ENGAGING EACH DAY

______

Ecclesiastes 8:10–10:20

______

P.C. Edwards

Introduction

One of my earliest memories of childhood rebellion was that of hiding in my room listening to a cassette tape of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Of course, I am not old enough to have heard the song when it was first released in 1975. Instead, I came to be acquainted with the song through the iconic classic, “Wayne’s World.” But, Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen and writer of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” never explained the meaning behind the song. And so, debate has raged throughout the decades since seeking to pinpoint exactly what the song is about.

The song opens saying, … well, just listen to it for yourselves,

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, No escape from reality Open your eyes, Look up to the skies and see, I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy, Because I'm easy come, easy go Little high, little low Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me

The song closes repeating this sentiment saying,

Nothing really matters Anyone can see Nothing really matters Nothing really matters to me Any way the wind blows

Now you’ll forgive me but I think you’ll understand why, given our study through the book of

Ecclesiastes, that I read these lyrics and I think of what the Teacher has been saying: All is vanity; nothing matters. It’s a sentiment that philosophers often call nihilism.

Nihilism has found many different expressions and articulations in the modern era. In

Nietzsche, for example, it takes the form of a total rejection of objective truth and morality. In the Russian novelist Dostoyevsky, moral standards are abandoned. Most simplistically we could

P.C. Edwards 1 define Nihilism – the rejection of tradition, morality, and authority based on the foundational belief that there is no meaning to life. We are simply biological robots that work and then attempt to relieve ourselves of that toil through entertainment and stimulating experiences.

Now listen again to that last description: We are simply biological robots that work and then attempt to relieve ourselves of that toil through entertainment and stimulating experiences.

Does that not sound very much like the Teacher we’ve been conversing with in Ecclesiastes? I’m not saying that the Teacher is nihilistic, but that he’s really been wrestling with it because observation of the world seems to be leading him toward this conclusion that nothing really matters. And this confrontation comes to a forefront this morning in chapters 8–10. I mean the

Teacher faces head-on this impulse toward nihilism, toward the belief that ultimately nothing we do matters, but he starts to find a way through it.

These chapters, this morning, are really the last great enigmatic debate that the Teacher has with himself, with God, and with this world. Next week in chapters 11 and 12 we’ll see him finally turn the corner and start to find resolution to this enigma of life he’s been wrestling through. But for this morning we come face-to-face in the most intimate way thus far with this fundamental struggle of humanity.

And I think what makes this confrontation so important is that despite the fact that the

Teacher penned these words thousands of years ago that this drift toward nihilism is exactly the same today as it was then. Now hang in there with me because I know that very few of us are interested in philosophical discussions of modernity and postmodernity. When we hear the names Foucault or Derrida we’re more likely to think that these are curse words or venereal diseases. But regardless of whether or not one is familiar with this lingo, this is the prevailing worldview of many today. We base our beliefs on human reason and yet we can see that human

P.C. Edwards 2 reason is limited. And so culture has a whole has more or less arrived at a place of belief in which absolute truth is not knowable. In other words, there’s no denial of truth itself, but of the ability for you to know that truth. And so, since it is impossible for us to really know what the meaning of life is then we should just go on with our lives, enjoy what we can, be a good member of society and just leave it at that.

Friend, this is the dominant worldview of our age and it is directly what the Teacher confronts and wrestles with in this book of Ecclesiastes and in particular in chapters 8–10. I hope you see then that what we explore this morning isn’t just academic philosophy. We’re talking about how you view your life and how those around you view theirs. If we are to live rightly as children of God we must learn how to think properly of the days and engage them accordingly.

Likewise, if we are to live rightly as ambassadors and missionaries of the Kingdom then we must learn how to engage our neighbors in their beliefs while offering them a better way forward. You see, as human beings we can hold either to one of two alternative visions of life: either cheerful nihilism or a vision of the world in which in the beginning was the Word. Ecclesiastes 8–10 shows us how Experience and reason lead to a pessimistic outlook on our days where ultimately our actions don’t matter. Faith, however, leads us to see each day as a gift to be enjoyed and turned to worship.

1. Nothing Really Matters, Anyone Can See 8:10–17, 9:1–6, 11–18; 10:5–11, 16–20

The majority of our passage wrestles with the first way to look at life, one in which nothing really matters. The Teacher offers four reasons why, then, anyone can see this is the case. First, because Nothing really matters because there is an absence of justice in the world.

We’ve talked about this a number of different weeks throughout the book; it’s a reoccurring theme for the Teacher and that is simply because of how much injustice reigns in this world.

P.C. Edwards 3 Ecclesiastes 8:10, “In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they did those things. This too is futile,”

(Ecclesiastes 8:10). The Teacher’s point here is that the wicked often escape justice in this life.

They do evil things and die naturally as anyone else. Moreover, the fact that there is often no consequence for wickedness only encourages further wickedness. If you know that there will be no repercussions for your actions, then why not do whatever you want?

