Wisdom is a Good Thing - Ecclesiastes 7:1–8:1; Ecclesiastes 9:13–10:20

These 2 passages are rather long, but are written similar to how Solomon writes in the book of Proverbs on the value of wisdom. Solomon connects a variety of situations and thoughts together to give a wide-ranging vision of what wisdom looks like, contrasting it with folly and wickedness. Solomon begins by reminding us of the value of a good name, and then how death is a good day since our time of suffering is finished, while birth is only the beginning. There’s a sadness in looking at the world from the perspective of living under the sun. Solomon then says something I thought humorous, “Do not say, “Why are the old days better than these?” He tells us it’s not wise to ask these kinds of questions, to live in the past rather than in today with an eye to living for the future. We reflected on this a bit last week when looking at how God has place eternity in our hearts and to enjoy today while investing in our children for the future. While we’re called to not look back to the old days with rose coloured glasses, we do look back in order to remember and believe in God and his providence, protection, and presence.

Scripture describes wisdom as living well with God, others, and ourselves, living according to God’s will. J.A Louder observes, “Wisdom is concerned with the correct ordering of life. Wise action is that which integrates people harmoniously into the order God has created. The rules of life that prescribe how human beings must integrate themselves into that order are the precept of wisdom.” Wisdom is living according to who God created us to be as his image of him in his world. Ecclesiastes calls us to an awareness and a fear of God that helps us live within God’s design and plan for creation. Truth Seekers are taught how to study the Bible, how to read it and understand it so they can learn the truth of who God is, how we’re saved from our sins, and our sinful nature is renewed. Basically, truth seekers are seeking wisdom and going to the right place to find it: Scriptures.

Wisdom teaches us how to see the world through God’s eyes. Solomon recognizes this in verse 13, “Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.” Living wisely is usually developed by living in today rather than the past, or too far into the future, as Jesus reminds us in Matthew

Wisdom sees the world through the eyes of reality, good people often die for being good, while many wicked people prosper and live long lives. Many wise people are not always listened to, “wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.” Under the sun, there’s a great deal of meaningless, much ‘hevel’ or mist. This is how Solomon has been approaching wisdom in most of Ecclesiastes; using his rational intellect to examine the world. He's studying wisdom itself; what it looks like, how it works. He often uses contrast to examine and describe what wisdom looks like, a common way of showing how wisdom works in life, something we often find in the book of Proverbs. He’s also looking to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly, and ultimately, he finds it all absurd, craziness.

Solomon tests everything in order to find a better wisdom, but he can’t find it. He found few wise people; he sees that even though we’ve been created upright, we are easily mislead by schemes, schemes to get rich, power, influence, the desires of our hearts. As Solomon looks at folly, he sees that the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure, extortion turns a wise man into a fool, patience is better than pride, anger sits in the lap of fools, and calls us not to be over-righteous or overwise, to not be over-wicked, avoid extremes. Don’t pay attention to every word people say for you have often cursed others yourself, be careful of the woman who’s a snare, or searching out many schemes for your own profit. He concludes that wisdom’s definitely better than folly if we desire a good life, that there’s more to gain from wisdom than folly. This may seem like common sense, yet that’s really what wisdom is, common sense rooted in knowing God.

Solomon knows that there will be times of suffering and adversity, there will be times of success and in all times, we are called to live as wise people; seeking out God’s wisdom rather than the wisdom found under the sun. Solomon sees some good coming out of difficult things: death, sorrow, the house of mourning, adversity. Our hearts are often shaped by God through times of struggle. In Jesus’ teaching, especially in the Beatitudes, we see a similar thought developed, that there are some good aspects to suffering here on earth, those who suffer are “blessed,” Matthew 5:3–12, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted…. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me….” Times of struggle and suffering can lead us back to following God’s ways again, as we see in the stories of Israel falling away from God, only to come back during times of punishment. Struggle and suffering also shape our character, as Paul tells us: suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Often in suffering, we experience the presence of God and his grace and glory in us and even through us.

Solomon often talks about death. The hope of the resurrection doesn’t rest in denying death, but in embracing its full scope: it’s a punishment as the result of sin, it’s an enemy, however, it’s been defeated through Jesus’ death and resurrection. For Solomon, acknowledging the reality of death is the beginning of wisdom as it creates a humbleness in recognizing that in the end, we all meet the same end, at least if you’re looking at life under the sun. This is part of why the church celebrates the sacraments. The sacraments are signs pointing us to Jesus. In our baptism, we acknowledge that in Jesus, baptism symbolizes the beginning of the journey of faith as we die to our old selves and are raised up to new life in Jesus; in the Lord’s Supper we recognize that Jesus’ death and resurrection bring new life and that as members of his body, we also participate in his death and resurrection and have eternal life in and through Jesus. This gives us the strength and hope to commit our lives to Jesus’ way and teaching.

