WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.679 Now, there was a poet, 100 and some years ago, called John Keats. 00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:12.359 You've likely heard of him if you've taken any literature classes or anything of this 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:13.359 sort. 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:14.359 He had a very early death. 00:00:14.359 --> 00:00:18.240 I think he was 27, 28 years old when he died. 00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:24.039 And before he died, he wrote a sonnet reflecting on his coming death. 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:28.980 And it's called, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be. 00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:35.679 And this poem is about two things that John Keats lived for, the things that gave his life 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:38.920 significance. 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:43.359 Romantic love and fame. 00:00:43.359 --> 00:00:48.480 He contemplates romantic love and fame in the light of his death in this poem. 00:00:48.480 --> 00:00:51.600 And the last two lines read like this. 00:00:51.600 --> 00:01:01.340 Then, on the shore of the wide world, I stand alone and think, till love and fame to nothingness 00:01:01.340 --> 00:01:06.219 do sink. 00:01:06.219 --> 00:01:14.620 Keats knew that everything he built his life around, everything he staked his meaning on, 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:20.219 would one day count for nothing. 00:01:20.219 --> 00:01:25.179 He constantly sought after significance, after meaning, after something of value in his life. 00:01:25.179 --> 00:01:26.900 He wanted to make a difference. 00:01:26.900 --> 00:01:28.579 He wanted to last. 00:01:28.579 --> 00:01:32.780 But he knew that time and death would wash it all away. 00:01:32.780 --> 00:01:35.579 It was all vanity. 00:01:35.579 --> 00:01:40.259 Love and fame to nothingness do sink. 00:01:40.259 --> 00:01:46.359 When he died, Keats left in writing a request to his friends that they make an engraving 00:01:46.359 --> 00:01:47.819 on his tombstone. 00:01:47.819 --> 00:01:50.099 And they did. 00:01:50.099 --> 00:01:53.899 And what he wanted engraved was this. 00:01:53.899 --> 00:02:01.000 Here lies one whose name was writ in water. 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:06.739 He knew that even if he were famous one day, even if his poems and sonnets were read 150 00:02:06.739 --> 00:02:13.099 years later, eventually time and death would wash it all away and his name was writ in 00:02:13.099 --> 00:02:16.939 water. 00:02:16.939 --> 00:02:23.939 Keats thought of ultimate reality as time and death just eating away at everything 00:02:23.939 --> 00:02:26.099 we love. 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:33.659 And Ecclesiastes is a book which wrestles with that idea. 00:02:33.659 --> 00:02:41.460 So Ecclesiastes is a recording of the words of a man who calls himself Koheleth in Hebrew. 00:02:41.460 --> 00:02:46.939 Koheleth might be translated in your Bible as preacher or the teacher. 00:02:46.939 --> 00:02:56.980 Sinclair Ferguson calls him the pundit because Koheleth is essentially, he's a public intellectual. 00:02:56.980 --> 00:02:58.219 Koheleth is a public intellectual. 00:02:58.219 --> 00:03:02.260 So he is concerned not just with deep thoughts but actually communicating those thoughts 00:03:02.260 --> 00:03:04.819 to the public, to us. 00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:05.819 He's a teacher. 00:03:05.819 --> 00:03:09.219 He's a preacher. 00:03:09.219 --> 00:03:13.259 Richard Dawkins is another public intellectual who's no preacher. 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:15.419 He's an atheist. 00:03:15.419 --> 00:03:19.259 And Richard, here's what Richard Dawkins says about ultimate reality. 00:03:19.259 --> 00:03:24.900 He says ultimate reality is cold and indifferent. 00:03:24.900 --> 00:03:31.860 He writes this, the total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all 00:03:31.860 --> 00:03:35.460 decent contemplation. 