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Ecclesiastes 11:7 – 12:14
I’m always fascinated by last words.
What will someone say on their deathbed? How will they encapsulate their life,
how will they face death with the last lungful of air God gives them?
Leonardo Da Vinci – THE renaissance
man – uttered this on his death bed:
“I have offended God and mankind
because my work did not reach the quality it should have.”
A man of such genius and achievement
who in the face of death sees his life’s work as offensive to God and
mankind. That’s what life on the deathbed looks like – achievements
frustrated.
Or Charlotte Bronte, who died just
nine months after marrying, said to her husband:
“Oh, I am not going to die, am I? He
will not separate us, we have been so happy.”
Life on the deathbed – relationships
severed.
Or Queen Elizabeth the First whose
famous last words were:
“All my possessions for a moment of time.”
For all these people – in the face of
death, their life was stripped of meaning. The achievements of Da Vinci,
the loving marriage of Charlotte Bronte, the wealth of the Queen of
England were brought to nothing by death. Not even an empire could buy
back a single moment from death.
And the book of Ecclesiastes keeps on
presenting us with That perspective. For most of the first 11 chapters
the book he details life on the deathbed. The Teacher keeps asking the
question – what significance and purpose can we find, when everything is
swallowed up in death? What meaning is there when life is just the queue
for the crematorium.
And he concludes very starkly, and I
think very honestly, with the assessment: “Meaningless, meaningless! –
utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless.”
That is the grim reality of life under
the sun – that’s the phrase he keeps using in the book. Not life in
the sun, not life besides the sun, not above the sun – the Teacher is
talking about life in the here and now. It’s about living as though this
world is all there is.
Under the sun there can be no lasting
wisdom or pleasure or riches or advancement or purpose. In the film
‘Fight Club’ Brad Pitt sums up the Ecclesiastes philosophy well. With a
loud megaphone he declares to anyone who will listen: ‘You are not a
beautiful or unique snow-flake. You are the same decaying organic matter
as everything else.’ That’s Ecclesiastes – we’re all part of the same big
compost heap, so there’s no use looking for meaning.
But we’ll see this morning that, though
this is how the Teacher begins the book – he ends with a profound
conclusion. As he finishes he pans up from the queue to the crematorium,
he pans up from the compost heap, and he sees something worth listening
to. There is hope.
Look with me at chapter 12:9-11. Here
is a description of what the Teacher has been doing.
‘Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to
the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.
The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was
upright and true.’
Now this is quite a turnaround in
Ecclesiastes. We’ve been told again and again that wisdom is meaningless
– all just human speculation, all swallowed up by the grave. Yet here
there seems to be some wisdom worth heeding. And verse 11 tells us why we
should listen:
‘The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings
like firmly embedded nails – given by one Shepherd.’
Actually there are some wise people
living under the sun. And their wisdom is not the comfortable sophistry
of the arm-chair philosopher. The wisdom they have is like a shepherd’s
goad. Do you know what a goad is? A goad is a sharp stick, maybe, as with
v11, with nails on the end. It’s used by shepherds to prod the sheep, to
shock them out of their wanderings and put them on the right path. In the
context of life under the sun where we seem like aimless sheep heading
for slaughter, it looks like there’s a wisdom that can shock us out of
it. This wisdom is an uncomfortable wake-up call. Yet, though it demands
change in its hearers, this teaching will save us.
Now hang on, you might be thinking.
Isn’t the Teacher here renouncing everything he’s been saying in
Ecclesiastes about the meaninglessness of wisdom under the sun? Hasn’t he
fallen for the oldest trick in the book – having spurned the wisdom of
the world, isn’t he just running after another human pretender?
No, the origin of this wisdom is not
of this world. The single source of this wisdom is One Shepherd.
And here we see why we must listen to
this wisdom. For its origin is not from under the sun. This wisdom comes
from above. It’s been given by Christ – the Great Shepherd of the sheep.
Before Christ was ever born of Mary He has always been the Eternal Wisdom
of the Father. He created the world with His Father (you can read all
about that in Proverbs 8) and so He knows how life works. He stands over
and above the course of human history as its Origin, Sustainer and Goal.
So the wisdom He has for His world is definitely worth heeding. No-one
else can deliver us from the meaninglessness of life under the sun, but
Christ comes into our situation and gives us wisdom.
So as we plunge into this passage and
see the wisdom Christ provides, let’s be ready to be prodded by the
Shepherd. What He says will not be comfortable, but it is the loving
wisdom of the Good Shepherd, therefore it is always for our benefit.
