Ecclesiastes 3:16-4:6
Notes
Transcript
Before we merge back into the journey with the author of Ecclesiastes, there is a helpful overview that can keep us pressing on in a quest that leaves us with more unanswered questions than answered ones.
The overview concerns the genre of wisdom literature in our Bible- Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. Proverbs speaks of God being wise and just. He has an established order that leads to the blessing of the righteous and the punishment of the fool or wicked.
Ecclesiastes emphasizes the reality that life is not always fair. It is unpredictable and hard to comprehend. In this world people don’t always get what they deserve. There is a question that lingers in our mind regarding God’s wisdom and justice.
This is the question that the book of Job sets out to address
The wisdom literature gives us certainty of how to live in God’s order (Proverbs), but guards us against the pride that thinks we can control things in this order. (Ecclesiastes)
With that snapshot overview, let’s continue on in the quest with a reflection from the truth we heard last week. When we heard that God controls the times and works everything in a fitting way, we may respond with a pleasant sigh. The sigh is not complete before our guide and author gives voice to our innate sense of time outside of the present but he then declares that we can’t discern what God is doing. God has done this so that man may fear Him.
As we continue on with his words today our guide informs us that this is one of the foggy patches of the trail. There is going to a glimpse of the world above the fog, but your surroundings are going to be a dense fog. Here is his glimpse and admonition for this part of the journey:
God rules justly in this world; but you must stay alert in an unjust world
God rules justly in this world; but you must stay alert in an unjust world
How then do we live alert in an unjust world? Here is a short picture that will serve us in answering this question.
If you have lived in Alaska long, you have probably enjoyed the view coming over the first mountain climb outside of Ester. On clear days you get your first glimpses of Denali as you travel south of Fairbanks. I am sure there have been numerous other times when you travel that same stretch of road in a dense fog. The vehicle usually gets quiet. The music may get turned down, and the driver becomes very focused. Soon the muscles in his neck and shoulders get very tense. This tense focused position is not a denial of the sunshine beyond the fog and clouds, but it is keen awareness of the dangers in the fog.
Don’t live as though the present is final
Don’t live as though the present is final
Our author gives us an observation about how life is under the sun. He goes to a place that he has reasonable expectation of something being good- the courts, place of justice yet
16 Moreover I saw under the sun: In the place of judgment, Wickedness was there; And in the place of righteousness, Iniquity was there.
In the midst of the fog, the things that usually give us bearings for our decisions are not seen. In the midst of a wicked world, one would have some kind of bearing if courts were punishing evil and upholding good, but in many cases they are not.
He then reflects on what he observed. His first reflection expresses faith in the fact that God will set things right in the world though it fails to happen in human courts. The guilty and innocent will get what they deserve. We here the refrain from the verses above that God will do this in his time, yet it is indiscernible to us.
17 I said in my heart, “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”
He continues on with his reflection regarding wickedness in the places that righteousness should be
18 I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.”
A phrase that may come to mind when hearing this verse could be: “When the cats away the mice will play.” When there is no accountability the heart is revealed in its true condition. God uses the time of injustice to try and prove the heart.
This reality will be reiterated later in the book:
11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
The second part of the verse reveals what God intends man to see- their mortality. The die just like animals do. There is perhaps two things going on here. One,the author considers the realities of what God does in regards to justice, but then seems to reflect on the fact that death takes both the wicked and the righteous. This sounds much like his earlier observation in which both the fool and the wise die. It doesn’t appear that there is gain for the wise and righteous. Secondly the author is contemplating death from a perspective of life under the sun. His contemplation will ignore the grand truth of the resurrection.
19 For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity.
20 All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. 21 Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?
The heading of his contemplation is that the same thing that happens to an animal also happens to man- they both die. Here is why he concludes this:
They both have a short quickly fading life span. In this point he brings up the repeated refrain of man not having gain in this life.
Another similarity- they both return to dust
The last similarity is presented in a question, for the eye can see nothing different in this life- there is no evidence of a future for both of them. The author gives a hint of their being a different destination for man, but from the earthly perspective, everything looks the same for both.
In the fog of our life’s journey, lack of justice can cause us to be disoriented. Not living as though the present is final would involve resting in the reality that a just God will make things right. There is also an alertness regarding the ease of living unrighteously when when wickedness seems to go unpunished and righteousness is not rewarded.
The author gives us a conclusion that may seem to take us off of the alert mode.
22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
This repeated refrain is giving us some clarity, but will forever need more understanding from our God. You have boundaries as a creature that you must live in. In light of the passage we are in presently, when we forget our creaturely limits, we begin to manipulate others to get what we want. You are to enjoy the work God has given you in serving, forgiving, understanding the people God has put into your life in your family, church family, work place, and neighborhood. We enjoy what God has given us as gifts from him in his timing. Far from being nonchalant or haphazard, enjoying God’s gifts is a very keen attitude.
We have noticed so far that being alert in an unjust world involves not seeing the present as final. The present wickedness is not final. God has a just order that will settle things in his time. We treat the present as final when we mimick the unrighteousness and pursuit of gain in the things of this created order.
Know the Source of Comfort
Know the Source of Comfort
The author again make an observation and then a reflection. He does not give a conclusion at this point. He deals particularly with the wickedness of those who oppress others. Here is his observation.
1 Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun: And look! The tears of the oppressed, But they have no comforter— On the side of their oppressors there is power, But they have no comforter.
The oppressed are noted for their tears and lack of comfort.
The oppressors are the ones in power. They are getting away with their oppresssion
"In the Bible, oppression involves cheating ing one's neighbor of something (Lev 6:2-5 ...), defrauding him, and robbing him.... Oppression is accumulation - the seeking after profit - without regard gard to the nature, needs, and rights of other people .1123
The reflection on the observation is then given
2 And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.
The dead are better off.
Better yet are those who were not even born.
Know the source of comfort:
If you have people in your life in your work place that use you to advance their agenda. Know that these things are in God’s time.
The oppressed in this passage are not noted for their lack of comfort. May you find comfort in your God. In Christ your warfare with Him is over. Your sins have been ben forgiven. (Is. 40)
There is the warning as well not to seek after profit at the cost of trampling others.
Ask God for alertness to alertness not to be blind or insensitive to the oppression of others.
One last form of wickedness is addressed in our passage tonight. Again this fog of wickedness starts to become the reality that we can become a part of or forget that there is a righteous order.
Don’t labor for what your neighbor has
Don’t labor for what your neighbor has
Here is his observation
4 Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.
"Envy inspires competition and thus twists the noble sense of vocation into an exercise in rivalry, into an upward and onward quest in the pursuit of dominance, leading even to violence
In pursuing out of envy the neighbor above us on the ladder, we inevitably step on the head of the neighbor below us.
His conclusion
5 The fool folds his hands And consumes his own flesh. 6 Better a handful with quietness Than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.
One does not gain through folding the hands or grasping with two hand
The solution offered is a life of simplicty
The fog of injustice can easily becomes prime opportunity for us to be oppressors ourselves. It easily becomes the only pervading reality that we see. Enjoy the gifts that God brings in his timing. Don’t mimick the dog eat dog world.
One word, Ma’am . . . All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things–trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself.
Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one.
And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world.
I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.