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:39.980 In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going 00:03:39.980 --> 00:03:41.580 to get hurt. 00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:43.740 Other people are going to get lucky. 00:03:43.740 --> 00:03:47.580 And you won't find any rhyme or reason in it nor any justice. 00:03:47.580 --> 00:03:52.860 The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is 00:03:52.860 --> 00:04:05.940 at bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference. 00:04:05.940 --> 00:04:08.780 How's that for cheery? 00:04:08.780 --> 00:04:14.180 At bottom he says nothing but pitiless indifference. 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:15.660 You gotta hand it to him. 00:04:15.660 --> 00:04:19.100 Dawkins is consistent with his worldview, isn't he? 00:04:19.100 --> 00:04:23.379 Starting from the premise that there's no God, he faces the harsh realities of this 00:04:23.379 --> 00:04:31.060 world and he comes to this conclusion, life is pointless. 00:04:31.060 --> 00:04:37.340 Koheleth in Ecclesiastes faces with the same unflinching honesty, the reality around us, 00:04:37.340 --> 00:04:47.780 and he comes to this conclusion, life is vapor. 00:04:47.779 --> 00:04:56.539 The word that we read in the ESV, vanity, vanity of vanities, is a Hebrew word, hevel. 00:04:56.539 --> 00:04:59.339 I promise I'm not going to teach you too many Hebrew words. 00:04:59.339 --> 00:05:02.059 The word, hevel, is important. 00:05:02.059 --> 00:05:05.259 Hevel is used 38 times in Ecclesiastes. 00:05:05.259 --> 00:05:09.219 It's used many, many, many times in the Hebrew Bible. 00:05:09.219 --> 00:05:17.339 And its literal meaning is vapor, like your breath on a cold day. 00:05:17.339 --> 00:05:22.579 The reason it's translated differently is because it's almost always used metaphorically. 00:05:22.579 --> 00:05:25.899 So vapor is an image for something. 00:05:25.899 --> 00:05:32.019 Now I don't actually think, and scholars tend to generally agree, that any one English 00:05:32.019 --> 00:05:35.539 translation is really going to capture all of the nuance of the metaphor. 00:05:35.539 --> 00:05:41.620 So as we go through Ecclesiastes, I'm just going to refer to it as vapor or hevel. 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:44.859 But I want you to know what I'm talking about when if you're reading the ESV and it says 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:49.379 vanity or NIV and it might say meaningless. 00:05:49.379 --> 00:05:55.340 But we're going to talk about vapor because the word hevel is like a character in a good 00:05:55.340 --> 00:05:58.460 book, a character that begins with a certain set of traits. 00:05:58.460 --> 00:06:03.379 And as the story unfolds, as the plot unfolds, you learn more and more, this character becomes 00:06:03.379 --> 00:06:08.379 more of a nuanced, sophisticated picture of a person. 00:06:08.379 --> 00:06:09.900 Hevel is like that. 00:06:09.900 --> 00:06:14.340 Traveling through the book of Ecclesiastes, the metaphor is going to pick up color. 00:06:14.339 --> 00:06:16.299 It's going to pick up meaning. 00:06:16.299 --> 00:06:21.379 Like my daughters, when we go for walks, stoop down every couple of minutes and pick up little 00:06:21.379 --> 00:06:23.979 stones and put them in their pockets. 00:06:23.979 --> 00:06:28.899 So we're just going to go on a journey through Ecclesiastes together and pick up some stones 00:06:28.899 --> 00:06:34.579 along the way and see how full our pockets are at the end. 00:06:34.579 --> 00:06:39.939 Now if you walk out on a crisp, say in about a month, and it gets really cold, well, really 00:06:39.939 --> 00:06:41.019 cold for Scotland. 00:06:41.019 --> 00:06:48.099 You walk out and take a big breath and you exhale and you see vapor come out of your 00:06:48.099 --> 00:06:50.939 mouth. 00:06:50.939 --> 00:06:52.180 Vapor shows that you're alive. 00:06:52.180 --> 00:06:54.339 Your breath shows that you're alive. 00:06:54.339 --> 00:07:01.699 But like life's qualities, like life's purpose, it kind of, it's hard to get a hold of, isn't 00:07:01.699 --> 00:07:02.699 it? 00:07:02.699 --> 00:07:04.060 And it's soon gone. 00:07:04.060 --> 00:07:06.620 It vanishes. 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:11.860 Life says, Kohalith is vapor. 