Keep sharing good news without ads.
Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:12-17
Well this morning we return to our time in Ecclesiastes after having that short reprieve of the retreat where we were looking at some other passages related to our theme of putting away idols and as we return to Ecclesiastes Don't have much by way of review of getting us back up to speed other than simply reminding us of the programmatic question that began Chapter 1 verse 3 which is really animating the entirety of the book.
And that question is what prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the Sun that's that's in some ways the question of Ecclesiastes and it certainly has begun the investigations of Kohelet that have occupied chapter 1 verse 26 all the way through the end of chapter 2 as we.
As we're approaching the end of chapter 2 as we saw in our reading just a few moments ago We're coming up to the first of a series of what are called the carpe diem Statements and these are always tied to these vexing questions about meaning about gain about purpose and so we're going to break through that into a poem about the time that God has ordained for Mankind and then again looking at the haunting prospect of death in chapter 3 this morning.
We're going to consider death as. Well, it's more of an introductory view of what's coming in the weeks ahead. And the past few sermons we've looked at this quest of Kohelet. To make sense of life under the Sun to find out what profit a man has from all his toil Under the Sun a few weeks ago.
We had the message of the folly of wisdom of applying his mind To knowledge to study to try to figure it out and to see in the end how hollow and empty that application was. And then. Two weeks ago. We considered the pain of pleasure that as he gave himself over to every luxury and indulgence in life.
Hoping there he could he could somehow sate the thirst of his soul somehow satisfy eternity placed within his heart. We found that only led him to pain to a certain numb hollowness. It was the pain of pleasure.
And this morning we're going to consider rather challenging phrase that we find in verse 17. It's the hatred of life so from chapter 1 we're looking again at a testimony of Kohelet I the preacher I Kohelet was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
We turn our attention to chapter 2 beginning in verse 12. Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who succeeds the king only what he has already done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
The wise man's eyes are in his head. But the fool walks in darkness yet. I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all. So I said in my heart as it happens to the fool. It also happens to me and Why was I then more wise?
Then I said in my heart this also is vanity. But there's no more remembrance of the wise and of the fool forever. Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come and how does a wise man die as the fool?
Therefore I hated life. Because the work that was done under the Sun was distressing to me for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. So let's begin at verse 12. We'll walk through these verses and then build some application toward the end.
Kohlet writes. I turned myself. It's literally in the Hebrew. I I turned to my heart again. He's putting himself his life his heart on the autopsy table. He's dissecting and picking apart every strain every motive every glimmer of possible Answers to this vexing question of what there is to be gained.
He turned again within himself. He turns to consider wisdom madness and folly. He's now turning away from the things that he had pursued and sought to understand in verses 1 through 11. The things that make for happiness.
The things that make for love of life grandeur luxury amassing great wealth. Accomplishing great things. All the acquisitions and accomplishments that a king could possibly muster. He did it more than anyone before him and he found it bankrupt at the end.
So having pursued luxury and pleasure in this way, he turns an entirely different way. I'm going to turn against that and just consider wisdom and madness and folly. In other words, I'm going to seek the benefit of living wisely not self indulgently not luxuriously.
But living wisely you could almost say living stoically even to the point of madness. Why would someone put themselves through this he goes from indulgence to deprivation? From a sort of open-handed hedonism to now a very trained and focused Stoicism and he sees as a result of turning his heart over to wisdom verse 13 that wisdom Excels folly like light excels darkness.
Now. This is really important. Some commentators Think this is actually a setup that Kohelet is putting the wiffle ball on The post because he's about to bash a home run that this isn't actually his view at all.
His view is that wisdom too is vanity and grasping for the wind. I don't think that's true at all. This is wisdom literature and wisdom literature. Even the challenging straights of Ecclesiastes is meant to highlight and praise the virtue of wisdom.
And I think Kohelet understands the truth of this statement in verse 13 wisdom really does excel folly. That's really true. That's true simultaneous to the fact that ultimately wisdom also is vanity.
And.
We have to establish the truth of verse 13 and understand understand the conclusion of verses 16 and 17. It's because this is true that his heart begins to ache in verse 17. Wisdom really is better than foolishness.
Light really is better than darkness, but at the end the fool and the wise man died the same way. That's the heartache. That's the the vexing Frustration of life under the Sun so we start with the fact that wisdom excels folly and he uses as a metaphor to explain that that Excelling power that excelling virtue of wisdom that light is better than darkness.
This is manifestly true to our experience, isn't it? Have you ever had a power outage at night? I might my study. It's has no light. It's it's just bookcases and bookcases and bookcases. There's no light.
There's probably not enough air moving through there. I probably have black lung. For all that for the time that I spend. But I remember being in the study and we lost power. This is some years ago and everything went pitch black and all sudden I'm trying to mental map my way around The shelves so everything is instantly pitch black.
Yes light is better than darkness. Think about wisdom and folly in terms of navigating life. It's better to have light shed on your path in the midst of the darkness than to have no light at all. Of course, that's true.
Kohelet knows that to be true clearly light clearly wisdom is better than foolishness. Compared to fools the wise are able to actually navigate and make sense of some of the hardest challenges and obstacles in life.
The Psalms like like Proverbs hold out the glories of wisdom. And I think Kohelet for his part fully affirms this fully agrees with this. The upright are wise. Psalm 112 says light dawns in the darkness for those who are upright.
There's a certain light about the way they understand life and the way they walk through life. They're not walking in darkness. Light has shown on them. Light has shown them the way that they are to walk and so they're able to navigate their life through a dark world.