If we’re looking for understanding, we’ll not always find it as we live under the sun since humanity isn’t very rational, we’re easily seduced by Satan. Wisdom’s valuable if rooted in God and his ways, yet it will seem at times that foolishness and wickedness do better. This calls for trusting in God’s wisdom and timing. Living according to God’s way brings peace and good to those around you by how we treat and respond to others, by doing our daily work and toil and enjoying the blessings of each day with our loved ones.

Wisdom tells us who God is: wisdom’s more than knowledge, it sees all of creation and finds God’s fingerprints over all of it. We see God at work in the structure of creation, in the beauty around us, in the moral order that’s consistent across most cultures. Wisdom tells us who we are: when we know God, we can see ourselves in light of his greatness. As Calvin said, the more we know God, the more we know ourselves. Wisdom shows us how glorious it is for God to care for us. We see and hear God’s wisdom in his Word: wisdom always begins and ends with God, so we must be people willing to listen to God’s Word and root our lives in it, because then our lives are rooted in Jesus, grafted onto him as our source of life.

Wisdom means acting on what we know: wisdom without action is meaningless. Lives that show God’s wisdom become strengthened in God’s power. Jesus’ ministry involved a great deal of teaching, offering wisdom to the people. At the end of his sermon on the mountainside, in Matthew 7:24–25 Jesus tells his listeners, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Wisdom is not of much use if it’s not lived out in real life, and we’ve been offered the greatest wisdom in the world in the Bible. Take the Word, read it, study it together, allow its words and guidance to soak deep within your minds, hearts, and souls, and then live it out in our world that desperately needs wisdom from above rather than what is being offered up here under the sun.

Contentment - Ecclesiastes 5:8–6:12

There are those in my family who’ve struggled with addiction. Addiction’s often rooted in hurt or discontentment that drives a person to look for something that will take it away and give them a sense of relief, even if it’s temporary. We usually associate addiction with drugs or alcohol, but we can also become addicted to experiences, or anything that promises happiness, security, or escape. The newest addiction today is not a substance, but the little screens most of us have in our pockets or purses. Nir Eyal, an expert in “behavioural engineering,” has advocated the development of programs that turn customers into addicts through a hook model: a looping cycle of trigger, action, reward, and continued engagement… the hook model creates craving… what draws a person back is, Eyal says, “not the sensation we receive from the reward itself, but the need to alleviate the craving for that reward.” It creates an increasing sense of discontentment, drawing you away from the people around you and even more importantly, from God and the joy and satisfaction you can find in him.

Solomon recognizes that the love of money can become addictive, leading to a lack of contentment and gratitude for the daily gifts God offers us. This section begins with a hard reality, Ecclesiastes 5:8–9, “If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields.” This was first raised by Solomon in 4:1-3; we shouldn’t be surprised by injustice; sin infects everyone, including those who rule and have authority.

The scholar Van Leeuwen explains that when Solomon says one official is “eyed by a higher one,” he’s saying that the high and mighty “look out for” one another, so the poor have no chance at justice. We get a glimpse of this in Luke 19:1–10, “Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through ... When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” As a tax collector, Zacchaeus would take more than he was supposed to when he went to gather the taxes; it was an expected way of doing things, and the officials higher up overlooked this theft. Zacchaeus is transformed through his encounter with Jesus and recognizes that accepting Jesus as his Lord and Saviour is where his hope and salvation rest rather than his wealth.

There are two paths we can take: chasing after wealth or anything else that captures our hearts, or the path of contentment and gratitude for all God’s given us, how we can use what God has given us to build up and encourage others, and make our communities places of shalom and fullness. Solomon, a very wealthy person, warns us, “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” Wealth carries temptations, as Solomon observes, if you love wealth, you’ll always be striving for more, and living a life of contentment becomes more difficult. Wealth can create worry, stress, hurt relationships, and a lack of trust in others. As Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Ecclesiastes 6:1–2, “I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on mankind: God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.” Wealth, in itself, does not bring happiness. A friend once commented that God has blessed him with a lot of riches and he had always thought it would bring him great happiness, but as God blessed him with more and more, he began to reflect on the purpose of why he had been given the ability to create much wealth because it hadn’t made him and his wife any happier, no matter what the lottery people might tell you.

He and his wife began to quietly invest in people and the church. They quietly paid off some people’s debts so they could focus on the future instead of just getting by, they helped a number of young adults go into missions which led to a couple of them staying long-term on the mission field, they helped set up a scholarship for abandoned mothers so they could go to the local college and upgrade their skills. Their life theme became generosity; helping people reach their potential, loving like Jesus, and in doing so, they found deep contentment in their lives. They experienced the blessings found in Ecclesiastes 5:19–20, “Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.” Wealth is not evil; it’s a gift given by God to be used wisely.

