Wisdom Lit - Ecclesiastes w/Alex Campbell

Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher.

Utterly meaningless.

What do people gain from all the work

at which they toil under the sun?

Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun sets,

then it hurries back to where it began.

Wind blows to the south and then it blows to the north.

Round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.

All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

there they return again.

All things are weirous.

More than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing,

the ear never its fill of hearing.

What has been will be again

and what has been done will be done again.

Is there anything at which someone can say,

look, this is something new.

It was here already, long ago.

It was here before our time.

No one remembers the former generations.

Even those yet to come will not be remembered

by those who follow them.

So welcome to Ecclesiastes, where everything is meaningless.

Yeah, that's good intro, right?

Everything is meaningless, right?

I do have a strong connection to this book.

I read it a lot in my junior year of college,

particularly right after I hated in my first test

in reinforced concrete design.

I sat in the hallway waiting for a friend

since I finished way too early.

I had to have missed something, right?

And I read what I could of Ecclesiastes.

I read it again after I had ended in the final of that class

and found out I received a 27% on that exam.

It's okay, on the curve it was like 50%.

So, you know.

But there's Reddit, trying to convince myself

this is meaningless, you know.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, there are two characters,

one author and one teacher.

And the teacher is most commonly attributed to King Solomon,

who after being crowned king, asked God for wisdom.

Not riches or fame or peace, but for wisdom.

And God granted him wisdom, not just wisdom,

but peace and wealth as well.

And so this book is also most commonly called

a fictional autobiography, which means it's believed

to have been written long after King Solomon had passed,

but still written in his kingly persona, right?

The author, who is unknown, weaves himself

in and out of this book.

And so it's possible that these are some

of Solomon's teachings, but at the very least,

it was written in the same level of wisdom as King Solomon.

Right, so the good thing about the author

is that he provides a nice little summary

at the end of this book, in case the words

of the teacher become overwhelming.

The book is very similar to that introduction,

so if you are overwhelmed by that, there's more to come.

There's more.

The teacher doesn't hold back on his thoughts.

Teacher doesn't hold back on his thoughts

in the way that God created this world,

the way that he has ordered and structured

and interacts with this world, with his creation.

And because of it, is in this book

that the realities of life, both the highs

and the lows, the immense blessing,

and the gut-wrenching evil are questioned.

And those questions are aimed directly at God.

The words of this book can be like an affirmation

of a close friend, while wrestling with the perplexing

and disheartening experiences we have in life,

including college tests.

So no, you're not alone in such questions.

But for others, admittedly, reading this book

will bring confusion, misunderstanding,

or just pure pessimism.

But Ecclesiastes, it does level such extremes.

And not that they're not there,

not ignoring these extremes,

just the opposite that they are there,

both blessing and evil, both things we can understand

and things that leave us with immense frustration.

And this disparity is primarily formed

around this one word, meaningless.

Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher,

and is used 38 times throughout the 12 chapters.

I think that's a lot, I think that's a lot.

And as often is with translated languages,

the English word doesn't quite encompass

what the Hebrew word used here.

Meaningless is close, but the teacher isn't saying

that life has no meaning.

Other translations use vanity.

But the teacher isn't saying that life

should be self-centered, or that everything is worthless.

Other translations still use fertility,

but the teacher isn't saying life is without purpose.

So the Hebrew word here is hevel.

Literally, it means smoke or vapor.

Now, smoke is solid, right, but it's constantly moving.

It's real, you can see it, but you try to grab onto it

and it slips through your fingers.

And when surrounded by smoke, it can be disorienting.

Hevel, then, is a paradox, an enigma, a mysterious puzzle.

And it's not that everything is meaningless,

but the meaning is unclear, oftentimes.

It cannot be held.

You think you understand it, but then it seems to change.

See, Proverbs last week is an order

in which things are supposed to happen, right?

Most of Proverbs have a defined cause and effect relationship.

If you just flip to Proverbs, right, and read one,

a good person leaves an inheritance

for their children's children,

but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.

Cause and effect, almost all of Proverbs is that way.

But Ecclesiastes acknowledges that it doesn't always happen

the way things are supposed to happen.

There are other factors in play.

And the teacher does identify these three factors

in particular.

Number one, the march of time.

And as I read before, generations come, generations go.

No one remembers the former generations.

There's nothing new under the sun.

Time continues.

We are limited by the time that we are given

and the time in which we live.

And it keeps on going with or without us,

which brings us to number two, death.

The teacher says the wise and the fool have the same fate.

Humans have the same fate as animals.

What benefit do we have?

He asks.

One thing we can be sure of life is that it will end.

And the third thing is chance.

Chapter nine, verse 11 says,

"'The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong,

"'nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliance

"'or favor to the learned,

"'but time and chance happen to them all.'"

