Thank you to Betsy and Lanah and Ken. It’s been good over the past few weeks to have some of our youth serving us in worship, and I think it ties in somewhat to what we see in the book of Ecclesiastes tonight. We’ll be back at the end of Ecclesiastes, chapter 11, if you want to turn there in your pew Bibles. It can be found on page 559.
And tonight we come to the end of the matter. This is the conclusion of the Preacher’s search for meaning under the sun. And not surprisingly, we find at the conclusion what we found at the beginning – “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.” It’s that familiar comment that we have found throughout this book on the fleetingness of life and on the limitations that we all face in a fallen world. But thankfully the book of Ecclesiastes doesn’t end there. No, it actually ends with a final word about how to live with wisdom in a world that is marred by sin and death. And the takeaway that we find at the end of this book is that the Preacher’s message can be distilled down into just a few words. It’s this – “Fear God and keep His commandments. Fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man.” That sounds so simple, doesn’t it? And in some ways it really is simple. And yet in other ways it is the hardest thing for us to do. It’s the hardest thing for us to do in this life as God’s people, and that is, to live by faith and not by sight. It’s to do what we heard this morning from C. H. Spurgeon’s quote. It’s to “trust God’s heart when we cannot trace His hand.” It’s to live by faith and not by sight. And that’s what the writer of Ecclesiastes is calling us to do as we turn to these last verses tonight. So let’s turn there, and let me pray before we read.
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that every word of Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. We thank You that Your Word is living and active. And so we ask tonight that You would, by Your Spirit, speak to us through Your Word. That You would show us Christ, the source of all wisdom, the source of all life. Help us to trust in Him and to walk in His ways and to experience the joy of our salvation. And we pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Ecclesiastes chapter 11. We’ll start in verse 7:
“Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets—before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth.
The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.
A few weeks ago, I came across a series of Tweets that express what it’s like to get older. This is what one person said. “Being an adult is basically waking up every morning wondering if you’re coming down with a cold or if this is just how you wake up now.” Another person said, “The older I get, the more I understand why my mom always said, ‘I’m going to go lay down now.’” And then one more. “Adulthood is making an involuntary grunt whenever you do anything that involves movement.” I’m sure there are plenty of us here tonight that can relate to those aspects of getting older. Getting older has its challenges, and the Preacher in Ecclesiastes adds his own colorful description of some of the effects of aging, of getting older, of which he says, you guessed it, “It’s vanity” – chapter 11 verse 8. And remember, that word, “vanity,” is the Preacher or Solomon’s favorite word in this book. It describes those things in this life that we cannot quite get ahold of. We can’t hold onto these things. They’re vanity. These are the things that, they either do not satisfy or either they dash our expectations altogether.
In fact, here’s a list of some of the things that the Preacher calls vanity in this book. There’s pleasure, money, work, speech. There’s loneliness, worry, injustice, and death. And in this passage, he adds two more things to the list of things he would call vanity. It’s youth and old age. Both of those are vanity, he says. Youth is vanity because it doesn’t last. Youth is like that breath that you saw coming out of your mouth this morning as you walked out into the cold air. It was there for just a moment and then it was gone. I recently heard someone say that he had been the quarterback of the state championship football team either in junior high or high school. And he said that when they won that state championship – I think they won it two years in a row – and it was the highlight of his life. It was the best thing that had ever happened to him at that point. But it was over 30 years ago. And he said, almost sarcastically, “You know, it gets harder and harder to bring that achievement up into conversations the older you get!” Because while those may have been the glory days, they don’t last, do they? And they are a long time ago. And that’s true with youth.
It can be troubling, can’t it, how parents get so caught up with their kid’s sports career or academic pursuits or their social life and it’s all about trophies and honors and awards and popularity and it’s all about a period of life that’s so short. It’s gone in an instant. And most of those things won’t be remembered anyway. “Youth and the dawn of life are vanity,” verse 10 of chapter 11 says. I love how The Message translates that verse. It says, “Youth lasts about as long as smoke.” Think about that. Those Tweets that I read just a few minutes ago, those were not written by 70 and 80 year olds. Those were written by millennials. That’s how fast aging comes. It comes fast and it comes hard and there’s no changing it. And what comes after that is not always pretty, is it? “Remember that the days of darkness will be many, and all that comes is vanity.” It’s saying that old age, that aging is vanity. And old age is vanity because it is impossible to ignore the limits of our bodies and the approach of death.
