Route 66: Ecclesiastes - Life's Fleeting Gifts & Treasures

Let's take our Bible and go over to the book of Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes.

Is this turned up enough for all of you?

Is that better?

Yeah, thank you, enoch.

I've been excited about our journey through the Word of God as we go down Route 66.

And we come to the book of Ecclesiastes this evening, and the opportunities that we have in this are to get not only a good overview of different books of the Bible but sometimes a necessary correction to maybe some gathered insights or understandings that we've had about particular books.

Hopefully, during this journey along Route 66, you've stopped at least once or twice, maybe more times, in saying I never really understood that book.

Now I do.

I think, mike, you'd talked to me about 1 Chronicles, wasn't it Ezekiel?

There was somebody that talked to me about Chronicles and, ted, you just opened up 1 and 2 Chronicles to them in a way that they'd never really captured before and said that they were really, really enjoying going back and reading it with the kind of help and understanding that you'd given them.

I don't remember who that was now, so if you're in here, please forgive me for forgetting.

It was you that told me, but we're in Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes is one of those books that I think, often brings a lot of question marks more than answers to some people.

Someone said it's simultaneously one of the most fascinating books of the Old Testament, but also one of the most perplexing books of the Old Testament.

It really does offer us, when you read commentaries on it, just what seems to be an extremely wide spectrum of understanding, even among those people who spend a lot of time and effort drilling down into the book.

Someone described it this way, said that Ecclesiastes is like a desert sphinx it teases us with questions, yields its secrets only grudgingly and will not allow us the luxury of easy answers, and I think that's true.

One person said of Ecclesiastes it's thoroughly irritating but at the same time also mesmerizing.

In its appeal.

It draws me toward it by mirroring the perplexity that I feel as I grapple with life.

Right, and I think you can, if you're familiar at all with Ecclesiastes, understand where that author was going.

So opinions about Ecclesiastes vary widely.

It's very true about life.

It speaks honestly about the difficulties of life, and so Herman Melville called it the truest of all books.

But then on the other side was a German author who said that it is a book that digs its own grave.

Wow, well, why do we call this book Ecclesiastes?

That sounds like maybe some Episcopalian gave it a title, right, ecclesiastes.

Well, the English word Ecclesiastes comes from the Latin verba Ecclesiastes or from the Greek remata ecclesiastitu.

So both Greek and Latin kind of force us into the direction of calling it Ecclesiastes.

But those translations take a Hebrew word, koheleth, and transliterate it, and we translate it into Ecclesiastes, which is now then transliterated into our Ecclesiastes.

So what is Koheleth?

Well, koheleth is a word derived from a root word which means to assemble people, right, to assemble people.

Now, what's the connection between Ecclesiastes and assembling people?

Ecclesia, a church, is not a building but a gathering of people, right?

So when we call ourselves the church or when we go to church, what we mean is what we should mean is that we're going to the assembly of God's people.

We're not going necessarily to a building.

We could go to church in the field, across the road, as much as we could inside this structure.

So an ecclesia is not a building but a congregation.

It's a gathering, an assembly of people.

And so the term Hebrew term koheleth, which means to call an assembly.

That's where we get the connection, and so the term means one who speaks or one who calls an assembly together.

This is why sometimes you, when you read Ecclesiastes, for instance in the CSB, in verse 2, chapter 1, you'll see a term there the teacher.

Right, that's the term koheleth.

Other translations will call koheleth the preacher, other translations will call it the convener of the assembly, trying to bring in that idea of one who gathers a group of people for the purpose of conveying some instruction.

So our Koheleth.

Here the question arises is this a title or is this a name?

Is this person's name Koheleth or is his title Koheleth?

Well, I think it can be both, right?

So if someone back there yelled out hey, preacher, micah and I probably would both turn our heads, because there's something about the role and the title that gets attached to us in a way that you could almost use it as a name, right?

I discovered that when Pat MacArthur yelled at John MacArthur one day by using the word preacher and he turned his head.

If you want to know more about that story, I can tell you later, but it was pretty funny.

So we find the English challenging.

Is it preacher?

Is it teacher?

Is it convener of an assembly?

Yes, but it's not teacher like a classroom, and it's not preacher, like a pulpit.

So it's a little different than that.

It's someone who's gathering a group of people to convey instruction, but does it by way of saying I took myself on a journey and as I took myself on a journey I learned some things that gave me wisdom.