Verse 14, “There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile,” (Ecclesiastes 8:14). The righteous are treated as if wicked and the wicked treated as if righteous. In other words, the proverbial wisdom that righteousness is rewarded and wickedness is punished simply does not ring true in experience.

The Teacher believes in his heart that sin will be eventually punished and the righteous rewarded, but he doesn’t see this happening. And so he’s left to conclude, well then what we do ultimately doesn’t matter.

Second, he concludes Nothing really matters because all of us eventually end up dead. He says,

Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: The righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands. People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them. Everything is the same for everyone: There is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so also it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who takes an oath, so also for the one who fears an oath, (Ecclesiastes 9:1-2).

His point is that even though God is sovereign over all humanity, that doesn’t seem to mean much of anything. As Craig Bartholomew observes, “The righteous may be in God’s hands, but

P.C. Edwards 4 it is uncertain whether this means that God’s love or hate lies ahead for them,” (Craig

Bartholomew).1 It seems, instead, that all are headed for the same fate – death.

It doesn’t seem to matter then how you live your life as your prosperity and blessing is completely out of your hands. Some righteous persons will suffer, but some will prosper. Some wicked persons will suffer, but some will prosper. There doesn’t seem to be any clear formula to follow. And you know what, regardless we all end up dead and forgotten. Who cares if you were bad in this life and had a bad reputation, people will forget it once you’re dead. Who cares if you were good in this life, people will forget all the good you did once you’re gone. Nothing seems to really matter.

This leads the Teacher then to the third reason nothing seems to really matter, that being simply Nothing really matters because of the uncertainty of life itself.2

Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them. For certainly no one knows his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them, (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12).

Bad things can happen to anyone unexpectedly. Just because you’re a good person doesn’t mean you’ll avoid troubles and hardships. The outcome in life is rarely what we expect it to be.

I mean, is this not true? Being young, eating healthy, exercising, being a pastor, didn’t stop me from having a stroke. Being kind, charitable, a worshiper of God hasn’t stopped godly people from getting cancer and dying. A few months back someone close to me was having some car issues and decided that they would make repairs rather than just buy a new car because that seemed to be the most fiscal thing for them. But then there was a need to go visit family a few states away and they had some worries about their car making the trip. But it seemed like the

1 Bartholomew, Ecclesiastes, 300. 2 This is the dominant motif that is illustrated in 10:1–20.

P.C. Edwards 5 right thing to do. The car then died on the trip. Total loss. Despite having done the fiscally responsible thing and the compassionate thing, the car still died and they lost hundreds if not thousands of dollars from it all.

How about the converse of this? How about those times when you see people acting irresponsibly or wickedly and yet somehow good things keep happening to them? They get that pay raise or promotion; they are healthy and find love and a good family. And you’re like, ‘Hold on. They don’t deserve that. There are so many other people who deserve good things; not this one!’ But that’s the way life seems to go. That whole character-consequence relationship we see frequently in the Proverbs doesn’t seem to actually work. It’s as if, in reality, nothing really matters.

For, fourth, Nothing really matters because there is a lack of reward for righteousness in this world. There’s this great little parable that the Teacher tells which illustrates this truth.

Beginning in verse 13 of chapter 9, “I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me: There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege works against it. Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man,” (Ecclesiastes

9:13-15). I mean this dude saves the entire city and yet receives no reward, no celebration; no remembrance at all.

And then the Teacher adds this puzzling statement, “And I said, ‘Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded,’”

(Ecclesiastes 9:16). Well how does that work, we might ask. I mean why is wisdom better if it didn’t get the poor man anything? And that’s the point that the Teacher makes overall in this

P.C. Edwards 6 passage and he has been making throughout this book. These two things, what the Bible teaches but what we experience in life, do not seem in any way to fit together.

Nothing we do seems to really matter and the world abounds with examples that seem to prove this point. And so, here, then, is one vision and approach to life that we can take. As we said earlier, this is what we call nihilism. In society it’s modified a bit where in light of the meaninglessness of life an individual society decides for itself what should matter. And so we together agree upon a standard of morality; we together agree upon what makes one valuable and accepted. Of course, these are just cultural constructions, they aren’t absolute truths, but they make society work and help you to find your place in it. The way you should go through life, therefore, is to work hard, do what society tells you to do, and find something that brings you a little happiness along the way. This is what human life is all about.

Now again, listen to that description: The way you should go through life is to work hard, do what society tells you to do, and find something that brings you a little happiness along the way. Do you see just how closely the vision of the Teacher with today’s society run? Again, this is why I think this book is so important for our study, because this vision of life is what you and those around you are being taught. I think even if you’re a believer, you still struggle with these questions and thus may be influenced by cultural norms. Certainly if you’re not a follower of

Jesus this worldview probably makes a lot of sense to you and reflects what you believe.

But ask yourself, is this really how I want to go through life? Is this really a satisfying way to look at my life and the world itself? No! And I think we all agree on that. We all deep inside find this view of life dissatisfying and unfulfilling. Our problem is that we’re just not sure there’s any other alternative, right? I mean does this view of life really bring me any joy or

P.C. Edwards 7 fulfillment? No. But what else is there? Friend, if that’s you this morning, you wish there was something more but you’re unsure, then again look to God’s Word, because there is another way.

