40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Ecclesiastes 4:7-5:20 (Episode 424)

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Two is better than one and a threefold cord is not easily broken. Young men grow into foolish old kings. Be careful about making promises to God. And wealth isn't a good place to invest your hope. Have a listen. Show Notes: 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: When You Meet Jesus | Gospel Encounters Conference Pre-order: 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

Hello, this is Caleb Keith, Director of the 1517 Podcast Network, with a message of thanks to you, our podcast listeners. During the month of June, we hosted a fundraiser with a goal of $150,000. Not only did we hit that goal, we exceeded it by $14,000, raising $164,000 this June. We couldn't have done it without your help. And it is extremely encouraging to see and to hear that our podcasts are having the impact that we intend, delivering the comfort of the gospel of Christ for the forgiveness of sins to listeners every single day of the week. And we appreciate your support because that tells us that we are on mission,

that we are doing what we have set out to do, and that listeners are looking to support that and to help the podcast network keep those shows in development and actually keep expanding those shows onto new platforms. And so we greatly appreciate your support. Thank you for helping us out this June. 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 out all the other podcasts

that are living over there. While you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. You know what you could check out that 1517 is doing? It's sending some speakers over to, where are we going, Chad?

Texas, that's right. We're going to Texas. Chad, of course, already in Texas. Not right now, actually. When Chad starts talking, if his voice sounds different, it's because he's all the way in New Jersey and he's in a different room,

different setup. But normally Chad's in Texas, and then I'm going to have to go out there, and Eric Sorensen from 30 Minutes in the New Testament is going to have to go out there, and Kelsey Kalambara is going to go out there, and Erica Sorensen is going to go out there, and what are we going to do? We're going to do a little—there's going to be a little conference going on about meeting Jesus. Now, you're not going to meet Him there in the flesh, but we're going to be talking about all these different stories in the Bible

of what happens when people encounter Christ. That is going to be happening in September, so you want to get tickets to that. There is a link in the show notes, and so you can sign up. And if you live in the Texas area, then you should come hang out with me and Chad and Eric and a whole bunch of other people, and have a good time with us. All right, we are in Ecclesiastes chapter 4.

We got through the first six verses, and kind of ended with this interesting phrase that a handful of quietness is better than two handfuls of striving after the wind, better than two handfuls of toil. It's not going to get a whole lot more positive immediately, Chad. It's not like he finishes this particular chapter on a real high note, it doesn't seem like. No, no, I don't think so.

In fact, there is a somewhat of a high note coming, I don't know, toward the end of chapter five. But for those who are familiar with Ecclesiastes, there's not a lot of high moments in this book where they leave you. When you read the verse, you're like, oh, that makes me feel really good. Quite the opposite, usually. So, yeah, if I say, by the way, yeah, if I sound different, I am in beautiful Ocean Grove, New Jersey. It's a long way for a Texan to go, but we're out here, out here teaching for a week. So good to be here, but also good to be able to still get the podcast done. So, yeah, verse 7 is where we're at in Ecclesiastes chapter 4.

And we're going to hear about riches and whether they satisfy or not. We're going to hear some more about toil. We're going to hear about whether it's better to be by yourself or to have a companion. Maybe even better to have like two companions. so there's parts of this that sound very not very i'll say slightly different than the tone of the rest of ecclesiastes because they they're more proverbial in nature we've already seen some of that but so far we haven't seen tons of proverbial statements we're going to see some of these in the coming up next so we read seven and eight again i saw a vanity under the sun 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 asked, for whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? This also is vanity and an unhappy business. I've often thought about that. You take a guy who's, maybe he has cut himself off from people, or maybe he just doesn't have any family but this guy is like filthy rich you know he's just doing all the things working himself to the bone i'm actually it's funny he says it this way because i've actually asked myself the same kind of question like did you ever stop and think who am i doing this for yeah you know what what what do you mention because it's one thing you can say you know there's a guy who does this

