Everything Matters

Introduction:

We are finally reaching the conclusion of this book. This book kind of reminds me of the second Star Wars movie, “The Empire Strikes Back.” I remember watching it when I was 8 or 9 for the first time and how dark and depressing the ending was. There doesn’t seem to be any hope… As we have gone through this book it too has been very depressing, but the light is coming. In particular the last two verses of this book give us what the real solution is to man’s problems.

Recap:

Last week we discussed this notion that foolishness is a sign of immaturity and that one act of foolishness can have severe consequences.

Abraham telling Pharoah Sarah was his sister. Consequence was being ejected from Egypt.

Noah’s testimony was damaged by one episode of shameful drunkenness.

David’s life and family were forever changed by one weak moment of of indulgence in lust.

Moses wasn’t allowed into the promise land because of one rash act of frustration, impatience, and anger.

Last week we also saw Solomon give some sound advice pertaining to a person’s occupation:

Planing things out and keeping good records.

Expect the unexpected and be prepared for accidents.

Work smarter not harder. Improper planing can risk loss of income or someones life.

We can apply those truths to our lives as believers too:

We must always work cautiously and prepare for the risks that come along with our work. Because you are no threat to the devil when you are idle.

We do not change the message of the gospel, but sometimes our methods will need to change. Using the sharpest tools at our disposal.

Speaking of tools we have been given- spirit gifts- to use in our service to the Lord.

The greatest work we can do is the work we do for the Lord.

Chapter 11

vv 9-10) Judgement will come

[9a]Solomon in this final section of this book is going to be directed towards youth. Solomon is probably looking back from an old age to the days of his youth before the he started the under the sun premise took a tole upon his life and mind. Wanting his younger readers to have a better life.

Solomon, I believe he is trying to encourage the young person to follow after your dreams! To experience all of life’s adventures and excitement that you can, while you can. As humans we place all sort of limitations and restrictions on life that God has never placed.

Remember that God richly provides all things for us to enjoy: 1 Tim 6:17

1 Timothy 6:17 ESV

17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

Remember though there is a limited period of time when we have the strength and ability to do so. God approves as long as we obey His Word. Despite Solomon’s terrible premise, I do believe that God gives us the liberty to live life to the fullest. The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.

Rab, a Jewish teacher of the third century A.D. commented, “man will have to give account for all that he saw and did not enjoy.”

Family, we cannot use our freedoms, liberties, and riches as a cover to sin against God.

1 Peter 2:16 ESV

16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

[9b] Solomon enthusiastically endorses fun and enjoyment, but this is not a free pass for the young to experience everything in life. This is not a license to indulge in every desire before one must “grow up” having life bear down upon them, as is required by age.

The counsel in the last words of verse nine provides clarification. In looking at the complete statement, we must recognize that Solomon is issuing a strong warning to the reader.

Do what your heart desires and see as much as you can. But remember that eventually God will bring you into judgement, that is, the judgement of old age, which seemed to Solomon like divine retribution for the sins of early life.

As believers with the full counsel of God’s Word we should take note of this important point. the first being:

As a believer you will not be able to fully experience the joy of the Lord when you prescribing to indulge your fleshly appetites in disobedience to God. You may enjoy the temporary pleasures of sin: Heb 11:25

Hebrews 11:25 ESV

25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

But your joy will be handicapped by a sense of God’s coming judgement on sin. We will never know true happiness or joy when living in a life of sin. God has made our souls to suffer a sense of uneasiness and emptiness- never being fully satisfied (which is the goal that Solomon is trying to find)- until we place our trust in Jesus Christ.

[10] In verse 10 Solomon is explaining that while you have youth, maximize enjoyment and minimize sorrow and trouble or vexation. Sin sown in youth will reap painful consequences, but sowing God’s Word in your heart will reap precious dividends. Sin sown will reap painful consequences, but sowing God’s word will reap great rewards.

Read your Bibles, study your Bibles, Obey what it says, and you will sow and reap divine riches.

