Ecclesiastes 1
Class 2 – Gain in labor
I.
Review
A. Last
week – the author claims to be Qoheleth (1:1).
He “assembled” some of the works of Solomon to speak to the people of
his day – the people who had returned from the exile.
1.
He is called “the Preacher” or teacher in the English
Bibles – Qoheleth in Hebrew. (Q in outline)
B. Read
on Sukkot or Succoth – the time when the fall harvest is celebrated – around
late Sept to Oct. It celebrated
historically the time when Israel
wandered in the wilderness and lived in booths (Succoth) and agriculturally
when the harvest gathering was completed. No labor was permitted. A celebration
of joy and a time of reflection. [1]
1.
Eccl – challenge to his readers who had set
aside such thinking on life. They were
simply living it on their own terms.
a) 12:11 – Q had a clear sense that he was
writing under the direction of the one shepherd.
b) 12:11 – And he wrote in order to goad us into
thinking and looking seriously at our life.
(He writes taking the other side of the argument to its logical
conclusions.)
c) And
in our culture a book like this is just what we need. We “know
more and more about less and less” [2]. We know plenty of stuff, but give little time
to considering the most important things – the things our souls long to
know.
2.
12:11
- He writes to give us a firm foundation.
3.
His book asks the questions that people in every
age and every place have asked.
C. What
he is looking for is the answer our souls desire. – What is the purpose of life
and how do I find meaning in this world? Men and women in every age, nation,
and background have searched for the answer to this question. You don’t have to be a philosopher. The question will come to you.
II.
The question is found in Eccl 1:1
A. He
begins with the answer – what he found - his soul’s anguish. It is the frustration he feels and
experiences everyday in his life – “Vanity of vanities”
1.
We find the phrase: Eccl: 1:2,14, 2:1,11,17,26,15,19,21,23, 3:19, 4:4,8,7,16, 5:7, 10,
6:2,4,9,11,12, 7:6,15, 8:10,14,
9:9, 11:8,10, 12:8
2.
Vanity (hebel)
is in every aspect of life. All is vanity. Meaningless, purposelessness, emptiness
3.
1:1 and
12:8 – the literary device – inclusio
tells us that this concept is being unpacked throughout the entire
book.
B.
The
question – Eccl 1:3 – What does a man
gain (used only in Eccl) from all his labor (עָמַל ) at
which he toils under the sun?
1.
What is
the cause of the emptiness in his life?
2.
Babylonian
Theodicy or Babylonian
Ecclesiastes [3] about 1000 BC - has similarities to Job and
Proverbs and also asks an Eccl type question - “Can a life of happiness be
assured? I wish I knew how!”(line 33)… “What has it profited me that I have bowed down to my god?”(line 251)
3.
Tennessee Ernie Ford – “You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day
older and deeper in debt” Nothing – or worse.
4.
Q’s
gains or lack of gain is not simply in his 9-5 job. It is across every arena of his life. “All” is vanity. Financial is not the only kind of gain. He expected a gain of some real lasting kind
in everything that he did.
C.
So how
does he reach the conclusion to his question?
1.
1:12-14
– He devoted himself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven…I have seen (ruah) all the
things that are done under the sun.
2.
He goes
in search ( רָאָה
) [4]
(ruah
- to see - intellectual experience, experimentation) Used 42 times in Eccl. He goes looking to see what is done. He experiments.
3.
( יָדַע )[5]
(yada
- to see – spiritual perception – to know in your heart and soul) of the
answer. He searches internally
also. He lets his soul speak and inform
him. (Seinfeld – yada yada yada) (Yoda from Star Wars – One who knows)
a) Science – great source of
knowledge. But it is not the only
source. It is one perspective. There are truths outside of science.
b) And
our soul is one source. Science can not
say this is right and that is wrong. It
does not have the tools. But our souls
know when we have done wrong – even before we have been taught the rules – 10
commandments – we know when we have done wrong.
Our conscience accuses us. Because
science can not tell us right and wrong – does not mean right and wrong do not
exist. Romans 2:14ff.
1) Atheist
– can not codemn Hitler. P. 98. The atheist can not say this is right or
wrong. Science can not say it is so
therefore the atheist say they can not.
The only thing they know to be true comes to them through science.
2) Our
soul can certainly tell us.
3) If
the only thing that I know is through Science – I am missing a lot of
life. Flowers – Dad’s funeral – see
pistils and stamen, and petals and stems.