So time, death, and chance force the teacher

to ask, what is this all for?

If the outcome of my life is not in my control,

if all I do, why am I here?

If everything is heve, where does that leave us?

Where does that leave you?

Most often, it leaves us feeling empty.

And it leads us into despair.

Despite these external factors,

the human condition seeks to gain some semblance of control

over these factors.

We try to gain control over these aspects of our lives,

but then we sink into this despair

when it doesn't turn out the way that we had planned.

And this is exactly where we find the teacher

in Ecclesiastes.

So if Proverbs is our optimistic friend,

Ecclesiastes is definitely our pessimistic friend.

And while the book is sombering, and it's supposed to be,

for the Christian, for the Christian,

the message is also steeped in hope.

But to get there, right?

The teacher is gonna take us on his own journey of despair.

If you have a Bible, you are welcome to open it.

We're gonna speed through a couple of these chapters.

It might be beneficial.

So, book of Ecclesiastes, so while in chapter one,

as I read, everything is heve as it begins.

This is more of a conclusion than the start of his journey,

which starts just after that, and it starts for wisdom.

And he found that wisdom cannot fix

the brokenness of humanity.

Cannot fix the brokenness of humanity.

But it also brings us sorrow for recognizing it.

So he said gaining wisdom is heve.

So now, wrecked with grief,

the teacher sets out to test pleasure,

find out what is good.

Says he denied himself nothing.

He built houses, built gardens, enjoyed the finest food,

gaining wealth and gold and livestock, entertainment.

It says all the delights of a man's heart.

And after a while, he looked back

and he surveyed what he had done,

and he said it was a chasing after the wind.

Nothing was gained under the sun.

He never achieved what he was looking for.

So he said seeking pleasure was heve.

So he moves back to wisdom,

but not just wisdom, but also folly.

Chapter two, folly would be like living

for the weekend party, the last, the entertainment,

whatever it is, just to mask the sorrow in his heart.

This is the folly that he is pursuing,

but when the party is over, his emptiness returned.

And he admits here that wisdom is better than folly, right?

But again, he came to realize the same fate

overtakes both the wise and the fool, namely death.

And neither are long remembered.

So he said wisdom and folly are both hevel.

And at this point, it says he began to hate life.

Questions of purpose and meaning nagged at him.

He considered all of his works to gain wisdom,

to enjoy the pleasures of earth,

and to understand folly just to discover

that it is meaningless.

All things would be handed over to someone else,

and who knows if that person would act wisely

or foolishly, possibly undoing everything that he had done.

This is hevel.

And so his frustrations are building and building,

and then something seems to change, a spark of hope.

Chapter two, 24 through 25,

a person can do nothing better than to eat, drink,

and find satisfaction in their own toil.

This too I see is from the hand of God,

for without him who can eat or find enjoyment?

To the person who pleases him, God gives him wisdom,

knowledge, and happiness, but to the sinner,

he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth

to hand it over to the one who pleases God.

This too is hevel, chasing after the wind.

So reading along, this kind of catches you off guard.

One second we're talking about everything is meaningless,

and now we're talking about the gift of God.

And though this inclusion appears enthusiastic,

and that's the way I wanna read it, it's like, yeah.

It's not, it's not.

These conclusions are more of a resignation,

like it's not much, but this is all he's got to offer us.

He is still in the midst of despair,

searching for something.

So the teacher continues on his journey,

continues in chapter four and five to consider impression,

toil, friendlessness, advancement, and wealth.

He saw the oppressed have no comforter,

that all toil and achievement is rooted

in envy of one another, that working leads us

to a place where we have no friends to lean on.

And as you advance in status,

there's just more people to oppose you,

and that riches don't satisfy.

It's never enough, and someone else

ends up enjoying it anyway.

That it's all hevel.

And it goes on like this, it keeps going.

And we're on chapter five of 12, guys, it keeps going.

Being surrounded by the smoke of despair,

considering all of these things.

Leaving little sparks of resigned hope, right?

But what is this all leading to?

What is this all leading to?

So if you would now open your Bibles to Ecclesiastes,

we are gonna jump to the end, chapter 12, verses nine

through 14.

There are Bibles on your table, as I said,

you can take those home if you need.

And we do have a tradition of standing

when we read the scriptures in context of a sermon,

if however you're, if you're willing and able to do that.

So if you would stand with me,

we're gonna read Ecclesiastes 12, nine through 14.

This is the author's conclusion

of what the teacher, the teacher's journey.

Not only was the teacher wise,

but he also 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.

The words otherwise are like goats.

They're collected sayings like firmly embedded nails

given by one shepherd.

Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.

Of making many books, there is no end

and much study wearies the body.

Now all has been heard.

Here is the conclusion of the matter.

Fear God and keep his commandments

for this is the duty of all mankind.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,

including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Let's pray for them.