2. Receiving the Day with Praise and Joy 9:7–10

Smack dab right in the middle of all this nihilism, the Teacher offers an alternative vision of life, one where there is a God who is knowable and personal and gives meaning to our days.

Rather than live life in this postmodern way, the Teacher shows us in verses 7–10 how we can actually receive each day of life with praise and joy.

Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun. Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going, (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10).

Now we’ve seen passages like this throughout our study, and we’ve called them carpe diem passages because what the Teacher suggests in them is that even though we can’t observe what the purpose or meaning of life is, it is clear that life and everything in it is a gift from our

Creator. Therefore, we should receive each day as a gift. What these verses teach us is that true enjoyment in life is found in the center of the will of God. We see that God wills that we enjoy his basic provisions, for He is the one who provides them. And just note how this includes everything in life: food, drink, family, work; every aspect of your life has meaning and purpose because it is a gift of God.3

So then how do we receive each day? How can we enjoy every day of our life and find that divine meaning and purpose in it? Dorothy Bass has written on this topic in a book called

Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time. In it she outlines five

3 Dorothy Bass writes, “At the heart of this practice is the praise of the One who created the earth and separated the light from darkness,” (Bass, Receiving the Day, 18).

P.C. Edwards 8 practices for us to receive the day. First, (1) Receive the day by honoring the body, day by day.

As creatures made with bodies, rhythms of eating, drinking, and washing are an important part of human identity. And so as we eat, as we care for our bodies, we need to be intentional at viewing them as gifts, offering God praise for them, and then engaging in them accordingly.

Second, (2) Receive the day by offering attention. You see in today’s busy world we are often quite distracted. When we drive we’re thinking about where we’re going. When we’re doing a task we’re thinking about what’s next. Especially in the mundane tasks of the day we’re daydreaming or getting lost in our phones and social media. Rarely is our attention on the very thing we’re doing. In order to really receive the day as God’s gift and live rightly in that day, we need to slow day and pay attention. Reflect upon what you’re doing, meditate on who God is through it, and then engage that task accordingly.

Third, (3) Receive the day by attending to God. This means that in addition to reflecting upon God in all we do, that we also carve out time each day to simply spend time with Him. You remember the Teacher hit on this in chapter 5 when he talked about the importance of listening to God. And so spending time with Him each day in His Word and in prayer is vital part of orienting our souls to who He is and what He is doing each and every day.

Fourth, (4) Receive the day by saying no to say yes. You see, “Receiving the day, especially in our frenetic consumer culture, involves choosing what not to do as well as what to do.”4 With T.V., Internet, social media, social clubs, errands, work demands, extracurricular activities, we easily get so overloaded with stuff that before you know it we’ve gone through the whole day without even really knowing it. And so if we really want to receive each day and engage it as a gift from God we’ve got to slow down and be willing to eliminate those things that distract us.

4 Bartholomew, Ecclesiastes, 310.

P.C. Edwards 9 Fifth, (5) Receive the day by unmastering the day. Here Bass says we need to simply recognize that there is much about our days that we cannot control and so we must be willing to relinquish control. We’ve seen over and over again the Teacher lament the unpredictability of life. Specifically in verse 12 he declares, “For certainly no one knows his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them,” (Ecclesiastes 9:12). In other words, the days are evil and hardship can befall any of us. But rather than just shrug our shoulders or throw our hands up in the air, we must remind ourselves that though we are not in control, that we have a good and perfect God who is.

Conclusion

The apostle Paul makes this point in Ephesians 6 when he says, “… take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand,” (Ephesians 6:13). Paul’s point is that in Jesus we actually have everything we need to make it through the hardships of life. First, in Jesus we have hope of a final vindication. For the Teacher death seems like the end of human beings, but in light of the fuller revelation of

Christ we know that death has no sting for the follower of Jesus. Instead, death is the stepping- stone into God’s presence. We await the resurrection of the dead! Because Jesus died and rose from the dead, we who trust in Him may have a certain hope that after the pains and struggles of this life that we have an eternity of life without pain or sadness or hardship awaiting us!

But Paul is not just talking about the future hope we have. He is saying that in Jesus we have hope for each and every day of life now! Death and suffering may retain their shadow but in Jesus we can not only endure but we can thrive. Our days can have meaning and purpose.

What we see here this morning is how to affirm the brokenness of life while not having to affirm a nihilistic, postmodern alternative. This passage exposes the pain of the struggle of life but leads

P.C. Edwards 10 us to a point where we have to acknowledge what great need we have for our Creator. We in fact can embrace life with joy and feasting because we know that our God has created these things and is recreating them through the work of Jesus Christ.

At the very end of the Bible we read, “Then the one seated on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new.’ He also said, ‘Write, because these words are faithful and true,’”

(Revelations 21:5). Will you look then to He who alone can make all things new? Will you find that newness in Him and receive and engage each day?

P.C. Edwards 11