40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Ecclesiastes 11:1-12:14 (Episode 430)

Episode Date: August 24, 2024

Chad and Daniel wrap up Ecclesiastes in this episode. Don't hang on to things too tightly. Youth is wasted on the young. And knowing God and His word is the thing that ultimately matters. Have a listen. Show Notes: When You Meet Jesus | Gospel Encounters Conference (Sep 6-8 in Flower Mound, TX) Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: ·      Junk Drawer Jesus by Matt Poppvits The Inklings: Apostles and Apologists of the Imagination with Sam Schuldheisz Hitchhiking with Prophets: A Ride Through the Salvation Story of the Old Testament by Chad Bird 30 Minutes in the NT on Youtube Remembering Rod Rosenbladt Encouragement for Motherhood Edited by Katie Koplin More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast and check it out. All the other podcasts are living over there. while you're over there, go to the events page. By the time this comes out, man, you are running out of time. You're going to have to listen to this. Log on to the old website, get to that, or just go to the show notes and click the link, and get registered for the Encountering Jesus conference. You know, that sounds like a way more charismatic type conference than it is, right? I

mean, like, oh, we're going to go encounter Jesus. Well, I mean, you are, but this is about when people, you know, some narratives in the Bible when people encounter Jesus, what happens to them, and we're going to talk about all different kinds of scenarios. Chad, what are you going to be talking about? What encounter are you going to be talking about, just so, you know, really make people want to come hear it? I'm going to be in John 4, so Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. Oh, yes. And of course I chose that, because it is just so rich in Old Testament kind of stuff yeah so obviously that's reason there you go you wouldn't let me choose you wouldn't let me choose an old testament text so i had to choose something that was that's right

old testament like there you go well you know i i got the uh so yeah that's you want to hear that for sure uh i'm going to be uh covering the bulk of john 3 yeah we're going to be talking about nicodemus which is going to come up today in ecclesiastes 11 in fact there you go maybe i can give you yeah i might have to tie it in i might i might i might have to work it in yeah old nicodemus you know that's a that's a legendary encounter so you know i'll be there chad will be there eric sorenson kelsey clambara uh it's going to be good times and uh you can sign up it's super cheap you can come hang out with us it's in flower mound texas uh that is the uh the sixth and seventh i believe of september so you want to come hang out with us uh get that done especially if you're

in that area. I mean, if you're in that Dallas-Fort Worth area, I mean, come hang out with us. It'd be a good time. All right, Chad, let's wrap up Ecclesiastes. Today is the day. We got two chapters left. We are going to get through them. You know, we've been waiting for this, because, you know, Ecclesiastes notoriously ends with, you know, I don't know if it's necessarily like a total gospel proclamation, but it does end sort of with the abandonment of this idea that there's just nothing above the sun. You're just going to live your meaningless, pitiful, vapid, vain life, and then that's all there is to it. He does make the turn. However, we have to get to chapter 12, so we have to get through 11 to get there. Yeah, he seems to be getting us ready for

already at the beginning of 11 it seems to be getting us ready for for his wrap-up argument at at 12 because he's going to talk about how life is short and unpredictable there's a one of the phrases that's going to recur i'm looking at my screen now and i see one two three four times in this opening of chapter 11 that occurs is you do not know you know not so there's this there's this idea of the limitation of of our knowledge there's just so much that we that we don't know so what's the wise person going to do you're going to take appropriate risk you're going to you're going to trust in god you're going to accept that little bad things sometimes happen but that doesn't give us an excuse for laziness or for procrastination so he's he's getting us

ready throughout chapter 11 with these themes for chapter 12 which is going to begin with this uh pretty well known. I don't know if you want to call it an allegory or just a string of metaphors about the aging process. It's actually some, it's a beautiful, beautiful literature, even though it's kind of a depressing subject in some ways, but the images he uses are quite gripping. So he'll get there and then he's going to wrap everything up with the last few verses and hit us with some, some good news. So we're starting out here with, I think it's a pretty, well-known verse, even though a lot of people probably have heard it and didn't realize where it came from. Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Contrary to what