00:07:11.860 --> 00:07:15.699 If you blow out a candle, what do you see? 00:07:15.699 --> 00:07:20.340 You see a wisp of smoke, like vapor. 00:07:20.340 --> 00:07:26.340 It's here for a moment and then it's gone. 00:07:26.340 --> 00:07:30.780 It looks solid as it kind of twists and turns, doesn't it? 00:07:30.780 --> 00:07:35.019 But you know, if my two-year-old were there, she might try to grab it, but it would just 00:07:35.019 --> 00:07:36.220 slip through her fingers. 00:07:36.220 --> 00:07:41.900 You can't get a hold on it because it's vapor. 00:07:41.900 --> 00:07:49.140 It leaves no lasting impression on the world around it, no noticeable one to us. 00:07:49.140 --> 00:07:54.140 The candle can be burning, bright, the flame beautiful, it smells good. 00:07:54.140 --> 00:07:56.060 You blow it out and it's gone. 00:07:56.060 --> 00:08:00.500 You would have never known it was lit in the first place. 00:08:00.500 --> 00:08:06.180 Life is vapor. 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:08.780 Now I said this word is used 38 times. 00:08:08.780 --> 00:08:10.100 That's important. 00:08:10.100 --> 00:08:17.259 The first and last times, the word is doubled, which in Hebrew is the way that you really 00:08:17.259 --> 00:08:18.259 emphasize something. 00:08:18.259 --> 00:08:20.780 That's why the ESV says vanity of vanities. 00:08:20.780 --> 00:08:24.220 NIV says meaningless, meaningless. 00:08:24.220 --> 00:08:30.579 When you double the word, it really exponentially amplifies the effect that that word has. 00:08:30.579 --> 00:08:37.059 Now the word, hevel or vapor, is doubled once at the beginning of the book and once at 00:08:37.059 --> 00:08:38.220 the end of the book. 00:08:38.220 --> 00:08:43.179 So actually vapor are the bookends to this book. 00:08:43.179 --> 00:08:47.100 If there's a theme to Ecclesiastes, it's this. 00:08:47.100 --> 00:08:50.360 Life is vapor. 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:53.899 Now there's another key phrase that we need to understand, and it's in chapter one, verse 00:08:53.899 --> 00:08:55.100 three. 00:08:55.100 --> 00:08:57.179 Look at it with me. 00:08:57.179 --> 00:09:06.659 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 00:09:06.659 --> 00:09:11.120 Under the sun is a very important phrase to wrap our minds around the difficult message 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:12.739 of Ecclesiastes. 00:09:12.739 --> 00:09:19.539 Under the sun, it occurs, I don't know, some two dozen times, but it decreases in frequency 00:09:19.539 --> 00:09:22.659 as you go through the book. 00:09:22.659 --> 00:09:26.299 We'll talk more about that later on. 00:09:26.299 --> 00:09:34.500 But life under the sun, imagine from an ancient Israelite perspective, God and heaven are 00:09:34.500 --> 00:09:36.019 past the sun. 00:09:36.019 --> 00:09:40.019 They're above the sun. 00:09:40.019 --> 00:09:45.379 Everything that you know of your existence, the material world that you live in that's 00:09:45.379 --> 00:09:51.620 real and tangible to you is everything under the sun. 00:09:51.620 --> 00:10:00.340 That's the concept that the preacher is examining what is life like not above the sun, but under 00:10:00.340 --> 00:10:02.860 the sun. 00:10:02.860 --> 00:10:07.299 In other words, he's actually dealing with the question that Dawkins is dealing with, 00:10:07.299 --> 00:10:13.259 what if this is all there is? 00:10:13.259 --> 00:10:19.180 Or like Dawkins would say, at the bottom of this reality, do we find anything but pitiless 00:10:19.179 --> 00:10:23.259 indifference and coldness? 00:10:23.259 --> 00:10:34.419 Now, under the sun in this life, there are two monsters that stand in everybody's path. 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:40.179 One is time and one is death. 00:10:40.179 --> 00:10:45.659 Let's look again at chapter one, verses two to, I don't know, eight. 00:10:45.659 --> 00:10:49.139 We'll read one, two to eight again. 00:10:49.139 --> 00:10:51.299 Vanity of vanities says the preacher. 00:10:51.299 --> 00:10:54.580 Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. 