Let’s follow His argument from chapter
11 verse 7.
Christ stands over and above life ‘under the sun’ here is His
verdict.
“Light is sweet and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. However many
years a man may live, let him enjoy them all.”
Here is Eternal Wisdom for temporal
living. And the first thing He says is. Enjoy!
Light IS sweet. Sometimes there’s
nothing better than to feel the warmth of the sun on your face. Yes ‘life
under the sun’ is brief but there are good things that the Father gives
us along the way. And we should try to enjoy them while-ever we have
breath in our lungs. BUT verse 8b:
“[But] let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be
many. Everything to come is meaningless.”
Enjoy light – but remember the
darkness. Enjoy life – but remember the grave. Think of forever, says
Wisdom, because forever is a Very very long time. It’s not that life is
short – it’s that you’re dead So long. Do you have That eternal
perspective?
If you don’t – it’s very difficult to
enjoy This life. Life lived in the light of eternity is so much more than
life in The Moment.
[Life lived under the sun goes in
relentless pursuit of fleeting happiness. It goes after the light that
soon fades. And the great trouble is, as Ecclesiastes says, chapter 1
verse 8: “The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of
hearing.” We have an incredible appetite for this happiness and joy. And
yet as the writer puts it in chapter 6 verse 7: “All man’s efforts are
for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied.”
We have eternity set in our hearts
says the Teacher but when we deny the perspective of Eternal Wisdom we
frustrate our deepest longings. In the absence of an eternal perspective
– we enshrine the Moment. We live life for that One moment, we live for
The Weekend, we count down the days until The Holiday, we bend over
backwards for The Promotion, that One kiss, that One girl, that One
summer, that One sunset that is just freeze-framed in your mind. In the
absence of eternity, we worship the moment, we go in search of the
moment, and when occasionally we find it we try desperately to cling onto
it but it’s gone. It’s like the credits at the end of a film that just
scroll up. You see them for an instant and then they’re gone – you think,
oh well there are more on the way – and they scroll up too. But pretty
soon the film will end and the curtain will come down on the whole thing.
And then you will face eternity – and it will judge all your moments.
Verse 9:
“Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give
you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and
whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring
you to judgment.”
Happiness, youth, joy – these are all
wonderful things to be celebrated. They are the gift from our Good Father
who wants to give us good things but we will be called to account for how
we’ve used them. How will you respond to the goodness of the God who gave
you those things. Will you just take the gifts and ignore the giver? The
Teacher here implores us not to do that because – for all these things
God will bring you to judgment.
But this is Not supposed to add to our
fears – the opposite. The Teacher wants us to get rid of our fears – to
hand them over to the living God. Look down at verse 10:
“So then banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles
of your body, for youth and vigour are meaningless.”
To turn to God does not increase our
fears – it is the way to banish anxiety.
I don’t know what it is you fear or
where you’re looking for answers. Maybe you fear poverty – so you go
after wealth. Maybe you fear loneliness – so you go after relationships.
As we’ve seen this morning, what we fear says a Lot about who we are.
What we fear reveals what we find important. If you don’t fear something
– it’s because you don’t think it’s important.
Well this week we actually asked
people two questions – not just “What do you fear?” But we asked a second
question – “Do you fear God?” Here’s what they said:
[VIDEO – Vox pops: “What do you fear? Do you fear death?”]
But what about you? If I were to ask
you that question – do you fear God? – what would you say? Do you think
He’s important? Do you think you’ll meet Him? Do you fear Him? It’s
important to have an answer because Ecclesiastes tells us we will be
asked the question.
Let’s look at the conclusion of
Christ’s wisdom together: Ecclesiastes 12:13,14:
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden
thing, whether it is good or evil.”
There are many fears in life – many
anxieties – but what Should we fear? Fear God.
There are lots of things that are
important to us in life, lots of things we value – what is the one thing
we should value? The God of eternity who will bring every deed into
judgment.
If you’re going to worry, then fight
fear with fear – I’ll tell you who you should fear, says the Teacher –
Fear the One who will bring you into judgment – Jesus Christ, the Judge
of the World. Fear and value and revere Jesus, who holds your eternal
destiny in His hands. Clearly He is the One who deserves our respect – He
made us, He owns us, He holds our lives and all our ways in His hands. He
is the One to whom we must rightly relate.
But, you might be thinking – “well
Glen thankyou – you’ve certainly stopped me worrying about my mortgage,
now I’m just worried about judgment.”
Well remember, these are the loving
goads of the Good Shepherd. They may hurt but they are designed to save
us.