and he's like well i'm working so i can leave a legacy for my family well yeah good for you i'm doing this so i can take care of my family or my friends or i can support charities or whatever it might be at least even from a human perspective you can say well that's a that's a good goal i can see why you're doing that but if it's just all for me and then you know i'm going to die and ask myself well what was it for you know so it's a it's this is one more of these perspectives under the sun where uh it's it's this limited perspective which in this case is given by a specific example which illustrates the fact that a life that has lived that way is not only unfulfilling but ultimately it's it's foolish because there is no purpose to it

yeah one of the things it does too is um i i've seen i've talked about this a little bit recently, just in private conversations, but there's a thing that happens where if you don't have, you know, so in this case, you know, he talks about son, brother, somebody, right? These are all family kind of things, but I know people who have worked very hard, and sometimes this even happens with pastors and theologians as well, but it can obviously happen in the in the business world or in politics or whatever it is and you you meet people that have like terrible relationships with their with their children uh or with their or their families and they get older and older and older and they've like worked to to build whatever the

thing is that they're building and when it comes time for them to maybe uh maybe like they would retire or step away or something like that let it go they can't because they have nothing to pour their energy into. That's all they have. Their entire world is revolved around this thing. And it's usually a very sad thing because you'll have someone in the last stages of life clinging to something that is obviously wasn't worth it.

They don't have children around. None of that stuff. And so it's a really sad thing. I mean, and I agree. This is a very unhappy business. that you're that you're engaging in yeah very very unhappy in lots of different ways and just it's it's that short-sighted view of life where you just kind of not thinking ahead maybe when you're younger you devote your life to this and becomes your passion and you end up just kind of

pushing everybody else out of your life and in the end it ends up being unsatisfying and really becomes what you just described it's an idol you know you're you were bowing before the altar of whatever that thing is that gave you purpose and meaning and the end all that it's it's the same with all idols what all our idols do take take take take take and they don't give you know that's what that's one of the things of many things that distinguishes the the true god is he gives gives gives gives gives but all idols can do is take yeah this is uh this is like anything else this is that uh super offensive but biblical language of course like he'll call you know his people uh adulterers or whores uh and he'll even go so far as to say like well actually you're worse than a

prostitute right because prostitutes get paid uh and other and what he means by that is that you're like the worst kind of thing because like these gods that you're that you're worshiping they don't actually give you anything like you give them everything and they give you nothing so this isn't it isn't even like some kind of a well-thought-out transactional relationship no this is a one-way thing yeah prostitutes who have to pay their own johns basically is what he accuses them of doing yeah and that that's a one of those graphic but unforgettable illustrations of what idols do yeah they all they know how to do is just take the life out of you and in its place give you absolutely nothing yeah so he's established here that you know that kind of life

is of course an unhappy unhappy business so he's going to use the next uh three verses to give a perspective on you know what's what's better uh is it better to be alone or better to to be with people and it begins this way two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil 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 again if two lie together they keep warm but how can one keep warm alone and though a man might prevail against one who is alone two will withstand him a threefold cord a threefold cord is not quickly broken so i mean these are somewhat parallel they're just kind of illustrating various ways in which not being alone but having at least one

other companion is the better way to go even from even from an under the sun kind of perspective if you're working together with somebody else there's a good reward for your toil that something happens to you and that's illustrated here by someone falling down well if you fall down then the other person can give you a hand and help you back up or if you're uh if you're cold and then two people uh are much better at keeping warm then you can use the body heat of somebody else now the end of this verse 12 a threefold cord is not quickly broken that's i don't know about you dan but seem like i've used i've heard that used a lot in wedding services yeah uh for kind of kind of the key text and and that if the listeners are thinking well yeah that was used in my wedding