Solomon is stating that youth and the dawn of life are fleeting (vanity) because they are so short lived. Nowhere in literature is there a more classic description of old age than in the first half of chapter 12. The meaning doesn’t lie on the surface because it is presented as an allegory. But the emerges of a doddering old man shuffling his way irresistibly to the grave.

chapter 12

vv 1-8) The value of remembering God

[1-2] The doleful picture of age and senility is a warning to young people to remember their Creator in the days of their youth. Notice something disheartening? Solomon doesn’t say their Lord or Savior or Redeemer but their Creator.

This is the only way Solomon could know God from his vantage point under the sun. But even at that, the advice is good. Young people should remember their Creator… before the sunset time of life, when the days are difficult and cruel and the years are totally lacking in pleasure and enjoyment.

I hate to break it to you, but old age is the time when the lights grow dim, both physically and emotionally. The days are dreary, and the nights are long. Gloom and depression settle in. Talk about depressing.

How are we to apply this passage of scripture to our lives?

We should remember that God is continually present in our lives. Once we accept Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit actually lives within our bodies. We need to remember this wonderful truth because it means that we alway have God’s presence to guide and help us through the trails of life.

We should remember that God is our Creator- He literally made us from nothing. By right of creation, God is entitled to have authority and control over our lives. God owns the patent on our lives as human beings, and He has never sold it. He own all the rights to this product He created. That is the reason, we humans must answer to Him.

We need to know that God will definitely judge our lives-our words, thoughts, and deeds. The unbeliever will be doomed to eternal separation from God. We as believers will be judged as children of God, rather than as lost sinners. But we must still answer to God for the things done in our bodies, whether good or bad: 2 Cor 5:10

2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

[3-5] As a young person, you should learn to faithfully walk with God while you have the energy and strength of youth. A day will come when your body will age and weaken, and you will not be able to serve God as energetically as you did during your younger years. To illustrate the aging process, Solomon uses the image of a decaying house one that is literally falling apart. Though various commentators interpret some of the specific metaphors differently, nearly all agree that this is a graphic description of old age. Those who are older will identify with this description.

Remember your Creator while you are young…

Before your limbs tremble and you cannot protect your home. The keepers of the house are the arms and legs that weaken and tremble with age.

Before your body is stooped over.

Before your teeth start falling out.

Before your eyesight starts failing.

Before your legs become too weak to walk outside.

Before your hearing beings to fade.

Before your sleep is halted by birds.

Before your fear of heights and other dangers restricts your actions.

Before your hair turns as white as an almond blossom.

Before your pace is as slow as a grasshopper at season’s end. At the end of a grasshoppers life, it no longer hops but drags itself along the ground.

Essentially the day will come when each one of us will look back to our younger days and say, “I wish i would have done this or that,” or “Thank God I did this or did not do that.”

No matter where you are in your journey of life: Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

[6] Verse 6 is difficult to assign precise meaning to all these figures. The silver cord probably refers to the breaking of the tender thread of life when the spirit is released from the body.

“Some day the silver cord will break

and I no more as now shall sing

But oh the joy when I shall wake

Within the palace of the King.” -Fanny J. Crosby (blind)

The golden bowl has been understood to mean the cranial cavity, and its breaking to be a poetic picture of the cessation of the mind at the time of death.

The broken pitcher and wheel taken together could be a reference to the circulatory system.

[7] Rigor mortis now sets in. Then the body begins its return to dust, while the spirit returns to God who gave it. Or so it seemed to Solomon. In the case of a believer, this conclusion is true. But in the case of an unbeliever, the spirit goes to Hades, awaiting the Great White Throne Judgement.

[8] And now Solomon comes full-circle to where he began- with the basic tenet that life under the sun is vanity, meaningless, futile, and empty. His pathetic refrain is reflected in the poem by Billy Barnes entitled “I stayed to long at the fair”

Believer’s Bible Commentary E. Spreading the Good under the Sun (11:1–12:8)

I wanted the music to play on forever—

Have I stayed too long at the fair?

I wanted the clown to be constantly clever—

Have I stayed too long at the fair?

