Ecclesiastes 11-12 - Wisdom Against The Flow

Introduction

Well, since it’s Father’s Day, I thought I would start out by offering some free advice to those of you looking for the perfect gift for the dad in your life—he can be hard to buy for, so I’ll let you in on a little secret: Dad appreciates the neckties and cards and things like that, but what he really wants is a little relaxation.

And if you really want to give Dad the gift of relaxation, you don’t need to go out and buy him an expensive recliner or something—if you really want him to relax and unwind, take him out to the Clarion River and let him float down the river on an inner tube for a few hours!

Trust me on this—it’s fun to kayak or canoe or raft down the river, but this way he can forget all about that paddling and steering and maneuvering and just let go and let the current take him away. (You’ll thank me later.) There’s nothing more relaxing than just “going with the flow”—until the “flow” swings you around with your head downstream and you smack up against a boulder!

You know, a lot of people live their lives like that, don’t they? They just “go with the flow”, following the path of least resistance, trying to “go along to get along”. Throughout our study of the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon has consistently pointed to the futility of trying to live your life in this world just by going along with what you can see. The problem of “going with the flow” in this world is that the “flow” of this world is a bewildering, repetitive and futile mess.

Ever seen the water that gets stuck in an eddy at the river’s edge? Full of debris, rotten leaves and scum that collects in a disgusting little whirlpool that just endlessly swirls around? That’s what Solomon says this world is like, considered on its own: “Vanity, and a striving after wind”.

Still want to go tubing down the Clarion River? I’m not doing a very good job at selling a float down the river for a Father’s Day present, am I? But that’s the thing—Solomon is writing this book so that you won’t spend your life swirling in the futility of “going with the flow” of this world’s vanity: He wrote this book so that you will stand like a Rock of Wisdom against that meaningless flow! And as we conclude our study of Ecclesiastes today I want you to see what Solomon is getting at in this book:

The fear of the LORD is your BOULDER of IMMOVABLE JOY against the FUTILITY of this world

Here in the closing chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon revisits three of the major themes of the book. Throughout his writing, he has consistently returned to the futility of wealth, the foolishness of pleasure, and the inevitability of death. And here in chapters 11 and 12 he shows how the wisdom that comes from the fear of the LORD—reverent obedience to God—is the key to standing against the futility of the world in these things.

In the first six verses of Chapter 11, Solomon shows how the fear of the LORD our boulder of immovable joy in the futile currents of this world because it gives us

I. Joyful GENEROSITY in a STINGY world (Eccl. 11:1-6)

Look with me at verses 1-3:

Ecclesiastes 11:1–3 ESV

1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. 2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. 3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

The world around you believes that it will get lasting pleasure and enjoyment out of its wealth, and so it is naturally stingy with wealth. But when you look at the world through the wisdom that comes from knowing and trusting God, you are free to be generous with what you have—you can

EMPTY yourself knowing God will FILL you (vv. 1-3)

Like the rain clouds dumping their water on the earth, you are free to give generously of your wealth, your time, your energy. Verse 2 seems at first to be backwards, doesn’t it? If you “don’t know what disaster may happen on earth”, you might think the solution is to hang on to your wealth, right? But when you have the joyful generosity that comes from knowing and trusting God, you are free to give it away for someone else’s sake!

After all, is this not just what your Savior did?

Philippians 2:5–8 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He was not stingy with His life—He joyfully gave it away for the sake of your salvation! And so you can be a boulder of joyful generosity in the currents of this stingy world!

Solomon goes on in verss 4-6 to say that you can

Give FREELY knowing God will DIRECT it (vv. 4-6)

Ecclesiastes 11:4–6 ESV

4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. 5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. 6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

I don’t know how many times growing up I tried to get out of making hay in the summer by telling Dad it looked like rain—and his answer was always the same: “It’s not raining NOW!” These verses are answering our objections to generosity: Things like, “Well, giving them money will just enable them to keep being lazy”, or “If I give generously, they’re going to think that I approve of their poor choices”, or “I might just make matters worse if I give them a whole lot of money to handle” or “They’ll probably squander it and not even use it for what I meant them to”, and on and on.

But Solomon answers those objections here by pointing out that when it comes to what will come of our generosity, we don’t know as much as we think we do! He says, “You have no idea how your spirit entered your body when you were carried inside your mother—and yet here you are! If God can bring you into existence, He certainly can bring His will to pass through your generosity if He wants!”

And the image of planting and harvesting in verse 6 is another reminder: “You don’t know what kind of crop you’re going to get when you plant, but you plant anyway—you go ahead and give of yourself, your time, your money, your presence, and let God deal with the harvest, good or bad!” You have no guarantee that keeping those things to yourself will make you happy (in fact, the last ten chapters are proof that it won’t!) So go ahead and be generous—at least that way you’ll have the joy of giving freely, and your generosity may very well be used by God to bring joy and live to others as well!