service well i understand why it was i mean it is in the proverbial sense it makes sense in the contextual sense it's not talking about marriage it's usually using the husband wife and god as the threefold core yeah well the thing that's weird about it is that yes so in a wedding it's two people god three people there you go three persons hard to break that cord in this context actually it's a kind of a weird thing to say because he's like hey two are better than one you know if you fall down someone pick you up if you're cold at night you can get some body heat going on and then he says uh hey if you got a man that might attack you you know if you got somebody with you you have a better chance you know if someone jumps me it's a better chance that i win

if people someone jumps me and chad we team up on him and then he says a three four fold cord is not quickly broken and you're like three i mean this whole time you've been talking about two and so yeah i think that the idea here is that two-fold cords aren't a thing so like so a three-fold cord is like would be like the most common cord i would assume especially for that day so you can't really I mean a two-fold chord

I don't even I don't even know if that's a thing Chad I mean it's pretty hard to pretty hard to pull off yeah

you need three to braid together but yeah I mean it's maybe I'm just thinking about this because I've

I've written frequently in the last and done some videos in the last couple months over versus taking out of context

you know and how they they kind of take on a life of their own and uh when you look at them in the original context you're like wait that doesn't really mean anything in connection with how we ordinarily use that verse and i think this is the case you know i mean do you even think do you even think he's talking about god when he adds like a third i don't think he is oh i don't think he is because i mean god isn't part of this this context i think he's here i mean at the very least he's saying listen if if having one companion

so there's two of you is good let me tell you what's even better having two companions so there's three of you so you can keep warm you can help each other up whatever whatever might be it's either that or simply saying yeah a three-fold cord well of course there's not two-fold cords those don't i don't know how you'd even keep the two cords together so yeah yeah so yeah i think it's just a thing that people acknowledge that like a cord is not as strong as a woven cord yeah see see how it is it's what does that mean strength in numbers that's what it means two three whatever the more you got the better it is right yeah yeah so uh it's kind of a expansion on that earlier section which was largely negative about the foolish unhappy life where you're just

by yourself and this was accenting the superior life that has some companions with you yeah so he's going to end this chapter verses 13 through 16 by uh well it's going to end negatively with more vanity and striving after the limb he's going to kind of set up a uh a story here it's a very brief story but a story nonetheless to illustrate something he's talked about quite a bit to where something is better than something else but in the end all is still vanity but here's goes and it's a little bit confusing here so i'll try and explain what i think anyway is going on here with some of the references to him and his in in the story better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice that could also be translated

no longer knew how to take i'd like to heed a warning or heed an admonition that's often how that Hebrew word is used in other contexts, but take advice or heed a warning, this old and foolish king. For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. Come back to that in a second, through these he's and his. I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king's place. There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely all this also is vanity and striving after the wind.

So here's a common frustration of anyone who works with the Hebrew. It's infamous for having pronouns where you're unclear about the antecedents of those pronouns. so there'll be a reference to him or he or his and you have to ask yourself okay is this talking about this he or that he this him or that him because we have two characters here right we've got a foreign wise youth who have an old and foolish king so when it says that he went from prison to the throne and in his own kingdom he had been born who's this talking about i think and there you i've checked the commentaries and they're divided on this too but i think what's going on here is so the old and foolish king that he introduces right away was once a young guy of course and he went from a prison to the throne though in his own kingdom he had

been he had been born poor and then eventually he's replaced by this poor and wise youth so the youth who then later stood in the king's place so you got an old and foolish king who when he was younger born poor and then he rose to the ranks he became a king well eventually he becomes old and foolish he's no longer heeding admonitions he's probably not listening to advice he's kind of stuck in his ways he's not politically astute anymore that doesn't happen so uh then this poor and wise youth comes up and takes his place but in the end he says those who come later they're not even going to rejoice in this in this poor and wise youth

and became the king. So he says, all of this also is vanity and striving after the wind. This is more of the kind of a generation comes, a generation goes. A king comes,

he's replaced. He is replaced by other kings. In the end, you're forgotten. That's the perspective of life under the sun. Anyway, that's the way I'm taking this. It's also this thing where

if you really want something or if you really gain something and you're really successful, like it's very difficult you have to be very uh you have to be very assertive in your quest uh to have this not radically change you so yeah you could be like born poor and i don't know be in prison for some reason and then work your way out of that and become king and what do you end up being like i don't know some old king that forgets where he came from and doesn't listen to anybody anymore and like and you're like that's you see that sort of thing happen like

