Ecclesiastes 9:1-10 - Keeping Your Bearings

Introduction

A number of years ago we took a day-trip family vacation to Idlewild Park in Ligonier. One of the attractions there was called “Confusion Hill”—one of those places where they build the whole structure at a slant, but perpendicular to itself. The forced perspective from inside the house makes it look like water runs uphill, people stand at impossible angles—that kind of thing. I remember that it was all very disorienting until we came to one room where they had left a door to the outside open and you could see the other normal buildings and sidewalk. It completely neutralized the illusion—instead of watching a ball roll the wrong way up a ramp, the external reference point made it possible to see that it was actually rolling downhill. It helped you to keep your bearings so that you didn’t succumb to the illusion that the crooked house was creating.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon has been describing the way the world looks to someone whose only perspective comes from inside this crooked world—from “under the sun”. Solomon has repeatedly pointed to the value of wisdom—of submitting in reverent obedience to God—as the key to understanding this vain world—of “keeping your bearings” in the midst of all the futility. This is what he means in Ecclesiastes 8:1:

Ecclesiastes 8:1 ESV

1 Who is like the wise? And who knows the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.

Godly wisdom enables you to relax and enjoy this world! But even Solomon, for all his wisdom, found himself getting disoriented by the “under the sun” perspective that he was writing from—even he had moments when he felt the effects of looking at this twisted, crooked world apart from reverent submission to God. Look with me a few verses up from the beginning of Chapter 9—Ecclesiastes 8:14:

Ecclesiastes 8:14 ESV

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.

Now, Solomon knows that wisdom is better—he is convinced that reverent submission to God is the foundation of wisdom that can find enjoyment and peace in this world. He says again in verse 15:

Ecclesiastes 8:15 ESV

15 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

But he still feels the confusion and bewilderment of trying to figure out what God is up to in this world:

Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 ESV

16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.

“Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out!” I think this is Solomon’s statement of humility: “God has given me tremendous wisdom and insight, and I still struggle to understand why righteous people suffer as though they were wicked, and wicked people who prosper as if they were righteous!”

Beloved—if Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, struggled to know God’s purposes in this world—where does that leave you and me?? Solomon was utterly convinced of the truth that the fear of the LORD was the key to understanding and enjoyment of this vain world, and sought to live by that wisdom in his own life, and yet he still had a hard time “keeping his bearings”.

The same thing happens to us from time to time, doesn’t it? You know that you have a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ, you know that real wisdom starts with acknowledging and submitting to God as the ruler of this world, you are persuaded that God has forgiven your sins and made you righteous before Him by your faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ—but you still have days when you struggle to understand what God is doing in your life. You still have days when you “lose your bearings” and look at the world as though this life “under the sun” is all there is.

And so here is what I want us to see from the Scriptures here this morning from Solomon’s observations about keeping your bearings in this vain world:

You keep your bearings in this vain world by LOOKING to Christ for your JUSTIFICATION

If you take your focus off of the fact that you have been made right with God through your faith in Jesus’ work on the Cross for you, you will get yourself all turned around trying to measure your approval with God by the wrong things or getting your priorities for your life twisted. The only way you can keep your bearings is by keeping your focus on your justification in Christ.

Look with me at the beginning of verse 1—Solomon starts off with his confession of faith:

“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...” To be righteous in the Old Testament meant that you were in a right relationship with YHWH—and that right relationship was expressed by faith: (“Abraham believed the LORD, and He counted it to Him as righteousness” - Genesis 15:6). And to be wise, as we have seen repeatedly, means to be one who fears the LORD, who has a reverent submission to Him. What Solomon is describing here are the characteristics of a believer—someone who belongs to God by faith and is characterized by obedience and submission to Him.

And Solomon is saying that he knows that believers are “in the hand of God”. But then he goes on to say, “Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him...” (Eccl. 9:1b). In other words, Solomon says, even a believer can struggle with understanding how God is being good to him!