Toward God as a result of this light as a result of this wisdom. He gives another metaphor the wise man's eyes are in his head verse 14. In other words because of the mind. Because of this knowledge this wisdom that is possessed.
It's as if his head his mind his knowledge has given him eyes. He can see in a way that the fool cannot see he has eyesight. Through his knowledge through his wisdom the fool however walks in darkness.
Again, that's a bedrock affirmation. That the upright are wise the upright have eyes in their head that we are to walk according to the light of God's wisdom. And we are able to walk according to the light of God's wisdom.
This is an amen to that truth that resounds throughout the book of Proverbs, but here's the fundamental vexation. I Myself perceived the same event happens to them all. It's an interesting word. I myself perceived the same event happens to them all the same event.
It's a it's a very good translation to just say event the Septuagint takes up this Hebrew term and translates that translates it as TK, which is.
Fate.
Or chance. It's speaking to the mechanism of fortune the mechanism of fate. But really the term here needs to be stripped of that connotation. The Hebrew term Micra is simply the thing that happens. Simply the event itself.
It's not talking about what leads to that event. What causes that event? It's just the event itself. And what is the event? It's death. This is the first encounter we have with death in the book of Ecclesiastes.
It will not be the last the same event happens to them all. Thinking of death as an event an Inevitable event. It happens and and the idea of happening there is we don't necessarily know when or how it will happen.
But we know that it will happen. That's what's being captured here in verse 14. This event will happen to all. And it will happen as some event. John Golden gay and his commentary says this is the unpredictable predictability.
We know it's going to happen. But only the Lord knows the manner the hour the event of death. The specter of death the looming shadow of death. This is what causes Koholet to bear down into the misery of life under the Sun.
Whatever I do, however wisely I live. However, I apply my mind whether to pleasure or to knowledge whether to hedonism or stoicism. The same event the same ultimate prospect of death overshadows all. Look at look at what this leads him to verse 15.
So I said in my heart as It happens to the fool. It also happens to me. Why was I then more wise so I said in my heart this also is vanity. In in in Hebrew, you can add a personal pronoun for emphasis and we have that here.
It also happens to me. It's an emphatic Particle it happens to me it it it is even going to happen to me and that that's almost the shock or the scandal.
Of this me.
The king over Jerusalem. The one who had every manner of luxury and wealth and power. The one who increased his kingdom to almost virtually no end. The one who applied his mind to have wisdom that surpassed anyone who had come before him and perhaps anyone who would come after.
Even to me death is going to come. That's the scandal. It's the outrage. Some fool someone who hasn't done a splinter of the things that I've done with my life. Someone who doesn't even have a moment's Hesitation to walk in the way that I've walked.
They'll have the same Events that I will have in the same way that I will have it will both be in the same place at the end in April we went to Herculaneum, which is one of the ruins that was affected by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 and the interesting thing about Herculaneum is it was situated on the ancient shore of the Bay of Naples and so.
Though that is now far receded because of the the gradual buildup of that volcanic deposit. You're actually able to visit the site. Which is about maybe a mile away from the shore as it stands today. And you're able to see the ancient boat docks and in those ancient boat docks are clusters of skeletons.
Now those not actually the real skeletons, which I didn't know till after and I was a little disappointed. They're plaster replicas. I'm like, this is amazing. Let you walk right up to him and it's like yeah they're just replicas, but they're they're telling you exactly where the positions of these bodies were as.
These were largely bodies of a few young men perhaps slaves women and children. They were Skeletons found on the shore of men probably going out into the water as they were waiting for help to come from boats across the bay.
That never made it and they were all huddled together in the backs of these boat docks and of course instantly. The pyroclastic flow washed over them and before they could even mentally process what was happening to them.
They were they were dead instantly and you survey Dozens of these skeletons and you realize. It doesn't matter who was virtuous who was foolish who was mighty who was wise. Who was proud and contemptuous?
Who was humble and meek? The same fate came to them all. Who was rich who was poor. Who accomplished a lot who didn't. Who built their life? Well who wasted their life the same fate? Found them all. This is what Kohelet is grappling with as it happens to the fool.
It's gonna happen to me the same event will happen to us both. So why am I more wise? Why am I applying my mind to this knowledge? Why should I live in this way? How can I make sense of it all? He's more vexed more burdened by this reality.
Why was I then more wise? There's some wordplay going in there.
The the word.
There's a comparative word being used. Why was I more wise that the word in Hebrews you throne? It's to an advantage or to a profits to a gain. It's not the first time we've come across this language again.
It won't be the last but there's a wordplay because the Advantage over the fool the the Yitron over the fool. Is nil? There there is no advantage over the fool. Wisdom in the end has not been able to provide an advantage again for life under the Sun.
The wisest man of all will fare no differently in the end than the fool. Men again that the programmatic question is chapter 1 verse 3 what gain what profit is there? And he's saying in terms of wisdom that I gave my whole life over to There's no advantage.
There's no gain under the Sun not speaking ultimately. Really important we understand that because he's established wisdom is better than folly. You should order your lives according to wisdom. But if you think you'll ultimately secure meaning or gain or advantage in this life under the Sun by wisdom.
You're a fool.
There's no ultimate security. No ultimate achievement. No ultimately meaning or satisfaction. Even in living wisely in life under the Sun. So again, he doesn't have a cynical response to wisdom. He has a very realistic response to wisdom in light of.
Death.
