Ecclesiastes: Your Best Life Now!
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Overcoming the Vanity
Overcoming the Vanity
Chapter 1 — Life…what’s the point?
Chapter 1 — Life…what’s the point?
Is this a middle-aged skeptic or seasoned reflection?
Key verse:
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
The vanity of life under the sun drives Solomon (and us) to conclude: there has to be more.
Chapter 2 — The American Dream can’t save you.
Chapter 2 — The American Dream can’t save you.
Faulty thinking says, “If I only had more of what is currently NOT satisfying me, then surely I would be satisfied.”
Key verse:
I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.
We will struggle with Ecclesiastes if we can’t learn from someone else’s mistakes.
Summary: the teacher continues his search for meaning, reflecting on his experiment with pleasure. He has tried wine, building magnificent buildings, women, and wealth…all to no avail. He then reverts to wisdom, and it, too, seems to fall short. Though wisdom is better than folly, death eradicates any lasting significance it might have. Finally, he turns to work, but it ultimately proves useless as well. The conclusion:
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,
Chapter 3:1-15 — The problem with God.
Chapter 3:1-15 — The problem with God.
The Byrds, Hootie and the Blowfish, and Forrest Gump — all prophets who didn’t know it!
‘God wrote a pop song’ (Begg, ‘Eternity on My Mind’). The song ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ is a catchy tune that comforts many people who think to themselves, It doesn’t matter how bad things get; good times are coming!
The comfort of ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ does not accurately communicate Solomon’s mood or intention in Eccl 3. ‘Time’ by Hootie and the Blowfish better communicates Solomon’s message because in that song time haunts rather than comforts. The band queried: ‘Time, why you punish me? / Like a wave crashing into the shore / you wash away my dreams...Can you teach me about tomorrow / and all the pain and sorrow / running free? / Cause tomorrow’s just another day / and I don’t believe in time...Time is wasting time is walking / you ain’t no friend of mine / I don’t know where I’m going / I think I’m out of my mind / thinking about time.’
Or, momma always said life was like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get.
Through it all, the problem that vexes Solomon is:
What gain has the worker from his toil?
Solomon’s answer is to trust in what God has sovereignly ordained. We don’t change it. But we can trust it. So:
also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
Chapter 3:16-4:3 — Politics and the problem of evil.
Chapter 3:16-4:3 — Politics and the problem of evil.
Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.
In frustration, we look around at the world around us and we cry for the oppressed and long for the day when God makes all things right. This side of eternity, we will not see it, nor could we grasp it all. In our world and in the not too distant history of the world, we’ve seen the utter atrocities committed. We watch even right now in horror at what is and will be happening in Afghanistan. Without God, or with a faulty view of God, man acts as just another animal, and in our crazy world, animals are elevated above human status! If you are caught in any way, shape, or form messing with a bald eagle (or even their nests!), you could be looking at a quarter-million dollar fine and up to two years in prison. Yet, in the US alone, 3,000 babies are aborted EVERY DAY!
So Solomon concludes:
Ecclesiastes 4:1 (ESV)
Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.
So what do we do in the face of such grave injustice? We preach the gospel, because legislation doesn’t change the human heart. And we love and care for the orphan and the widow, extending help when and however it’s possible.
Chapter 4:4-16 — Rivalry and relationships.
Chapter 4:4-16 — Rivalry and relationships.
Beware of keeping up with the Joneses!
Consider these two verses:
Ecclesiastes 4:4 (ESV)
Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.
Solomon first warns about living life for the sake of owning what everyone else owns. Then, he reminds us of the blessing of relationships.
For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
This world isn’t a rat race, and the only finish line, according to Solomon, is death. We should slow down, live life, honor God, work with one hand and enjoy life with the other, rather than having “two hands full of toil and striving after the wind.” What a shame to live all of life trying to keep up with the Joneses only to finally catch up with them and find out they were never your friends in the first place!
Chapter 5:1-7 — Vain without the veil.
Chapter 5:1-7 — Vain without the veil.
