Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Ecclesiastes 10/11 - Live Generously

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

In this series, Jonny Ardavanis explore the main themes in the book of Ecclesiastes. Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. In this series on Ecclesiastes, we are looking at the main themes of one of the most contemporary books in all of scripture. I'm thankful for all of those who have been listening to this series from all over the world and I pray that the truth of Ecclesiastes would change our perspective so that we live wisely in our few days under the sun. In this episode, we are going to move through chapter 10 before focusing on one of the major themes in chapter 11. Let's dial in.

All right, let's regroup. In our previous episode, our guy Solomon is talking about death again. His looming end is on the forefront of his mind, and he's going to teach us to live with the end in mind by not only encouraging us to acknowledge our certain death, but to live in light of death's uncertain timing. So Solomon wants you and I to think, if this is true, that I'm going to die, but I don't know when I'm going to die, how should I then live? Should I hide away and mope? No. Solomon encourages us to go and live hard. What I mean by living hard is to live in such a way where you get after it, to enjoy the gift of life by living it. We glorify God by enjoying the gift of life and by soaking up all of the beauties and blessings that he has

extended to us in this world. Maybe you have viewed with a certain level of ambiguity the idea of eating and drinking to the glory of God. Maybe you've thought, how can I have Chipotle to the glory of God? Solomon says, by enjoying the meal and giving thanks to the God who provides. Death is looming. Enjoy life. Be grateful to the giver of it and live from the vantage point of the grave. So Solomon is transitioning now from that wisdom in chapter 9 and then in chapter 10 and 11, he is going to pump the brakes for us in a helpful way because he knows the tendencies of man. He is nearing the conclusion of the book and he wants us to live wisely. Solomon knows that he

has just challenged his readers in chapter nine, verse seven, to go and enjoy life. But he also knows that can be easily misinterpreted as a license for loose living and to abide by the fool's motto of eat, drink, be merry for tomorrow, we die. So what's the difference then between Solomon's encouragement for us to live life to the fullest and the world's maxim of pursuing pleasure at all costs? What's the difference? Well, the difference is living wisely in chapter 10. We will look at this chapter for a few minutes, looking at a series of different verses at a time before jumping to chapter 11. Verse one of chapter 10, Solomon says, dead flies make a perfumer's oil stink. So a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor. We don't have to be experts on

perfume to understand what he's saying. Perfume was precious. Remember it was expensive and it was hard to come by. We talked about this in chapter seven, when Solomon said a good name was better than a good ointment, which means that reputation matters more than wealth. Now Solomon is going to say, okay, remember how I said a good name is better than a good ointment? Now he's going to ask a question. What does it take to ruin a perfectly good jar of perfume? Or what does it take to ruin a reputation?

Answer, one fly. One small fly ruins what is fragrant and good. Solomon is saying, yes, live hard, go and enjoy life, but live wisely by acknowledging that one day everything will be judged by God. And not only that, there are earthly consequences to living a life of folly. One fly ruins perfume.

One moment of folly ruins an otherwise fragrant reputation. It takes much less to ruin something than it does to create it. Alistair Begg says, it is easier to create a stink than to create sweetness. I like that. You can build a reputation and in a moment of foolishness, mar that reputation, ruin a marriage and throw away your influence and forfeit leadership. What causes this lapse in judgment then? Why did Solomon pursue many foreign women? Why did his dad, David, murder Uriah the Hittite and commit adultery

with Bathsheba? Well, verse two, we do these things because our hearts. Solomon says in verse two, a wise person's heart directs him towards the right, but the foolish person's heart directs him towards the left. Solomon's saying we can so quickly ruin our reputation and we do so because of conditions in our own heart. Lapses in judgment are not due to external factors, but due to internal conditions of the heart. He moves on and we can ask ourselves, is there any more fitting set of verses for our own context than that of verses five through seven?

Solomon says, there is an evil I have seen under the sun, like a mistake that proceeds from the ruler. Foolishness is set in many exalted places while the rich sit in humble places. I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land. This is what Solomon is saying. Those who deserve to be leaders are often ignored, and those whose opinions should be largely ignored are elevated to positions of influence.

Solomon says, turn on the news. It's not noble or sensible, but rather it's full of celebrity divorces and so-and-so is back in rehab. They got out of rehab and guess what they want to do now? They want to run for political office. How can this be? Solomon answers, because foolishness is exalted and wisdom is ignored. Remember what he said in chapter 1? There's nothing new under the sun and we see the exact same thing today.