00:10:54.580 --> 00:10:58.419 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 00:10:58.419 --> 00:11:02.860 A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 00:11:02.860 --> 00:11:07.419 The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises. 00:11:07.419 --> 00:11:11.699 The wind blows to the south, goes around to the north, round and round goes the wind and 00:11:11.699 --> 00:11:14.379 on it circuits the wind returns. 00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:17.939 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full. 00:11:17.940 --> 00:11:21.140 To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 00:11:21.140 --> 00:11:24.340 All things are full of weariness. 00:11:24.340 --> 00:11:25.340 A man cannot utter it. 00:11:25.340 --> 00:11:32.660 The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing. 00:11:32.660 --> 00:11:34.060 He talks about four things here. 00:11:34.060 --> 00:11:35.380 He talks about generations. 00:11:35.380 --> 00:11:36.540 He talks about the sun. 00:11:36.540 --> 00:11:39.580 He talks about the wind and he talks about the water. 00:11:39.580 --> 00:11:43.520 So he says, generations, think of it. 00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:49.419 With this monster of time, babies are born and become adults and have babies and grow 00:11:49.419 --> 00:11:50.980 old and die. 00:11:50.980 --> 00:11:55.220 And their babies become adults and have babies and grow old and die. 00:11:55.220 --> 00:11:57.819 And rinse and repeat. 00:11:57.819 --> 00:12:00.379 Endless cycles. 00:12:00.379 --> 00:12:03.819 The sun rises and sets and rises and sets and it always has done it. 00:12:03.819 --> 00:12:08.740 It always will do as long as this universe remains. 00:12:08.740 --> 00:12:14.419 The wind just blows around and around this world, sees the same things over and over 00:12:14.419 --> 00:12:17.220 and over again on its circuits. 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:23.180 In water, the streams empty into the ocean, which has never fall because it just empties 00:12:23.180 --> 00:12:27.940 back out into the streams which empty into the ocean. 00:12:27.940 --> 00:12:35.659 And he looks at all of this and he says, weary. 00:12:35.659 --> 00:12:41.620 If time is just like an hourglass being flipped back and forth, if we're doomed to repeat 00:12:41.620 --> 00:12:48.740 history, what's the purpose behind any of this? 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:52.379 So that's the first monster, time. 00:12:52.379 --> 00:12:55.779 The second is death. 00:12:55.779 --> 00:13:06.220 Turn again to chapter 11. 00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:07.220 Starting in verse 7. 00:13:07.220 --> 00:13:11.220 No, let's go back, actually let's go to chapter 12, starting in 1. 00:13:11.220 --> 00:13:16.259 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and 00:13:16.259 --> 00:13:19.459 the years drawn nigh of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them. 00:13:19.459 --> 00:13:22.379 He's speaking of aging. 00:13:22.379 --> 00:13:27.179 He's speaking very honestly about aging. 00:13:27.179 --> 00:13:31.419 Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and clouds return 00:13:31.419 --> 00:13:37.700 after the rain, the keepers of the house tremble, strong men are bent, the grinder cease, those 00:13:37.700 --> 00:13:44.379 who look out the windows are dimmed, etc. 00:13:44.379 --> 00:13:45.379 Down to verse 7. 00:13:45.379 --> 00:13:54.700 And the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 00:13:54.700 --> 00:14:00.220 Vanity of vanity, says the preacher, all is vanity. 00:14:00.220 --> 00:14:03.659 Look how brutally honest he is. 00:14:03.659 --> 00:14:06.419 It's kind of refreshing, isn't it? 00:14:06.419 --> 00:14:17.539 He looks at aging, at death, at infirmity, fragility, and he just says it like it is. 00:14:17.539 --> 00:14:21.179 And it's a little hard to hear, isn't it? 00:14:21.179 --> 00:14:29.339 Even the most youthful, the strongest, the most successful, the most admired, the wealthiest 00:14:29.340 --> 00:14:36.940 people all will face death, this second monster. 00:14:36.940 --> 00:14:42.259 So like Keats, we have to ask if everything that we measure ourselves by in this life 00:14:42.259 --> 00:14:51.060 will be swallowed up in death, what's the point? 