you might think, this is not a verse about feeding ducks in your nearby lake, casting bread upon those waters. There's two different ways that this is typically taken. One is, well, let me read verse two. So cast your bread upon the waters, you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven or even to eight for you know not what disaster may happen on earth so some people take this as a reference to basically charity so pass out gifts give charity to many different people seven eight however many people because you never know when maybe those people will come back and be able to to help you i suppose that's one possible possible interpretation but most people take it to refer to kind of a an investment a maritime investment in which you are engaging in some

sort of overseas overseas trade and that's what i think makes the most sense here so cast your bread here is used in kind of a a metaphorical sort of way for take the stuff that you have which here is described as bread so take the stuff that you have and send it over the waters you know invest in some kind of overseas trade, whatever that's going to be. And don't do it in just one place, but seven or eight. Diversify your investments. That's what we would say today. Because you don't know what disaster may happen on the earth.

So life is unpredictable. You don't know what's going to happen. And so in your wisdom, in your discretion, use the possessions that you have wisely and cast your bread upon the waters. And hopefully it's going to come back after many days where there's actually a profit, even though, I mean, just like today, but certainly back in those days, any kind of travel over the water was very unpredictable. So maybe you'd get it back. Maybe, maybe you wouldn't. But anyway, those are the two different ways, either charity or overseas trade that these verses are typically explained. yeah it feels like this cast your bread upon the water too like um

maybe maybe this isn't right but it feels like there's a a sense in which you're not holding on to that too tightly because uh like i mean you cast your bread across you know on the water and who knows where it goes i mean water takes things wherever it wants to take things right And so there's a loose-handedness maybe about the things you have, right? That you're willing to sort of disperse that out there and not be like, like, I don't know, is that, like, should I be doing that? Like, I don't know, like, you shouldn't, maybe don't cling to your stuff so too tightly. Yeah, that would actually fit with one of the points he's going to make in the next couple of verses

with regard to don't let fear of what might happen keep you from engaging in actions which might be advantageous to you. So he goes on to, from the first two verses to the next two verses, verses three and four, to mix some agricultural and weather images together. 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 a place where the tree falls there it will lie he who observes the wind will not sow and he who regards the clouds will not reap now this is when you first read those i admit when i first first read those it's like okay what what are you getting at here but what seems to be happening is this so he starts out by saying if the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. Then what he seems to be implying here is that, you know, storms are going to come. When they get there, then they're going to do what they do.

If clouds full of rain come up, then they're going to empty themselves on the earth. So if bad things are going to happen, well, then they're going to happen. And then he follows that with saying, if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. and that seemed to be equivalent to saying such as you know whichever way the cookie crumbles or as we commonly hear today it is what it is so things in the in the place where the tree falls

well that's where it's going to lie things happen the way they happen so there's a certain inevitability to to life under the sun and good luck changing that it doesn't mean however as he goes on to say that you should use this as a an excuse for inactivity or procrastination because he finishes with verse four saying he who observes the wind will not sow and he regards the clouds will not reap so if you spend all your time looking at the wind saying oh i can't i can't oh the wind's blown the wrong way i don't think i should sow my seed today or oh look the clouds may be coming i don't think that i should reap today well if you do all that every day in and out, then you're going to procrastinate. You're never going to do anything. So all of these first

four verses seem to be encouraging a wise course of action to accept the inevitability of things going wrong in this life, but not using that as an excuse for just kind of barricading yourself in the house and never engaging in what you actually should be engaging in. There's like a middle ground, right? I think about people, I know people that maybe they're thinking about having kids, and they say, like, we're just not quite ready. We're just kind of waiting until we have everything in order, and then we're going to have a kid.

And you're like, well, that's not going to happen because that's not how life works. There is no perfect time. However, while there isn't a perfect time, you're never going to have, and as someone with kids, and Chad, you know this as well, especially knowing what I know now, just like, trust me, there's no amount of preparation that can help you with this. You're just going to have to jump in. However, while there isn't a perfect time to have children,

you're just going to have to kind of do it, there may be a time where it would not be a good idea at all. You know, like, hey, we're homeless and we have no jobs. And you're like, but with people having a kid, you're like, oh, well, that's not, that's not, you don't do that. You might want to wait until you have a place to live before you do that. So I think it's kind of like that. You can't let staring at the sky being like, is that a cloud?