Even a believer can lose their bearings and think that God is punishing them despite their faith. And this is the first reason why we must keep our bearings by looking to Christ for our justification. Because

I. OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES do not REVEAL God’s favor (Ecclesiastes 9:1-3)

Solomon says that by our own reasoning, we cannot know if God loves us or hates us! Now, the “Good Christian” sensor in your head may very well be lighting up at this point and saying, “Oh, of course I don’t think that God hates me!” (And of course, you’re right!) But you and I both know that that thought has crossed your Christian mind before, hasn’t it? That God is angry with you, despite your submission to Him, that He spends more time blessing unbelievers with prosperity and comfort than He does for you. This is what Solomon is saying in these first two verses:

Ecclesiastes 9:1–2 ESV

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.

When you begin looking at your outward circumstances to try to gauge God’s attitude towards you, you will lose your bearings, won’t you? Because

PROSPERITY and AFFLICTION come to us all (vv. 1-2)

If you go by outward appearances, you see God treating everybody the same! David was a king blessed with great riches—and so was wicked Nabal. Joseph was greatly favored by Pharaoh King of Egypt—but Haman was greatly favored by Ahasuerus King of Persia! Wicked Ahab was killed in battle—but so was righteous Josiah! Oath-keepers and oath-breakers, the scoundrel and the saint, the fastidious and the filthy, the devout and the devious—everybody has their share of prosperity, and everybody has their share of disaster. And if you take your prosperity or affliction as a marker for God’s favor, you will lose your bearings!

You cannot measure God’s favor by whether you prosper or suffer—prosperity and affliction come to us all. And another reason Solomon gives in verse 3:

Ecclesiastes 9:3 ESV

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.

EVIL and MADNESS infect us all (v. 3)

Solomon says that when people see that “the same event happens” to the righteous and the wicked, then it looks like God doesn’t care one way or the other how they behave. Good men die young, scoundrels just go on and on, Christians suffer and atheists rake in millions—so, the reasoning goes, why bother trying to please God? And so they rush headlong into the “madness” of rejecting God their whole lives until they come to the grave.

Solomon says, “If you are going to measure God’s acceptance of you on the basis of what happens to you in this life, you’re acting like that foolish unbeliever! Because outward circumstances do not reveal God’s favor—the only way to keep your bearings in this vain world is to look to Christ for your justification.

Looking to Christ for our assurance of our justification before God reminds us that outward circumstances do not reveal God’s favor. And secondly, looking to Christ reminds us to

II. LIVE this LIFE to SEEK God’s favor (Ecclesiastes 9:4-6)

Look with me at verses 4-5:

Ecclesiastes 9:4–5 ESV

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.

Just as we can lose our bearings and begin trying to measure our acceptance before God by our outward circumstances, we can also lose our bearings here “under the sun” by forgetting what the purpose of our life is. Solomon says in verses 1-3 that man in his own wisdom can’t know whether God loves him or hates him; here he says that man at least has hope to find God’s favor while he lives.

What Solomon is recommending to us here is the same exhortation expressed in the old Latin phrase memento mori: “Remember, you will die!” The world around us rejects such a notion as a morbid and unwelcome intrusion—but Solomon says that it is wisdom to recognize that you only have one life here on this earth, and you must

PREPARE for what is COMING (vv. 4-5)

“For the living know that they will die...” You know that there is a day when you will die and stand before God. There is a day coming—for everyone in this room—when you will stand at the Judgment and give an answer for the way you lived this life.

Every semester, around the last few weeks of the term, I begin to have a parade of students coming into my office who have gotten themselves into a fix because they never paid their tuition bill, and now they’re trying to register for next semester’s classes and they can’t because they still have a balance. —it seems to come as a shock to them every semester that there is a tuition bill due! They have been notified about that bill since the first day of the term, but somehow they just never bothered to think about it until the end of the semester, and now they are in a bind.