00:14:51.060 --> 00:14:55.660 If I asked you to go sit in an empty room, no, if I said to go stand in an empty room 00:14:55.659 --> 00:15:04.259 on one leg for two hours, and that's all the information I gave you, you would say, 00:15:04.259 --> 00:15:06.459 why? 00:15:06.459 --> 00:15:07.819 Why would you ask me to do that? 00:15:07.819 --> 00:15:09.939 What's the point? 00:15:09.939 --> 00:15:13.259 What's the significance of doing this? 00:15:13.259 --> 00:15:18.139 What's the purpose of just standing on one foot for two hours in an empty room? 00:15:18.139 --> 00:15:21.579 What do I gain out of it? 00:15:21.579 --> 00:15:24.059 You'd be right to ask. 00:15:24.059 --> 00:15:27.699 The preacher says, let's be honest about reality. 00:15:27.699 --> 00:15:32.019 If someone were to ask you to do a pointless task, you'd question it, but why don't we 00:15:32.019 --> 00:15:37.459 question our very lives that we live with the same kind of honesty? 00:15:37.459 --> 00:15:42.699 I wonder if it's fear. 00:15:42.699 --> 00:15:46.339 When all is said and done, what's the point? 00:15:46.339 --> 00:15:51.259 Now we all want to understand the purpose that drives our lives, don't we? 00:15:51.259 --> 00:15:54.019 So we want to know what we're living for. 00:15:54.019 --> 00:15:55.860 We need something. 00:15:55.860 --> 00:16:01.860 We all need something that gives our lives significance, that gives our lives value and 00:16:01.860 --> 00:16:04.620 meaning. 00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:09.740 We need to know what we're living for, but we also need to know why life happens to 00:16:09.740 --> 00:16:14.059 us the way that it does. 00:16:14.059 --> 00:16:21.979 Why do good things happen to bad people and bad things to good people? 00:16:21.979 --> 00:16:26.259 Why did I have to lose my job? 00:16:26.259 --> 00:16:30.259 Why am I still single when I don't want to be? 00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:35.419 Why isn't my marriage all that I thought it would be? 00:16:35.419 --> 00:16:39.259 Why can't I stop sinning? 00:16:39.259 --> 00:16:46.419 Why is there a global pandemic in this day and age? 00:16:46.419 --> 00:16:50.819 Is ultimate reality cold and indifferent after all? 00:16:50.819 --> 00:16:52.419 Is life pointless? 00:16:52.419 --> 00:16:54.620 No. 00:16:54.620 --> 00:17:02.779 Co-Heleth winks at us and says, life is vapor. 00:17:02.779 --> 00:17:06.819 That for Co-Heleth, for the preacher, is life under the sun. 00:17:06.819 --> 00:17:08.819 He's winking at us. 00:17:08.819 --> 00:17:09.819 He's teaching us. 00:17:09.819 --> 00:17:10.819 He's guiding us. 00:17:10.819 --> 00:17:17.939 And he's showing us, while he's leading us past our atheistic tendencies, our godless 00:17:17.939 --> 00:17:24.379 ways of thinking, he's leading us to something a lot better. 00:17:24.379 --> 00:17:31.139 By the end of the book, as I said, Co-Heleth stops using the phrase under the sun. 00:17:31.139 --> 00:17:32.139 Why? 00:17:32.139 --> 00:17:38.299 Well, in the passage we just read, the depressing part, in chapter 12, we find a clue. 00:17:38.299 --> 00:17:43.019 Look at the first verse, please, of chapter 12. 00:17:43.019 --> 00:17:48.460 Remember also your Creator. 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:53.619 That word drops into Ecclesiastes like a bomb. 00:17:53.619 --> 00:17:57.579 It changes everything. 00:17:57.579 --> 00:18:06.299 The fact that we are created, not that we are merely random accidents under the sun, 00:18:06.299 --> 00:18:16.019 is key, our creatureliness is key, because it means that life under the sun is not random. 00:18:16.019 --> 00:18:23.899 It means that behind everything that you see around you is a beautiful mind, is reason, 00:18:23.899 --> 00:18:27.819 is purpose. 00:18:27.819 --> 00:18:37.339 Well, if there's a reason, why can't we understand it? 00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:39.379 Creatureliness is key. 00:18:39.379 --> 00:18:45.819 The fact that there's a Creator means that you are the created, which means stop trying 00:18:45.819 --> 00:18:49.579 to grasp the smoke from the candle that you've just blown out. 00:18:49.579 --> 00:18:56.339 Life is vapor, but we have a Creator. 00:18:56.339 --> 00:19:01.019 Now in chapter 1, Coeleth asks a very serious question in verse 3. 