It doesn't matter how wise you are. It doesn't matter how that wisdom Practically is a benefit to you and a benefit to others. As a result of you you will end up in the same place as the fool. The same event will happen to you and You too, like the myriad masses that have gone on before us will be forgotten the time under the Sun.
This is the scandal. This is the outrage. What gain is there under the Sun. What advantage is there. Why have I devoted my life to this. Why did I think I could actually achieve or secure something like this?
There's nothing permanent under the Sun that death will not erase. Even if I build a legacy I won't be around to appreciate or enjoy that legacy under the Sun and I won't be able as we'll see next week.
I won't be able to control what the generations do with that legacy. Perhaps the fool will take all that I've built and mustard and burn it to the ground. Spurn it for the flesh or for the world or for the evil one.
He realizes there's nothing that the shadow of death won't ultimately reach. So what his heart is yearning for what his life is searching for cannot be found even in wisdom. Verse 16. There's no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever.
All that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. You could almost translate all that now is is already forgotten. He's seeing that even right now. I can already start to see that I'm being phased out.
People are already starting to detach their memories. They're already starting to lose the sense of my presence. He's starting to see that as he's looking back on his life as an old man I can already see in real time that I'm presently being forgotten.
My kids don't call. My grandkids aren't around that much right now. I can see I'm already in the process of being forgotten. He's experiencing that. How does a wise man die. This is again. Just the the gritty.
Judo of.
Kohelet where we think we have the right answer and it's a bubbly cotton candy answer and we want to rush immediately to the good news of a glorious hope and trust me I want to rush there too and Kohelet just doesn't want us to rush there.
He wants us to grapple. He asked this rhetorical question. How does a wise man die? And with all of our Proverbs right lobe mentality we go the wise man dies uprightly with peace and joy in his heart.
And he goes no he dies like a fool. You see how he's taking us to the ground again and again as soon as we're surging upward to think we we can finally figure It out. I think I finally found the thing that will secure meaning he sweep kicks us and takes us down to the mat again.
No, the wise man dies just like the fool dies. The same event happens to them all. Have you actually grappled with this. There's actually a little particle here. That's not translated. It's simply translated as and and how does a wise man die?
It's actually a particle that it's heck in Hebrew. It could be translated. Oh.
Or alas.
It's a particle of mourning. It's often used in Psalms of lament Alas oh How does a wise man die?
He's mourning the fact.
That this shadow of death will find the wise and the fool alike. There's nothing that he can achieve or accomplish or devote his life to under the Sun that will ultimately secure Meaning or purpose in life under the Sun.
Nothing can outrun death. And so what's the conclusion of this all the greatest challenge of this section verse 17? Therefore I.
Hated life I.
Hated life. Because the work that was done under the Sun was distressing to me for all his vanity and grasping for the wind.
The.
Exasperation that he experiences about the prospect of death makes Kohelet hate life itself. Now again, thank the Lord Ecclesiastes doesn't end here, you know the end. We've got a lot more to go and as as this book in its wisdom begins to unfurl We're gonna be brought to see all sorts of things that counterbalance this fatigue and lament about life.
He'll come to realize as we'll see that though there are moments of Grappling with despair. There's also a great appreciation and a resounding glory in the goodness of life as life. We'll find that especially as we head toward the end in chapter 11 where the lament becomes that he has to leave life.
That that life is as it were being slowly Taken from him from his purview from his his house as it were as he describes his body his life like a house. That's beginning to fall into disrepair. But a lot of commentaries and in fact It was distressing to me to see how many commentaries I think wanted to do damage control on verse 17.
Let me read the verse again. Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the Sun was distressing to me. Now we're gonna see in verses 18 and following next week that work and toil is a really important focus.
It already began earlier in this chapter with all the great works and toil that he had devoted his shoulder and his strength to building. And we're gonna see that again. This is this question about toil.
What was the purpose of toil under the Sun? What could be gained in the things that he built? Commentaries take verse 17 and they they want to answer the questions about toil with verse 17. I think that's a big mistake.
This is a conclusion To everything that we've been considering from verse 12 forward. Therefore I hated life as as is often said. What is the therefore therefore? It's therefore verses 12 through 16. What's the lament what's the pressure point of verses 12 through 16.
It's the events that happens to us all that it that happens to the wise man and to the fool. That same event that cannot be outlived or escaped whether one lives wisely or foolishly. Whether one builds carefully or recklessly.
They'll die alike. This is the conclusion therefore I Hated life because of the work that was done under the Sun it was distressing to me. What's he distressed about? Well, he's not jumping ahead to the toil in the labor and he's not going backward to verses 1 through 11 to think about the Things he had built.
We're still in the immediate context of verses 12 through 17. But Kohila what Kohila is talking about in the work done under the Sun. I don't think that's the best translation. It's the deed done under the Sun.
Let's take it's it's it's it's the verb Assad to do or to make it's the thing that is done the deed done under the Sun not toil. Not building not labor. It's the event of verse 14. I hated life. Because of this deed because of this event that happens to all I Am despairing of life because I know that this is coming for me.
It's the unpredictable Predictability. I hate life because that distresses me. The fact that though I live in wisdom that event is going to happen to me that deed is going to be done. It's going to be done to everyone under the Sun.
That's what he's grappling with. You have an ancient target an ancient commentary. The target of Solomon and and they gloss it in this way. I hated all evil life. Because it's so unthinkable for even an ancient Commentator to think that somehow in wisdom literature there would be a hatred of life.
Oh, that doesn't sound right? No. No. No, you love life, right? You just hate evil that's done in life. You hate evil life. That's not what Kohelet says he's thinking about the the reality of death and it says.
