Ecclesiastes 3:16-21
Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. 17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. 18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. 19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? 22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?
After a few days of studying Ecclesiastes, what word would you pick to describe life under the sun? The view, the outlook, that the author has as he views life from man’s perspective, a view that leaves out the sovereign hand of God…that forgets eternity, that can only see things from a worldly and earth-bound vantage point? What word pops into your mind, what conclusion does Solomon draw regardless of where he looks.
Despair.
God tells us that man is made to search for meaning and purpose, that he cannot help but to try and find it, God has wired us that way, but, He says that it will always, under the sun, come up empty. Man will not find out what the key to life is, under the sun, no matter what century he lives in, no matter the technological advance, or the intellectual sophistication. One commentator made this comment, and I want you to think about why he would say this, in light of this message “We should welcome the silence of despair.” Whatever did he mean?
“Human despair has no authority to contradict what God gives to us. It may only contradict what it experiences…Without God, without His Word, what can we say about such things? What is there to say? We have to be silent. We must despair…of our despair.” (Doug Wilson)
That is why you can listen to popular music and hear the emptiness and the depression of so much of it. Some of these “artists” are looking and finding nothing! But you have to appreciate the fact that the young men and women writing and singing are doing exactly what Ecclesiastes says they will do, what they must do. Oh, they end in despair, just listen…and the silence of their despair…is deafening.
Listen to the words of this popular song from a few years ago:
“I’m tired of being what you want me to be,
feeling so faithless, lost under the surface,
don’t know what you’re expecting of me
put under the pressure of walking in your shoes…
I’ve become so numb, I can’t feel you there, I’ve become so tired, so much more aware…all I want to do is to be more like me and less like you…”
Men and women are looking for answers and everywhere they look they find emptiness…they find vanity…they find despair. And as we watch, as we listen, what is there to say? What is there to do? From 3:16 -4:16 we find 6 more areas of life that fail to answer life’s question, under the sun.
But before we begin looking at those 6 areas, I want you to see that Solomon is not sadistic…he is not merely pointing at the despair and laughing maniacally that we can never find the answers. In other words, this position of vanity, this hopelessness, this despair is NOT his perspective, he has hope, contentment, peace, and confidence in the midst of all of this mess under the sun.
Throughout the book, he points us to eternity, he points us to the end. He has the end at the front, he knows that in the judgment of God…at the end of time, God will bring the reality of the eschaton, to be the only reality that exists. In that reality, not just then, but now, we begin to see correctly, we find our hope, confidence, security and peace.
3:17; “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time for every purpose and every work.” In fact ,the very last verse of this book reads, “For God will bring every work into judgment including every secret thing whether good or evil.” THAT is his focus. The judgement is his hope and even his motivation. I know that I say this a lot, but only because the BIBLE says it a lot. We are constantly over and over again, as we live in this world, being called to live in light of the end. It is to be OUR motivation, our inspiration and it is our sanity…we embrace, by faith, the promises of God of what heaven is and what the great day will bring.
Here is what the apostle John says: Beloved now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed we shall be like him for we shall see Him as he is. And everyone who has this hope, purifies himself as he is pure.
And now little children abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of him.
Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement because as He is so are we in this world.There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear…we love because he first loved us.
We live in this world under the sun, and we might wonder why, what difference does anything make. Work, pleasure, education, they take us nowhere. And as we shall see, there is no justice, man seems like the animals, everywhere there is abuse of power and mistreatment of the weak, men are lazy, envious, lonely and even popularity is fleeting and means nothing!
This, as you remember, was the psalmist dilemma in Psalm 73, and he, like John, like Solomon is pointed to the end…to the judgment, to the promise of God at the end, that is enough for us to live faithfully now in this world. John says that such a sight of the kingdom and the end of time, is what causes anyone who embraces Christ to seek purity of life, righteous living, and even the reason and motivation for loving others and living the life of the resurrected Christ. He said in that passage that as Jesus is NOW in resurrected glory, as He is as the victor, so are we in this world. In other words, our identity, even as we live in this world, is not of this world, rather our identity is in the victorious world of glory.
I know this might sound like theological rambling, but I can assure you it is the core of the Christian life and the beginning of our living in joy and hope amidst all your heartache, trial, and difficulty. This is extremely practical. It is possible that as you read this, you are not doing well, you can’t seem to shake a particular sin, in fact you have all but given up trying. Perhaps you are caught in the downward spiral of frustration, discouragement, bitterness, and anger. You are viewing life, under the sun. The eschaton and the power of the resurrected Jesus is meant to change, not necessarily the circumstances, but meant to change you.
I haven’t the space to go into all of this, but the bible says that a view of the judgment, a view to the end, is the foundation for hospitality, (I Peter 4:7-11)… It gives confidence that those reveling in sin, will not go unpunished, (Rom 2:3). It is the reason for celebrating and believing in the effectiveness of the Lord’s Supper, (I Cor 11:26), it is the reason we suffer and endure with joy and expectation, (2 Thess. 1), it is the reason that you endure in patience, and even according to James, why you refuse to grumble against your brothers! You can’t get more practical than this. Grumbling and complaining, things that God hates disappear from your lips as you apply your eschatology. If you are a discontented person, if you find it easy to complain and to grumble against others, against life, against your husband, or your boss, or whatever and whoever…Then you are choosing life under the sun when you need to be looking up.
Peter says that we are to be sober and have our minds girded, that is ready for action in this world, with our hope FULLY upon the grace that is ours at the revelation of Jesus Xp.
And then listen again to this from Peter’s second epistle: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct, (that is conduct set apart unto God) and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…therefore beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…”
We could go on and on with this, but I hope you see the point. If you don’t have the eschaton before you, if you don’t have the reality of the great day, even the judgment of God, and the revealing of the full glory of the Lamb…If it is not your motivation for life, for holiness, for pleasing the Lord, for diligence, worship, for hospitality, thankfulness, hope, and for perseverance…Then you will end up viewing things under the sun. You will end up frustrated and thinking that life is all in vain, because from this perspective, from man’s perspective…that is exactly what it is. The answer to everything that our text sets forth as vanity, is found in verse 17 and at the end of the book in the judgment of God. It is fascinating…this is where we have to look, where we have to live, IF life is to make any sense at all. This is what pushes us to never envy the wicked in their supposed prosperity, it is what keeps us abiding in Christ, pursuing purity, and perfecting love. Does it give us ALL the answers, no, the Lord, remember , reveals to us, at His good pleasure, and sometimes it is His good pleasure to keep us from knowing, so that we might bow to Him in full submission. And those who trust Him will find joy, peace and rest by doing so!
Prayer: Father, I read in your word that if I would keep my eyes upon the victory of my Savior, my entire life would take on a gloriously different perspective. I want this, I yearn for it, but my faith is weak and the power of this world so strong. Lord keep me faithful, give me spiritual courage and strength that I might be strong in the Lord. I believe, help my unbelief, through Jesus Christ my Savior, Amen.
Hymn: Be Thou My Vision