Sermon Tone Analysis

*Ecclesiastes 11 \\ Advice to a Young Person* 

 

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Ecclesiastes 11.  Solomon, who calls himself the Preacher, who was the king in Jerusalem in this book, the Preacher has been arguing to us that apart from God, apart from a faith relationship in God, life is empty and meaningless.

And contrary to what we often hear today as believers, he furthermore says that the only life that is truly intellectually capable of doing justice to our reality is the life of faith.

We so often hear people say things like this to conservative Bible believing Christians, “Well, to be a Christian, you have to check your brain at the door.”

And the response of Solomon to that is, “Well, actually, to be an unbeliever, you have to check your brain at the door.”

Because one of the things that he has said in this book about this life that we live in is that “human wisdom cannot supply meaning to it.

It is incapable intellectually of accounting for the realities of this life, and, at the same time, coming up with a life system that will work in this world.”

In other words, he says that “the life system of the unbeliever has to borrow on the life system of the believer in order to be able to cope in this world.”

And he’s explored various ways that people try to find meaning in this life.

And he said, “Fun won’t supply meaning in this life.

Work won’t supply meaning to this life.

Family will not supply the ultimate meaning that you’re looking for in this life.

And affluence, money, things, material blessings will not supply ultimate meaning to this life.”

And all along he’s been giving us hints as to what does supply ultimate meaning in this life.

The first, biggest, longest hint that he gave us we found in Ecclesiastes 3.  When he had that beautiful section that we’ve heard sung before about “a time for birth” and “a time for death” and a time for this and a time for that.

And he’s pointing in that whole passage to the truth of the providence of God over all things.

And his beliefs that God is in control of everything and is working it out for the good of His people are at the very core of his philosophy of life and answer to the cynicism of the world.

So when you get to Ecclesiastes 11, he is beginning to wrap up his argument.

In fact, by the time that you get to Ecclesiastes 11, he has already entered into his final exhortation.

He’s calling us into the life of faith: to reject the life of faithlessness, the life of unbelief, the life of indifference to spiritual things.

He’s calling us.

He’s exhorting us.

He’s saying, “Choose this day whom you will serve.”

But the form of chapter 11 is almost like a letter to a young person.

It’s almost like a grandfather sitting his grandson or granddaughter down and saying, “Now let me tell you a little bit about life.”

So, once again, he catches you off guard with his form; but he’s already into his “M game.”

Let’s hear God’s Word then in Ecclesiastes 11. 

“Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.

Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.

If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies.

He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.

Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.

The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.

Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all, and let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many.

Everything that is to come will be futility.

Rejoice, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood.

And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes.

Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.

So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.”

Amen.

And thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired and inerrant Word.

May He add His blessing to it.

Let’s pray.

/Lord, we ask that You would give us heavenly wisdom to understand this heavenly wisdom.

And not only to understand it, to embrace it in the very core of our hearts as we approach this life.

That we might not live it as merely under the sun, but under the gaze of watchful, caring, merciful Almighty Providence.

This we ask in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

/

     Now at first when you hear Ecclesiastes 11, you’re thinking with Yogi Bera of “déjà vu all over again.”

This is just like chapter 10.

We get this sort of Colombo interrogation.

Where is this going?

We get this meandering set of proverbs.

We get this non-linear logic again.

That’s maybe your first reaction to Ecclesiastes 11.

But not so.

No.

This passage is a unified meditation on how we ought to respond to the uncertainties of this life, and the trials of this life, and the difficulties of this life, and the hurts of this life, and the pains of this life in light of God’s overarching providence.

Look at this passage.

It breaks very clearly into two parts:  verses 1-6 and verses 7-10.

The first six verses of the passage teach us how to contemplate our general approach to life in light of the uncertainties of life.

Those verses ask us to remember God’s providence and then to approach the uncertainties of life in light of that providence.

And so it speaks to our general approach to life and labor in light of the uncertainties and trials of life.

Then, in verses 7-10, the second part of the passage, this text addresses the issue of our happiness in light of our contemplation of coming death and judgment.

So the two parts of the passage deal with our general response to the difficulties and unexpected events of this life; and then, secondly, what about happiness in this life?

It is also the beginning of the Preacher’s conclusion.

Ecclesiastes 11 and this whole section along with chapter 12, is a sustained call to decision.

The Preacher has put the life of unbelief and indifference in the scales next to the life of faith, of trust in the living God and in His merciful, kind and wise providence: and he has found the life of unbelief lacking.

He has weighed it in the scales.

He’s showed you it doesn’t work.

And now he’s commending to you out loud the life of faith.

He’s calling you to choose the life of faith.

He’s saying, “You must not delay.

Today’s the day for whole-hearted faith whether your life is adverse or comfortable because we’re marching towards the day of death.”

And so this whole section is his “M game.”

He’s wrapping up; he’s concluding; and he’s exhorting.

As we look at the two parts of this chapter together for a few moments today, perhaps it will help us to note eight points of argument along the way.

Six points of argument in the first part of the chapter, verses 1-6; two points in the second half of the chapter, verses 7-10.

*I.

A call to bold, confident living, in light of the uncertainties of life and certainties of God’s providence – /A proper response to the twin truths./*

\\      His first point of argument comes in verse 1 and 2.  In verses 1 and 2, he is asking you to meditate with him on what is the proper response of a person to twin truths that he has taught throughout this book.

The twin-truths are this:  That life under the sun is empty; Life lived apart from God is empty; and God is, in fact, providentially ruling this world for the good of His people.

How do you respond to this life, in all its twists and turns, in light of those two truths:  that life apart from God is empty and that God is providentially in control of everything?

Well, there are different responses of people to the difficulties of this life.

And he is calling us to a bold, confident approach to living life in light of the uncertainties in life because of the certainty of God.

He calls us to boldness and confidence and trust in our living, not because life is certain.

It’s not.

In fact, he has made certain that we understand that life is not certain.

But we are to live in light of the certainties of God.

This is a call to an adventure of faith.

Listen.

“Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.”

Now, I dare you: try that at the ocean some day.

Sprinkle some bread crumbs on the waves, and see how many of them you find later.

And yet he says, “Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.

Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.”

He’s calling you to live boldly and to trust God because life is uncertain, but God is in control.

So, therefore, he says, “Go for it!”

You see, there are different ways that you could respond to the uncertainties of life and, especially, the heart-breaking uncertainties of life: you could curl up in a fetal position and just pull back; you could become cynical; you could just be cynical about everything; you could make fun of everything that’s meaningful, everything that’s beautiful, everything that’s joyful; you could just be cynical about it; or you could just be paralyzed, fearing the next bad thing that’s going to happen.