"Work
and Wisdom
in the Presence of
God"
A Sermon
on Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 & 12:8-14
September
15, 2002
by Rev. Stephen C.
Magee
Introduction: The Way of Wisdom
Today we begin the consideration of
one of the biblical books of wisdom from the Old Testament, the book of
Ecclesiastes. God has wisdom for us in
all of His Word, but there are certain books of the Bible that demand especially
careful consideration as God's guides us in something called "the way of
wisdom." Ecclesiastes is one of
them. As we approach this book, we do
well to remember the instruction of the author of the letter of the Hebrews in
the New Testament who tells us that the one who wants to follow the God of
heaven and earth must diligently seek him:
Hebrews 11:6 6 ... without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek
Him.
There are wonderful lessons for the
people of God in the book before us. But
the author seems to have structured them in such a way that those who would
diligently seek wisdom would find it, and the casual reader might not get the
point. I offer this as an explanation of
why I have printed an outline of the book in the bulletin this morning, and why
I am doing the beginning and ending passages of the book in my first
sermon. The book is very carefully structured
in the Hebrew. Themes are often dealt
with in more than one place, and the way that the
passages are organized lead the diligent reader to the key text in a given
section of the book, the text that helps to order the entire section.
The book has an opening prologue
with a statement of the motto of the book, and it ends with a second reading of
the motto, followed by the closing epilogue which brings a conclusion to the
whole of the work. In between these
inverse bookends are three carefully structured cycles that deal with themes of
wisdom and work in the world that God has made, and in which we live. The diligent seeker after God would see the
parallel vocabulary and themes in a given section, and work toward the middle
for the "Aha!" verse or verses that might help clarify the point to
us that God has written through his servant.
Frankly, the book is beyond my
abilities. I am not a Hebrew
scholar. Thankfully, there are others
who are using these gifts for the good of the church. I am in their debt, and thankful to God for
them. Particularly, I have been strongly
influenced by the work of Meredith Kline the younger, who has put together an
excellent outline of the book, and written the verses by verse commentary for
the New Geneva or Reformation Study Bible. I am also indebted to the Old Testament
scholar, Walter Kaiser for his short book, Ecclesiastes:
Total Life, and J. I. Packer for his chapter on the Wisdom of God in his
excellent work Knowing God.
I say all this before we begin this
morning as an encouragement to you to seek the Lord with both diligence and
humility. I will promise to do the
same. Every word of this book of wisdom
is true, and understanding it rightly will help us serve God as we walk in the
way of wisdom together, in the light of God's perfect work and wisdom displayed
in His Son, Jesus Christ.
TEXT:
Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 and 12:8-14
1:1 Prologue
The
words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in
1:2
Motto
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher;
"Vanity of vanities, all is
vanity."
[1:3-3:8 Cycle 1 The Problem of Work and Wisdom]
[3:9-6:7 Cycle 2 Work in Fear Before God
Whose
Work Endures]
[6:8-12:7 Cycle 3 Seek Wisdom in Humility Before God
Whose
Wisdom is Unfathomable]
12:8
Motto
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher,
"All is vanity."
12:9-14 Epilogue
9 And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still
taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order
many proverbs. 10 The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and
what was written was upright -- words of truth. 11 The words of the
wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails,
given by one Shepherd. 12 And further, my son,
be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end,
and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
13
Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter:
Fear
God and keep His commandments,
For
this is man's all.
14
For God will bring every work into
judgment,
Including
every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.
Definition:
"Qoheleth"
The title of this book
"Ecclesiastes" comes from a Latin translation of a Hebrew word. That Hebrew word Qoheleth,
is translated here "preacher," and it is one
of the clues that helps us to connect the prologue and epilogue of the
book. The word means literally "the
gatherer" or "the assembler," with the understanding that the
ones who are being assembled into the assembly are the covenant people. Qoheleth, or
Ecclesiastes, is the one who calls the assembly of
God's people together.