Wealth is a blessing. God offers us his blessings, and some he blesses with wealth.  The issue’s not how much a person has, it’s whether they place their trust in their wealth rather than in God to save them or protect them. It’s all about our focus and priorities. Mark 10:23; 25-27 “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” … It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Our salvation is accomplished through the work of Jesus, not through our work. That’s hard for some to accept, because the more we have, the more we tend to depend on ourselves to provide for what we need; this can even creep into our relationship with Jesus, as that same attitude subtly creeps into our thinking about salvation. We’re called to completely trust in the grace of Jesus rather than our work; we cannot save ourselves.

Jeus teaches us to trust in God and not worry about our basic needs, Matthew 6:32–33, “For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Instead of worrying about having enough, Solomon encourages us to enjoy the daily blessings God gives us each day.

God has placed eternity in our hearts, and because we have eternity in our hearts, the things of this world will never fully satisfy us, there will always be sense that there has to be more, a longing for more. Bobby Jamieson writes, “happiness comes not from trying to make this world satisfy all your desires but from realizing that that it never will. Happiness begins to glimpse new dimensions when you discover that everything is never enough.” Happiness comes from knowing that the creator of the sun knows you, and loves you, and can fill that longing for more, showing you a way forward into eternity that brings meaning and purpose; the way of Jesus, accepting him as your Lord and Saviour, embracing his way as your way.

Solomon repeats one of his main thoughts in Ecclesiastes 5:18, “it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labour under the sun during the few days of life God has given them.” It’s repeated in a slightly different way in 6:3, “A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.” The main idea in this section is ‘enjoy God’s daily gifts,’ and after we follow his advice, to acknowledge that it’s God who gives us this joy. Paul says the same thing in Philippians 4:12–13 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Contentment under the sun is hard to find when we keep our eyes focused down here; our eyes are always drawn to what others have that we don’t have. The call is to keep our eyes on the one over the sun who lives in eternity and provides for our eternity through Jesus, and sees what we need and provides, often more than we need, so that we can bless others. Our lives are merely a moment in the history of the world, and part of what we can offer is what we contribute to the future in time, energy, or money, toward developing the potential in others.

 

 

Careful Words - Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Solomon has been considering the world by looking at it through the eyes of humanity, through a philosophy of meaninglessness. Now, for a few verses, he completely shifts his point of view and considers our relationship with God, focusing on how we come to worship him. I wonder if the weight of looking at the world only through humanity’s eyes has become too much for him; last week we looked at how Solomon even mentions how the dead are happier, and the person not yet born is better off than us. The answer to such despair is God, so Solomon turns to the one who created the sun.

Worship has changed a lot even in just my lifetime; not necessarily for better or worse, probably a bit of both. Saturday night was all about preparing for worship the next day. At supper we would read the Scripture passages for the next day. After supper we would polish our shoes, while mom made sure our Sunday clothes were clean and ironed. Saturday night was bath night because Sunday was about being our best for God and Sunday worship was all about honouring God. But it could also be very legalistic.

How do you prepare to come to church to worship? What do you expect from worship on Sunday? I often hear many say they come to be fed, to be blessed, and to be equipped. A quiet shift has taken place from going to church to glorify God and honour him, to worship now being about our experience of worship, coming for what God gives us on Sunday rather than what we’re bringing to God; honour and glory. Some come out of obligation or habit. Some come on Sunday morning so they can do what they want in the afternoon. Some come to be entertained; while others come to be seen and heard. It wasn’t much different in Israel. People came to the temple, but didn’t always come with a right heart or spirit, without reverence or awe of God. Worship was often a formality.

Solomon calls us to “Guard your steps” when we go to the house of God. This is a command, to come before God with reverence. It’s a reference to how coming before God is a holy experience, an echo to those times when God came and met his people personally. The most well-known is Moses and his encounter with God at the burning bush in Exodus 3. When he saw a bush on fire and not burning, he goes to check it out, “When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.” Moses is struck by the realization that God has come to him, has reached down to speak with him, even though he’s a sinner and God is holy. Awe and reverence drives Moses to hide his face.

Jesus taught us to pray to God, “Hallowed be your name.” God is holy, and while he calls Abraham and others friends, we still approach him with awe and reverence because he’s the creator of all things, including us; he’s holy and the only one who can make us holy. Jesus calls us to approach the Father with respect; deep respect. We’re reminded that God is in heaven while we remain here on earth; we hear an echo again to how Jesus begins the prayer he teaches to his disciples, “Our Father who is in heaven.” This is why we come to God’s house to worship, coming together in a designated place to worship God, a place where we invite the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds to the presence of God.

