Sep 2 2018 Wisdom - Ecclesiastes 12 - What Matters Most (Trust and Obey God)

Lord, thank You for our opportunity to be with You as a church family. We are Your children and we come together with that heart attitude to look to You as our heavenly Father, the God of all comfort. You have lavished us with Your mercy and grace – we don’t deserve what You have done, but we are grateful.

We are ending Ecclesiastes this week – some of you are saying, Great! I have enjoyed it, if no one else has!

Ecclesiastes 12: 1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no delight in them";

The Teacher uses symbolic poetic language to paint a picture of our enemy, Death.

2 before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened, and clouds return after the rain;

Remember your creator…

3 in the day that the watchmen of the house tremble, and mighty men stoop, the grinding ones stand idle because they are few, and those who look through windows grow dim;

Picture what he is doing as he describes death to us…

4 and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly.

5 Furthermore, men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags himself along, and the caperberry is ineffective. For man goes to his eternal home while mourners go about in the street. 6 Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; 7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

What The Teacher is saying – death brings an end to anything we have accomplished or enjoyed under the sun. Ultimately death makes everything vanity – absurd – hevel.

Senator McCain had a saying – it is always the darkest before it goes pitch black! That is the Teacher – it only gets worse. But the Teacher does not… - in this – remember the creator – before all this, even though he has a dark understanding – he is not saying eat drink and be merry… - nor is he saying in heaven there is no beer, that’s why we drink it here. Instead he has a respect for death and is saying to seize the day for good. Live for today knowing that tomorrow we may die.

The problem with The Teacher is he has lost hope – because of his fixation on death. He has no hope or understanding of life after death…

Ecc. 3:18 I also said to myself, "As for human beings, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"

He is just saying – you are going to die like the animals and we don’t know if our fate will be any different. We have a great hope – Jesus said – I am the resurrection and the life – death is not the end.

Yesterday was Lori Gramlich’s funeral – and at the end we read Revelation 21 – about the new heavens and new earth that awaits us – and how God will wipe away the tears from our eyes. If you have not read Rev. 21 and 22 recently, go home today and read it!

This marks the transition point in the book – we hear the voice of The Author (no longer The Teacher) – if you recall – the first part of Chapter 1 is by The Author – the introduction and conclusion begin with the exact same words – wrapped up in a bow…

Ecc. 12:8 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "all is vanity!"

"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity."

(Ecc. 1:2 NAS)

So from the introduction to the conclusion – vanity of vanities. And what follows verse 8 is an evaluation by The Author of what The Teacher had to say…

What is surprising about the evaluation – it is not all bad! If I were to evaluate his words – I would think he has a problem and needs to see someone… be put on some meds or something. The narrator starts off in a positive way. We need to not write off the Teacher so quickly. He was at a tremendous disadvantage. We live post-resurrection of Jesus – so we have hope – tremendous hope, because we know where that person is. The body is going into the ground, but that person is in the presence of the Lord.

The Author calls the Teacher/Preacher a wise man, teaching people knowledge – a teacher of the nation of Israel.

12: 9 In addition to being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs.

We would say he was well-studied – a scholar.

10 The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.

He spoke truth.

11 The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.

A sharp stick – the words will sometimes sting and bite.

We were in Men’s Ministry this week – and I know what happens in Men’s ministry stays in Men’s Ministry – but we were talking about how God steps on toes. There are times when we need to step on others’ toes. Truth corrects us. As Paul said, when those times come, we must do it with gentleness and grace, looking to ourselves. It is more than that – you have the same problem, Paul says! Jesus said – we look at the speck in someone’s eye and don’t see the log in our own. I think partly what He means there – if you are the person who sees specks all the time, you are the kind of person who has logs all the time! It doesn’t mean it is wrong to see specks, it just means to get logs out!

Every time we see something in another, we think – that is bad! But we should immediately think – what is going on with me? And deal with that fully and completely and help them.

The problem for The Teacher – the truth is of great value and is beneficial, except he only sees the truth in his own experience, under the sun. It has a significant lack of theological truth about the character and nature of God.