Somebody was talking about righteous kings and this kind of thing, which hardly ever exists. And what you see, even with Pinnacle King and someone like David, is that, yeah, when David's a shepherd, he's awesome. And when he's out there slaying Goliath and everyone's like, that guy's too big to kill, and David's like, that guy's too big to miss, he's awesome. right? Sure, yeah. And then when Saul's pursuing him, and he has all this respect for the Lord's anointed and won't touch him, and he's awesome. He's writing some awesome psalms when he's out there. Yeah, writing awesome psalms. When Saul finally does die, he's mourning and killing the guys that are taking credit for it and all this stuff, and you're like, man, this guy is gonna be the best uh and what do you see like i don't know he gets the power and it's all downhill

yeah that's how it goes and you could come up with a million stories like that throughout world history i mean we can come up with personal stories you know where we it's happened to us or it's been somebody close to us we've seen this happen there's something about when you're still struggling you know before you've reached that place that you think is going to be it for you when you're still struggling and maybe you're struggling from you know persecution like david did or at least you're just you're fighting you're struggling you're probably in the best place you're ever going to be because once you reach that goal then it's way too easy to become like david did kind of you're not just complacent but old and foolish as it says here in

ecclesiastes yeah better to still be struggling yeah peak righteous david is david on the run from saul yep exactly yeah when you because we i mean we cover this in the podcast once you get past the Bathsheba Uriah debacle it is all downhill yeah I mean not all downhill there are no like oh we're going up a little short for a short time no it's just like it's uh it's all downhill from there so yeah I mean it's a it's it is just a characteristic of of humanity fallen humanity that we do best when we have to still fight and struggle and don't actually reach that pinnacle because it's way too easy for us to cave to temptation or become complacent or just become old and foolish

like the king who's described here. So it turns out all that striving for that is also a vanity. Yeah, yeah. It's all hebel and the striving after the wind. So on that positive note, we end Chapter 4, and we're going to go into Chapter 5, and this starts out a little bit different. This is not what I would have expected Koheleth to do when he is transitioning from that to what he talks about next.

He's actually talking about going before God and praying and offering vows and things of that nature. So it's a little bit different section of Ecclesiastes, but we do have to read it in the context of the whole tenor of Ecclesiastes. I think I'll read the first seven verses, because all of these are talking about being before God and what you should and you shouldn't do. And they echo one another, especially verses three and verses seven. So it begins this way. Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools. For they do not know what, for they do not know that they are doing evil.

Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much busyness, and a fool's voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin.

I think literally in Hebrew that is lead your flesh into sin, but used here in the sense of your person, you into sin. And do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? for when dreams increase and words grow many there is vanity but god is the one you must fear i think that the best summary of that entire section is to when you when you appear before god let your words be few and your fear of him be great i think that's pretty fair assessment of the whole tenor tenor of that i mean there's a lot of details there but both of these sections tend to echo that that same kind of approach to god so guard your steps just the idea be careful

you know watch watch what you're doing we might say when you go to the house of god which in this case would be the temple if we're thinking of solomon's time it better he says to just go there to listen then to offer what he calls the sacrifice of fools now he doesn't say what the sacrifice of fools is in that sentence but i think in this entire section the sacrifice of fools would be the kind of sacrifice that is described in the second verse where he talks about those who are rash with their mouth and they hastily utter a word before god and kind of give voice to the dreams that that they that they have so he's saying that if you go to if you go to god just spewing forth a lot of words,

doing so in an unthinking sort of way, speaking rashly, just kind of whatever your dreams are, whatever words just pop from your heart into your mouth, then that's going to lead you astray. Better just to go

there and to listen than to act in that foolish sort of way. Yeah, I think that you have to sort of interpret the kind of person that he's talking about, right? So On one hand, and we've said this a ton, you can go say anything to God. If you're suffering or if you're struggling, if you're angry, you can go just say whatever you want to Him.