See it scientifically – I am missing so much. There is another perspective to those flowers
than that – love. Thoughfulness. Or people at funeral – bosons and fermions
interacting with each other. No free
will. They were forced by physics. How
blind and deaf I would be to reality. Abstracted
from reality. (Only have one tool in
your tool box…chiro…use it for everything.
Other tools for docs.)
4.
Q goes goes looking – experimenting – looking
through life to “see” what gain there is under the sun for all the toilsome labor
he experiences. (Eccl 6:3-6 – a
stillborn child never saw (ruah) the
sun or knows (yada) anything.) [6]
5. רָאָה – what does he see?
a. 1:10 – Is there anything that
you can see and say “This is new?” (In a
closed system everything is already here – it may be re-arranged, re-organized,
but there is nothing new. Same old stuff
–just in a different form.)
b. Ch 1 – We sing “Great is
Thy Faithfulness” Morning by morning new
mercies I see” But that is only true if
God is apart of our life and thought process. If he is not then life is as Q presents it to us in ch 1. Endless and thoughtless repetition. I’m bored.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Monotonous. Nothing gets accomplished.
1) Generations come and go – but everything here on earth remains. This generation builds then next tears it
down. Life goes on with us or without
us. Nothing new.
2) 1:5 - The sun hastens (ESV) (hurries NIV) (pants) up and down. It rises in the east, sets in the west. And does it again tomorrow. 1:5. That
is how life is apart from God…a rat race.
And we do it again tomorrow.
3) The wind blows round and round
4) Streams flow but never fill the ocean.
And that is just as we are as we observe the creation apart from
God. Eccl 1:7 Always being fed, but never being filled. [7]
6. יָדַע – 3:12,14; 8:5; 9:12; 10:14; 11:2,5 – (later)
1.
1:12-18 –
Wisdom – philosophy – to fill his mind.
a.
Philosophy – the love of wisdom. This is a wisdom that is apart from God. It is “under
the sun”. It is the pursuit of the big
questions in life – What chief end of man?
(ultimate good or purpose in life?).
Where do I find happiness? How do
I live my life? The kinds of questions
philosophers ask.
b.
And he concludes he is “chasing after the
wind”. There is no meaningful answer to
these questions apart from God. There
are just more questions.
1) Where
do I come from? Article in paper in June
– scientists say they can tell us everything that happened in the beginning up
to 1 trillionth of a second before it happened.
2) Unhappy
business. Down to 1 trillionth and can’t
get before that. Apart from God. Anthony
Flew – there is no god. Now – theist –
there is a God. They vexation of that 1
trillionth of a second and other anomalies got to him.
c.
Q also tries its opposite – folly. The end result of this is “much
sorrow”. The more you know the more
grief there is.
d.
Vs. 13 - Problem with wisdom – It is Vexing. Frustrating.
Heavy burden (NIV) vs. 13.
unhappy business.(ESV) There is
no gain in philosophy apart from God.
You can’t make something twisted straight. You can’t get something out of something that
is not there. We might think that there are answers to
life’s big questions apart from God, but there are not. The wisest man has already discovered that.
e.
Vexing too - the same fate comes to both the
wise and the fool – death. Vs. 14.
2.
2:1ff – Pleasure
– fill the body with pleasure.
Hedonism.
a.
If my mind can not make me happy, then maybe my
body can.
b.
But Solomon soon discovers that pleasure is not
meaning. He had wine, women, pools,
trees, silver, gold, the delights of the heart of man. He denied himself nothing.
c.
And vs. 11 – a chasing after the wind. No gain.
d. The
thing about pleasure is that it does not
take long for it to become boring. (Anne’s
letter to Dad..a horse. Horse a chore. Other things came up.)
e.
And once you are bored: you just want to
escape. Avoid pain. Michael Jackson, Elvis…drugs.
f.
And sadly – even turn to pain – sadomasochism. Johnny Cash (9 inch nails) – Hurt –
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
Pleasure does not satisfy the
longing of our soul. It lacks
reality. Johnny Cash – struggled with
drugs – had it all – all was not enough.
(Satisfaction tv show – when having it all is not enough what do
you do? )
g.
Kin to pleasure is power. Kierkegaard – power – If I had a servant and
asked him for a cup of water and he brings me the most expensive, coolest,
refreshing glass of wine in the world I would fire him. Because pleasure does not consist in me
getting my wine. It consists in me
getting my way.
h.
Solomon got his way with everything he
wanted. And it did not satisfy him.
3. Materialism - to fill his pockets
a.
Wealth and power – ch 2 also.
b.
He had all that money could buy and power to
take. Slaves, herds, acquired men and
women singers.
c.