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom—and that wisdom is our boulder of immoveable joy in the shifting currents of this futile world. That wisdom makes us a boulder of joyful giving in the currents of a stingy world, and in verses 7-10 we learn that this wisdom gives us

II. Wise PLEASURE in a RECKLESS world (Eccl. 11:7-10)

The currents of this world swirling around you all flow with the conviction that you deserve to be happy in this world, and that you are entitled to whatever pleasure that you want to pursue, as long as it “doesn’t hurt anybody”. You only get one go-around, and so live by your own rules, don’t let anyone stop you from pursuing your joy, live your life the way you want to and never apologize for pursuing what makes you feel good about yourself. The currents of our world idolize youthful pleasure and excess and recklessness—but the wisdom that comes from God means that you

Know you will ANSWER to God SOMEDAY (vv. 7-9)

Ecclesiastes 11:9 ESV

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 the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

You see, the world around us believes that any kind of accountability for our pleasures—any sort of consequences for the way we seek to find delight—is a terrible burden on our happiness. But Solomon has gone to great lengths in Ecclesiastes to show that disregarding God in this life leaves you with no way to enjoy any pleasure in this life!

And so his words strike kind of an ominous tone: “Go ahead, live it up! Let your heart cheer you, do what you delight in—but remember that someday you will give an account for everything you are doing.

Are you ready to give that account for what you have done? Are you ready to stand before God as He opens the books on your life and asks you for an accounting of the ways you have sought pleasure and enjoyment in this world? What will you say to Him on that Day?

You see, some people look at the fact that they have to give an account for their lives and respond by saying that they will deny themselves any pleasure—if it’s enjoyable, it must be a sin. And so they live cramped little lives, trying to root out any possibility that somewhere they might accidentally have fun.

But that’s not at all what Solomon is saying, is he? He’s saying, “Go ahead and live!” But how do you reconcile his encouragement to enjoy life with the warning that you are accountable for how you enjoy life? The answer is the fear of the LORD!

Ecclesiastes 2:26 ESV

26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 ESV

7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

When you have already been accepted by God, when you know that you have been made right with Him, you can

LIVE with all your MIGHT while you LIVE

The only way to reconcile these two things that Solomon says here: “Live life to the fullest” and “Remember you will give an account” is to know that your righteousness has been secured through Christ! Because then you see this world not as your only hope for satisfaction; you see this world and all its enjoyments as a gift from your Heavenly Father to enjoy—you enjoy this world rightly when God is your Supreme Joy! And because God’s Spirit is at work in you transforming your life to become conformed more to the image of Christ, your affections and desires are less and less drawn to the dark and twisted rebelliousness of sin and more and more toward delighting in the righteousness and purity that God has given you in Christ.

And so you are able to do what Solomon says here—you are able to let your sanctified heart cheer you in the days of your youth, you are able to walk in the ways of your righteous heart and the sight of your eyes that are looking to Christ—you can really live this life to the fullest when you have been made right with God through Jesus!

The fear of the LORD is your boulder of wise pleasure in the streams of this world’s reckless pursuit of pleasure. And as Solomon opens Chapter 12, he shows us that godly wisdom is our basis for

III. Graceful AGING in an ANXIOUS world (Eccl. 12:1-8)

All the currents of this fallen world flow against the reality that we are all headed for death. This world hates the idea of aging—we market all manner of vitamins and serums and essential oils and unguents and therapies and surgeries to keep ourselves looking as young as possible. We want to deny that we age, we want to pretend that it isn’t happening to us.

But Solomon doesn’t let us off the hook, does he? Verses 1-5 are an extended metaphor for aging, describing a house that is falling apart: The “sun and light and moon and stars are darkened” (v. 2)—eyesight becomes dim, the “keepers of the house” tremble (v. 3) - hands and arms are weakened. The “strong men are bent” (v. 3) - legs bow and are weakened under the weight of age. The “grinders” are no longer up to their task (v. 3) - teeth are falling out or falling apart. The “windows” are hard to see out of (v. 3) - eyesight begins to fail. One “rises at the sound of a bird” and yet “the daughters of song are brought low” (v. 4) - hearing starts to dull, you can’t enjoy music like you used to—but your hearing is sharp enough that a bird outside the window wakes you up and you can’t get back to sleep!

The fear of falling becomes an issue (v. 5), the “almond tree blossoms”—your beautiful head of hair is now all white or grey like an almond tree in bloom, “desire fails” (literally, the “caperberry fails”—all the old tricks like aphrodisiacs no longer work). And all of this is “because man is going to his eternal home” (v. 5)—in the immediate context, Solomon is talking about the grave—the place where we will all wind up someday.