We have lots of illustrations of this in Scripture. I don't think that's at all what's being talked about here. there this is a uh this is talking about somebody that's that would approach god uh with like hubris and arrogance uh that you would you would walk in and be like god is going to be really interested in what i have to say maybe i could tell him something he doesn't know maybe i could make promises and vows uh even though i'm a notorious promise and oath breaker this kind of person, the person that would approach God in a way like a fool, that says, I've got these great things to say, God is going to be so pleased with what I have to say, probably put me in the front

of the line next time after he hears what I have to say. I think it's that kind of thing, where there's a tremendous lack of humility in the way that you would approach God. I think that's very different than the person that would approach God and be angry with God, or upset about something. And that's different than approaching God and forgetting your place. And I think that's why it talks about the fear of God, that you would go in and think that maybe you and God are a little more alike than you are. Yeah, that's why he has a line, God is in heaven and you are on earth. Yes. Yeah, we have talked about that a lot, you know, the sense of lamenting and being honest and open with God.

And that's where, yes, you do want to be honest, but you also, at the same time, you don't want to blaspheme, right? You want to be honest, but not speak with hubris, not speak with disrespect, not speak as if you're talking to your drinking buddy, as it were. I mean, you're talking to God, who is in heaven, and you are on earth. So it's approaching with honesty, but also humility, with a forthrightness, but not just kind of a vain boasting or vain multiplication of words when you're before God. Now, the second part in verse four is much more connected to kind of this Old Testament making of vows, which is a pretty common thing that people did in the Old Testament. There's all sorts of vows that are made by individuals and sometimes by groups of individuals in the Old Testament. So he's basically saying, listen, if you if you vow a vow to God and if you say to him. I am going to do this. Then you can't come back later and say, oh, I didn't mean to say that it was it was it was a mistake or I've changed my mind.

It doesn't it doesn't work that way. All right. Things just, you know, things things change. And so I'm not able to fulfill my vow now. And the message of this section, and in fact, the message of other sections of the Old Testament, such as Deuteronomy 21, which says, if you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it. For the Lord your God will surely require it of you. So he's saying, listen, if you're going to vow about a God, then you have to do it. There are no extenuating circumstances, in other words, where you can kind of back out of this or say to God, I didn't mean that. This is why I've taken verse 5 and just applied it to my life, how I'm going to live.

Better not to vow. I take it as very seriously. I'm not going to make any promises, okay? Can't break promises that I don't make. Which is a very, not only common sense approach, but also a biblical approach as well. Better not to make the vows than to make one and not pay it. And there's a risk, too. this is probably a pretty common temptation for those who make vows to

think transactionally. I'm going to do this for God if he does this for me. I'm going to give him this and he's going to give me that. And that kind of view easily kind of perverts God and tries to manipulate him into doing what you want. It basically borders on magic. I mean, the difference between magic and the way that the Bible works is by magic, you manipulate God or God or the gods or the spirits or whatever you believe into doing what you want. So if you utter this potion or utter this statement or you do this thing,

you make this sacrifice, then the spiritual force to whom you do this is obligated, as it were, to do what you said. And it doesn't work that way with God. The vows are mainly ways in which you express gratitude, thanksgiving for what God has done to you. One other thing here, verse 6, let not your mouth lead you into sin. Do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. I think there are some translations which will render that as angel.