Money and power can buy and take all the things
that money and power can buy and take.
But they can not buy or take meaning in life, love, purpose. Your pockets may be full, while your soul is
empty.
d.
The poor man believes that money will buy
happiness. The rich guy knows it
won’t.
1. 5:10 - The one who loves money will not be
satisfied with money.
2. 6:2
– God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor so that he lacks nothing his
heart desires, but if God is not a part of the equation of our life, God does
not give us the ability to enjoy them.
They joy of the stuff eventually wears out.
e.
2:10- Q enjoyed the labor and the work seemed
initially to have its own reward – delight.
The building, the projects…
f.
Henry Ford – celebrity cryptoquote Labor day -
There is joy in work. There is no happiness
except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
g.
But when he “faced” what he had done (vs. 11) –
he comes to the same conclusion as he did with wisdom. Meaningless.
No real gain. What he
accomplished could soon be destroyed.
1) Transient. Someone come along after him and change
it. Ruin it. Take the gain that he earned and waste it on
things he would never spend it on. Vs.
18-22.
III.
Redeemed Labor
A. As Q looks at life apart from God – he
“labors” (1:3, 2:10-11; 2:18-22; 2:24)
in the first two chapters and discovers that there is no “gain” in his labor.
He expected a gain. We all do when we
labor.
B. Is
53:11 – the passage dealing with the Suffering servant who was pierced for our
transgression, crushed for our iniquities…he “suffer”ed (NIV) out of the
“anguish” of his soul. The word is
“amal” labor.
1.
He will see the light of life and be
satisfied.
2.
Christ came to reverse the curse of sin. Where we labor and find no gain. He came to bring gain and satisfaction to
labor.
3.
His suffering upon the cross was a part of that
labor…his being crushed, pierced, despised and rejected. He labored in this to cover our sin.
4.
And he did.
God showed his approval through the resurrection.
IV.
And for us now there is a reward for our labor.
A. It
is a gift. Not a merit.
B. The
Bible tells us in several places that we will all stand before the Lord to
receive what we have done in the body – whether good or evil. And that our good deeds do follow us.
1.
Very clear that good deeds do not save us.
2.
But also, that there is some gain for our labor
in Christ.
C. I
think we may get the idea from time to time that the rewards will be – God sees
me put $500 in the plate and so he I get $500 credit points less what bit of
selfish I have as I do so…so 10% - so $450 credit. I go to heaven through faith and God says,
you have “X” many credits…that looks like a 2000 sq foot house 3rd
row from the glass sea. That is your
reward.
D. I
think it is different. John 4:34ff – the
picture is the wheat fields are white for the harvest and the workers are out
picking it. They reap the
benefits/wages/gain of their labor as they harvest the wheat. The reward is the harvest.
1.
I think that our reward will be the harvest of
our labors for Christ in the field. Not
so much a monetary type reward – a big house in heaven…
2.
But…we will see those whose lives were changed
as we served the Lord. God takes our
service to him, works through it and accomplishes his purpose.
a.
Giving – paid the power bill, helped by the
chairs…heard the gospel;
b.
Taught
c.
Hospitality
d.
Betsy S – The king of love my shepherd is…his
goodness faileth never, I nothing lack if I am his….time in my life when I had
everything removed from me…so it seemed.
Those words from Ps 23…her voice singing the words.
e.
Dad – In the reception line after my Dad’s
funeral a man came up to me and told me the reason he came to church. He was an
older guy…just moved to town and thought he would give church a try. Dad said, “Give me your check…get you in the
church membership faster. All
laughed. The man knew he would be accepted
there and….
1) Horrible theology. Not meant
to be theological. Humor. And God used it to accomplish his purpose.
E. What
gain ?
1.
Our works do follow us – Rev 14:13; 2 Cor 5:10…
2.
There is an eternal gain for those in Christ. A satisfying gain.
3.
I think the Lord will show us how he used our
weak and feeble service to accomplish his plan.
And what a day of rejoicing that will be.
[1] Jewish
Study Bible, introduction to Ecclesiastes.
[2] Kreeft, Thee
Philosophies of Life, p.21
[3] ANET
601-604, vol 2 p. 160
[4] רָאָה BDB Strongs word 7200 – to see, intellectual experience
[5] יָדַע BDB Strongs word 3045 – to know in your heart and soul
[6] Qoheleth’s World and Life View Westminster Theological
Journal vol 37, p. 68ff.
[7] Kidner,
A Time to Mourn and a Time to Dance – p.26
[8] Kreeft,
ibid p. 36ff
No comments:
Post a Comment