Moving on. There's nothing new under the sun, and we see the exact same thing today. Moving on. In verses 8 through 11, there are a series of proverbs that fall underneath the same theme that Solomon has been getting at for the majority of the book. Verse 8, one who digs a pit may fall into it. One day, a man wakes up. He kisses his wife goodbye. He slips on his Carhartt jacket. His name is Jack, and he goes to

work. He's a ditch digger, and he has done the same thing every day for 20 years, and today he trips on a rock. He stumbles into the same pit he dug, and he dies. Moving on, verse 8b, Solomon continues, and a serpent may bite one who breaks through a wall. Different guy, similar story. One day there's a builder. He smashes through walls for a living. He's a demolition man, probably named Bob. He likes college football. Well, he heads to work. He's doing a full renovation. He smashes through a wall. There's a snake in the wall. The snake jumps out and bites Bob. Bob dies. Solomon is circling back on the unpredictability of life. Maybe these stories sound far-fetched to you, but even in my own life, last year my friend calls me on a Friday. He says he's not feeling his best, and he asked for me to preach for him at his church on Sunday. 48 hours

later, he was with the Lord. Maybe your own experience testifies to the preacher's point. Life is unpredictable. Verse 10. If the ax is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of bringing success. This makes sense to everybody. My dad taught me when I was seven years old, work smart, not hard. Okay. Verse 11. If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no benefit for the charmer. Okay, here's what Solomon is saying. If a man has the secret to charming the serpent,

but is bitten by the serpent before he performs the charm, what use is it that he knew the charm in the first place? Solomon is telling us. It's not enough to know the answers or the right path. The right path must be pursued and wisdom must be implemented. Solomon is asking us what good is it if you know what ought to be done but never get around to actually doing those things. It's not enough to want to be godly. One must pursue the path of godliness. It's not enough to want to be godly. One must pursue the path of godliness. It's not enough to desire purity.

One must pursue its path. It's not enough to want or know what is required to be a good father, a good husband. One must implement what he knows. Ecclesiastes is teaching us, as one pastor says, don't have your want-tos turn into your I wish I would have. Solomon is saying, if you know what is the right thing to do, do it. Okay, moving on. Verses 12 through 14.

Words from the mouth of a wise person are gracious, while the lips of a fool consume him. The beginning of his talking is foolishness, and the end of it is evil insanity. Yet the fool multiplies words. One of the first evidences of wisdom, and consequently someone who has been changed by God, is the way that they use their tongue, because the tongue is the MRI of the heart. Do you want to ascertain if someone is wise, or conversely, if someone is foolish, the scripture says, listen to the way they use their tongue because it is the window into their heart. Now, as we come to chapter 11, we need certain realities in mind that Solomon has already covered. Number one, our life is a breath and life is full of futility. You can marry a thousand women, live in a palace, be famous,

have a bank full of money, but feel totally empty. Secondly, in Ecclesiastes 7, the preacher says, it is better to have coffee in a graveyard than booze in a red solo cup, because the more we contemplate our death, the more we know how to live. Death is a mentor that shapes our life. And then thirdly, in chapter nine, he tells us, yes, death is certain. The timing of it is uncertain. So go and enjoy life. Work hard, make memories, check off your bucket list, not your to-do list. Now, Solomon is wise and he knows that when he tells people to go and live hard, they are prone to think of who in particular? Well, me, myself, and I. So he is going to temper our own tendencies in chapter 11. In verses 2 and 3 of chapter 11, he is going to remind us that we

aren't fortune tellers. He says, cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you do not know when disaster may happen on earth. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. And if a tree falls in the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. The preacher is saying, we can read the signs and the weather and see that they typically follow a pattern, but you cannot predict the future. You can tell if it's going to rain, but you cannot tell if there will be a flood. Maybe you think you're a super healthy guy that you will live a long time and have the chance to prepare for death, or maybe, maybe you will run to the gas station to grab a bag of ice for your wife and never make it home. We know that we cannot

predict or plan the future, but we pretend and live as if the opposite is true. But not only are we unable to predict the future, verse five says, Solomon will tell us that we are unable to understand the ways of God. And verse five, he says, just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things. Solomon is saying, we can't do what only God can do, and you cannot know what only God knows. You can make an ultrasound machine that shows the signs of life within the womb of the mother, but you are not the one that actually knits the baby together there. Gibson says, we manage, but God actually makes. In Job 38, God asked Job a series of rhetorical questions in order to display the distinction between creator and creation.

We've looked at these questions when we studied the attributes of God. And the effect of these rhetorical questions in Job is that Job answers by saying, I don't know. And that's exactly right. We don't know because we aren't God. Then in verse six, Solomon will explain, hang with me. He'll explain that we can't guarantee success or avoid failure. In verse six, he says, you do not know which way will prosper this or that time and chance happen to us all. Just think with me. One guy can spend his entire life going to school, get his Series 7, his Series 63 to

become a successful investor and can never time the market right. Another kid, he's 16 years old. He's a C average in high school. He hates reading. Well, one day he's bored. He reads a Reddit form about something called Dogecoin and is now worth millions because he put his birthday money in three years ago. How can this be?