One of Jesus’ angriest moments is when he sees God’s house disrespected in Matthew 21:12–13, “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” Those who came to worship at the temple would have had to contend with the noise and chaos of the sellers, the buyers, and the animals, all while trying to worship God. This would have especially affected the Gentiles, as the selling area was in the Gentile court, impacting their ability to worship, pray, or seek God’s presence. How can you approach God to worship in the middle of a marketplace, it would be like trying to worship at Parkland Mall while all the stores are open and doing business.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Hallowed be your name in heaven and on earth,” approaching God with respect. Jesus urges reverent worship in the temple because it’s the house of God. The writer to the Hebrews picks up on this call to reverent awe in 12:28–29, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” Worship, thankfulness, gratitude, and reverence are all connected. Because God’s holy, when he gives us his Spirit to live in us, the Spirit works like a consuming fire that burns away all that’s unholy, sanctifying us throughout our life into the image of Jesus. Be careful of being too casual with our holy God.

Solomon calls us to “Go near to listen;” to listen to God speaking rather than filling worship with our words. Going to listen shows humility, a desire to learn and be shaped by God, to grow into God’s image, to grow deeper in Christian character. In the Old Testament we’re told to worship God with reverence through listening rather than speaking. Deuteronomy 6:4–5 is central to the Jewish faith, reminding them of who God is and how to relate to God, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Hearing leads to obedience, the call to hear is a call to obey in the Old Testament. Without hearing there can be no understanding or obedience.

When Solomon talks about the “sacrifice of fools,” he’s pointing to doing sacrifices out of ritual rather than a desire to honour God through your offering; ritual is not good enough for God, he wants your heart and your entire life, this is why Jesus tells his followers that if they’re bringing sacrifices and remember that a brother has something against them, to put their offering down and to make things right with them before giving your offering to God. God is a God of restoration and reconciliation and it begins with each other.

Solomon goes on to talking about talking to God, about not being quick with your words, and not overtalking either. “God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” There’s a huge difference between God and us, we’re in no place to demand anything from God, nor to expect anything from God. Our ability to see things as God does is limited because we’re limited, living under the sun rather than seeing all things from the perspective of God. Jesus teaches us to let our words be few when we pray, Matthew 6:7–8, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” It’s about trusting God in our worship and our praying, because he’s our God, and our father, and loves us accordingly. His love for us is awesome! He keeps coming after us, he never gives up on us, he gives up his own holy Son so that we can be made holy through his sacrifice. God is an awesome God worthy of all our love and respect.

“When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.” Do not put strings or conditions on your requests to God, everything you already have is God’s anyway; a gift given to you to manage for him. Do not use God’s name lightly, let your mouth only use his name with the deepest respect and humility. In Matthew 5:33–37 Jesus warns us about making vows, “I tell you, do not swear an oath at all … All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” When we pray to God, it’s about trusting that God gives us what’s best for us. We don’t have to convince him to give us his blessings, it’s his joy to do so.

In Solomon’s time, worship was done at the temple; when Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman, he says in John 4, “a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” When we consider what Jesus endured for us so that we could be washed clean from our sin, made holy, our worship needs to reflect the holiness of God, to come to him with awe and reverence. It needs to become a part of each day as we worship through our work, our play, our home and family life, and in all parts of our lives, bringing glory to God.

 

A Cord of Three Strands - Ecclesiastes 4:1-16

Selfish individualism. We live in a very individualistic world. We’re constantly told that it’s all about us, and if it benefits us, rewards us, if we desire it, it must be good. Our busy lives are a sign of this too, we’re so busy because we’re afraid of missing out. When we slow down, many of us turn to social media to fill our time, and the algorithms tailor our social pages to our personal tastes and preferences, so that we never need to be challenged by a different perspective, leading us to believe we’re always right, leading to a more individualistic way of engaging the world. We’re all impacted by our culture, is selfish individualism rubbing off in the church too? A strong focus on the self leads to a lonely world.

Solomon addresses this in verse 4, “And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” People work hard to get ahead, too often with little concern for their neighbour, focused on what they don’t have but what the other person has. Envy easily leads to a willingness to step on others to achieve your desires. Solomon sees the oppression going on under the sun, he sees the tears and hears the cries of the oppressed. He recognizes that they’ve no comforter, no defender; they’re alone. Often, those being oppressed feel their friends slip away; they don’t want to be targeted themselves, so they step back. The oppressed experience even more pain as they struggle with no one on their side. Solomon emphasizes the aloneness, mentioning it twice, he recognizes what’s going on and calls it hevel, meaninglessness, like the wind blowing, you can’t hold onto what you’re chasing after under the sun into eternity.

Solomon addresses the desire for wealth and its cost, “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” It’s better to be content and grateful with one handful rather than desiring more and more, warning that it will come with toil. We hear an echo to Genesis 3 and God’s punishment to Adam, Genesis 3:17–19, “To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” For the greedy person, the toil is endlessly, and without any enjoyment of what they’re been working for. Eating supper alone, even with a large bank account, still means you’re eating alone, “there was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. “For whom am I toiling,” he asked, “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?” this too is meaningless—a miserable business!”