Therefore I hated life again that That sweep kick that takes us down to the mat. Have we grappled with it? Do we want to rush to the Sunday school answers or do we want to grapple with the thing that is vexing Kohelet as I said over the past few weeks.
We don't get to that that mindset that insight that awareness of what Kohelet is Despairing we also won't be able to get to the treetops of his joy of the hope that he has. We have to go into the depths if we would rise to the heights and this really is the depth.
I.
Hated life.
There's an old adage that goes back perhaps to Socrates. The unexamined life is not worth living. All right, it's not worth living your life unless you're examining it making sense of it. I.
Used to years ago.
Just just to keep my my bayonet sharp. I would listen to a podcast where it was a group of Philosophy students, they're all godless atheists and their podcast was called the partially partially examined life.
And they would talk through Philosophical movements and figures and just try to talk about the big questions of life through that and it always amused me. You know our life is worth living because we're partially examining life.
We're doing the best we can to make sense of it's like you're fool. So you have a podcast of folly. If the unexamined life is not worth living. What is Kohelet discovered? You know what the examined life isn't worth living either not under the Sun that is very uncomfortable for us to sit with isn't it?
No wonder commentaries and Sermons, they want to somehow get past this. Oh, he possibly couldn't possibly mean he hated life. Of course, we're framing everything with this concept of under the Sun that is without God and without hope.
Kohelet has pursued wisdom. He knows wisdom is better than folly. He loves wisdom. He's devoted his life now to wisdom. But the bankruptcy of life under the Sun means that he now hates life itself. It's a ironic Contrast and counterpoint to Proverbs 8 where wisdom is personified and wisdom says all those who hate me love death.
Well, if you hate wisdom you hate life. You hate wisdom you must love death because you're gonna live in the ways of death and toward death. But here's what Kohelet saying. I love wisdom. I gave my whole heart of my whole life to wisdom and you know what?
I don't love life. I hate it. I feel your discomfort. I Feel this discomfort. Kohelet has a hatred. He's vexed you could put it this way. He's angry. How do we make sense of this?
Don't think we do what the Targum of Solomon does and say no. No, he just hates the bad things in life. That's not what he says. He gives an all-encompassing Phrase here. I hated life. He doesn't qualify that he doesn't add footnotes so that it it has a blunted edge.
No. He hated life. How do we make sense of this. I I think we have to understand the big picture of what Kohelet is grappling with try to approximate What he's seeing and why he's reacting in this way.
And the question is not You know as Kohelet viewing things rightly How should we counsel Kohelet like the friends of Job. The question is are we even on the same playing field as Kohelet? Do we even understand where the issues are?
Are we? Experiencing and thinking about life and all of these deep ways and all of these raw ways that Kohelet is thinking about it. Here's an attempt at an answer to make sense of this this hatred. This anger because I don't think Kohelet is the only one Who hates life who is angry or vexed about life under the Sun when he comes up against it?
I think we actually see that same hatred that same contempt disgust seething loathing for life in the Lord Jesus himself. Mark Gospel of Mark chapter 1 beginning in verse 40. Now a leper came to Jesus and implored him and kneeled down to him and said to him if you're willing you can make me.
Clean.
Here's our translation. Then Jesus moves with compassion stretched out his hand and touched him and said I am willing be cleansed. And as soon as he had spoken immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed again.
I want you to see the scene. That this picture of absolute defilement this this decay this this disease that causes the body to to enter into atrophy as noses and earlobes and fingertips turn black and begin to rot away as any sense of the nerve endings begins to Decay as there's no longer this sense of vitality, but rather just a slow decay of death.
Here's this man who's a leper who's lived in this realm of uncleanness keeping his distance from the people of God who comes on this the sorry heap of misery and Contagion and defilement and he comes to Jesus and he implores Jesus.
He kneels down in front of Jesus and says you can make me clean if you're willing. And we read then Jesus moved with compassion. That's our translation. Was it was it compassion that Jesus was moved by?
Actually think not only is it a Dilemma of translation but there's actually some textual variants to this where It seems the original reading would have been the word for anger for groaning. For contempt or you could even translate for loathing.
Jesus moved by loathing. Now you can see why in the transmission history. That's a very uncomfortable. It's just like Koholet. Koholet hates life. That doesn't sound very biblical. That's not good. Jesus loathing angry.
Oh, no. No. No, he's not that way toward lepers. But I think I think the anger I think the loathing the contempt is right on. This is the son of man who is filled with anger and disgust at the effects of sin.
He's looking at the devastation and destruction that sin has brought into this world. He's angered by the fact that here's his son of Abraham who in body and soul has been Separated from the people of God and that leprosy is just symbolic of the corruption and decay that God never intended.
Everything that he made was good image bearers were meant to be glorious immortal beings. The son of man knows that more than anyone else and when he sees the effects of sin of Life under the Sun the pervasive groaning of the world.
He's filled with anger. He hates it. We see the same thing in John chapter 11. Jesus came and found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles away. Many of the Jews came and joined the women that were mourning around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.
Martha as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming went to meet him. Mary was sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And we already know from earlier in this passage the Lord delayed his coming seeing he intended to demonstrate That the spirit of resurrection the spirit of life.
Martha, of course in the midst of mourning is you could almost say is filled with a little bit of indignation and anger herself. Lord if you had been here, that's an accusation. It sounds a lot like the disciples in the boat in the midst of the storm saying you don't care that we're drowning.