In Hebrew, it is malach, which we've encountered, of course, tons of times. But there's human messengers as well, humans are referred to as a malach. In fact, Malachi references the priest. Malachi 2.7 references a priest being called a messenger. because this is probably a case where you vowed a vow and the priest or his messenger comes to you to say you need to fulfill this and you can't simply say then, oh, I messed up. I didn't mean to say that.

It was a mistake. You can't un-vow your vows. Once you've spoken your vow, then the vow is obligatory no matter what. I think this is why Jesus says, hey, oaths are like generally kind of a bad idea and so maybe just be like maybe just your yes is yes and your no is no and your no no yeah and maybe just sermon of the mount stuff yeah then maybe just kind of be the kind of person that doesn't have to take an oath because you just your yes means that you're going to do it and your no means that you're not yeah yeah i'm with you though i

don't i don't vow vows to god because uh i uh i know who i am as a sinner and so there's a high likely to be breaking those vows, so better not to do that. Better to stick with God's promises than making promises to God. Okay, picking up here with verse 8, and here we're going to have a lot of talk, so get your wallets out, because you're going to hear a lot of talk about money in these next few sections. If you see in a province the oppression of the

poor and the violation of justice and righteousness do not be amazed at the matter i don't know who would be who is you know tuned into politics at all but maybe some people would be shocked by by violations of justice and righteousness but he says don't be amazed at that because the high official is watched over by a higher still and there are yet higher ones over them so that's verse eight and then we have verse nine which is a little bit strange but i think maybe i can explain it but this is gain for a land in every way a king committed to cultivated fields strange so let me read you some other translations so this one says this is gain for land in every way a king committed to cultivated fields uh nib has the increase from the land is taken by all

the king himself profits from the fields which sounds completely different new revised standard versions but all things considered this is an advantage for a land a king for a plowed field now that even makes less sense to me and uh the new american standard is after all the king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land okay i none of these really make any sense to me but i think this is what it's talking about so first of all he introduces the view of injustice of unrighteousness and he says don't be surprised at this if you're looking at a province or a country or a state or in our cases a city and all of a sudden you you spot some injustice or you see some violations and righteousness don't be shocked by this i can't believe anybody's shocked

by any sin but i guess some people still are but don't be surprised by this because it turns out there's a there's a hierarchy here you got high officials you got still higher officials and given the negative tenor of this verse i think he's saying listen you know this one is trying to take from that one and this one or this one's trying to cover up somebody else's crime because they're buddies or whatever whatever it might be he says let me tell you what's even better this gain, what's an advantage for a land, is when the ruler is at least committed to making sure that the land is able to produce crops that can feed the people, that he's committed at least, even though there's injustice, even though there's unrighteousness, at least if

you have a leader who is looking out for kind of the bare essentials of the land, that it produces enough to where people can get fed, even though you have maybe gross or at least minor injustice taking place at the same time. That's the best anyway that I can explain that verse. It's a bit ambiguous even in the Hebrew, and so that leads

to all kinds of translations and all kinds of interpretations of it. This is difficult, but it does seem like rulers are going to be corrupt. They're going to oppress the poor. They're going to violate justice.

Kind of the the best you could hope for is that uh while that's going on that they're taking care of like the thing that they're supposed to the base level thing that they're supposed to be committed to which is like in this case do you have food like is the land are the are the fields being plowed and yielding forth crops like that and and sort of this is how i read it you shouldn't expect more than that from them because the rest of it is probably going to be corrupt

and you're going to find all kinds of things to be frustrated about. If you can find this king who is at least taking care of that regardless of whatever else is going on, you've pretty much got the best you could hope for in a king.