You can be part of a community and still experience feelings of not belonging, of not having a place in the community, of being oppressed and no one recognizing or caring. It’s hard to walk through life alone, to feel friendless and struggle alone with no one to walk alongside you. The first “not good” in the Scriptures is when God sees that among all creatures, Adam is alone. God immediately creates Eve from the side of Adam as a help-mate for Adam, someone to share life with. We’re not called to walk alone; we’re created to be in community. Part of the image of God is community: three persons in one essence.

The feeling of aloneness, of feeling like you have no place happens even in churches, when no one recognizes or acknowledges your presence. It’s often surprising when you look around in a group like a church and observe how many people are overlooked, quietly ignored unless someone needs something from them, loneliness in a crowd. Having lived on the fringes of most groups, it’s something I’ve picked up on over the years. Someone recently wrote in a church blog about how church employees face this a lot, they’re only recognized as an employee and not as an individual with interests and a life outside the church. They went on to say how once they took a position in the church, even their friendships changed, simply because of their work. New members to a church can find it hard to really belong because those who’ve been there for a while are so comfortable with each other, that they find it difficult to remember to welcome new members, not only into the church, but also into their lives.

Solomon, as king, likely faced loneliness. Who can he confide in who understands what he carries as the one responsible for an entire nation? From the outside looking in, he had everything; he had great wisdom, wealth, many wives and concubines, power, and yet I wonder if he ever had an opportunity to relax with a bunch of friends and talk about how the archery competition went, how the fishing was in the Sea of Galilee, or how his chariot and horse team was faster than the king’s next door. How important it is to have people who see you for who you are rather than for what you do.

The power of loneliness has been used as a form of discipline. There are faith communities who use shunning, turning their backs on someone and not acknowledging their presence when they do something that members feel violates the values of the community. This is a powerful and extremely painful experience for those who are shunned. It’s often practiced in informal ways in many places, even in churches and church families.

This is why Solomon moves on to talk about the importance of companionship. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” I heard a really wise statement this week, the discussion was about recovering from addiction and the person mentioned, “the opposite of addiction is connection.” People who are supported, who have someone in their lives to walk alongside them, encourage them, be there for them, are more likely to move out of addiction than those who try to do it on their own. Having someone come alongside you creates strength and increases your ability to heal, to work through hard stuff, to grow into your potential instead of losing hope and spiraling downwards.

We were created for companionship at creation, Jesus himself created a circle of companions by choosing 12 men to walk with, and a smaller circle of 3 friends to be with him during special and difficult times. The Holy Spirit created the church, a community of people to be family together, to support and encourage each other, to work together, to build close friendships with. The second of the great commandments is a call to “love your neighbour as yourself,” a call to look outwards to others and build relationships with them.

A wise friend offered this wisdom, “Both my personal relationship with God and my friendships with others require accountability and responsibility on my part. It’s a blessing to spend time with my Christian friends and it’s an essential part of my continuous growing relationship with God...here are some things that God has taught me through my friendships. Friendship is an extension of myself; the good, the bad, and the ugly; true friendship embraces the whole person. Don’t enter a friendship expecting to change the other person, instead expect God to use that person to change you! Some friendships are for a season of life, God puts them in your path to either meet a need/cause growth etc, for a defined period of time; that’s ok. In order to be a good friend, I need to give what I expect the other person to give; you cannot expect someone to trust you if you don’t trust in return. Christian friendship works best when love, forgiveness, accountability and responsibility are present; the combination of the four is awesome!”

We’re the body of Christ together. Remember that we’re all one in Christ. Reach out to those who aren’t connected. Seek out conversations with others not in your circle of friends, reach out to some of our housebound members, and to those who are going through difficult times, pay attention to the people around you to see who stands alone, talk to them. Ask questions to learn what they’re interested in, what some of their dreams are. Share what you appreciate about them to someone else that you normally don’t talk to, pray through the church directory, ask God for ways you can encourage and build them up in the Lord. Because we’re one in Christ, when we reach out to the other, we’re reaching out to Jesus, and we’re being changed because we’re his body together. As the body of Christ, when we work towards everyone being healthy and connected, the stronger the body of Christ is.

In Christian friendships, we grow stronger as we’re changed by the other person through God. Like a three stranded cord, Jesus keeps us from unravelling, adding security and strength into our relationships. When you braid a rope, you start with a knot and when you finish you end with another knot to keep it together. In the same way, Jesus is the knot that holds us together giving us strength. May we live together under Jesus rather than under the sun.

A Time for Everything - Ecclesiastes 3:1–22

This morning we’re returning again to Ecclesiastes. Just a few reminders of key thoughts in this book: the word hevel, meaning vapour, empty, void, or no substance is repeated over and over again in this book, often translated as meaningless. Ecclesiastes offers a philosophy of life rooted in living “under the sun,” understanding the world from the perspective of humanity rather than through the eyes and plans of God.