Is it a cloud? Well, we better not do anything today. That looks like a cloud, and it could be heading this way. No, that's not the way to live. But if you look up and it's nothing but thundering clouds, you'd be like, hey, now's not the day to be out there reaping, okay? It's not the day. obviously it's gonna rain be wise but don't uh don't overthink to the point of never taking action yeah yeah it's a middle road that that he's steering here and by the way i'm i think

that you figure out at least you begin to figure out how to raise children when you're done that's my theory so when you're when you're a grandparent then you you begin to have or i mean you're you're getting close to wrapping up your your first go around here yeah i mean you're good position with charlie i saw something i saw something funny just this morning chad maybe i'm not a grandparent i'm not a grandparent so i don't know uh but you are so like maybe you know about this and uh it was this uh this mom was sitting there uh with her dad and the little grandbaby's sitting there and uh she says to her to her dad she's like we're thinking about introducing mason to cookies the grand goes you're talking about he eats cookies all the time

yeah that would be very accurate i saw a comic strip the other day that uh was uh this i can't remember what the comic strip was but anyway this kid was uh being uh being told by his his his dad and what's what's what's the magic word when you want something and of course the expectation is gonna be please but instead he says uh he says grandma which in our case would be stacy's uh name is lolly so it would be lolly so you ask lolly for something and you're probably going to get it cookies or whatever else it might be yeah that is that does that does seem about right though right like you're you're you could have this like great plan where you're like i think it's time to introduce sweets to the baby and the

grandparents are like uh yeah we've been doing that okay speaking of kids uh that's where first verse five is going to take us and this is a actually the john three connection that i uh alluded to earlier so verse five says this is another don't know verse 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 in other words for spirit in hebrew ruach is also the word for wind or breath and it allows for multiple plays on words it's the same and it's the same in greek pneuma is uh can be translated as wind spirit breath and that's what occurs in john chapter three so jesus talks about how uh you know as you as you don't know uh where the wind comes from

where it goes when has this unpredictable quality to it so is everyone who's born of the spirit so this there's a connection there between the spirit and wind and new birth and you kind of have the same thing going on here with verse five what do you not know well you don't know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child so you also don't know the work of god who makes who makes everything there's an unpredictable there's a there's an unknown quality to the way that god works in this world and it's analogous then to the formation of a child in in the womb so he's he's continuing what he's already begun here with this idea of the things that we don't know the certain things we do know there's also many things that we

don't know about life in this world he goes on verse six in the morning so your seed and at Evening, withhold not your hand. I really like that translation. That's ESV. Other translations will have, don't let your hands be idle or go slack. When I think about withhold not your hand, I'm just really not sure what they mean by that. Don't keep your hand from what? But the image here is of being lazy, more or less.

So in the morning, do your job. Here, he's using the agricultural imagery. In the morning, go out and sow your seed. And at evening, we'll keep on working. In other words, put in a full day's work. So you see the morning, eat evening, keep on working. Why? Again, ignorance.

You do not know which will prosper. This or that or whether both alike will be good. So in the unpredictability of life, then keep on working because you don't know if this activity or that activity is going to render that which is going to be for your benefit. and then keep moving here with verse 7 in fact i'm going to read 7 through 10 which will take us through the end of chapter 11 and this is all about the uh the benefits of life and particularly the benefits of life for the young and this is definitely getting us ready for what he's going

to talk about debating in chapter 12 because he here he's going to talk about life and youth and what you should do when you're when you're young and then he's going to switch in chapter 12 to talk about what happens when a person gets older so 7 through 10 light is sweet it's pleasant for the eyes to see the sun so if a person lives many years let him rejoice in them all but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many all that comes is vanity rejoice oh 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 in the sight of your eyes but know that for all these things god will bring you into judgment probably should render that into the judgment the definite article is is present in the hebrew god

will bring you into the judgment remove vexation from your heart and put away pain from your body for youth and the dawn of life are vanity probably so this word translated here is vanity is the one we've encountered of course throughout ecclesiastes hevel um i'm thinking here probably it should be translated instead of vanity as something like um a vapor uh there's because here he's talking about youth and the dawn of life are something that passes quickly away and that's one of the one of the implications of of hevel is just this vaporous quickly disappearing kind of existence so that seems to be the connotation of it the word that choose there but if you if you go back to verse seven and work your way through these these verses there's a i