Who is this Quoheleth? We have some clues in the two texts before
us. He is the son of the great King
David. He himself is a king in
With all of this said, and because
of other linguistic considerations, I find it hard to consider that the human
author is anyone other than the great King Solomon, also the author of many
proverbs, more than one Psalm, and the Song of Songs also known as the Song of
Solomon. This is a matter of some
importance, since if we are able to identify Qoheleth
as Solomon, we have some very helpful information in the historical books of
the Old Testament that allow us to match the account of the life of Solomon
with the divinely inspired insights on living that God has caused to bring
through his work of wisdom.
Solomon went through many
experiences in his life, and these experiences form further clear points of
connection between the author and the topics of this book. Not all of those experiences were good and
upright. First Kings 11 tells us some of
that story of Solomon gathering foreign wives to himself and eventually
participating in the worship of foreign idols.
The Scripture tells us:
I Kings 11:9-13
9 ... the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his
heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10 and had
commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods;
but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded. 11 Therefore
the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I
will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12 Nevertheless
I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear
it out of the hand of your son. 13 However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will
give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake
of
I believe that Solomon repented
concerning this matter after this third announcement of the Lord to him. While He would still face the consequences
that God had announced, yet He would be remembered by later biblical authors as
a great King and as a proper model of the expected Messianic King, along with
his repentant father David. As Walter
Kaiser points out in his commentary on Ecclesiastes (Total Life, 1979) "There is in the book an air of repentance
and humility for past values and performance." (p. 31) For this reason, it seems wise to place the
writing of this book not before or during his falling away from the Lord and
his commandments, but after that time, very possibly making this book his
divinely inspired reflection on life as a result of repentance granted to Him
after receiving discipline from his loving Heavenly Father. This helps us to see "the conclusion of
the whole matter" referred to in the epilogue as the conclusion of the
whole of Qoheleth's life as the covenant leader of
the people God, "Fear God.... Keep His commandments.... God will bring
every work into judgment."
Vanity
There is one other challenging Hebrew
word worthy of investigation as we begin our consideration of this book. It is the word "hevel"
which means literally vapor or breath, and is translated here vanity. The motto of the book is perplexing. "Vanity of vanities.
All is vanity." What does
this mean?
This word hevel
is used in several other passages in the Old Testament in frequent connection
with things that are very temporary. A vapor. A breath. A wind. A shadow. A fleeting fantasy. Something that is passing.
Something with no solid purpose or profit. Especially something that will not last. This is very important for us to see if we
are to get the point of this book.
Everything around us seems so solid - so forever. But it is not. Only in God's eternity do we see a solid foundation. Yet we must live this breath of a life - this
fleeting shadow - this vanity, with joy and a recognition that everything we do
in this world is subject to the judgment of our eternal God.
I was teaching some of our young
people this last Thursday about Romanian history and politics as part of our
effort to help them to understand the context for mission work in that
country. I have often thought about how
fleeting one human life can be - how little we, or anyone else has left from
our great-grandfather or great-grandmother.
But as I was doing some research, I was struck by how little information
we have on this eastern European region from the year 300 to the year 1800 - a
period of about 1500 years. 1500 years
is a long time. Many of the occupying
Romans withdrew in 271-272 because of repeated attacks from other military
powers. It was not until 1918 that the
country as we know it today would be formed.
Listen to this paragraph from one source, that
picks up the story about 100 years after the Roman leaders have withdrawn:
Over the next millennium, Asiatic and Turkic tribes
flooded into Romanian territory, usually to devastating effect. Indigenous romani
were either absorbed by the interlopers or took refuge from them in the
mountains. Along with Dacian, Greek and Roman blood, modern Romanians can trace
their ancestry to Goths, Huns, Avars, Gepids, Slavs, Cumans, Magyars, Pechenegs and Tartars, until in the 14C their
Romanian-speaking forbears were strong enough to establish independent principalities
in Moldavia and Wallachia. However, archaeology has yet to trace the
exact movements of the romani during this period. (The Blue Guide, Juler,
2000)
Vanity of Vanities.
It is one thing to lose track of one's own ancestors six or seven generations
back. But get this, someone seems to
have misplaced well over 1000 years of an entire culture. All we have left are a few pieces of pottery
and some bones.
When Qoheleth
says that life is a breath, he is not speaking as a hardened old cynic, or even
as a religious evangelist trying to scare people into a more serious interest
in God. He is simply telling the honest
truth. Since sin has entered into this
world through Adam, while our hearts yearn for eternity, we must live out our
lives in a world that does not last - a world that is passing away - and a
world that we really do not understand.