I remember a song based on the first 8 verses of our passage this morning, written by Pete Seeger and sung by the Byrds called Turn! Turn! Turn! These first 8 verses are a poem that is based on the theme of time, how there’s a time or season for every activity under the heavens. As you read the poem more slowly and reflectively, it can bring on feelings of unsettledness; there’s nothing permanent. Verses 2-8 bring together opposites without any judgment on whether one is better than the other, only that at certain times one is present, but that at other times, the other is present.

Time is the key word in this text, there is a time for this, and then there’s a time for that, but do we really know which time we’re in right now. It’s spring, planting season, but when exactly will the weather let us get into the field to begin. Same with harvest, it’s not like you can put an exact date on your calendar to begin, it all depends on how the growing season goes. You can say, “Well, we mostly know around when these seasons are,” but how about those in business, can you truly say with absolute certainty that right now is a good time to start a business, or grow your business, or hold firm, or shut down? In all this talk about time, one time cancels out another time, so nothing really changes, hevel, nothingness. We hear an echo to chapter 1:4-6, “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.”

We think we have control, we make plans, we work hard, always expecting that everything is going to work out according to our plans, but the reality is when we make plans, then, as James tells us, we should say, “Lord willing.” Who saw a pandemic coming, who saw the war in Iran that is creating economic hardship all over the world coming, who really sees drought or flooding coming; so often we live in ignorant bliss thinking we’re in control, in charge of our lives and decisions; blissful ignorance. When the Teacher wrote this, the people were buying and selling, making fortunes and losing them, thinking that they’re in charge. There’s no awe for God, only ritual performance, doing faith for show, not from the heart or a relationship with God.

They’re living under the sun, without any true concern about God in their daily lives. In our own busyness, we all have times where we think we’re in charge and fail to really consider or think about God until something unexpected, usually something that impacts us in negative ways, that we focus again on God. There are so many things that happen in our lives and all around us that we have no control over; only God is sovereign and is in control of what’s going on. Working hard, even for our own goals, isn’t wrong. God approves of using his blessings, it’s the abuse of his blessings and making them our end goal that he disapproves of.

Solomon then wonders what we actually gain from our work in verse 9, coming to the conclusion that it’s good to enjoy our work because that’s our lot. He goes on to remind us that “everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.” God’s works, what he’s doing will last into eternity, while what we do doesn’t endure forever; yet Paul does write in 1 Corinthians 3:12–14 about building our lives on Jesus, “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.” It all comes back to living life over the sun, looking to live under Jesus, with an eye on who God is calling us to be. Solomon puts it this way, “God sets eternity in the human heart… I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.”

Verses 9-14 can be seen as the central theme of the entire book; in our limited perspective, it’s simply good to do good, to live with gratitude for all the simple gifts like eating and drinking, of family and friends, of blessing others to build community and society that reflects God’s goodness and will. All of the events, like those in the poem happen when they’re supposed to. All the impermanence and repetition are ordained by God to accomplish his purposes, even if under the sun it can feel like hevel, meaninglessness.

When we think on eternity, we see only a small part of God’s plan and purpose. We’re called to walk in faith because we can’t understand; Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” and Job 26:14, “And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”  and later in Ecclesiastes 8:17 Solomon writes, “then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.” Scripture keeps calling us to a humble understanding of the limits of our knowledge of God. God gives us glimpses of who he is and what he’s doing, but we can never know the entirety of what God is doing and what he has done. He tells us enough for us to know who he is and who we are, how he works and how we should work, but there’s so much more to who God is that we need to stand in awe before him.

Even though we’re not in control, we’re still responsible for what we do, especially since we should know good from evil by knowing what’s happened before, obeying how God’s called us to live, which is why Solomon reminds the people, “God will call the past to account,” and, “God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.” This is why we tell the stories of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit over and over again so that we can learn who God is, what he expects, and who he expects us to be as his children. Ignorance is no excuse for doing wrong. 

It's hard living with uncertainty, it creates anxiety or a sense of futility, of hevel. Anxiety leads to fear, to stress, and can impact relationships in negative ways. Solomon reminds us that God sets these times; God made everything beautiful in its time, he’s put eternity in our hearts, a call to look past living for what’s under the sun to living for who has created the sun and everything under and over it. Because we’re creatures created by God, we’re unable to really understand what God has done, is doing, and will do, but we can choose to trust God in uncertainty.

It takes faith to live with peace and hope, placing our trust and future in God’s hands. We grow in faith through regularly studying Scripture and who God reveals himself to be, a God who is invested in his people, a God who has a plan for saving his people and renewing all creation, a God who is in control, omnipotent. We grow in faith when we take time to talk with God regularly instead of only when we need something, we grow in faith when we regularly come together to worship God. The more we grow in our relationship with God, it leads us into a place of awe and wonder, both trusting and knowing that he’s made everything for its time, leading to the fulness of time, choosing to be happy and do good.