I can’t decide as I read these, especially the first 8 verses of chapter 12, I can’t decide whether it’s sad or whether we are to laugh at these things. Because it is describing some of the most painful realities of life, and yet on the other hand it comes to us like it’s describing a stereotypical old person, probably somebody that you know. Because what do people of a certain age tend to talk about a lot, besides the weather and dead relatives. They talk about filling prescriptions, and body parts that need to be replaced, and getting up in the night, and the problems out there in the world, and going to funerals. And that’s exactly what we find in these verses. There’s the breakdown of the body, verse 3 – “Strong men are bent.” There’s trouble sleeping, verse 4 – “One rises up at the sound of a bird.” There’s trouble out there in the world around us, verse 5 – “They are afraid of what is high and terrors are in the way.” And then there’s funerals, verse 5 – “Mourners go about the streets.” Verse 7, “The dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity.” Because it’s obvious in old age that we are finite and we are fallen and death is unavoidable. In fact, according to medical experts, the condition of old age has been found to have a 100% mortality rate. It’s a grim diagnosis. It’s vanity, the writer of Ecclesiastes would say.
Everything is vanity. Everything is vanity because everything is touched by death. How do we live in a world like that? How do we live in a world where everything is touched by sin and death, where youth and old age, where all of life is short and full of trouble? How do we live in a world like that? Well, the answer that we find throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, the answer in this passage is actually to enjoy, to enjoy the life that God has given to us for every day that God has given us to enjoy them. It says, “Light is sweet and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun,” chapter 11 verse 7. What’s he saying there? He’s saying it’s good to wake up in the morning, no matter how hard it may be to wake up. And it’s good to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. It’s good to be alive. “Light is sweet. It’s pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.” Verse 8, he says, “If a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all.” He’s saying whether you are in your glory days or in your golden years, enjoy them. Enjoy the life that God has given to you. Make the most of those days that He has given to you.
In fact, the Preacher even says to the young, “Do whatever is your heart,” in verse 9. That sounds surprising. It almost sounds like a modern encouragement to “Follow your heart wherever it takes you!” What he’s saying is that it is good to follow the desires that God has given to you in your youth. It’s good to pursue the opportunities that God has placed before you, the doors that He is opening up before you. Enjoy the freedom to learn and to play and to try new things. And then go on and get married and have children and get involved in your community and get involved in your church. Be content with what you have and where you are and where God has placed you. Do that even in your youth. Follow your heart. You don’t have to have it all together, you don’t have to have it all figured out before you can start enjoying the life God has given to you. Do whatever is in your heart.
But remember, remember that God is going to bring every deed into judgment, he says. We are accountable to God for everything that we do. Now don’t miss what’s going on here in this passage. These verses are showing us something important about, number one, the purpose of this book, and number two, the nature of wisdom. You see, the book of Ecclesiastes is an appeal to wisdom from an older man to a younger person. Chapter 11 verse 9, “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth.” Chapter 12 verse 1, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” The book of Proverbs does the very same thing, doesn’t it? It’s the older saying to the younger, “Seek and find wisdom in your youth. Don’t waste your younger years, but remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” Get right with God right now and don’t wait to be wise. Don’t wait to find and to value wisdom. You don’t have to go out and have your fun first before settling down and getting serious and enjoying life as it really should be enjoyed. If you do that, if you go and sow your wild oats, as some people like to do and some people even encourage younger people to do, to do that is to do a bunch of things that will set you up for guilt and shame later on in life. And it will oftentimes set a pattern for which it will be hard to break – a pattern of folly and destruction.
You see, what we see in these verses is a transfer of wisdom. It’s a transfer of wisdom from the older to the younger. That’s what true wisdom is all about. True wisdom is on the one hand, it’s received from God. And we see that in these verses. It says it’s given from one shepherd. True wisdom is received from God, but it is also to be received from others. And so with age and wisdom comes a responsibility to go out and to teach others, to build relationships, to listen and to ask questions and to be honest about our mistakes and the disappointments that we have faced in our lives. That’s the ministry of discipleship, after all, and we are all called to go and to make disciples, to teach others in the way of wisdom.