Like you don't care that my brother was dying. I know the kind of healings that you could do. Do you not even care about Lazarus? He's gonna let him die. If you had come you could have healed him.
She's angry.
She's angry she's saying my brother didn't have to die. He didn't have to be rotting in that tomb. We'd have to be gathered in a circle weeping if you had been here if you had done something about it.
And she catches herself even now I know. Whatever you ask of God God will give you. Jesus says to her your brother will rise again. Of course, you have that beautiful interchange. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know it.
I've been taught. Well, I remember the catechism. I know at the end he'll rise and Jesus says no. No Martha. I am the resurrection. Well, she goes and she finds Mary and Mary comes out in the midst of the mourners and you can tell these to her sisters.
They say the same exact thing. Mary says Lord, he would not have died if you had been here and Jesus saw her weeping. Verse 33. Jesus saw her weeping. Saw the Jews who came with her weeping our translation.
He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. That's a that's a gloss. He was angry. He loathed in his spirit and was in deep distress. Then he goes to the tomb Verse 35 and he weeps. This this is Kohelet.
He knows that this is not how life was meant to be. Life under the Sun is not being lived in the way that God intended wise men Should be able to walk in a glory that never encounters the prospect of death.
But death comes to the fool and the wise alike that fills him with an anger. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It didn't have to be this way. We weren't born to die and rot in tombs. It fills him with vexation.
He says I was distressed. That's how Jesus is feeling at the tomb of Lazarus. He's he's angry. He's filled with rage in his spirit and he's distressed and he goes to the tomb and he weeps. He delayed his coming and as he just told Martha, but a few moments ago Lazarus will rise.
He knows that Lazarus will rise again. But he's still filled with anger. He still weeps at the tomb he sees the the disfigurement of death and It fills him with a contempt and a disgust in that moment of life under the Sun.
He could say I hate life. In other words, I hate the effects of the fall. Under life under the Sun. I hate what sin has done to humanity to human beings to the groaning world. Remember that Ecclesiastes is a commentary on the meaning of the fall.
The whole book is framed about life under the Sun. Because man has been alienated from this life-sustaining presence of God the whole earth has been made subject Feudal as a result of God's curse. There's a toil now that can never Satisfy.
God's good design will not be fully realized in life under the Sun. Looming over every aspect of the highest joys of man as the inevitable prospect of death when Kohelet meditates and studies that He ends up feeling contempt and disgust about life under the Sun.
I hated life. I'm distressed about this deed that's gonna happen to every single one of us. It didn't have to be this way. It should not have been this way. I hate the effects of sin on life. Now I would contend to say we just don't even grapple with that as a prospect.
We might think about death or at least we know we should think about death more than those outside who want to do everything they Can to escape thinking about death? I Don't want to think about my end.
I don't want to think about the the rushing certainty of my mortality a fact that there will be a day when I close my eyes for the last time and draw my breath for the last time and Enter past the verge of Jordan into this unknown world this unknown experience.
Man who has eternity in his heart does everything he can to distract himself. He does what Kohelet does he gives himself over to pleasure and indulgence. I'll just keep myself happy. I'll keep myself laughing.
He doesn't want to go to the house of mourning. He doesn't have to think through the light of wisdom about the certainty of death. Or he turns himself over to other forms of indulgence or turns himself to things that become snares for him.
He he turns to the bottle to numb his senses and keep himself somewhat aloof to the folly of his ways. That's how that's how man deals with the prospect of death. We're Christians. We know the reality of death.
We look death straight in its eyes without fear and peace and I would say Generally, that's true. But it's usually because we're not thinking about death in all the ways that we should. We might think about death, but we think about death and we answer it with the Sunday school answers the pre-programmed answers.
We don't actually deeply study and think about.
The effects of death.
What I'm saying is this we might think about death. We might even live life in light of death, but we don't hate life. Because of death that's where Kohelet is. The application is not for us to hate life.
It's to hate the effects of sin on life as God intended it. It's to be angry at the tomb of Lazarus. It's to be angry at the sight of a leper. It's to go past the abortion mills and be filled with a rage because this is not what humanity was meant to be.
It's to see the man abject in his drunken stupor every night. Dulling his senses to the reality that comes to both the fool and the wise man and to be filled with that contempt. This isn't how it was supposed to be.
This whole world is groaning for redemption. Can't our spirits groan for that same redemption? I was getting an oil change a few weeks ago, and I just had Callum with me and that we were flipping through Magazines on the table.
There was like a tow truck magazine. And as he was flipping through pages every time there was a picture of a person. It could be a person in an advertisement or you know a picture of the editor of the magazine.
Whoever the editor here just point and go he died. I go I Just next he died. He died. He died. I'm going. I think he's tracking Ecclesiastes pretty well. He's thinking about death a lot. The point of verse 17 is this discomfort about life as it was meant to be and life as it now really is.
And if we're not grappling With that we won't be able to love life in the way that Koholet will come to love life. Because we haven't hated life under the Sun for the reasons that infuriated even the Lord Jesus himself.
The big challenge for you as a Christian is have you have you ever gotten to the point that Koholet has gotten to in verse 17? That that deep unsettled cry of Lord Come. I am weak. I am fatigued. I see the evil all around me and all within me Lord.
I hate life under the Sun. Will you come?
Won't you come?
Until you get to that kind of depth You're not tracking the argument of Ecclesiastes very well. There may be other things that are distracting you or lulling you to sleep. You're not grappling with life under the Sun as it really is.