Paul reminds the church in Galatians 4:4–5, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.” Jesus speaks to the time of his return in Matthew 24, “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.… So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” The poem in verses 1-8 can give the impression that everything in time simply repeats, God shows that time is flowing towards the fulfillment of his plan of redemption and restoration of all things. As we look forward to Jesus’ return, keep your eyes on God, do good. While our fate is similar to the animals in that we’ll die, we know that God has his purposes for us, that our lives are not hevel because we’re his children, so live in confidence and in awe of our God who holds our times in his hands.

 

 

New Life! - Leviticus 25:8–22 - Easter

Christ is risen! The grave is empty; death is defeated, and hope is restored. The Holy Spirit has been poured out into all the land; new life is available to all who choose to accept the living Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Our passage this morning points to new life, to new beginnings, to renewed hope. The Lord gives Israel a charge to do a massive reset for the people every 50^th year, giving the land and its workers 2 years of rest, while restoring the people and families who have experienced big set backs in their circumstances over the past 49 years.  

The Lord institutes what is called the Year of Jubilee. On the 10^th day of the 7^th month, on the Day of Atonement when the sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins are offered, trumpets were to be sounded throughout the land to announce the Year of Jubilee, connecting the Year of Jubilee to forgiveness of sin, and the restoration of the peoples’ relationship with God. The year’s celebrated by the freeing of all Jewish slaves, the forgiveness of all debt, the resting of the land and its workers, and the restoration of all property to its original family owners.

Today, the idea of a Year of Jubilee would be rejected as being socialist, Marxist, unrealistic, unfair, and unwise. There was a movement leading up to the year 2000 that built on the idea of the Year of Jubilee, advocating for the forgiveness of the debts for the poorest countries in the world. There was even a discussion of this at Calvin Seminary and one professor was strongly against even the idea of such a thing. His reasoning was that it would impact pension funds and retirement savings plans for those who have invested in the stock markets. This caused an uproar from many others who were angered that there was more concern for protecting the wealth and ease of the people of the richest nations than for those struggling in the poorest nations.

Israel is given the Year of Jubilee at the foot of Mount Sinai, long before they enter the Promised Land, reminding the people that God is the giver of the land, the owner of the land, and that this year is a reflection of all the laws given to them on how they are to live with each other as a people. We see Israel practicing at least the Sabbath rest years in 2 Chronicles 36:21 where the writer is describing the years Israel spent in exile, “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.” Jeremiah 34:8–9 hints at the Year of Jubilee being practiced in part at least, “The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.” While Isaiah 5:8 warns the people of buying up the land of others for yourself, “Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.”

Restoration, renewal, and resurrection have always been part of God’s plan; this is Easter! The Year of Jubilee gives us a glimpse of how the kingdom of God works. Due to the brokenness sin brings, some people and families prosper and do well, while others fall on hard times, into debt, loose their jobs or livelihood, homes, and sometimes even their freedom as they’re forced into placing themselves into slavery in order to pay their debts. Some would go into desperation mode and overwork their land and themselves first, leading to lower crop yields in the long run. The Year of Jubilee is God’s way of offering his people a new start after hard times: Jewish slaves were set free, debts forgiven, the land and its workers were given rest, and the land that had been sold or taken to cover debt was restored to its previous owners.

In this chapter, Moses refers to the Exodus 3 times, reminding the people of who God is and what he’s done for them; this is to be reflected in how they live with each other. They’re reminded that they’re God’s servants, they shall not rule over each other with harshness, and to fear the Lord. The Year of Jubilee is God’s law. The land of Canaan is God’s gift to the Israelites, and even though it was given to them, it always remains God’s land as we read in verse 23, “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”

The principles we find in the Year of Jubilee are: concern for each other, providing for each other, and treating each other with respect. Jubilee provides opportunities for people to have new starts, that large gaps between rich and poor do not become institutionalized. There’s a lot of talk about our K-shaped economy right now where the rich are getting richer and the average person is falling further behind. Jubilee repairs the inequalities that creep into societies over time, and prevents the division of people into classes of nobles and others. Jubilee is about living out concrete applications of Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Jesus himself quotes this commandment when a lawyer asks him, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest,” and Jesus tells him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’” Jesus teaches, it’s more blessed to give than to receive; by taking care of the blessings God has given us and sharing them, we acknowledge that they’re not our own.

We see this lived out in the early church in Acts 4, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” The early church lived the principles of Jubilee, different social classes recognizing each other as brothers and sisters in Jesus. Living for Jesus is always radical, and we should be challenging ourselves to embrace God’s principles more fully in our lives. Jesus lives this out in his life as John writes in 1 John 3:16–18, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Love and generosity are key principles of Jubilee, a call for those who have been blessed with much to be generous with those who have little. The resurrection shows us how much God and Jesus love us, that it’s a never-ending love; we’re loved into eternity.