I bought me blue ribbons to tie up my hair,

But I couldn’t find anybody to care.

The merry-go-round is beginning to slow now,

Have I stayed too long at the fair?

I wanted to live in a carnival city,

with laughter and love everywhere.

I wanted my friends to be thrilling and witty.

I wanted somebody to care.

I found my blue ribbons all shiny and new,

But now I’ve discovered them no longer blue.

The merry-go-round is beginning to taunt me—

Have I stayed too long at the fair?

There is nothing to win and no one to want me—

Have I stayed too long at the fair?

Death, like everything else Solomon has described in life, is empt and meaningless apart from God. Solomon has now cover the circuit of life and is ending up where he began in Ecclesiastes 1:2

Ecclesiastes 1:2 ESV

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Everything- all of man’s efforts and activities - is pointless and vain...

his achievements

his labors

his education

his knowledge

his pleasures

his pursuits

his properties

his possessions

his morals

his amusements

his cultural advances

his position

his power

his worship

his honor

his creativity

his youth

his latter years

his death

Everything is empty, and unsatisfying apart from God. God gives meaning to life, meaning to all of its activities and achievements. God even gives meaning to death.

This is the great, hard message that comes from the world’s wisest man, the most powerful and esteemed king, the wealthiest citizen, the Teacher, Solomon.

vv 9-14) Everything matters

[9-11]I believe that starting in verse 9 here is the compiler of Solomon’s findings. You are free to disagree the application doesn’t change in the slightest.

Ecclesiastes is a very important book to read and study because it teaches the reader to avoid the pitfalls of life that Solomon fell into and to find a sense of lasting fulfillment and satisfaction in life.

Another reason to study Ecclesiastes is because it examined life and carefully compiled Solomon’s findings. The compiler wanted the reader to be aware of Solomon’s thorough research and his attempt to organize his findings in such a way that the truths could be communicated.

We should study this book because it is inspired by God. For our benefit.

[12] The number of books and authors that have been written trying to explain life and how to secure happiness are numerous. Family the truth of the matter is that man will never come up with something that could ever take the place of the Bible.

God’s Word along can be perfectly and wholly trusted. His Word is the only source of complete truth and the only source and wellspring of salvation. God’s Word is a manual for living. it communicates the will and plan of God for us. It was miraculously and supernaturally given by God, and is His complete, exclusive revelation to the human race. What people write-even believers- can be fallible. That is why we must test everything we read or hear by the Bible, the only infallible work in existence. The truly wise person will faithfully study and obey God’s Words, and in so doing, will be blessed.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

[13-14] The ultimate conclusion of all of Solomon’s experimentation, study, research, the one invaluable, life-changing truth of Ecclesiastes, is this: Fear God and keep His commandments.

Notice that the fear of God precedes obedience to God. Those who keep God’s commandments do so because they revere God for who He is, because they maintain a healthy sense of apprehension about their responsibility and accountability to God.

The word duty is not in the original language. Which literally states, this is the whole of man.” The fear of God and obedience to Him are what make people complete what fill the hole in the human heart and what bring satisfaction and meaning to life.

“Man, in his entirety, must being with God; the whole of man, the fear of God.” -G. Campbell Morgan

“Here is shown the way of folly: the way of folly is that of forgetting God and trying to satisfy a human soul with the things which are of the dust.” -G. Campbell Morgan

Every good sermon takes God’s Word and points out the decisions we need to make to become stronger followers of God. As Ecclesiastes closes, the questions each of us must ask ourselves are clear:

Is the Lord at the center of my life? Is my life full and satisfying because of His presence or is it empt and meaningless because of His absence?

Am I living in the fear of God? Have I made peace with Him through accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior? Does my life reflect His priority and Lordship? Am i living as though I realize I must stand before Him in judgement?

Am I living in obedience to God’s commandments? Are there areas in my life- thoughts words, deeds- that are displeasing and disobedient?

John 14:15 ESV

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:21 ESV

21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

Live it out family.

Numbers 6:24–26 ESV

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.