Father, we just thank you for this day.

And we pray that you would just move our hearts today

into understanding what this book means for us.

God, that you would give us the grace,

the patience to read it.

In your name we pray, amen.

Let me see.

The teacher has shown us his life, his journey,

that life is a frustrating and senseless act of God

who is responsible for all of this hevel in life.

And the author here does not hide that.

The author doesn't dispute the teacher and say,

quiet, you can't say such things about God.

No, God needs no such defense.

God is big enough for these questions.

And fearing God and keeping his commandments

does not come with a disclaimer that you can't ask questions,

especially when you're disoriented by the smoke around you.

There are those who live wisely.

It's exercising goodness, righteousness, and maturity

and still experience tragedy.

And there are those that live unwisely

and experience comfort and splendor.

Church, our hope must not be in these things.

Our hope cannot be in the pleasures of this earth,

our wealth, our work, our accomplishments,

our status, or our knowledge.

It cannot be stored up.

And when these things become the satisfaction of our lives,

then we experience this despair of hevel

and to these things, there is no end.

Ecclesiastes 7.29 says as much.

It says, God created man upright,

but they have gone in search of many schemes.

All of these things we seek to store up

or control is a perpetuation of the very first sin, right?

Searching for something greater,

trying to achieve godliness without God.

This was Adam and Eve given life in the presence of God

when they ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge

of good and evil, seeking to be like God.

It was Abraham given a promise from God

that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars

when he had a son with his servant Hagar

in an attempt to self-fulfill God's promise for an heir.

It was King David, Solomon's father,

when he grew complacent, didn't go to war,

took Bathsheba and had her husband killed

in an attempt to avoid repentance.

It was Peter attacking the soldiers, arresting Jesus

because his understanding of salvation

was so narrowly limited to governmental authorities.

It was even King Solomon,

though credit with much the biblical wisdom literature

became lost in the despair of hevel,

just like the teacher in Ecclesiastes.

1 King 11 tells us that he loved many foreign women,

700 wives and 300 concubines.

And as Solomon grew old,

his wives turned his heart away from God and to other gods.

So much so that Solomon built and sacrificed on altars

to these foreign gods.

This is the man who built the temple of God.

Over and over again, the people of God have made

and continue to make decisions that are based

on the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God.

This is us.

It's not just the evildoers, the unchurched,

the people at our workplaces or people we see on TV,

the people of God making decisions

based off of what makes sense to us,

grasping at that control rather than God's way.

Rather than God's way.

One of the first memories I have of Sunday school,

must have been in the second grade maybe,

teacher had brought in a bag of candy, like many Snickers,

and she had us hold out our hands

to come around and give us each piece of candy.

So what do you think a seven-year-old does

when a piece of candy gets put in their hand?

Yep, probably the same thing most adults do, right?

Clench our fists.

Take hold of what was given to us.

It's mine, you gave it to me, and I'm gonna keep it.

So you can imagine one by one, these seven-year-olds

taking hold of what was given in their hands.

Remember, this was Sunday school,

so candy wasn't handed out without meaning.

So the rule was, which was told after

that candy was given out, if your hand was closed,

you had to give your piece of candy

to someone whose hand was open.

How do you think those kids felt?

They were pretty bummed out, all right?

They thought they scored just by coming to church that day.

What about the few kids, the very few kids

that still had their hands open?

How did they feel?

What did they do now that they had more candy

than they could even fit in their hand?

They gave them back.

They gave them back.

This is a simple metaphor for how we live our lives

and how we ought to live our lives.

This is the lesson of Hevel.

When something good comes our way, we grasp at it.

We take hold on it, right?

We hold onto it to not let it leave.

So when it goes away, it really bums us out,

because the attachment was created

with the little good that fit in our hand

rather than the one who gave it.

But in those times that we're able to hold our hands open,

allowing the good and the bad to be given and taken away,

Hevel becomes the gift that allows us to enjoy life.

Consider these things that the teacher has looked at today.

Consider wisdom, the insight we gain,

and the knowledge that you have, right?

We hold onto that tightly.

Some weaponize it against those without it, right?

Just to puff up their own image

or just to tear the other person down.

But even when it is used well,

it isn't enough to fix the brokenness.

That's Hevel.

Consider the pleasures.

When we're enjoying the good in life,

we don't want it to leave.

We're so desperately grasping at the good,

we stress about it.

Family vacations, anyone?

Right?

We're so busy pursuing pleasure,

we never reach it.

We never stop and enjoy it.

That's Hevel.

Consider toil and advancement and riches.

We overwork, employed, at home, hobbies,

whatever we do, right?

What is it all for?

Again, Ecclesiastes isn't saying

it's without meaning or purpose, right?