Koholet is a Master commentator on the reality of God's judgment at the fall. God judged man's rebellion and sin in Genesis 3 and the curse of that judgment Remains in full effect for all image bearers to the end.
In the day you eat of it you will surely die and Koholet is up face to face with the inevitability of that judgment of that curse. I will surely die. To dust. I will surely return. That's gonna be quoted as we turn to chapter 3.
So the point is that the grappled reality of God's judgment at the fall Causes to see the all-pervasive effects of death and decay on all manner of life under the Sun. Nothing has escaped the overreaching shadow of God's judgment at the fall.
It's going to happen to us all. If we're not angered by that if we're not outraged if by that if we're not scandalized by that. If we're not vexed by that if we're not distressed by that. The more we turn ourselves over to it the the more we see the effects of the fall and death all around us.
And we're not able to understand the hope of glory and the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ again. I want to get there but not at the expense of missing what Koholet is showing us. When's the last time you've gone to calling hours or an open casket and felt angry?
Jesus was angry before he wept. We're just not even thinking that deeply death to us. Even as Christians is just it's just what happens. This is just how it is. And we don't feel That contorting pressure of but this is not how it was meant to be.
This is sin. When sin comes full term it brings forth death. Wasn't supposed to be this way Koholet tried. To live life creating his own good his own ultimate Satisfaction or peace or or hope under the Sun and he's realizing it's all vanity.
It's chasing after the wind because the one thing that I can't do in my life under the Sun is outpace death. Again, the point is We should not live life as if we can create our own good our ultimate meaning or security or peace In life under the Sun because we too cannot outpace death.
Our hope is not in life under the Sun. Our hope is in the promise of an empty tomb. Our hope is in a risen Savior. Who's the firstfruits of our great? Hope the hope of glory? Koholet understands us better than anyone else even if he's not spelling it out explicitly.
My point is we will not love or yearn for the hope of glory if we have not understood why Koholet hates life under the Sun. If we're not hating life under the Sun for the reasons that Koholet is hating life under the Sun.
We're probably trying to love life and find meaning and create security and ultimacy in life under the Sun. Means we haven't grappled with the fall. We haven't grappled with the inevitability of death the curse of God upon all image bearers the curse on our labor.
The curse and plight of our blessing of life under the Sun. That has to be the the black velvet. That goes edge to edge in your mind and understanding before you start putting the gems of the gospel against it.
And my task as I believe Koholet's task is is just to stretch that black velvet as wide as I possibly can. I'm a preacher of gloom to you in these chapters. So that I can be a preacher of hope in the next.
Do you grapple with the things that Koholet grapples with? Oh a lot of young people in this room I know you're not thinking about death in the ways that you ought to. That's why the preacher will go on to say it's good for a young man to bear the yoke in his youth.
It's good. If you have to grapple with the fragility of life. That the suffocating shadow of death. It's a good thing for you to contemplate your mortality. To think through just how vapor like this life is and how ultimately.
Anything you're seeking your life to amount to under the Sun is grasping at with. That's a good thing for you to realize. That's that's light for your path. That's eyes in your head if you have that kind of wisdom, but even having that kind of wisdom won't protect you from death.
There's a really interesting. I want to read the book, but I only saw the episode. This is going back some time.
The book is called adrift.
Something like 76 days lost at sea. And it's an account of this man Steve Stephen Callahan who built this boat and he ventured out into the Atlantic and his boat Got hit by maybe a rogue wave or somehow begin to turn and catch water and sink and he had this a little six-person life raft and He dove into that realized I have a ditch kit in the boat that if I don't get I'm a dead man.
So he pulled himself by the rope back toward the sinking boat dove into the black waters. Cut open this ditch kit and came back jumping into this raft and he was charting his course. Quite an intelligent man and realized if I can survive for a couple weeks, I'll make it to the shipping lanes.
That's my great. Hope of rescue. But he only has eight cans of water and no food and he realizes that's gonna be a problem to even make it two weeks. So there happens to be these little solar stills and he you know in all this frustration.
He can't figure out how these works. They're only producing saltwater and he finally gets him to work and he just all these little moments of joy like I'm going to live. I'm going to live. And he makes it to the shipping lanes.
He figured out he had a little spear and he figured out how to catch a fish and the ships all go past him. He has flares every night and they just cruise right past him. And now he's going into the open deep where there's almost no ships and almost no.
Hope of rescue and he said. Throughout this episode I just kept Falling into a pit of despair that I can't even relate to you and that that despair was over at how I had wasted my life, I just thought of how you know my marriage ended in divorce and You know.
Even the ship that I tried to build that I was so proud of and my family was so proud of that's now Sunk to the bottom of the ocean. I nothing to show for my life. It's just a big waste. And so he's battling depression and he has this will to live and the whole time.
I'm watching this I'm going. Why do you have this will to live? You're saying I wasted my life. You know, I could have had that boat that would have been something. Boy, if I still had that marriage that would have been something.
He begins to despair his lack of achievement. And so he has this will to live. I need to make my life count for something and I'm watching this from Ecclesiastes 2 going. Even if you make it you're just gonna die.
Now.
Please hear me. I'm like you should survive. That will to live is a beautiful thing. But it's like you're despairing of life because you haven't achieved the things that you feel would give your life meaning.
Here's the thing that I can say my life was about. Kohalat looks at that and goes. What are you talking about? So so what if your boat makes it so what if you survive? So what if you go on and write a book and do wonderful things?
You're still going to die whether you had done those things or not, whether you had drowned or lived you're still going to die. This is the challenge. This is why Ecclesiastes 7 says it's better to be vexed to be indignant to be angry then laugh.