And then for the young, you don’t have to go out and figure out wisdom all on your own. There are others who have gone before you to teach you and to bring you up in the ways of wisdom. Now that takes humility, and remember what J.C. Ryle said. “There are two things that are rare in this world. One is a young man that is humble, and the other is an old man that is content.” And so it takes humility to learn wisdom from an older person. It takes humility to recognize that we don’t know everything and we don’t have it all figured out. It takes wisdom and humility. It takes humility to sit and to listen and to be teachable. And yes, there are some things that we can only learn from experience, but not everything. There are other things that we find, like in this book, where the Preacher, where those who have gone before us in the Christian life can spare us some of the grief and the trouble that comes with foolish plans and shortsighted expectations.
Ecclesiastes is exploring life’s most pressing questions, ultimate questions. And it’s a book that is full of unresolved tensions. There are all sorts of tensions throughout this book. Things like time and eternity, good and evil, wisdom and folly, youth and old age, life and death. And yet for all of that, for all of that tension and for all of that complexity that we find in the book of Ecclesiastes, there’s simplicity. There’s simplicity here. Our former pastor, Dr. Baird, told someone years ago that the longer he lived in the Christian life, the more he loved the simplicity of the Gospel and the simplicity of the Christian life. One writer put it this way. He said, “As we grow old and draw near to the gates of the grave, we become more and more simple.” And he quotes John Newton, the writer of the hymn, “Amazing Grace,” who said in his declining years, he said, “When I was young, I was sure of many things. There are only two things of which I am sure now. One, is that I am a miserable sinner. And the other is that Christ is an all sufficient Savior.” And the writer says – “What is that? It’s nothing other than the soul taking on the most perfect simplicities as it gets ready to greet the everlasting sublimities.” There’s simplicity and sublimity. There’s simplicity in the book of Ecclesiastes amidst all the complexity that we find in this book.
And Ecclesiastes ends on a note of utter simplicity. Chapter 12 verse 13, “Fear God and keep His commandments.” You see, for all of the challenging, and what has seemed like scattered observations that the preacher makes in this book, the essence of what he writes, the heart of his search for meaning comes down to this, to these words – “Fear God and keep His commandments.” This is the summary of all the Preacher had to say. He says yes, all is vanity and life under the sun is fleeting and it’s frustrating and it is completely stained by sin and by death. And we are left with this question. And the question is, “How do we live under the sun with wisdom and enjoyment?” And what’s the answer? The answer is, “Fear God and keep His commandments.”
What kind of life is the book of Ecclesiastes calling us to live? The book of Ecclesiastes is calling us to live a life of faith. It’s a life of simple trust in God and obedience to His Word. See, “Fear God” plus “Keep His Commandments” equals “A Life of Faith.” It’s reverence for God, for who He is. And we meet Him here in this passage as Creator and Shepherd and Judge. It’s a fear and a reverence and an adoration for God, for who He is. But it’s also a belief that God’s commandments are the only way. In fact, it’s somewhat similar to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” “Fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man.” It really is that simple.
And Derek Kidner says it this way. “‘Fear God’ is a call that puts us in our place and all of our fears, hopes and admirations in their places.” Why do we need that? Why do we need to be put in our places and why do we need our fears and our hopes and our admirations to be put into their places? It’s because whenever we get that wrong, whenever we get the order wrong, we get ourselves into trouble. Whenever we fear man, we’ll do what’s popular. Whenever we fear our circumstances, we’ll go and do whatever is safe or whatever gets the easiest results. Whenever we fear or exalt ourselves, we’ll do whatever we want to do.
Instead, what are we called to do? “Fear God and keep His commandments.” To fear God and do what He commands means trusting that He will keep His people and He will keep His promises no matter what challenges come to us along the way. And when we fear God and keep His commandments, we don’t have to have all the answers. When we fear God and keep His commandments, that will spare us from having to think about keeping our stories straight or keeping up appearances before others. When we fear God and keep His commandments, we are delivered from living a life of regret. Because when we fear God and keep His commandments, there comes with that, a freedom. There comes with that a clear conscience, shalom, peace. That’s what kind of wisdom the writer of Ecclesiastes is calling us to. That kind of wisdom, which will impact every aspect of our lives.
And it calls us to examine ourselves. We are called as we come to this Table tonight to examine ourselves. Shouldn’t we examine ourselves to see whether we are fearing God and keeping His commandments? And there are all sorts of ways we can do that. There are questions we can ask ourselves. Do we use our words to spin the truth and to manipulate our relationships, both at work or in the church or even at home? Or do we speak the truth and do we say what we mean, trusting that we can get through the consequences. Rather, do we speak the truth trusting that God will bless us in that and that our relationships will be most healthy as they are built up in the truth? Do we order our week around our kids sports and activities or around our own work and hobbies? Or do we structure our week around worship where worship is our chief priority, trusting that if we do that our kids will be okay, that we’ll be okay? No, check that. Do we order our week around worship trusting that we will be blessed and that we will become more like Christ as we do that? Because that’s what God promises to do as we fear Him and keep His commandments and order our lives around His worship and His commandments.