And as you go on your journey, I asked you to enter into my journey so that you might have the kind of instruction I've gained.

So that's why teacher I think probably of all of the terms probably works out the best, right?

Well, let's talk a little bit about the author In Ecclesiastes 1.1, the words of the teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.

So naturally we're going to think of King Solomon, king in Jerusalem.

So naturally we're going to think of King Solomon.

We might think of some of the other kings who are of the lineage of David, but this is the only physical first-generation son of David who was king in Jerusalem.

And as we read through Ecclesiastes, there are a lot of things that we read there that really do line up perfectly with Solomon, chapter 1 and verse 16, I've acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me.

That sounds like Solomon.

Solomon was promised because not only a wise and discerning mind, but he would also have riches beyond compare, and when we read Ecclesiastes, there's certainly a person here who has great resources available.

As we read here, the teacher goes on to describe houses that he built and gardens that he planted and the power and luxury that were just seemingly in his hands in fullness.

The description of this teacher in Ecclesiastes 12.9 talks about him gathering together wisdom, which reminds us of a statement in 1 Kings 4.32, which talks about him, solomon, weighing and studying and arranging proverbs with care.

So, from the earliest days, a lot of people have seen this to be Solomon.

Now, if you know the track of Solomon's life, you know that there isn't just wisdom in Solomon's life.

There was also a lot of folly.

His life and his leadership were sidetracked by the pursuit of various inappropriate activities, and so a lot of people think that this is Solomon not in the vigor of his strength, not in the rush of early years of monarchy, but at the end of his days, as he's come to the end, hopefully repentant of his sins, returning to a right and proper understanding and fear of the Lord.

And so this is perhaps his final testament of the Lord, and so this is perhaps his final testament, maybe his words, given even directly to his son, rehoboth, to give him the wisdom that he was obviously lacking, when the day would come when he would become the king.

I've kind of introduced this to you already, but let's talk about its place for a minute.

This is within the corpus of what we call the wisdom literature of the Old Testament.

Ecclesiastes is definitely one of those books that is meant to provide to us wisdom and understanding and discernment how to live our lives rightly before God, in full honor and respect, and even fear of Him.

It repeats that refrain in Proverbs the fear of the Lord's, beginning of knowledge, right, the beginning of wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 3.14,.

God works so that people will be in awe of him.

Ecclesiastes 5.7,.

Many dreams bring futility, so do many words.

Therefore, fear God.

And then Ecclesiastes 12.13.

When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this Fear God, keep his commandments, because this is for all humanity.

Like other parts of wisdom literature, ecclesiastes is reflective.

It's looking at God's world and God's works and reflecting upon those things in order to understand better this life, this world, by way of God's point of view, and so it overlaps with other wisdom literature in doing that, but it also does so in its own very unique, distinct way.

It has some correlations with, say, the book of Job, for instance, where Job speaks about this puzzling thought that a righteous person could suffer.

Well, ecclesiastes says that's not just something Job alone experiences.

There are a lot of righteous people who suffer.

But it also goes to the book of Proverbs, where Proverbs lays out how life should run in expectation of wisdom.

Right, but then Ecclesiastes goes to the exceptions of those expectations.

The race is not always to the swift, the battle is not always to the strong, and so we find this wisdom literature unique, especially as we see it in its sort of journey motif.

And that leads us to the structure question.

How does this story get told?

This is one of the most vexing issues for people who spend a lot of time with Ecclesiastes.

And it's perhaps one of the most vexing issues for people who spend a lot of time with Ecclesiastes, and it's perhaps one of the most vexing issues for you as you read it.

What is its structure?

I don't feel it taking me anywhere in a linear way.

Some people get discouraged by that, seeing it and feeling its seeming disorganization and even its contrary nature to itself at times.

Some Bible scholars have said this.

There is no progression of thought in one section to the other.

The author offers no universal or satisfactory answer to any of the problems that he raises.

Well, if that's true, that would be a very discouraging perspective.

Added to that, as I said, are these puzzling contradictions that are inside of it, distractions that are inside of it.

For example, in chapter 2 and verse 13, the teacher speaks about wisdom in a very, very laudatory way and yet two verses later questions whether wisdom is valuable at all.

How can it both be profitable and not profitable at the same time?

He talks about pleasure in chapter 8 and verse 15.

But he also says in chapter 2 and verse 2 that pleasure is useless.