Because fearing Jesus - abandoning
yourself to Christ the Judge - is not a suicide gesture. To revere
Christ, the Eternal Wisdom of God, is to entrust yourself to the only One
who can save you from judgement.
How does that work? Well, judgment
must fall, says Wisdom. But wonderfully it is Jesus Himself who takes
that judgment for us.
In Australia, where I come from,
bushfires can devour hundreds of miles of bushland in minutes. When it’s
dry, when there’s high winds, the flames can be driven along at
frightening speed. And when a wall of fire is advancing towards you at 50
miles an hour running is not an option. If you are caught in the middle
of the bush and the fire is heading your way there is only one hope of
survival – backburning. You must set fire to the bushland surrounding
you, burning it up in advance of the main blaze. Once you’ve burnt off a
circle of land in a controlled fire you then fall prostrate on the
ground, your face pressed into the ashes as the bushfire comes and passes
over you. Only then will you be safe.
Backburning can save your life – why?
– because fire will not burn the same land twice. Once something is burnt
– it’s burnt, it cannot be burned again. (Unless you’re an Englishman in
the sun). That which is burnt cannot be burned again so the place of
safety when the fire advances is the place that has already felt the
flames.
Although we are assured that God will
bring every deed into judgment we also know that that judgment has
already been taken by Jesus. The cross is the place where the fiery
judgment of God has fallen on His Eternally Beloved Son. The sins of the
whole world burned against Jesus on the cross, and (for us) He died. He
has taken the flames of judgment and so He can offer us the chance to
come to Him – to come to the place of safety. All He asks is that we fear
Him – that we value Him and honour Him – that we renounce our own ways
which will be burned up in the fire. We run from where we’re standing,
which the writer of Ecclesiastes assures us will be burnt up in judgment.
We flee from our own ways and take shelter in the one place where the judgment
of God has already fallen. Because that which has burnt will not burn
again. Those who trust in Jesus – who fear Him – they come to the place
of safety and are rescued.
How will you respond to the Teacher’s
conclusion?
Perhaps you’re in church this morning
investigating these things, maybe for the first time. Can I assure you
that this passage holds great urgency for you. Can I finish by
challenging you from chapter 12 not to put off a decision about Jesus
Christ? For there will never be a better time to turn to Him than right
now.
Look with me at chapter 12 verse 1:
“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days
of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no
pleasure in them” – before the sun and the light and the moon and the
stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain”
The time to remember the God who made
you is not later – it’s not in old age, it’s not on your death bed – why?
Because days of trouble soon crowd in on us and sap us of energy. They
embitter us, they make us say “I find no pleasure.” We lose that
spiritual vigour and vitality.
The teacher goes on in the next few
verses to liken our bodies to a house – a house that’s slowly apart. Look
at verse 3:
“When the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop,”
The keepers of the house are the arms
and the strong men are the legs – they start to weaken.
“when the grinders cease because they are few”
Can anyone guess what the grinders
might refer to?
“and those looking through the windows grow dim;”
The eyes start to go to. Do you see
what’s happening to this house, it’s weakening, it’s trembling and it’s
turning in on itself. And that’s what happens to us when we don’t turn to
face our Creator. When we don’t turn to God, we turn in on ourselves.
Verse 4:
“when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding
fades; when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow
faint; when men are afraid of heights and of the dangers of the streets;”
As this house ages – the world is no
longer a place to be explored and enjoyed, it is somewhere to be feared
and we start to close the doors. The ageing process does Not make us more
spiritually hungry – quite the opposite – we start to close ourselves off
to the world until we reach that point in verse 5 where desire is no
longer stirred. We’ve given up on wanting anything – even our Creator.
And the writer tells us – remember
your Creator while you are young – while your hunger for meaning is still
felt. On your death bed you’ll be so drugged up you won’t be able to
consider what to eat, let alone your eternal destiny.
So, verse 6:
“Remember Him – before the silver cord is severed, or the golden
bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the
wheel broken at the well,”
We must fear God. Why? Because (verse
7) we are dust – and the dust will return to the ground. And our spirit
will return to God who gave it.
Today is the day of salvation says the
Bible. Tomorrow is promised to no-one, today is the day offered to you to
turn back to Him – to fear God.
So, verse 6:
“Remember Him – remember your Creator – before the silver cord is
severed,”
Your life hangs by a thread – turn Now
to Christ. Turn to the One who holds your life in His hands. He has so
much more in store for you than this meaningless life under the sun. Heed
the prods of the Good Shepherd’s goads. He is the One you must revere.
“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden
thing, whether it is good or evil.”
Amen.
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