The Year of Jubilee points ahead to Jesus’ return when the full impact of Good Friday and Easter will come into play, when sin is fully washed away and defeated; when Satan and evil is completely defeated and God’s people and creation will experience forgiveness and renewal, and full restoration with God. The Year of Jubilee is given to Israel as a sign of how God’s mercy and grace bring healing, rest, and restoration to all parts of creation.

Jesus gives us glimpses in his ministry, beginning with his claim in Luke 4, “on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus brings in the Year of Jubilee, the messianic age, his return will bring in the perfect kingdom of God in a renewed earth, as John points to in Revelation 21-22.  Paul expands the Year of Jubilee to all of creation in Romans 8:19-21, “For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” By faith in Jesus, we’re brought into Jesus’ mission and called to practice the Jubilee life. Living for Jesus sends us into the world to bring the transformative love of Jesus to the whole world.

 

The Greatest, Most Dreadful Day - Leviticus 23:26–32 - Good Friday

           

Do you ever wonder if all your sins are really forgiven? Are you afraid that God will hold some of your worst sins over your head for when you die and Jesus comes to take you home? Good Friday is the most somber day of the church year, the day that the weight and destructiveness of our sin is put right before us so that we cannot deny its horror or cost. The crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, the beating at his trial, the nails used to hang him from the cross, the mocking of the crowds, the abandonment of his disciples, being forsaken by his Father, the inner anguish of carrying our sin is all stuck in our faces to get us to finally acknowledge the pain, brokenness, and suffering sin brings. It forces us to confess that there’s no such thing as a small sin; all sin separates us from God and adds to the burden Jesus carries to the cross, adding to the brokenness in the world. Good Friday visually reveals the destructiveness of our sins in Jesus’ hanging on the cross.

Tim Keller gives us a glimpse of what brings us to Good Friday in an imagined conversation between God the Father and Jesus, “You can see God saying to Jesus, in effect, “Son, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone and I will never say it again. Throughout all eternity I’ve always said and always will say, ‘If you obey me, I’ll come near to you.’ But to you I say, ‘If you obey me now, I will abandon you.’ I will let you go, so I don’t have to let them go. I will pour all the wrath and punishment humanity’s sins deserve onto you. And even though you are the eternal Son of God, that pain and the power of that justice will be so great, your body and soul will be ripped apart—so theirs don’t have to be. Are you willing to do this?” Jesus said, “Yes.”

The Day of Atonement visually shows the people the seriousness of their sin. Sin must not merely be kept in check. It must be removed entirely. That’s what the Day of Atonement points to. This is the only day of the year that the high priest enters the Holy of Holies, dressed in only a simple white garment. Before going into the Holy of Holies, the high priest offers a bull calf as a personal sin-offering, then cleansed from sin, he fills his bowl with live coals from the altar, he enters the Holy place, places incense on the coals, sending smoke over the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant. He then takes blood from the bull calf sacrifice and spreads it on the mercy seat and on the ground before the altar. He then sacrifices a male goat as a sin-offering for the people, taking some of the blood of the goat into the Holy place and spreading it on the mercy seat.

After the sacrifices, the mercy seat and altar are purified and the high priest then lays his hands on a second goat and confesses the sins of Israel over it. This goat, called the scape goat, is then led out into the wilderness, carrying the sins of the people on it outside of the camp. The carcasses of the bull calf and first goat are then taken outside the camp and burned. This is also a day where no-one is allowed to work, a day of rest; they’re not to work on this day, a sign that their work’s unable to save them, that it’s only through God’s grace and love that forgiveness is found. This is a day of humility and denying themselves to focus on their sins and the forgiveness given to them by God.

God calls this the Day of Atonement. Atonement, in the faith sense, is about reconciliation and repairing the relationship between God and humanity through sacrifice. In the Old Testament, the sacrifice is a perfect male goat and the casting out of a second male goat, the scape goat, who carries the sin away. In the New Testament, atonement is achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we’re made right with God. Like the scape goat, Jesus is taken outside the city where he washes away our sin through his blood. Jesus carries our sin away as far as the east is from the west.

What compels God to allow his son Jesus to go the route of sacrifice, to allow Jesus to become the scape-goat? The Old Testament uses a word, “hesed” that shows us why. Hesed love is often translated as unfailing love in English. This is God’s promised love, his covenantal love, the love he declares under oath, binding himself to us in love, his never ending, unbreakable love that never bends even when ours does. This love shows up in Hebrews 10:19–22, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” As our Holy Week devotion reminded us in the Day 5 devotion, “Redemption is not earned; it is offered. This reminds us that God’s love is not a reaction to our goodness, but a reflection of his character.” Humble yourselves today and see your need for a saviour, that you may then take hold of the One who gave his life for us.