So which is it Right?

He praises life in chapter 9 and verse 4.

Praises work in chapter 8 and verse 22.

But then, in chapter 2 and verses 17 and 18, says that he hates both work and life.

Now tell me if that doesn't resonate with some of your own thoughts as you take the conglomerate of your days and try to distill them all down to statements, does it not?

So, instead of finding some sort of linear movement, I think it's better to be able to feel some structural features that I want to introduce to you.

First of all, there are some things that are very much structural in their placement.

For instance, there are two voices that we hear in the book of Ecclesiastes.

The first voice listen to it.

Look at verse 12.

I, the teacher, have been king over Israel.

In Jerusalem, I applied my mind to examine and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven.

Okay, so this is a first person statement, right?

I, the teacher.

Chapter two, in verse one, I said to myself go ahead, I will test you with pleasure.

Then, in chapter six, verse one, I have seen another evil under the sun.

Chapter 9, I have reflected on all of this.

There's this first person voice, but it's not the only voice in the book.

Ecclesiastes begins with a different voice.

Let's look at verse one with me, the words of the teacher, son of David, king of Jerusalem.

This voice sounds like it's somebody else's voice talking about the teacher.

That's reinforced in chapter seven, in verse 27,.

When we get this little note that says there, look, says the teacher.

This is what I've discovered.

So somebody's talking about the teacher.

Now, right, not just mentioning the teacher, talking about the teacher.

And then, when you get to chapter 12 and verse 9, listen to these words and tell me if this doesn't sound like a second voice.

In addition to the teacher being a wise man, he constantly taught the people knowledge.

He weighed, explored and arranged many proverbs.

The teacher sought to find delightful sayings and write words of truth accurately.

Ah, now it really sounds like a second voice talking about the first voice.

So one thing that we can feel here is that there's something going on.

There's Solomon and his journey and somebody else helping us see Solomon in that journey.

But there's more to this.

Structurally, there's also some bookends.

Let's go to verse 2 of chapter 1.

Absolute futility, says the teacher.

Absolute futility, everything is futile.

Chapter 12, the last chapter of the book.

In verse 8, absolute futility, says the teacher, everything is futile.

So there's kind of a bookend there.

Right, there's bookends.

The front starts with futility and it ends with futility.

But if you move a little deeper into chapter 1 and a little earlier in chapter 12, you'll notice that there's also two poems that follow this, beginning in verse 4, a generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun sets, panting.

It hurries back to the place where it rises, gusting to the south, turning to the north, turning, turning goes the wind and the wind returns in its cycles.

When you look at the closing poem that begins in chapter 12, or perhaps even in chapter 11, near the end of it, you'll see a bunch of similarities there.

The first one speaks about generations coming and going, like the endless repeating patterns of the sun and the wind and the rivers no-transcript.

In the second poem, at the end, you also get this sense of impermanence and futility that's contemplated directly and comes to the very end of it all with death.

There's also words that are common to both poems, words about the sun, words about the wind, words that call us to remember.

So there's a lot of connecting points there.

So what do we have?

What am I saying?

We have two voices and bookends.

We have an introduction and an exit.

We've got these statements about vanity.

We've got these poems with similar themes.

What about the inside?

What about all of that in the middle?

Now, now that we've seen there's some cohesion and coherence and connection between chapter 1 and chapter 12, what do we do with 2 through 11?

Well, this is where it gets a little more complex and this is where, truly, those who are trying to find a structure really, really have to wrestle with it.

I think the answer is not to look for structure, the way we think of structure, but to remember who's teaching us here.

This is the Kohelet, this is the teacher, preacher, convener of an assembly, this is a person who's inviting us into their journey.

None of our journeys are linear.

Our journeys are filled with all kinds of twists and turns and side roads and returns back to the main roads, right?

So when we're taught here by this teacher, we're brought along on that kind of journey.

He's not laying it out systematically, line upon line, like we might expect.

He's wanting us to just go with him as the wind carries his life through all of these discoveries and understandings.

So when we talk about preaching and teaching, there's more than just a good outline that captures our attention.

Right, good outlines are helpful, but someone can be a dead asleep listener to a good outline If the preacher doesn't modulate his voice, doesn't have something interesting to say, doesn't use perhaps rhetorical skills or gestures or whatever to try to keep people's attention.

A good outline won't do that.

So this teacher moves away from the easy outline but uses a lot of rhetorical devices to keep our attention.