mean there's a positive emphasis in some ways so light is sweet it's pleasant for the eyes to see the sun and here he seemed to be alluding to the fact that it's good when you're not in the darkness but when you're in the light uh kind of the sweetness of life it's pleasant when your eyes can see the sun when everything is shining i mean we still use that image today you know the sun is shining down on someone things are going good there's light and if a person lives many years, he says, well, let him rejoice in those. Because why? Well, days of darkness are coming, and those days of darkness will be many. So once you leave the light, and once you're in the darkness, once you're in the grave, well, from this perspective, that's it. Those days of

darkness will continue. So while you're young, then rejoice. Let your heart cheer you in the days of a youth and walk in the ways of your heart and the side of your eyes which seems to be so walk is an outward expression of your life i mean we're familiar with that that image all over the scriptures you walk in the paths of the lord or your walk and we still use that and kind of christian ease today you know how's your walk brother yes it's my favorite it's my favorite question yeah i ask you that all the time yeah Every time we record, this is the first thing out of Chad's mouth. How's your walk going?

I'm always like, I'm here. So when you have this, when you're living your life, let's say, when you're walking, then do so with your heart guiding you, the side of your eyes. So make sure you see clearly and make sure that you think coherently, we might say as you're walking, as you're living this life. Why? Because one of these days God is going to bring you into the judgment. Know that for all these things, while you're living this youthful life, while you're enjoying life under the sun, don't get carried away and don't think

that, oh, I can just do whatever I want. I can just live life to the full no matter what I'm doing or no matter what I'm doing to somebody else. No, keep in mind that one day all these things God will bring into judgment. So, live still wisely, even as you are living joyfully. So anyway, that's the general tenor of those closing verses. There's a real youth is wasted on the young kind of thing here, too. Big time. Yeah, it's this idea that, man, life is pretty sweet. It's good to be alive. That's what this light is sweet, it's a pleasure for the eyes to see. In other words, life is a gift. It's almost

that the fact that you get to be young at some point in your life is a good thing it kind of makes the whole thing worth it problem of course is uh they don't know it and of course you know chad you and i are old enough to know i mean our body is hurt and i'm sure this will only increase i know this i was just i was just hanging out with my brother the other day and we were talking about we still play basketball with guys way younger than us and stuff and uh and we were talking about how this is coming to an end and uh and it's coming to an end because there's more times i leave the gym frustrated than i used to leave the gym frustrated like the the amount of times that happens the percentage of the time that happened has increased dramatically uh over the

last i don't know uh really i don't know three four years really after after i hit 40 you feeling like you're contributing in ways that you're satisfied with have that has decreased the next day is horrific uh where like your feet hurt and you can't and your legs hurt you can't hardly walk and uh and you realize that uh that like hey this is this has actually come to me and this is a the first time that him and i and we've been playing basketball together for uh our whole lives and the first time we actually had a candid discussion of like when when are we going to be done because I think it's coming pretty soon. On the horizon.

Yeah, it's going to happen pretty soon. And talk about how, like, man, if I get really hurt, if I, like, tear my ACL, if I blow out my knee, if I tear my Achilles doing this, at this point in my life, I'm going to be really bummed out. It's going to be a real, real bummer. And so every time I step out there, I'm rolling the dice. And you know what you notice is all these guys you're playing against,

they don't worry about any of this stuff. They have none of these thoughts, and so you don't know the riches of not having these worries or these concerns that they're not worried about this, they're going to feel fine tomorrow, and they're completely content with the way that they're performing, and if they weren't, that's fine. They have many years of continuing to do this, and so there is some of that that goes on here where you're like, yeah, the youth is awesome, and it is. unfortunately, you don't know anything, so you don't know how awesome it is. You have no

reference, right? You have nothing to contrast it to, and so it is very much wasted, and you don't know how fast it goes either. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, these verses were definitely written by someone who has passed the point of youth. You can tell there's a certain nostalgia that's going on here in which he thinks back to his own days. I think part of the issue, too, is you can tell this to a young person, but good luck in 1 in 1,000 actually taking these things to heart.