It seems today that Christianity has been flipped on its head. Instead of saying that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, we seem to now think the chief end of God is to glorify man and enjoy him forever. We are far too often centered on the “me’s and my’s rather than the Thee’s and Thy’s!”
Key verse:
For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
When dreams increase (much work makes us tired, leading to sleep and dreams, but dreams are not real) — when we are wearied by empty religious toil — and words grow many — we babble on thinking this will cause God to hear us — we are trying to bargain with God offering the appearance of piety. However, it’s vain because it’s only an outward show. Instead, God must be feared — honored, revered, worshiped. And, there is only one way to rightly worship God: enter His presence through the veil of Christ’s flesh and finished work on the cross.
Chapter 5:10-6:6 — Be wary of wealth.
Chapter 5:10-6:6 — Be wary of wealth.
The key verse here is:
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.
Consider some of the following quotes from wealthy people:
During NBA labor disputes (maybe late ‘90’s or early ‘00’s):
Patrick Ewing — “Sure, NBA players make a lot of money, but we spend a lot of money, too.
Latrell Sprewell — after declining a 3 yr., $21 million contract, said he had “a family to feed.”
Gary Payton — when asked how many BENTLEYS he owned, said “four or five of them.”
When Rockefeller was asked which million his favorite was, he replied, “My next million.”
One of the Hunt Brothers from TX, the family that served as the basis for Dallas, was asked if he really made $1 million/wk. His response? “Son, I would starve to death with an income of a million dollars a week.”
Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep.
The appetite of the rich and their desire for more money never lets them rest and enjoy what they have. Solomon’s solution is:
Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.
Chapter 7, 9:11-10:15 — Wisdom is the better way.
Chapter 7, 9:11-10:15 — Wisdom is the better way.
Just a couple of notes here, since the title sort of captures the essence and it’s a large chunk of Scripture.
We never truly have wisdom apart from Jesus and the intake of and submission to His Word.
Wisdom, a desirable godly trait, is different from knowledge. Don’t mistake biblical knowledge for Christian maturity, because wisdom is living what you know.
Much of what Solomon says, “eat, drink, and be merry,” can lead to hedonism — this life is all there is. These chapters remind us that wisdom is the better way, and ultimately Scripture as a whole makes the point that no matter how much merriment we make, the end is destruction apart from Jesus.
Chapter 8 — Wise words for our walk.
Chapter 8 — Wise words for our walk.
Trust the instrument panel.
We live wisely by resisting evil, not repaying evil with evil, remembering that God makes all things right in the right time, and remembering that for all of what seems to be his prosper, still an evil man can’t control the day he dies.
Second, rest in God’s sovereignty. It’s much better to live life and follow God, remembering that His ways are far above ours. Trying to reconcile the injustices of this world can literally drive you crazy.
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.
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.
Chapter 11:1-12:8 — While you still can.
Chapter 11:1-12:8 — While you still can.
Follow God diligently, live life fully, and serve God while there is still time!
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Chapter 12:9-14 — The sum of life.
Chapter 12:9-14 — The sum of life.
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” — “Life moves pretty fast…you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Everything Ecclesiastes has affirmed up to this point - the sovereign freedom of God, the limits of human wisdom, thoughts on the use and abuse of wealth and power, and the brevity and absolute contingency of human life - all lead to the command to fear God. All of the “vanity” that has been so ruthlessly exposed would seem to lead to despair or nihilism. But, for the teacher, it arouses true piety. The insignificance of all that is done under the sun leaves him awestruck and silent before God. His inability to control or predict the future provokes him to depend on God. The futility of attempting to secure his future through wisdom or acts of religion such as making vows leads him not to impiety but to an understanding of the true nature of obedient trust. Keep His commandments is not to be understood as simply obeying an arbitrary set of rules but an exhortation to obey that is rooted in love and the awe of a sovereign God. It is in line with the biblical call to trust and obey, to obey Jesus because we love Him and because He first loved us, not to earn His love, but to display our love for Him because we’ve already visited the well of love and have drunk deeply of its life-giving flow (v.13-14).
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
This single verse may be the best verse in all of Scripture…but then again, we tend to say that a lot!