Qoheleth
will have much to say about this problem of vanity as we delve into the first
cycle of the book - the section that explores the nature of the human problem
with our fleeting work and wisdom. But
this morning we have the privilege of the excited mystery novel reader who
sneaks a look at the last chapter to see if the butler did in fact do it. We see the companion passage that purports to
give us the conclusion of the whole matter - not just of this book but of the
life that this hero of the faith has lived, with all his great accomplishments,
all his building projects, all his great governance, all his work at compiling
divinely-inspired wisdom, and even all his deep sin, rebellion, confrontation
with the living God, and apparent repentance and faith. Here it is: Fear God. Keep His commandments. Live your life in the Eternal One as you walk
the way of wisdom in the vanities of this world, enjoying even those vanities
as gifts of the eternal God, but not building your life on them.
There is a way of sensible living:
Main Point: Life,
with all its vanities, is to be lived in the presence of God.
Application:
Fear God.
We are told to fear God. I have for some time been reading the account
of a Scottish missionary. This man, John
Paton, traveled to cannibalistic islands in the
Pacific to bring the message of eternal life to the inhabitants of those
lands. The natives there had a slavish
fear of spiritual entities that led them to participate in demonic and
degrading practices. They certainly had
a fear of their gods, but it is nothing like what Solomon writes of when he
instructs us that we are to fear God. In
another place he says that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). Here he
says it is the conclusion of the whole matter.
But what is it?
Let me put it very simply. To fear God is to take Him seriously as
God. If you do not take Him seriously as
God, then you do not fear Him. How do
you know whether you are taking God seriously?
If you fear Him, then you will hear Him.
He has spoken in His Word. He has
told us who He is. He has told us what
He loves. He has shown us the way to
go. He has provided us with a sure way
to Him through His Son. If you fear Him,
you will hear Him, and you will love Him and follow Him, and you will find life
in Him. That is the conclusion of the
whole matter.
You will not get all the answers that
you desire in this world of vanity. You
will face trial and injustice. But you
will do it as one who knows that a Redeemer died for you and lives for you. He is Christ, the wisdom of God, and Christ,
the power of God
Keep His Commandments.
Fear God, and keep his
commandments. The weight of
commandment-keeping can seem like an unbearable burden. How can you carry the load - especially if
you recognize that commandment-keeping is not just having good intentions, or
being better in your own eyes than the next sinner, or meeting more of your
personal goals? Commandment-keeping is
perfect obedience to the law of a perfectly holy God who knows ever hidden
thing, whether good or evil, and will bring it all into judgment. How can you carry the load?
I have help for you. Christ carried the load for you in every
breath that he breathed, every word that he said and did not say,
every thought and action, with all patience and long-suffering in this life of
vanities. Christ took your burden of
guilt on the cross when he died for your sins.
Christ won your victory in His resurrection. Christ supplies You
with the greatest gift in His Holy Spirit.
His work is perfect. His wisdom
is flawless. He is your
Commandment-Keeper. Now, by the strength
that He provides through the grace of the gospel, fear God and keep his
commandments, as one who takes God seriously.
The first matter to attend to ...
As we look at this book together,
particularly over the next several weeks, I trust that you are going to see the
problem of human life with greater clarity and depth than you have before
because of God's words given through Qoheleth. When someone begins to see the overwhelming
vanity of human life, I believe that they face three choices.
First, you can hide your head in the
sand and pretend that everything is ducky.
Second, you can become another
bitter and angry person, and live a life of complaining and disputing.
Third, you can humble yourself
before God, who has the final Word.
If you choose this final option,
then humility is the first matter to attend to.
Neither you nor I understand everything that is happening around us,
either individually or culturally.
Laziness of body and soul is no solution for us. Dour grumpiness is not recommended. God has the way for you - the way of
wisdom. Diligently seek Him. Humbly rest in His work, and then take joy in
the works that He has for you. Humbly
trust in His wisdom, and take every thought captive to Christ, as He gives you
opportunity to grow in knowledge and understanding. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.