That’s the way a lot of people think about standing before God someday—some people ignore it, some people deny it, some people mock it—and then, when that Day comes upon them they are totally unprepared. But that Day is coming whether you want to recognize it or not.

And all too often Christians lose their bearings regarding that Day, and begin to treat it the same way as non-believers. They don’t give much thought to the fact that they will answer for their deeds, they will give an account for how they used the opportunities God gave them to minister and to serve Him. They don’t prepare for what’s coming—the end of this life and their appointment before God on the Day of Judgment.

Solomon reminds us that we are to live this life to seek God’s favor—to prepare for what is coming, and to remember that

There is no SECOND CHANCE (v. 6)

Ecclesiastes 9:6 ESV

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.

Solomon says here that once you have gone out of this life, there are no more opportunities to show love and compassion—and also there are no more opportunities to repent for your hate and envy.

Hebrews 9:27 ESV

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

There are no more chances to repent, no more hope for seeking God’s favor when you leave this world—this life is the only chance you have to find favor with God! And to waste this life, to treat it like it will just go on forever, that there is not going to be a last page to the story of this life—to keep telling yourself that you have plenty of time tomorrow to pursue God’s favor in holiness and obedience—that is the foolish madness of those who reject the wisdom of submission to God. And Christian, don’t lose your bearings by falling into that same kind of complacency! Look to how God has made you right with Him through Jesus Christ so that you may use this one precious, short life honoring and serving Him in obedience and holiness!

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The only way we can keep our bearings in this vain world is to keep looking to Christ for our justification—we cannot measure His favor by our outward circumstances, we have been given this life to seek His favor in Christ, and

III. God’s favor unlocks TRUE ENJOYMENT of this life (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10)

Look at verses 7-8 with me:

Ecclesiastes 9:7–8 ESV

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.

Throughout Ecclesiastes, Solomon has warned his readers that the pleasures of this world—eating, drinking, wealth, work, love—are ultimately futile. That they cannot provide real or lasting happiness or meaning in this life. But here in these verses he says go ahead! Eat and drink, enjoy your life! So what’s the difference—why is he commending eating and drinking and loving and working now?

The difference is at the end of verse 7—you can enjoy all these earthly things since you already have God’s approval. If God has already accepted you, if you already have a right relationship with Him, then you can enjoy all of these earthly things in their proper place. They are a vain hope for ultimate joy, but in their proper place they are real joys.

Christian, when you came to saving faith in Jesus Christ you became an accepted, beloved child of God—your sins forgiven, your life made new in Christ, partakers with Him of the grace and love and delight of your Heavenly Father. And since you have placed your greatest hope and love and affection on Him, then all of these “things of earth” become gifts from His hand! And as gifts from your loving Father in Heaven, you can truly enjoy them for what they are. And so that means that because God has already accepted you,

You can CELEBRATE rightly (vv. 7-8; cp. Matthew 22:2-14)

The imagery in these verses—eating bread, drinking wine, white robes, anointed with oil—are all images of a feast, a celebration. Christians should be people who know how to feast—we should be people who know how to celebrate! There is a tendency for Christians to “lose their bearings” when it comes to celebrating and feasting. We look down on celebrating and feasting and merriment and laughter because we have learned the first half of the message of Ecclesiastes only too well— “All of that feasting and celebrating is vanity—it can’t provide real joy!”

Well, no—of course it can’t provide eternal joy, only God can give us that! But when we love God rightly, we are free to celebrate rightly! Jesus Himself was no stranger to feasts—He used feasts as illustrations for His parables (Matthew 22), His first miracle at the wedding in Cana was done to keep a feast going, and His presence at feasts was so well-known that the Pharisees slandered Him for spending so much time at parties:

Matthew 11:19 ESV

19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

But when you love God rightly, you celebrate rightly!

Solomon goes on to say in verse 9:

Ecclesiastes 9:9 ESV

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.