When he speaks of death – he speaks truthfully – but there is a lack of theology behind the words. For the teacher, a lack of theological clarity causes him to have a negative relationship with God that leads to despair and a lack of hope. It is important to understand this – because the same things can happen with us. We need to look at reality straight in the face. Our tendency is to deny reality. We are conditioned that way. All the way back to Adam and Eve! We are conditioned to deny reality. We need to look at reality with a proper view of the character and nature of God. We need to look at ourselves knowing God loves us – no matter what we look like –and He is showering us with mercy. It is a dichotomy in our heads – I can’t look at my lousy self and believe that God loves me. If we try to address this without seeing God alongside us, we’ll never make progress. Nothing you do can separate you from God. He is stuck to you and He is going nowhere.

His experience caused doubt about the character of God and created a crisis of faith. There are many who have gone through a crisis of faith and have left the faith – I think because there are so few examples of what God’s character is really like – meaning people who are his followers.

Then after this is the critique – after pumping him up, he brings him back down:

12:12 But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.

Like Proverbs, this is written to a son – but for all of us. The way The Teacher tried to solve his crisis was flawed. He tried to make sense of everything in the world – and so he went into this study to see why there was suffering and injustice – I think he was seeking for a way of philosophy of life that all would be well, secure, and safe under the sun, and that can never be found. There is no magical verse that tells us that all will be well on the earth – in fact, there are plenty of verses that say that it won’t be well!!

I think there is a pattern here, found throughout the Bible. I am going to go back to Genesis 3 – and I encourage you to watch the Bible Project guys’ video on the Themes of the Bible.

September and October, Rick will be doing the adult Sunday School – but starting in November, I will be leading the Adult Sunday School in Genesis.

Gen. 3: but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"

There is really only one aspect of this I want to focus on…

4 The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! 5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

There is a lot there, but a couple quick points – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – the question is WHY? Why does God NOT want people to have a knowledge of Good and Evil? That question should just ring in our minds – why would God say that? Why does God not want you to know Good? The words Good and Evil play an important part in the Old Testament – it comes up over and over again. There is some really important stuff here…

Also, Eve saw that the tree was good for food. Something is good. Where did she hear that before? That would take us to Genesis 1 – The second day – and God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the water He called sea – and God saw it was good.

Eve saw it was good…

…seed in them – and it was good. But he didn’t say it was good the 4^th day or the first – and that is significant and we will talk about that in November!

Then God saw all that He made and it was VERY GOOD.

The Creation narrative is all about God creating a good place for humanity to live. God has taken this formless and void place and has shaped it for us to live in – all about providing what is good for humanity.

What Eve and Adam did - they tried to seize, capture, and take for themselves – the knowledge of good apart from God.

The Teacher in Ecclesiastes is seeking wisdom and good apart from God. He left God out of the equation. The reality is we do this too – wanting to control what is good. We want to determine what is good. God is saying – no, I am the one who provides good for you – don’t try to get it on your own. Trust Me for it.

Cindy and I (and probably many of you) it seems and feels like over the past 15 years or so, an unusually high number of people we know and love have lost spouses way too young. Maybe that is true for everyone, but it feels that way for us. Going to Lori’s funeral – 55 is way too young. For the size of our church – it can shake one’s faith – and the normal response is WHY? Why didn’t God prevent this? How can He allow this? We must learn to turn to God with these questions. We need to go to Him rather than trying to figure it out ourselves. If we think that by figuring it out will give a sense of security – it will not happen for us. That is the lesson from Ecclesiastes. To be able to live today, knowing we may not have tomorrow – making our life matter in the ultimate and very most. The conclusion – back to January – Wisdom -

Ecc. 12:13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

He is saying this is what matters most – trust and obey God. The world, as the Teacher says – is how it is – but God is not the world – He is wholly different! For eternity – we have eternity – we know that God will restore all things and will reward every good that we do.

I am going to read a passage.

Revelation 21: 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

Lord, thank You that we have a glorious hope to look forward to. We turn our eyes to You, we long for that day, when all will be reunited and all will be restored – where our tears will be wiped away and our tears removed. Thank You that that day awaits us. In Your Name we pray. Amen.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.