00:19:01.019 --> 00:19:07.980 He says, what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 00:19:07.980 --> 00:19:09.419 What does he gain? 00:19:09.419 --> 00:19:16.839 In other words, when all is said and done, what will last? 00:19:16.839 --> 00:19:18.459 What will ultimately matter? 00:19:18.459 --> 00:19:25.980 What will outlast me? 00:19:25.980 --> 00:19:30.220 What does man gain? 00:19:30.220 --> 00:19:34.059 We're obsessed with gain as humans. 00:19:34.059 --> 00:19:37.860 We're obsessed with profit, aren't we? 00:19:37.860 --> 00:19:45.220 Well, Coeleth, the preacher, redirects our attention from gain to gift. 00:19:45.220 --> 00:19:48.299 From gain to gift, and that's the last word I want to draw your attention to. 00:19:48.299 --> 00:19:54.140 Look at chapter 12, verse 7, and we'll stop flipping back and forth after this. 00:19:54.140 --> 00:19:58.540 Chapter 12, verse 7, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns 00:19:58.540 --> 00:20:04.700 to God who gave it. 00:20:04.700 --> 00:20:12.820 This vaporous, enigmatic life is gift. 00:20:12.820 --> 00:20:17.580 More than a dozen times in this book, the preacher unfolds to us this truth that God, 00:20:17.580 --> 00:20:23.460 our Creator, gives us gifts, including, here's some of the things that Coeleth says are gifts 00:20:23.460 --> 00:20:27.299 of God, food, wine, and toil. 00:20:27.299 --> 00:20:29.299 He doesn't say easy, pleasant work. 00:20:29.299 --> 00:20:32.059 He says, toil. 00:20:32.059 --> 00:20:41.779 A life to live, eternity in your heart, a pole that there's something more, intimate 00:20:41.779 --> 00:20:51.860 companions, a good wife, spouses, friendship, and our very breath, our spirit, and ultimately 00:20:51.859 --> 00:20:53.939 wise words. 00:20:53.939 --> 00:20:56.659 This is a wisdom literature book. 00:20:56.659 --> 00:20:57.659 That's its genre. 00:20:57.659 --> 00:21:05.779 These are wise words, a gift from God to help us navigate this vaporous life. 00:21:05.779 --> 00:21:11.379 Now, at this point, though, we might be tempted to think that the word vapor introduced in 00:21:11.379 --> 00:21:14.740 the beginning of the book might also fade away by the end of the book because it's 00:21:14.740 --> 00:21:17.099 so negative. 00:21:17.099 --> 00:21:20.099 We would be wrong. 00:21:20.099 --> 00:21:28.779 Coeleth, the preacher continues to insist that even this creaturely life, which is a 00:21:28.779 --> 00:21:34.379 gift, is also a vapor. 00:21:34.379 --> 00:21:37.779 At the end of chapter 11, he says, we're to rejoice in all of it. 00:21:37.779 --> 00:21:38.779 This is at verse 8. 00:21:38.779 --> 00:21:44.299 He says, if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, but remember, the 00:21:44.299 --> 00:21:47.059 days of darkness will be many. 00:21:47.059 --> 00:21:51.579 He doesn't say if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in the good ones because there 00:21:51.579 --> 00:21:52.740 will be lots of dark ones. 00:21:52.740 --> 00:21:57.019 He says, rejoice in them all. 00:21:57.019 --> 00:22:02.539 The days of darkness where the grasshopper drags itself along the ground and the days 00:22:02.539 --> 00:22:11.179 of youth and strength and light where the windows remain undimmed, rejoice in them all. 00:22:11.180 --> 00:22:23.180 Life is a vapor, and every ounce of our vaporous lives is gift from a God who loves you. 00:22:23.180 --> 00:22:28.019 So we say, life is pointless, cold, and indifferent, but Coeleth says no. 00:22:28.019 --> 00:22:30.580 Life is a gift from your Creator. 00:22:30.580 --> 00:22:36.380 And we say, sure, the rare times that are good are a gift, but what about the suffering? 00:22:36.380 --> 00:22:39.500 What about all the stuff I can't make sense of? 00:22:39.500 --> 00:22:41.779 Coeleth says no. 00:22:41.779 --> 00:22:46.380 All of life is gift. 00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:54.900 Each day, all the pleasure and pain and ease and frustration in each day is a gift from 00:22:54.900 --> 00:23:01.700 the hand of a God who loves you and is in absolute control. 00:23:01.700 --> 00:23:02.779 But life's an enigma. 00:23:02.779 --> 00:23:04.859 You won't be able to make sense of it all. 00:23:04.859 --> 00:23:06.980 You're not the Creator. 