You can celebrate rightly, and

You can LOVE rightly (v. 9)

In the same way that some people try to get ultimate enjoyment out of their partying, some people try to make their spouse or their family their source of ultimate enjoyment. C. S. Lewis once described a particular woman as “the kind of woman who ‘lived for others’—and you could usually recognize the ‘others’ by their hunted expressions!” Many a marriage has been shipwrecked by two “half-people” each expecting the other one to make them “whole”—expecting infinite love and affection from a mere mortal. Many a family has been crippled by a parent trying to fulfill their longing for infinite love through their children. But when you love God rightly—when He is the source of your joy and love and delight, when you are accepted by Him first, then you are able to love your spouse and your family rightly!

When you have the acceptance of God’s love through Christ and you love God rightly, you celebrate rightly, you love rightly, and

You LABOR rightly (v. 10)

Ecclesiastes 9:10 ESV

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.

Instead of trying to find ultimate meaning and joy in your work (which, as Solomon has already demonstrated, can’t be done), when you have a right relationship with God through Christ, you can find real satisfaction in your work! You can “work with all your might”—you can build and accomplish and be industrious even though you know that it will all crumble and fade someday! Because you have been accepted by God, you are free to enjoy your labor in its rightful place!

Christian, the only way to keep your bearings in this vain, futile world is to keep your focus on the justification you have in Jesus Christ! Because you are rightly related to God through Christ, you can rightly relate to this vain, futile world. Stop looking at your outward circumstances to measure whether or not God is pleased with you. Stop accusing God of hating you or being angry with you because of some trauma or heartache or affliction that has come into your life! Your acceptance from God has been established forever by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and nothing in this world will shift that!

Christian, if there is sin in your life and you are suffering because of it, God may allow you to suffer the consequences of that sin—but He does not do so because He hates you or wants to punish you. He punished Christ for your sin, Christian—there is none left over for you! He doesn’t hate you—He hates the sin that has you by the throat! And He will do whatever it takes to deliver you from that sin! He may play rough in order to do it, but He will not let sin win in your life!

Christian, don’t lose your bearings in this life and forget that God has given you this life so that you may serve Him in holiness! He has good works set out for you to do—He has ministries for you to take up, He has lives for you to touch, He has souls for you to win! The old saying is no less true for its familiarity: “Only one life - ‘twill soon be past / Only what’s done for Christ will last!” Don’t chase after the same temporary, fading, flimsy pleasures that the world does—live your life laying up treasures in Heaven!

As missionary author David Bryant used to say, live your life in such a way that you can lay your head down on your pillow each night and say “I know today my life counted for Christ’s global cause—especially for those outside the Gospel!” Live for the Day when you hear your Savior say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord!”

And if you are outside of Christ this morning, can’t you see the great joy He offers you today? The unbreakable, infinite and perfect assurance that you are accepted by God! You can’t make yourself acceptable to Him on your own in any way—only as you call on Jesus in faith, believing that He died for your sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried and raised the third day according to the Scriptures. You can have that assurance that your sins against Him are forgiven, you can have the assurance that no matter what happens to you in this world, you are His beloved child, and nothing can ever take you away from Him! Come and let us pray with you so that you can have that perfect joy today—and let us celebrate with you that you have been given the white robe of His righteousness and have been anointed with His Holy Spirit that seals you for eternal life in your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 ESV

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What are some ways that your outward circumstances tempt you to think that God is angry with you? Why does Solomon say that your outward circumstances are an unreliable indicator of God’s favor?

What does Solomon say we must do with our lives in light of the inevitability of death? How does your awareness that you will someday stand before Christ to give an account of your deeds change the way you look at this life? How will your experience of that Day be different from someone who has rejected Christ?

What does it mean that “when you enjoy God rightly, you can enjoy His gifts rightly”? How does having your ultimate joy and satisfaction in God give you the ability to enjoy this world’s pleasures, love, family and accomplishments with real satisfaction?