He's giving good advice here. Rejoice, though, young, for folks in that situation to take it to heart. And I sympathize with... I mean, I'm 54, so I don't play basketball, but I do run. At least that's what I like to so-call it. I don't know if you would call it running anymore,

But I was in California these past few days in San Clemente and went down to the beach and was running on some trails down there. And it was, yeah, it was frustrating to be passed by all these young people who were running at the speed that I used to be able to run at. And don't even look like they're trying that hard? Oh, yeah. I mean, they got bad form. I'm sure they're fine. They'll get up and they'll do the same thing tomorrow. But, you know, just plodding along.

I'm getting my miles in, but I'm much lower than I was, let's put it this way, when I almost qualified for the Boston Marathon, but that was a long, long time ago. Yeah, this verse 10 is interesting, right? Because it's like, remove vexation from your heart and put away pain. I guess that can be translated evil. Yeah, it's just a general word. Which, by the way, pain, evil, I'm starting to believe that those are the same. Those are the same thing. It's anonymous.

this yeah yeah but he's gonna put that away from your body and you're like well boy would i like to uh let's let's do that like so uh then he yeah and then he concludes with like you know for youth and the dawn of life so the early days of your life are vanity or they go away quickly right and uh yeah it does seem like maybe the way to be as you are older is like you know don't get too bitter about the days of your youth being so quick and put away great pain for your body maybe that just means we need to hang it up chad maybe we need to stop putting ourselves through this uh that's his advice so yeah the time has come well we're uh we're at the end of chapter 11 and um so all of this in chapter 11 has has prepared us then for the transition he's going

and bake in chapter 12 because we've heard all about youth we've heard all about the the the joyous life of those younger years and now we're going to hear about what happens when the aging process kicks in into into high gear and the way he's going to do this in these first looks like first eight verses is through this constellation of various metaphors everything from images involving the the heavenly bodies to doors and windows to uh various servants in the household all of these together are going to give us this image of what happens to the body as we're getting older so i'm going to go ahead and read just these first eight verses and then we'll touch on some of the the metaphors he uses for the aging process remember also your creator in the days

of your youth before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say i have no pleasure in them before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain in the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men are bent and the grinders cease because there are few and those who look through the windows are dimmed and the doors on the street are shut when the sound of the grinding is low and one rises up at the sound of a bird and all the daughters of song are brought low they are afraid also of what is high and terrors are in the way the almond tree blossoms the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails now you might be asking yourself okay why is all this happening and he's about to

tell us because man is going to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets before the silver cord is snapped or the golden bowl is broken or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain or the wheel broken at the cistern and the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to god who gave it vanity of vanity says the preacher all is vanity so this is this is really uh um it's very different from the rest of ecclesiastes and uh it's actually one of my my favorite parts of the book because it it's really this quite even though it's dealing with a kind of a dreary theme of of aging and death it's quite beautiful uh poetry uh not poetry but it's like it's like poetry because it paints these pictures before us of what happens as a person is getting

closer and closer to to the grave and i mean we could spend a lot of time on these i'll just touch on a few of the the metaphors that are used for for the aging process process so for instance he begins by talking about how the sun light moon stars darken and clouds return and most commentators explain that to mean loss of vision you can't see as well things get things are darkening or uh one of the more obvious one of these is that that the grinders cease because they are few meaning you've lost your teeth so you you can't you can't chew as well or uh the doors on the street are are shut and in hebrew the word for doors there is what's called a dual form meaning there's there's two of these which fits then with the two ears so the doors on the

tree to shut and words you just can't hear as well when he talks about the almond tree blossoming well the almond tree blossoms as white so this is like your your hair is getting white or getting gray or in my case my beard is increasingly getting gray or white and then uh toward the end he talks about the loss of desire uh and the grasshopper is dragging itself along the loss of desire is most likely the loss of uh or at least deterioration of the sexual desire and the uh the grasshopper dragging itself along is probably a reference to kind of shuffling along that you often see the uh the elderly elderly doing and then he kind of wraps everything up the closing images are the the snapping of silver cord and the golden bowl broken a pitcher shattered at the

fountain and the wheel broken by the cistern this is uh the the silver and the gold is probably a reference to the the preciousness of life and yet it's over because the cord snaps and the bowl is broken and then the fountain is the picture of the water which is emblematic of life and you can't get life anymore because the wheel that you use to get the pitcher down into the fountain is broken and then at the very end of verse 7 he he ditches metaphors altogether no more talk of golden bowls or grinders or grasshoppers he actually picks up the very imagery of genesis 2 and 3 and he says the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to god who gave it and then he closes it off with this, of course, famous expression he used in chapter one.

Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, all is vanity. Is it weird that I can go through this list and know that all these things are increasingly true? It's fitting with your elderly status. It is. You are pushing, what did you say, 44? 44, yeah. But, yeah, this is, you're like, oh, yeah. Time is short.

Time is short. I can feel the beginnings of all of these things. Yeah. Well, you know, especially in, of course, you know, we do have improved health care today, thanks be to God, dental care and all that kind of stuff. So some of these things maybe don't afflict us at quite as early an age as they might have in centuries prior. But all of the things we still see happening. The almond tree of my beard is blossoming, even as we speak. All I know is I was trying to read the dosage on some infant Tylenol the other day.

And I had to take a picture of it with my phone and zoom in, which was not the case in years past. I realized that very small type on medicine and that kind of stuff. i cannot see it anymore but i just had to get my license uh renewed it was about to expire so i had to go do that and i did in fact pass the vision test uh see yes but barely and she let me know that it was barely she was like you passed barely and i was like yeah and i used to just fly through that i don't wear glasses or contacts never have and i've always had good vision and never had it and uh yeah those threes and those eights i was having a little trouble figuring out which was which when i got to the get those those smaller uh fonts on that

thing so yeah i am pretty sure that stacy my wife was just about your age when she got glasses for the first time we uh we had married and a couple years in yeah she uh started having some issues so maybe it's at mid 40 stage when the the sun and the light and the moon and the stars begin to darken yeah i think it's returned after the rain i think i'm in that reader stage so now i have like a pair of readers that are stashed in the kitchen and a pair that are like on the end table in the living room just in case i need to read anything small you know i think like overall i see fine but the uh but it's not good if i have to or honestly and this is this yeah this is not what this is about but it is about aging also like in the morning i i can read really well

And at night, after I've been using my eyes all day, I find it more difficult. It's harder to—I have to squint a little bit sometimes and stuff like that, which I don't have to do in the morning. Yeah, man, I assume that that's a bad sign. All I can say, Dan, is your life is parabolic. You're living Ecclesiastes 12 here. So, you know, if this were the end, if Ecclesiastes ended at 12.8, we'd uh we'd shut this podcast down and be like well that was depressing yeah that's yeah that's

i guess that's just the way things are that's life life under the sun uh go out and enjoy the days of your youth and just keep plenty of you know pain pills close by and it just gets worse it just gets worse and worse yeah yeah thankfully that isn't the end in fact this whole section well the whole book, honestly. As we discussed at the beginning of Ecclesiastes, the whole book has, in a sense, been getting us ready for these closing verses. So let's get to those. I'm just, I'm going to read 9 through 12. We'll have two more verses after that, which are really the apex of everything, but I'm going to read 9 through 12. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care

the preacher and this is preacher is just i'm using the esv translation it's koheleth as we talked about at the beginning of this book so koheleth being besides being wise koheleth he taught the people knowledge he weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care koheleth sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth the words of the wise are like goads the goads are sharp sticks that you use to goad on cattle to kind of push them along we always use a hot shot but i guess in the olden days you use these sharpened sticks the words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one shepherd my son beware of anything beyond these of making many books there

is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. So this is kind of a postlude, or I suppose we could call it, where he's now talking about Koheleth and saying, well, he did a lot of good things. He taught people knowledge. He kind of arranged these proverbs and got everything set up to where they could be studied, could be understood. And then he says that the words of the wise functioned a couple different ways they're like these sharpened sticks to push you on where you need to be and they're also something that you can can latch on to i suppose you would say they're they're like nails that you put into a board they're they're firmly fixed making things secure and then he adds uh this last statement about making many books there is no end and much

study is a weariness of the flesh as if to say you can lock yourself into a study into a library and spend all your time there either reading and writing uh but there will be no end of that and i think probably hear a nod to the fact that there's a place for that but there's also a place for leaving that aside and engaging in uh whatever life that god has given you whatever action he's given to you to whatever vocation he's given you to do so that's that's kind of a lead-in finally to what he's going to say at the very end and that is verses 13 and 14 so we're going to wrap up the book here the end of the matter all has been heard fear god and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man for god will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing whether