And by sadness of face the heart will be made glad. So again, he's teasing out if we are willing to grapple at this depth He'll take us to solid joy and lasting treasure. But we have to be willing to grapple at this depth.
I say again to everyone in this room, but especially younger people. Have you actually grappled with the prospect of death in chapter 7? We'll see those who do not join the wise who are dwelling in the house of mourning.
They'll never come to the joys that only the wise in the house of mourning can know. Joys that don't exist in life under the Sun joys that are held out as a surety beyond it and so Ecclesiastes chapter 2 as Jack a lull says functions like the eye of the needle in our lives with all of our hopes all of our Accomplishments all the things that we want to find satisfaction and meaning they have to pass through the eye of the needle.
It's for lack of a better term the hatred of life. Again, this is not just Kohelet. This is not just what Kohelet understood with the wisdom that God had granted him. This is not just how Kohelet reacted to life under the Sun as we saw from John 11 or from Mark 1.
Jesus himself Embodies this kind of wisdom and grapples at this kind of depth. Jesus himself understood the need for his followers to hate life in this particular way and don't take my word for it. Luke chapter 14 verse 26 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother wife children brothers sisters.
Yes, his own life. Also, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus says you have to hate your own life in order to follow him hate life. Jesus said that I thought only Kohelet said that John 12 verse 25 he who loves his life will lose it.
He who hates his life in this world Will keep it for eternal life. You see Kohelet's not the only one telling us grapple with the reality of life under the Sun. Jesus says You want to follow me? You can't love your life under the Sun.
You.
Experiencing the effects of the fall the inevitability of Immortality should cause you to have a treasure in heaven and a hope of glory that you're not trying to button down and secure. In your life under the Sun you have to hate your life in this world if you want to keep it for eternity.
That's that's perhaps one of the most challenging things that Jesus says to his disciples. I'm just developing a few thoughts here as we're going to be looking at death again in chapter 3 and deeper ways.
But I hope you can see the contrast. There's a contrast of a hope beyond the Sun that is the answer for the vexation and anger and Outrage of life under the Sun. He hasn't brought that to us yet. He will.
Chapter 7 is already orienting us in that direction for now wave after wave is meant to knock us to the floor and cause us to grapple with the prospect of death. This fleeting shadow of life this this spark upon the stage this vapor and so we see that Contrast emerged.
There's really two ways to live as someone lays out. But even those two ways of live of living must grapple with the reality of death. Have you grappled with the reality of death? Here's here's a contrast that I'll put before you.
I think it's. It's so so raw and so true to what it's like to to grapple with death. In a Christian way to set the foil against that. Here's some lyrics. To a song called dying thoughts of an atheist.
And I edited this a little bit, but I just want to get across this this idea of two ways to approach death two ways.
To live.
Dying thoughts of an atheist. Eerie whispers that are trapped beneath my pillow. Things I cannot see from my memories. I know you are in this room. I'm sure I've heard you sigh floating in between where our worlds collide.
It scares me. The end is all I can see and It scares me and I know the moment's near and there's nothing we can do. Looking through a faithless eye. I am afraid to die. It scares me. The end is all I can see.
The dying thoughts of an atheist and Then a man who is dying who has very different thoughts the senator Ben sass. I encourage you to listen to this interview. He was being interviewed by Scott Pelley from CBS and And if you don't know Ben sass has this terminal cancer that's going to take him it Frankly should have already happened.
He's so near the end and he's going through all sorts of Experimental treatments and procedures doing what he can but knowing that. His body's wasting away by the day and he's fully prepared for death.
If you see interviews of him and you can see him looking gaunt and skinny and some of the more recent ones. You'll see what looks like burns all over his face. Some of them turning black and these huge swaths of scabs.
From the treatment that he's undergoing and he looks probably like this leper looked in Mark chapter 1, but he has this incredible Desire to in his death share the hope of life the hope of glory. He says and this is just part of the wisdom he says having a terminal diagnosis and isn't really that unique.
We're always on the clock. Maybe some of us have the benefit and that's a weird word to use the benefit of knowing our time Is finite and defined and it becomes an opportunity to focus and talk about bigger things.
She's saying you're interviewing me because I'm dying. Well, you're dying, too. I Just happen to know about it. You might be blissfully unaware of it. But it's it's going to come to you. You might not even know you might be dying before me.
He says in that same section Yeah, you have a terminal diagnosis and all of a sudden people flock to you like you're 94 years old and full of wisdom. He says I'm 50. I'm Figuring this out by the day. In other words, don't come to me as if I've now understood the deep meaning of life but the reality is he speaks as a very wise man because Grappling with the reality and inevitability of death has given him a laser-sharp focus.
So he doesn't even waste words in the interview. It's funny the interviewers want to get him to start talking about Trump or the GOP or all that. He's like, yeah, I don't really care about that right now.
I kind of want to talk to you about bigger things. Well Scott Pelley as he sees him wriggling away from this like doesn't you know, you made it to to the Senate. You know, you're there carved into the Wikipedia archives.
You know, what's your legacy going to be Benjamin sass? Ben, you know, he's just so that that almost means nothing to me. That's like 15th on my list. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm not gonna see my daughters get married.
That means a lot more to me than any political achievement he starts actually showing through how Grappling with death has given him a laser focus on his life. Pelley the interviewer says well most senators I know wouldn't be able to breathe without their job.
It would kill them to leave it. Oh, well, this is their big achievement. This is that this is the accomplishment of their life. It's like the king in Jerusalem I made it to the top look at all that I can do Ben sass.