There are all sorts of questions we could ask ourselves, all sorts of applications we could make. But the call is really simple. The call is, “Fear God and keep His commandments.” It’s so simple. And yet isn’t that the hardest thing for us to do? Isn’t it so hard to live by faith and not by sight? Fearing God and keeping His commandments, it will at times – trust me – it will, at times, put you at odds with the culture and it will put you at odds with both political parties. Fearing God and keeping His commandments will keep you at odds with your workplace and with your school, at times. It will even put you at odds with your friends and maybe even your family. In fact, I think we have to say that if we are not going against the flow sometimes, and we’re not swimming upstream in our culture, then we’re probably not living by faith and by sight – we’re probably living by sight and not by faith. Going against the flow can be very difficult.
If you’ve ever seen a salmon swimming upstream, it is not easy; it’s challenging. And it’s going to be difficult for us as well, even in Jackson, Mississippi, maybe especially in a place like Jackson, Mississippi where we are surrounded by such cultural Christianity. And yet to fear God and keep His commandments will make us swim upstream even against cultural Christianity sometimes. That’s why we need the wisdom from God’s Word. That’s why we need wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes. That’s why we need the Lord’s Table, because the Lord’s Table, it’s a reminder to us of the blessings, the eternal blessings, the secured and guaranteed blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus by faith. The bread and the cup of communion, they nurture our faith through visible and tangible and edible signs that are pointing us to Christ’s redemption for us. As we come to the Table tonight, this is God here, condescending Himself to us in our waywardness and in our weakness and He is showing us Christ. He is presenting before us the blessings that have been achieved at the cross and by Jesus’ resurrection. And the Holy Spirit works in these visible signs, in the preached Word and the visible Word, to help us live a life of faith and not sight. The Holy Spirit works in these things to grow us in wisdom and godliness. The Holy Spirit works in the bread and the cup to train us to fear God and keep His commandments.
And so as we come to the Table tonight, this, I think, is a fitting conclusion to the book of Ecclesiastes as we come to the end of the series in this book because that word, that word, “vanity,” that word which captures everything that is wrong under the sun, it’s the Hebrew word, “hevel.” And it’s actually the same word as the name, “Abel” in Genesis chapter 4. In fact, there are links – you could go back through this book, and there are links everywhere in the book of Ecclesiastes with the first four chapters of Genesis. I think that’s what makes this book so relevant and so universal, is that it’s going back to the initial beginning things at the beginning of creation. It’s dealing with the effects of sin. It’s dealing with the effects of death – the things that we all grieve over.
And who was Abel? But he represents the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin, namely death. And death is all over a fallen creation. The tragedy of sin and death, the vanity of life under the sun, as we come to this Table, we are reminded is dealt with; those things are dealt with at the cross, with Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. And Hebrews chapter 12 verse 24 says that “Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant and His blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” And so where Abel, his blood marks the destructiveness of sin, of “hevel,” of vanity, Christ’s blood, it marks the forgiveness of sin, the restoration of all things, the renewal of creation, the recovery of Eden, the redemption into the life, new life, everlasting life with our God and Father, the Creator, forever. That’s what this Table, that’s what this book of leading us to. This book, this blunt and honest and surprising book of Ecclesiastes, it points us not only to wisdom and enjoyment in a fallen world in the midst of the dissatisfactions of this life, but let this book and this Table point us to the only one who brings ultimate satisfaction in this life and for eternity. And praise God for His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us in order to reverse the vanity, to take away the fleetingness of life, and to give us in its place, by faith, life and eternity with Him.
Let’s pray.
Our Father, there is not one of us here who is not touched in some way by the effects of sin and death and we can say and echo and repeat what the writer of Ecclesiastes says over and over again, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” And yet there is not one of us here who does not need to hear the good news of the Gospel of Christ Jesus who comes to take away the effects of sin and death, who gave His life for us to give us life and to give us forgiveness and freedom in Your presence forever. And so as we turn our attention now to Your Table that You have given to us, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, would You prepare our hearts to meet You and to enjoy fellowship with our Savior, all for our good and for Your glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.