us to still be wise, be good stewards. But still to send it out.

Ecclesiastes 11:3–4 

3 If the clouds are full of rain, They empty themselves upon the earth; And if a tree falls to the south or the north, In the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie. 

4 He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap.

If we never risk sharing Jesus because we worry about the winds, the rains, etc, it will be a wonder that we should bear fruit for Him.

Some make this about investments. I truly don’t simply see it as that. Not trying to over-spiritualize but I truly see it as being His in the midst of a dying world.

Ecclesiastes 11:5–6 

5 As you do not know what is the way of the wind, Or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, So you do not know the works of God who makes everything. 

6 In the morning sow your seed, And in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper, Either this or that, Or whether both alike will be good.

To not sow is to not know. Mark 4:26–29  “ And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.””

Trust God to bring a harvest. To bring fruit. Paul said of sharing the Gospel 1 Corinthians 3:6  “ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”

Ecclesiastes 11:7–8 

7 Truly the light is sweet, And it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun; (sunrise always a new day but those end)

8 But if a man lives many years And rejoices in them all, Yet let him remember the days of darkness, For they will be many. All that is coming is vanity.

Even a flawed creation of God is beautiful But its about those in it, where they are going.

Testing always comes. And when it does, its all vanity without Christ in the mix. You’re just living till you die. Remember we are told in 12:1-5. Remember who it is you serve.

REJOICE

Ecclesiastes 11:9–10 

9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the ways of your heart, And in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. 

10 Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, And put away evil from your flesh, For childhood and youth are vanity.

We are all under judgement before Christ. And to not live in some form of obedient faithfulness to the one we claim to love, shows it. Because John 3:18  “ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

So we rejoice, that the Father would even call us. to walk in His grace and mercy. Let us rejoice in our love for Him because He first loved us. Philippians 4:4  “ Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”

REMEMBER

Ecclesiastes 12:1–5 

1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult trials, tribulations days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”:  only living in Christ takes us from the vanity of it

2 While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain; 

3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down; When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim; 

4 When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low. 

5 Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets.

As he keeps saying, remember your destination. Saved, unsaved, grave. The Hebrew speaks to remembering to result in action (Repentance Ezekiel 6:9  “ Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.”)

Remember your God when young. Don't make excuses for the folly of youth. Saying, “Its ok for them to sin, they are young and just learning.” Thats a bad, bad way to learn. Why when you have the covenant of the Living God to keep you?

I can’t die if I am already dead in faith. Young or old, rich or poor, Jew or Gentile - faith: Galatians 6:14  “ But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

People, we can forget and will forget. Much of the worlds history is not recorded anywhere, we forget but God never does.

Ecclesiastes 12:6–8 

6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. 

7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. 

8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”

Repent. You will be judged. Now or when it is too late.

Dust, to dust. But the spirit of man is not dust. It is something more. As we cannot truly explain creation, nor do we know the essence of our breath, our soul. Given to Adam (man) from the very breath of God.

And it was passed down, time after time until the second Adam came and showed us how to become Children of God. Through His breath of Life into us by the Holy Spirit who came by resurrection from the dead.

Ecclesiastes 12:9–14 

9 And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. 

10 The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. 

11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. 

12 And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. 

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. 

14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.

Many argue. Why bind yourself to a “God” when you’re gonna get sick and die, when your gonna go through all sorts of sorrow and loss. Truly the world knows the vanity of a natural life. They try to make it poetic, heroic, all of it. But it fails.

God gave us this gift of life, this creation, which was good. But now a struggle because of the curse. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44–45  “ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

There is nothing hidden from God. Our wicked hearts condemn us, and must die for us to fall truly in Love with Jesus. For he took our just judgement on Himself. (Jer 17:9; 2 Cor 5:21)

The most intelligent and wisest man that ever lived came to a conclusion based on evidence, Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.”

“Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”” (John 6:29, NKJV)