But the pursuit of financial security and achievement

threaten to be the defining characteristic of who we are.

Go, go, go, more, more, more, climb the ladder,

make more, be more.

And then it ends.

That's Hevel.

And our desire for control ends up controlling us.

The hope of Hevel, the hope we have,

is in our God who is coming to judge all people,

every deed, good and evil.

And if this thought causes anxiety or fear, right,

you may be close fisting something

you're not meant to control.

Because Ecclesiastes exposes the brokenness,

not just in our world, but if you let it,

the sin in your heart.

But believers, church, this is our hope.

This is our hope.

This is what we've been looking forward to,

that God will make all things right.

That the mess in our lives will be cleaned up

through the forgiveness of our sins.

That He will judge the righteousness in our lives.

That exists independent of the circumstances

in which we live.

That He will judge the evil in our lives

and of those around us.

Things will finally be set right.

The righteous will finally get what the righteous deserve

every time and the wicked will get what the wicked deserve

every time.

The beauty of Hevel is that life is not ours control

and it's not meant to be.

And I think history has proven this to be a good thing.

So while Ecclesiastes exposes the reality

that we're not in control of the outcomes of life,

it also provides the hope and direction

that we are in control of how we approach

and respond to life.

Hevel instead of despair is a gift

that enhances our life rather than diminishes it.

Because it leads us to fear the Lord.

To fear the God who is in control,

who does give and take away.

And there we are back at the introduction of Proverbs.

1 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge

but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So I'd like to read one other verse from Ecclesiastes

to those one of those sparks of hope

that we talked about earlier just to ground

and this hope of Hevel.

It's found in three, chapter three, verse 10 through 14.

I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

He has also set eternity into the human heart

yet no one can fathom what God has done

from beginning to end.

I know that there's nothing better for people

than to be happy to do good while they live.

That each of them may eat and drink

and find satisfaction in their toil.

This is the gift of God.

I know that everything God does will endure forever.

Nothing can be added to it and nothing taking away from it.

God does it so that people will fear Him.

Eternity is set in the human heart.

The desire to live righteously forever is in your heart.

The desire to know God is ingrained in you.

It is ingrained in this church.

It is ingrained in your neighbor that doesn't know Jesus yet

but his heart is searching for him.

His creation wants to be with God

and our continual grasping at these good things in life

is our meaningless attempt to get there.

We see the gift, we see the God

and the gifts of knowledge and wisdom,

enjoyment of work, the food we love,

the cool breeze on your face,

the security of wealth, achievement, success.

But it's when we hold on to these things,

not wanting them to disappear,

we can't even understand these things.

It's Heavile.

It's meant to point us to something bigger, something better,

even if that something is outside of our comprehension.

Verse 14 says, God does it so that people will fear Him.

And he's referring to the finality of God's way

that He endures forever.

But nothing can be added or taken away.

And this too is good news.

But there is no pleasure or wisdom or plan or achievement

or wealth or good deed or happiness

that can add to who God is.

Our God is.

And that can be a sharp truth.

We want our accomplishments on this earth

to have some impact beyond ourselves.

We naturally want to defend ourselves saying,

look what I do for God.

Look what I believe it's right.

But also consider that there's no dissatisfaction

or folly or mistake or toil or sin or sadness or evil

that takes away from who God is, our God is.

There's nothing good or bad, right or wrong,

mature or immature that adds or detracts from who our God is.

What is really incomprehensible

is that we have an invitation from God to join Him,

to participate with Him.

These wisdom books like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job

are all written and read before Jesus's birth.

The wisdom that was attained by,

this wisdom was attained by studying

the Old Testament scriptures.

Wisdom in a larger context is discernment of God's ways.

It fills in the gaps of the law

by forming principles to live by

that would accomplish the intent of the law.

And wisdom is rarely pleasant in the moment.

Wisdom is the sharp, firmly embedded nail

at the end of the stick that our shepherd uses

to guide and correct it hurts.

But with firmly embedded nails, it does not falter or fail.

It's rarely the easiest or simplest decision,

but it is consistent and true.

And Jesus came to fill full those gaps.

Jesus showed us that wisdom

in what we call the Sermon on the Mount

found in Matthew five and seven.

And Jesus lived in fear of God keeping His commandments.

And in doing so, I believe enjoyed life.

The suffering servant as Isaiah calls him

was not overcome with the despair of Heavil,

but rested in the hope of Heavil.

And when you can face the absurdities of life,

instead of desperately trying to figure it out,

choose to trust God to make it make sense.

Ask the questions.

Because wisdom is not an elevated state of knowledge

or something that you can achieve.

It's a process of discernment and activity.

Wisdom is taking what you know and what you experience

and participating in a way that pleases the Lord.

So let's participate now in sharing of the body and blood

of our Savior who is patient with us.