good or evil so what is the end uh the end of the matter we've come to the conclusion everything has been heard that needs to be heard so what's the end what's the in greek we have the telos, right? What is this conclusion toward which everything has been leading us as we've reflected upon life under the sun, life without God, or as you pointed out, Dan, life without the resurrection? Well, it leads us to the conclusion that there is a better way, and that better way is i love how succinct he is he says fear god and keep his commandments for esv has this is the whole duty of man that could also be translated this is uh the duty of all mankind this is the whole duty of everyone this is the literally it's that for this is the all of the man this is

everything what is this everything well it's two things it's uh what i would call he says fear god and keep his commandments what i would simply say is faith and love because to fear god isn't simply to be afraid of him to fear god in hebrew in the old testament not just the old testament the new as well to fear god is to trust in him to revere him to worship him to live your life in his life, more or less, to live in the life that God gives. That's what it means to fear God. So it's a summary statement for the life that a believer lives in faith, hope, and love toward God. And then he says, keep his commandments. And that is the kind of life that one leads in which you are directed by the word of God to serving your neighbor, to loving your neighbor

as yourself. This, he says, that's everything. That's the all of humanity, or the whole duty of man. And then at the very end, verse 14, he says, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. And in that way, he pushes us toward the final judgment, toward the eschaton, toward when we will all stand before the judge of the living and the dead and so he in a in a new testament way we would say he leads us to matthew 25 where jesus separates the sheep from sheep from the goats and it and in that way i love the way that he ends because he's all throughout the book he's been teaching us about the pointless the pointless nature of life apart from god the pointless nature of death apart from the

resurrection. And then when you get to the end, he, as it were, turns on this light that illumines the entire book and illumines, of course, our own lives as well and says, hey, if you don't want to lead a pointless existence that could lead you into nihilism, or at least into despair, there is a better way. And that better way is faith toward the God of life and a life lived in which you look toward your neighbor in love and service. That is the end of the matter. That is the whole duty of humanity, and that then is the way to face the future, to face the judgment, knowing that, well, you're safe in Christ. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and this is the true life that actually gives meaning to this life that we live now as well.

Yeah, I've always thought that to fear God and to keep his commandments is, it's like the end of all things. Like, if you're going to know, like, what's the most important thing? Not just the most important thing, but kind of the only thing, is to know God and to know his word, right? To know God, I mean, if you know God, you will have this fear of the Lord that I talked about, that you will know your place, you'll know his place, You have dependency upon him once you know who he is, all this kind of stuff that is faith.

The end of all things is to know God and then just keep his commandments. It's not so much about obviously doing everything perfectly, but to hold fast to his word, to know what it is that he says. So if you know God and you know his word, this is the whole thing about your life. and this if this is who you are a person who knows god and knows his word there's this then wink at the resurrection that says because i mean there's no resurrection what are we even talking about bringing every deed into judgment who cares i'm not going to be there uh but is it implying that you are going to be there right and so since you are going to be there uh and since god is going since there is going to be a judgment, this life is best spent knowing God and knowing His Word,

right? And this is what keeps you safe on the day of judgment, because what is God going to do? He's going to preach Christ to you. His Word is going to preach Christ to you. He's going to keep you safe in Christ. And so, yeah, all this other stuff is weird, too, because the all this other stuff can be true where oh you know youth is wasted on the young and getting old is lousy and injustice is everywhere and can't trust these rulers and it doesn't matter it really ultimately if you're good or bad because everyone's gonna die and sometimes bad people live a long time and good people die young and all this kind of all this stuff like remained it can all remain frustrating and but this sort of last line is like everything's going

to be brought together in one place and like what you're going to want to be is somebody who knows god and knows his word because ultimately well all that other stuff has vexation and frustration and feels like vanity actually this is the only this is that one thing that does matter because it endures forever yeah yeah and amen to that that's the way to end a book there it is that's the end of uh the story right there guys you might be like man i was just really starting to feel like i know solomon well you're gonna really feel like you know solomon when you see what we're going next we're gonna see a side of solomon that you've not witnessed yet so you might be able to guess where we're headed uh if you don't know well you just tune in next week and find out chad i'll see

you then all right see you then We'll see you next week.