He wants to maintain our interest by using words like hyperbole, by speaking about things to the extreme and causing us to think.

By using this hyperbole, For instance, in chapter 2 and verse 8, I hated all my work that I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the one who comes after me and who knows whether he'll be a wise man or a fool.

Well, you're kind of like yeah, yeah, me too.

That's going to happen to me too.

Yet he will take over all my work that I've labored skillfully under the sun.

He will take over all my work that I've labored skillfully under the sun.

So that kind of hyperbole there.

Right, did he really hate all of his work simply because he couldn't see it through to the next generation and put it into skillful hands?

No, no, he talks in other places about actually being able to enjoy work.

No, he talks in other places about actually being able to enjoy work.

But the hyperbole is there to make a striking statement, to cause us to think.

He also uses some common figures of speech, like simile, like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot.

So is the laughter of the fool, chapter 7 and verse 6.

Our metaphor, for instance a live dog's better than a dead lion.

Now is he really taking us to the vet's office and asking the veterinarian so which is better here, a live dog or a dead lion?

A veterinarian, so, which is better here, a live dog or a dead lion?

No, he's using that metaphorically, right?

Or he's using metonymy.

Get it out of my mouth, metonymy apart for the whole.

Ecclesiastes 10.18,.

Because of laziness, the roof caves in and because of negligent hands.

10.18, because of laziness, the roof caves in and because of negligent hands, the house leaks.

Now is Solomon simply telling us about how to have a well-constructed house?

No, he's talking about how to have a well-constructed life, and the house could stand for our whole life.

If our house is a shambles, our life is a shambles.

So the part stands for the whole.

He uses vivid numerical figures to help us understand the power of things Chapter 4 and verse 12.

If someone overpowers one person, two can resist him.

And what's the next part?

A cord of what?

Three strands is not easily broken.

Why do you remember that?

One, two, three, it's simple as that.

It's a rhetorical device.

He also uses humor, including ridicule and sarcasm.

Ecclesiastes 10.3.

When a fool walks along the road, his heart lacks sense and he shows everyone he's a fool.

Verse 15.

The struggles of fools weary them, for they don't even know how to go to the city.

You can imagine this person who's like wandering around in such foolishness he can't even make his way down the street to get where everybody knows he should be going.

But something else that the teacher does here besides use these rhetorical devices, there's one that he likes to use the most and that is to ask questions.

To ask questions.

Now, a lot of people think that these questions are thrown out there simply for rhetorical effect, that as if the answer is an automatic no.

What does a man gain?

Well, people would say, well, the answer is simply nothing.

I don't think that's true.

We have to ask ourselves every time a question is thrown up there is it a rhetorical question or is it a genuine question of investigation?

Don't assume it's one or the other immediately.

When he says who knows or does a man gain?

Don't automatically assume the answer is a negative answer.

He might be seriously asking the question and then providing the answer.

He might be seriously asking the question and then providing the answer.

For instance, in chapter 6 and verse 12, who knows what is good for a man.

Well, the rhetorical answer would be nothing in that negative kind of frame.

But if you read after chapter 6, you find out that he actually answers the question and says there are things that are actually good.

So it's an investigative question, not a rhetorical question.

Another example in chapter 1 and verse 3, what does a man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

Is he rhetorically denying that there's any gain or is he asking the question genuinely?

Well, when you read further on, you find in chapter 2 and verse 13 that there is some gain.

Chapter 5 and verse 9, there is some gain.

Chapter 7 and verse 12, there is some gain.

Chapter 10 and verse 10, there is some gain.

So he's answering the question.

So this teacher takes us on a journey.

He asks questions, he uses rhetorical devices, he goes to hyperbole and the metaphor and metonymy, he goes to simile, he goes to questions both rhetorical and true and genuine.

But he also makes some observations and draws some conclusions and casts those observations and conclusions along the way.

Along the way, when he makes observations, we read words like I saw right, and when he makes those observations, predominantly those observations are more on the negative side, seeing human weakness and transitoriness, that our lives are really brief and fleeting, obligatoriness that our lives are really brief and fleeting.

But he also has instructions, and those instructions aren't negative, they're actually more positive.

And those instructions help us to be wise and a certain kind of wisdom, a wisdom of prudence, a wisdom of discretion, a wisdom of moderation, a wisdom that understands what it means to be even keeled in a topsy-turvy world.