And these verses have quite summarily wrapped up my view of politics. just a few just a few verses well you know when the people are starving to death that's when you get the revolt you know that's when there's issues yeah i expect injustice i expect unrighteousness because it turns out you know every official is a sinner and uh it's it's extremely hard to to get people in any kind of office city level state level national level whatever it is uh who are always going to be looking out for the best interest of of others because i mean

And I'm not like throwing stones at others. I'm the exact same way. It's just kind of a realistic view of humanity. So at the bare minimum, let's be thankful if the country is producing enough food so that people can actually can eat and have full stomachs when they go to bed at night. So that's 10 through 12. Verse 13, he shifts to riches. He says, there's a grievous evil that I've seen under the sun.

riches were kept by their owner to his hurt and to make matters worse and those riches were lost in a bad venture you know maybe it was a bad business deal maybe it was an investment that fell apart maybe it was gambling who knows what it was but anyway he the riches were lost he kept them they were kept to his own hurt and they were lost in this bad venture and to make matters even worse he's a father of a son who's got a kid but he has nothing in his hand and i'm assuming that That means either he has nothing in his hand to feed the child or maybe nothing to give to his son, his inheritance, whatever it might be. As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again, naked as he came.

That's very Job-like language, right? Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. So naked as he came, naked shall he go there, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. this also is a grievous evil just as he came so so shall he go and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind and moreover all these days he eats in darkness and much vexation and sickness and anger so here you have a guy who you know he was rich uh but but he lost everything couldn't

take for his kids uh he's kind of you get the image in that last verse of eating in darkness with vexation and sickness and anger like everything's fallen apart he's cut off uh from from others he's fit into the darkness he's vexed his health is deteriorated he's upset because of the situation in which he finds himself the situation that he himself has has created and cohalith calls this a grievous evil under the sun well yeah of course because this guy probably thought that the riches that he had were going to be his salvation he put his trust in those well They were lost. And what's he left with?

He was left with the same thing that we're always left with when we put our worship, our trust, our love in something other than God, something more than God. We're left in the darkness with vexation and sickness and anger. Yeah. I mean, this one is not too hard to explain. You're like, yeah, this guy has held on to these things. in other words like made these things his life and then lost them and now now you have nothing so you have it you have invested poorly it's not just that he invested his money poorly he invested his life poorly his life poorly yeah so this is this this is this is what's good behold i have

what i've seen to be good and fitting so we have a lot of bad but this is good and fitting to eat and drink and to find enjoyment, 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. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God, for he will not remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. This is one of these sections in ecclesiastes that it stands out because it's not dark it's bright it's not you know warning of this evil or that evil but it's like this is good so eat drink and find

enjoyment in god's gifts if you have wealth you have possessions in power that's fine that these are the lot that god has given to you it's his gift and if you live a life in service to him and love toward him and service to your neighbor, then God is going to occupy your heart with joy so that you're focused upon that which is good, that which God has given you to do, instead of all these other scenarios that he has painted in the previous verses, where you find yourself just with nothing but despair and loss and frustration

because you have been devoting your life to a false god. Yeah, the secret of life is contentment. Right. This seems kind of what Solomon is saying here. Wherever you end up, whatever it is that God gives you, you'll be much happier. In fact, you might find that your days are lost in joy if you can figure out how to be content with what you have. Yeah, it goes a long way to realize that God has given to each—to different people, different stations in life, different gifts, different material possessions. And whatever you have to, you know, like we say, bloom where you're planted will serve where God has placed you in whatever place in life that is. And that will be a place of occupying your heart with joy.

And what do you know? We ended on a positive note. That's good for Ecclesiastes. Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, that's it. Don't get too excited about the positive vibes. He's coming back in chapter 6, going to tell you about some more great evils that he has witnessed.

And we're going to get into that next episode. Chad, I'll see you then. All right, see you then. Hi, this is Chad Bird. Have you ever felt lost? I don't mean you've dismissed a term, but I mean deeply lost in the challenges of life. My new book, Hitchhiking with Prophets, invites you to catch a ride back to our real home with Jesus. Join me as we sit shotgun with legendary storytellers of old like Abraham, Moses, David, and Isaiah.

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