00:23:06.980 --> 00:23:17.860 But when you accept life as a gift, you'll really begin to live it and to love it, to 00:23:17.860 --> 00:23:23.660 rejoice in it, as Coeleth says we ought to do so many times. 00:23:23.660 --> 00:23:29.299 So that means the poor person's lot in life is God's gift to him. 00:23:29.299 --> 00:23:34.740 And the wealthy person's lot in life is God's gift to her. 00:23:34.740 --> 00:23:45.500 Here is a gift, and suffering is a gift, even when we can't make sense of it. 00:23:45.500 --> 00:23:48.579 I told you it was a weird book. 00:23:48.579 --> 00:23:50.299 What is it doing in our Bibles? 00:23:50.299 --> 00:23:52.660 I mean, it feels so modern, doesn't it? 00:23:52.660 --> 00:23:54.660 Wrestling with these sorts of questions. 00:23:54.660 --> 00:24:01.620 Ultimately, I think Ecclesiastes is a book of questions and not a book of answers. 00:24:01.619 --> 00:24:10.539 The role of Coeleth in the Bible isn't to be the one who ties it all together. 00:24:10.539 --> 00:24:16.019 He's a wise man who's pointing us to the very wisdom of God. 00:24:16.019 --> 00:24:21.619 He's pointing us toward the rest of the Bible as a place to find answers. 00:24:21.619 --> 00:24:25.819 Ultimately, Coeleth is pointing us to Jesus. 00:24:25.819 --> 00:24:35.139 Because Jesus, our Creator's greatest gift, is Jesus. 00:24:35.139 --> 00:24:36.779 His greatest gift to us. 00:24:36.779 --> 00:24:39.740 Our only gain. 00:24:39.740 --> 00:24:41.659 What can a man gain by all this toil? 00:24:41.659 --> 00:24:47.740 Well, our only gain and our greatest gain is Jesus. 00:24:47.740 --> 00:24:55.619 Jesus teaches us that gain is loss, and loss is gain, and life is by death. 00:24:55.619 --> 00:25:03.859 The only and greatest gain then in life is Jesus and life with him, now and forever, eternity. 00:25:03.859 --> 00:25:11.179 John 12, 25, and 26 says, whoever, this is Jesus speaking to his disciples, whoever loves 00:25:11.179 --> 00:25:21.379 his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 00:25:21.380 --> 00:25:27.580 If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. 00:25:27.580 --> 00:25:31.860 If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. 00:25:31.860 --> 00:25:35.780 So, following Jesus, we find gain is loss. 00:25:35.780 --> 00:25:36.720 Loss is gain. 00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:38.660 Life is through death. 00:25:38.660 --> 00:25:41.380 Everything is turned upside down. 00:25:41.380 --> 00:25:48.860 Jesus, Jesus with us, Jesus for us, makes every painful and pleasurable moment in our 00:25:48.859 --> 00:25:59.139 lives buzz with significance, tingling with meaning and purpose and value, because every 00:25:59.139 --> 00:26:07.099 ounce of suffering, for instance, is a gift, an opportunity for us to better know, better 00:26:07.099 --> 00:26:15.299 love Jesus, to receive comforts from the heart of the eternal triune God himself, and be 00:26:15.299 --> 00:26:25.059 certain of his love for us, even in the darkest times, we can find the brightest lights. 00:26:25.059 --> 00:26:33.659 Every ounce of suffering is an opportunity to get nearer to Jesus. 00:26:33.659 --> 00:26:37.419 That doesn't mean you'll understand it all. 00:26:37.419 --> 00:26:43.759 Life is vapor, but every vaporous breath is a reminder that life is a gift. 00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:53.059 God has given you a complicated, messy, beautiful life to live to his glory and to your joy, 00:26:53.059 --> 00:27:00.259 believe it or not, which will last forever if you trust in Jesus. 00:27:00.259 --> 00:27:08.859 He gives us tremendous significance, even our lives. 00:27:08.859 --> 00:27:12.019 I mentioned John Keats at the beginning. 00:27:12.019 --> 00:27:16.779 The full tombstone, I'll read the whole engraving to you just now. 00:27:16.779 --> 00:27:20.099 His tombstone, which you can find to this day, reads this. 00:27:20.099 --> 00:27:25.500 This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet who, on his deathbed, 00:27:25.500 --> 00:27:31.339 in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power of his enemies, desired these words 00:27:31.339 --> 00:27:33.700 to be engraved on his tombstone. 