So look for those, and when you look for those observations and those instructions, you will actually see, within the middle of this book, four cycles of observation, instruction, observation, instruction, observation, instruction.

Now, they're not as neat, cut as that, they kind of bleed over into each other, but there's a predominance of observations followed by a predominance of conclusions and instructions in four different cycles.

Now that gets me right to the heart of what I think is probably the most important thing to understand, and how to understand this book.

Let's go back to chapter 1, in verse 2.

None of our English translations really do this justice.

Justice.

There's one Hebrew word that's mentioned five times in one verse, in chapter 1 and verse 2 of the CSB absolute futility, absolute futility, everything is futile.

That's actually one Hebrew word being repeated several times.

Havel, havel, says the teacher, havel, havel, everything is Havel.

Now the question is what does Havel mean?

Chapter 12 and verse 8, remember the?

This is one of those observational points, and I talked about the observations and the instruction cycles.

Well, 23 of the 38 uses of Havel are in those observational sections.

Eight of them are in these two verses.

What does this word mean?

It's used dozens of times.

Well, the word Havel, translated literally, means a mist or a vapor or a breath, literally.

And you go to other places in the Old Testament where it is a mist or a vapor or a breath.

Where the interpretive question comes is where the interpretive question comes is what do we do with the very concrete vapor, midst or breath, and turn it into a metaphor.

Metaphorically, what is it referring to?

Metaphorically, it could mean speaking about something that's fleeting or elusive.

Right, what is a vapor?

Royal had our freezer open and we have a bottom level freezer and an upper level refrigerator, and when I was down in what we call our den, I could look up the steps.

And when I was down in what we call our den, I could look up the steps and when she pulled the freezer, there was condensation rolling out from under the bottom of the freezer and it drifted and faded away within a few feet.

It's Havel, it's a mist, it's a vapor, it's a breath.

There for just a little while and gone.

So take out the words absolute futility of verse 2 and put in these words vaporous, vaporous, says the teacher.

Vapor, vaporous, says the teacher.

Vaporous, vaporous everything is mist.

Does that sound a little different to your understanding than absolute futility?

Absolute futility gives it a negative moral tone, whereas Havel carries more the idea of transitoriness and brevity, without the moral connotation.

What is our life?

It's a puff of wind.

What is our life?

It's a vapor.

More than just futile, chaotic, empty, useless, meaningless.

No, it's something different than that.

All of our lives, every single one of us, every single human on earth lives a Havel life of brevity.

We're just mists that are here for a little while.

There's not a single aspect about our human existence that is not touched by that transitory nature of our life.

If we give ourselves to wisdom, we'll only be wise for a little while we give ourselves to work.

We'll only work for a little while we give ourselves to pumping up our bodies with exercise.

We'll only be strong for a little while we give ourselves to our families.

We'll only be in our family for a little while.

If we have money, we're only going to have it for a little while.

If we enjoy the pleasure of an ice cream cone, it's going to melt, and so will we enjoy the pleasure of an ice cream cone.

It's going to melt, and so will we.

This is what Solomon is driving at, more than just saying life under the sun is absolutely meaningless to actually saying life under the sun is just brief, it only lasts a little while.

And how can you gain wisdom when everything just seems slipping out of your hand all the time, when none of it seems like it really hits you in the satisfaction spot?

That's the journey.

That's the question he's dealing with more.

Yes, he gets into the realities of human existence and the vexations that we feel and the challenges of making sure that we don't make gods out of all the stuff that's here.

Yes, he gets there, but he wants us to know more than just this sort of negative, nihilistic framework that says life sucks and then you die.

It's more than that.

He wants to take us on this journey.

So he immerses himself in work and finds out that work in and of itself is just not it.

He immerses himself in acquisitions and finds out that that's just not it, and he goes into pursuit after pursuit after pursuit after pursuit Some legitimate and some seemingly very illegitimate and comes back saying I didn't find anything there Because it's fleeting and I'm fleeting.

So how are we to live a life in this fleeting world, in this one that's given to change, when we're given to change, when expectations don't always come to pass into change, when expectations don't always come to pass, when you rally behind a leader and then that leader becomes corrupt, when you gain some money and find it has to go, when you enjoy your job and then you have to work right, how do you find any of this?

How do you find help in the middle of an elusive, ephemeral, enigmatic life that's going to end in death?

Well, what does he tell us?