Solomon says, time and chance. He is building a case. He's bringing all of his points towards a couple culminating thoughts. Okay, keep tracking with me because this is important. What is Solomon getting at? Well, how do we live vigorously in chapter nine and wisely in chapter 10? If we consider that in chapter 11, time and chance happened to all of us, the future is uncertain. My job is uncertain. Our country is uncertain. So do we bunker down

and hoard in case of the rainy days ahead? Do we cling tightly to what is ours because the future is unknown? The preacher is going to give us an answer. And the answer he gives us is profound. Back to verse one. He says, cast your bread on the surface of the waters for you will find it after many days. Divide your portion to seven or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth. Verse one is cryptic, and there are as many opinions on what this verse means as there are commentators, but there are obvious clues provided for us in order to help us determine Solomon's point. He's not talking about soggy bread when

he says to cast our bread upon the water. He's talking about something else entirely. Solomon is saying that wise people who desire to live life to the fullest and who want to live wisely in light of life's uncertainty, they don't live selfishly, but rather they live generously. He says, cast, give away your bread. Bread is what brought life and sustenance. It was what brought warmth to our families. And he says to give a portion to seven or eight. In the Bible, seven is the number of perfection.

So to give to seven and then to eight is to give completely and then giving an excess beyond that. The main idea here is that many are tempted to be paralyzed by the uncertainties in life, to hoard, to hide, to live risk-free existence. But Solomon says, risk is right. Don't hoard. Rather, let the uncertainties of life liberate you to live generously. Solomon asks you a question. Do you want to live prepared for death? Do you want to live in light of the end? Then start giving and giving and giving your life away, your time, your money, your home.

Give it all away. This is simply biblical wisdom. Jesus will say in Luke 12 verses 16 through 21, and he told them a parable saying, the land of a rich man was very productive. And he began to think to himself saying, what shall I do since I have no place to store my crops? And he said, this is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And I will store all of my grain and my goods there. And I will say to myself, you have many goods stored up for many years to come, relax, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But God said to myself, you have many goods stored up for many years to come. Relax, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But God said to him, you fool. This very night, your soul is demanded of you. And as for all that you've prepared, who will own it now? Such as the one who stores up treasure

for himself and is not in rich relationship to God. Worldly wisdom says risks abound. So don't put all your eggs in one basket. But here, biblical wisdom says risks abound. So give all of your eggs away. You can't take it with you. So give, give, and give. Your time, your money, your home. Live generously. Obviously, there is wisdom in stewarding things well, but the preacher is saying stewarding well means giving generously. Here, the Wall Street Journal and the scripture are aligned. Those most full of joy are those who live generously. Solomon is not telling us something that Jesus does not affirm. Luke 11 31, I love this. The queen of the South. This is Jesus saying this. The queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon and dial in here and behold, Jesus says

something greater than Solomon is here. Something, someone greater than Solomon is here who testifies to living generously under the sun. Surely one of our Lord's favorite paradoxes is that he who loves his life shall lose it. Jesus preaches a gospel of self-denial, which means more than just abstinence from worldly pleasures, possessions, and temptations. It also means presenting all you are to those around you. Self-denial never terminates in the individual, but displays itself in the humble generosity of our lives.

The greater Solomon says he did not come to be served, but to serve and to what? To give his entire life as a ransom for many. This means more than just his death, but also the way he gave with his life. Solomon challenges you. Don't let the brevity of time and the reality of chance paralyze you from living. Rather, let it spur you to action. For if there are risks in everything, it is better to give too much than to hoard too much. David Gibson says, the wisdom that you receive from the world is to take the best that you have and put it in a safe, build bunkers and barns, preserve, preserve, preserve.

But the wisdom of God's word is to take the best that you have and to give it all away. Your money, it's the Lord's. Your time, it's give it all away. Your money, it's the Lord's. Your time, it's the Lord's. Your gifting, it's the Lord's. So how can I know if I'm doing this well? How can I know if I'm actually giving enough? Gibson says, once it actually costs you.

The way to begin is to find the things in your heart that you think you cannot do without and to give them away. This doesn't just refer to our time, but also our money, but also our time and our energy. William Wallace in the movie Braveheart says, every man dies, but not every man really lives. There are worse things than dying. And one of the worst things than dying is not actually living by hoarding life, its possessions, and your time to yourself. So Solomon, our preacher king, wants to change your perspective. Life is futile when you live, earn, and spend on yourself. So live, spend, and invest in others. East of Eden, futility abounds because selfishness abounds.

But the one who will one day come to restore all that is broken bids us to live like he did, generously and selflessly. Stay dialed in.