But see how the knowledge of God and trust in Him through Christ gives you hope in aging? Because when you trust in God

You have an IMPERISHABLE “HOUSE” waiting for you

As the Apostle Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:

2 Corinthians 5:1–4 ESV

1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

Instead of fearing and denying the onset of aging, Christian, you have hope that you have an eternal dwelling! Like George Younce used to sing with the Cathedrals, “Ain't gonna need this house no longer / Ain't gonna need this house no more / Ain't got time to fix the shingles / Ain't got time to fix the floor / Ain't got time to oil the hinges / Nor to mend the window pane / Ain't gonna need this house no longer / I'm getting ready to meet the saints!” (“This Ole House”, Stuart Hamblen, 1954)

Don’t you see the boulder of immoveable joy you have amidst the currents of this world’s fear and anxiety over aging? Because of your hope in Christ, you don’t fear the day when you pass from this life, because you have an imperishable house waiting for you—and

You have an ETERNAL FELLOWSHIP waiting for you

with God Himself! When “the silver cord is snapped” and the “golden bowl is broken” and “the pitcher is shattered at the fountain” and this old house finally gives way, “and the dust returns to the earth as it was” (v. 7), then your spirit will return to God who gave it! You have a boulder of immovable joy in the streams of this world’s anxiety over death because you have eternal fellowship with God to look forward to!

As Solomon’s father David wrote,

Psalm 16:11 ESV

11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Psalm 23:6 ESV

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

And as we read earlier this year from Philippians:

Philippians 1:21–23 ESV

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

Christian, you have a boulder of immovable joy in the midst of this world’s streams of stinginess, recklessness and anxiety—because of your hope in Christ and what He has done for you, you are free to give of yourself for others (as He gave Himself for you), you are free to delight in the good gifts of this world as blood-bought gifts of grace from His hand for you, you are free to face your own aging not as a misery to be endured but a sign that “this ole house” is giving way so that your eternal home with Christ can receive you!

And today being what it is, let me specifically address dads this morning—I want you to see here in these verses your calling to be that boulder of joy in the midst of this world’s stingy, reckless, anxious currents!

Be the dad who models joyful generosity for your family—be generous with your time, be generous with your money, be generous with your resources. Be the dad who is always there for your kids, who freely gives himself away for their sakes—and let them see you pouring yourself out in sacrificial love for your wife—there is no better way to nourish and strengthen your children’s lives than by letting them see how much you love their mom! Be a boulder of joyful generosity that your kids know they can rely on in the grasping, selfish greed of this world!

Be the dad who models wise pleasure in this reckless world—be the dad who lives with all your might, while you live! Show your family how to rejoice in the good things God has given you, how to delight with godly joy in the blessings He has put into your life! Don’t be the dad who never lets his kids have any fun—be the dad who leads the way in rejoicing in God’s good gifts with happy, grateful joy for all He has given you! Show your children how, in whatever they do, “whether they eat or drink to do all for the glory of God!”

Be the dad who models graceful aging in this anxious world—as “this ole’ house” begins to crumble, don’t become the grumpy old man who resents the loss of his youthful strength and vigor. Be the man who understands that your “ebbing strength but weans you from earth and grows you up for heaven” (McQuilken, “Let Me Get Home Before Dark”). Let your children and grandchildren see such a bright hope of heaven shining in you that when your earthly tent finally folds up for the last time they will be filled with the joyful certainty that you have gone before them to your eternal dwelling, where they will meet you someday!

Don’t “go with the flow” of this world’s currents of stingy, reckless anxiety—be the boulder of joy in God through Jesus Christ. If those currents are pulling at you today, and you don’t know that you have that kind of immoveable hope in God through Jesus Christ, please don’t leave today without talking to me or one of the elders about how you can have that joy—how you can know once and for all that you have been forgiven for your sin and can go “eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart” in this vain and futile world “because God has already approved what you do”—granting you salvation through the work of His Son, 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:

How does knowing God will care for your needs allow you to show joyful generosity in a stingy world? How does this truth affect your life when you consider giving of your time and energy for others? How can you go out of your way to demonstrate godly generosity this week?

Does the knowledge that you will answer to God for the ways you have sought pleasure and happiness in this life change the way you pursue those things? How does a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ enable to you find real pleasure in this world? How is your pursuit of pleasure better than the ways the world invites you to seek pleasure?

How does your attitude towards aging and death set you apart from the way the world views those things? What are you most looking forward to when you awaken in God’s presence in Heaven someday? How does that hope give you real contentment as your earthly “house” starts to wear out? How does your hope in Christ give hope to those around you?