He said there's wisdom in caution, there's wisdom in moderation.

Don't go fully any one direction, thinking that somehow you found the secret because it won't be there.

The answer will not be in any one of those pursuits.

So step back a little bit, be moderate, be cautious, be even keeled.

He goes into that in some ways.

He examines, for instance, your youth.

Enjoy your youth, but remember you're not going to have it forever.

Enjoy your job, but remember it's going to be repetitious.

Enjoy.

He goes there, but he gives you those moderating tones all the time because what he's trying to teach you is these things are gifts, but they're not gods.

They can't give you what only god can give you.

But there are gifts from the God who does give you everything.

So work and money and friends and relatives, and life itself, health, vitality.

All of these things are to be welcomed as gifts, but not as gods.

Be moderate, be moderate, but not as gods, be moderate.

But he also tells you that it's okay to take pleasure in those things.

Counter to this sort of negative, meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless perspective.

Solomon interjects many different times that there truly are pleasures to be had, even in the fleeting moments of life.

Let me read a few of these for us.

Ecclesiastes 2.24.

There's nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.

This I saw, is from the hand of God, for, apart from him, who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

Ecclesiastes 3.10.

I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

He's made everything beautiful in his time.

Also, he's put eternity into man's hearts, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

I perceive there's nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live, and that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all of his toil.

This is God's gift to man.

I perceive that what God does endures forever.

Nothing can be added to it.

What God does endures forever.

Nothing can be added to it.

Ecclesiastes 3.22,.

There's nothing better than for a person to enjoy his activities, because that is his reward.

Ecclesiastes 5.18, I've seen what is seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil to which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given him.

Ecclesiastes 8.15, I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9.7, go, eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Let your garments be white, let not oil be lacking on your head.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your life that he's given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 11.7,.

Light is sweet.

It's pleasing for the eyes to see the sun.

Indeed, if someone lives many years, let him rejoice in them all and let him remember the days of darkness, since they will be many.

All this repetition, all this repetition these are the conclusions in the journey of a ephemeral, vaporous life that there are real pleasures to be had when you take life, in the full picture of it all and understanding its temporary nature, but that God gifts you with things even in the middle of it.

So enjoy your food, enjoy your drink, and understanding its temporary nature, but that God gifts you with things even in the middle of it.

So enjoy your food, enjoy your drink, enjoy your work, enjoy your marriage, enjoy your health, enjoy your strength, enjoy your youth.

You're not going to have it forever.

You're not going to have any of it.

You're going to die.

I'm going to die.

Don't get lost in the details.

Balance your life out.

Work, but take a vacation.

Work out, but don't get angry when you can't go to the gym anymore.

Use your money not just wisely and for the future Remember you may not have one.

Use part of it for pleasures today.

This kind of balanced, holistic perspective about life is the kind of wisdom that Solomon, at the end of his days, when he tried to make a God out of everything, realized that it was better just to think of them as temporary gifts.

And that brings us to the end of the book.

How can you do that?

By ordering your life under the sovereignty of God, by giving yourself to Him rather than giving yourself to your pursuits.

And only when you're rightly oriented with God can you be rightly oriented with your money, with your pleasures, with your family, with your work, with your health.

It's the only way.

This is why, at the end of Ecclesiastes, he says that this teacher is constantly teaching people knowledge.

He weighed, he explored, he arranged Proverbs, he sought to find delightful sayings and to write words of truth accurately.

This is where he wants us to end up.

Can I love it, even though I have to leave it?

Yes, you can, when you first know that God is sovereign, both in your pleasure and in your pain, your pleasure and in your pain.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for giving us a perspective about life that doesn't paper over the realities of its challenges and difficulties.

We thank you that you speak honestly and truthfully to us, but you also grant us something that we wouldn't understand otherwise.

You give us a wisdom from above so that we might know how to live under the sun.

Lord, I pray that you would help us to recognize that all of our simple things in life are actually sacred gifts from you, that the things that we enjoy can be enjoyed when they're put under your sovereignty, when we are looking to you as the first in our life and not trying to make those things which cannot be first, not trying to make those things which cannot be first.

Lord, I pray that you'd help us to appreciate these gifts from you, to appreciate life while we have it, strength while we've got it.

Money while we can use it, work while we're engaged in it, family while we're in it, the body of Christ, while we're here, even in the midst of our vaporous lives, and we pray this Father in Christ's name, amen.