00:27:33.700 --> 00:27:36.940 Here lies one whose name was writ in water. 00:27:36.940 --> 00:27:42.860 A close friend of Keats was out of town when his other friends engraved that tombstone, 00:27:42.860 --> 00:27:47.700 and he came back and thought it painted his dear friend in a very negative light. 00:27:47.700 --> 00:27:55.100 He suggested they'd remove the tombstone and carve a new one with these new words. 00:27:55.100 --> 00:27:58.980 This short life was so embittered by discouragement and sickness that he desired these words to 00:27:58.980 --> 00:28:00.220 mark his grave. 00:28:00.220 --> 00:28:03.380 Here lies one whose name is writ in water. 00:28:03.380 --> 00:28:11.620 Him having reversed this sentence, his friends and admirers now inscribe his name in marble. 00:28:11.620 --> 00:28:14.300 They didn't take his suggestions. 00:28:14.300 --> 00:28:17.300 Keats' name remains writ in water. 00:28:17.300 --> 00:28:21.900 Ultimately, we all fear that our names will be writ in water. 00:28:21.900 --> 00:28:30.140 We might not desire the fame that he did, but we do desire to matter. 00:28:30.140 --> 00:28:37.340 We fear that we're insignificant, that we don't have any value, that we don't add anything, 00:28:37.340 --> 00:28:42.259 that when all is said and done, there will be nothing left. 00:28:42.259 --> 00:28:45.340 Love and fame to nothing that's due sink. 00:28:45.340 --> 00:28:50.620 But you matter to God. 00:28:50.620 --> 00:28:52.620 You always have. 00:28:52.620 --> 00:29:00.020 You matter so much to God that the Creator wrote himself into the story to save you. 00:29:00.019 --> 00:29:08.019 And He sent Jesus, His Son, to live with those two monsters under the sun, time and 00:29:08.019 --> 00:29:11.259 death. 00:29:11.259 --> 00:29:12.779 Jesus entered into time. 00:29:12.779 --> 00:29:20.859 He entered into our broken cycles of history, and He changed it forever. 00:29:20.859 --> 00:29:27.579 If there's a center of time, a pivot moment, when the world as we know it changed forever, 00:29:27.579 --> 00:29:34.220 it was when Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem. 00:29:34.220 --> 00:29:38.419 Now you might also read this book of Ecclesiastes and think, it's wise and good to live in 00:29:38.419 --> 00:29:41.539 light of your death, and it is. 00:29:41.539 --> 00:29:46.179 Not morbidly, but we must be aware of our end that we all will face. 00:29:46.179 --> 00:29:50.259 Nobody lived more in light of their death than Jesus of Nazareth. 00:29:50.259 --> 00:29:57.259 His whole purpose on life was to die for you. 00:29:57.259 --> 00:29:59.779 He didn't die like we die, though. 00:29:59.779 --> 00:30:01.859 He died worse than we die. 00:30:01.859 --> 00:30:03.579 He died a cosmic death. 00:30:03.579 --> 00:30:08.819 His death was such so that now if we're in Christ, our death is spoken of as just falling 00:30:08.819 --> 00:30:13.500 asleep in the Lord. 00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:23.740 The Son of God, abandoned by the Father willingly to pay the price for your sins and mine, so 00:30:23.740 --> 00:30:25.099 we wouldn't have to. 00:30:25.099 --> 00:30:30.419 And if you trust in Jesus for your significance, if you trust Jesus to save you from your own 00:30:30.419 --> 00:30:39.740 life under the sun, with all your sin and brokenness and confusion, he'll save you. 00:30:39.740 --> 00:30:48.819 He'll be your nearest friend, and he will prepare a place for you with him in eternity. 00:30:48.819 --> 00:30:59.220 And then you'll be able to say, here lives one whose name is writ in marble. 00:30:59.220 --> 00:31:00.179 Let's pray. 00:31:00.179 --> 00:31:09.339 Father, we confess to you now that we, every one of us, have grasped after meaning and 00:31:09.339 --> 00:31:17.539 significance and value and purpose in a thousand wrong ways. 00:31:17.539 --> 00:31:25.659 And we admit now, Lord, help us to admit now to our own selves, that everyone has left 00:31:25.659 --> 00:31:30.579 us empty. 00:31:30.579 --> 00:31:38.500 We look to you as the only thing that can fill, the only thing that can satisfy the 00:31:38.500 --> 00:31:47.779 bread of life, living water unending. 00:31:47.779 --> 00:31:52.779 Father give us a thirst and a hunger for Christ. 00:31:52.779 --> 00:32:09.819 Amen.