I Don't want what you said to be true, but I fear that is true. Most senators couldn't breathe without this being their job and that's the sign of a much much deeper problem. We have a lot of people who serve in government who really do think that the highest and greatest thing you can ever do in Life is achieve the title of senator or congressman.
No. The best thing you can do is to be called dad or mom lover neighbor friend governor Senator that's a great way to serve, but that should be 11th and Scott Pelley says So you're completely devoted to your faith.
What's known as Reformed Christianity or even Calvinism and one of the tenets of that faith is that God ordains everything? And so I wonder why do you think God has put you through this? And here's where Ben sass shines with all the wisdom of Kohelet.
He says death is wicked. Death is evil.
Death is not how it's supposed to be and Me getting a terminal diagnosis again is pretty small on the grand scheme of things. But it's a touch of God's grace because it forces me to tell the truth. The lie that I want to tell myself is that I'm the center of everything and I'm going to be around Forever and I can work harder and store up enough and I can atone for my own brokenness but I can't.
I Hate cancer. But I'm also grateful for it. I Tell a lot more truth to myself than I used to when I thought I was omnicompetent. That is someone who has eyes in his head brothers and sisters. Because I'm now having to grapple with death I realize I'm not the center of everything.
I won't be around forever. The things that I put value in and chased are like wind between my fingers and the only thing worth living for Cannot be secured under the Sun. Now he begins to see that it's God's grace to him that he's been brought To that face-to-face encounter with death.
Have you grappled with the reality of your death? Are you still living life as if you are the center you will be around and you really can achieve meaning and satisfaction in life under the Sun. Colette wants us to be confronted by this and to be Disarmed by it to be grieved by it to be outraged by it.
He's outraged even me even I'm going to have to have this event. Well until you grapple at that level brothers and sisters, you won't be able to understand the hope of glory. You won't be able to really fully embody the living Hope that Ben sass is beginning to embody the clarity the focus the wisdom of someone who's actually Grappled with death not as a token not as a passing thought not as something that we all just oh, yes, of course.
But but as the real inevitable shadow breathing down your neck who lives their life like that if you can't answer The question of death you can't answer the question of life. Why do we die? Why does a wise man die as a fool?
Why is there death? You can't answer that question. You can't answer. Why is there life? We're gonna be looking at some passages next week from Philippians 1 and Philippians 3. In Philippians 1 21 Paul has come to the place where he understands the meaning of death.
And it's caused him to view life in an entirely different way. We're gonna see that very clearly in chapter 3. And I think it's a wonderful passage to compare with the end of Qohelet in chapter 2. I'll put it to you like this.
It's a fill-in-the-blank and please don't answer quickly. That's our problem as Christians as we answer things too quickly. It's why Ecclesiastes is Charlie Brown's teacher to us. We're just not willing to grapple or think.
We want to just give the Sunday school answer right off the bat. We too don't want to be uncomfortable or challenged. Well, I'm saying go down to the mat and grapple with this and so I'll give it to you as a blank and I'll beg You not to fill in that blank too quickly Philippians 1 verse 21 for me to live is blank.
You look through.
Ecclesiastes 1 26 to 2 26. There's a lot of things that Qohelet is filling that blank in with. For me to live is this. For me to live is this. Let's try this. I'll turn to this. Maybe this will work. For me to live is this.
What will you choose to fill in that blank? Paul had a lot of things in Philippians 3 that he used to fill in that blank with for me to live is. We're gonna see them next week. I To live is.
What?
Grapple with that and pray that God would give you eyes in your head. Wisdom to know that even wisdom itself is grasping for the wind. Vision from light that the Lord gives that would cause you to have him as your all-pervading vision that you could say.
Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart not be all else to me say that thou art.
Let's pray.
Father we thank you for your word. We thank you for the challenge of your word. We thank you Lord that your word is more true more honest than we are. Your word cuts Lord to The labyrinth of our hearts and our thoughts.
Lord I pray that we would not take these things in one ear and out the other that we would be like Kohelet and Grapple with mortality and feel the anger the frustration the despair about life as it is.
Against life what it was meant to be life as it should have been that we would understand and experience Some of that same hatred and anger. That it would lead us Lord to love life in what it will be to have the hope of glory that animating a man like Ben sass.
Father we pray that we would come to terms with these things even the youth in our midst Lord. We would not be distracted by vanity fair all the flashiness of the world or the crutches Lord of our flesh and the evil one.
Things that would cause us to be numb and dull and be distant Lord. Lord, I pray you'd break our hearts with the reality that death is not some natural phenomena it's a supernatural result of your judgment upon sin and to see Lord Millennia after millennia The fullness of that judgment as a shadow that touches all.
And only in the midst of that pitch black Darkness, can we see the beam of light that has dawned in the coming of our Savior and our Redeemer? Lord that in grappling with the darkness and hopelessness of death.
We would find the living hope and.
The hope of glory Lord.
That.
We would have that laser focus of how we ought to live our lives because we've come face to face with the reality of death. And Lord may we as wise men and women be angered by the effects of the fall that we see around us Lord.
May we be vexed?
May we not just weep but be angry Lord with that righteous indignation that comes from Understanding how you've made things and how sin has corrupted them and may Lord may we see that around us? But also within us Lord May I be indignant?
Enraged about sin present within me. May I mourn and weep over the sins that betray your goodness and your redemption? Lord break our hearts in these ways that we might walk in wisdom and in holiness unto glory.
We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.