Ecclesiastes 3:12-22

Morning Church. Would you turn with me to Ecclesiastes Chapter 3? I love Ecclesiastes. I'm glad that this church is doing it. Every church I've been in for any length of time has done some time in Ecclesiastes. But maybe you're opening this book and coming through it with us for the first time and you're noticing it starts not really on a high note. Like vanity of vanity, all is vanity, and it's just a slow climb out of this like place of discouragement that it seems to be repetitively giving us over and over. And you might be asking, why is

Ecclesiastes in the Bible?

I mean, you know what Genesis is in the Bible. Where do we come from? I know why Revelation is in the Bible, where we're going. I know why Matthew, Mark, Luke, John are in the Bible. It's the life of Jesus. I know why Romans are in the Bible. I need some theology, Psalms. I need some vitality. Why is this book in the Bible? Well, Lord willing, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to preach today. You're going to listen. We're going to enjoy communion together. Then we're going to go to our homes. And I don't know what you've got going on today. Maybe it's a nap. Maybe it's a little football. I'll try to

get into a bike ride. We'll see what the weather does. And then I'm going to enjoy dinner with the family. And I'm going to go to sleep. And I'm going to wake up and I'm going to open my laptop lid and get inundated with a full inbox in about a 5 hour block of emails. Many of our five hour blocks of meetings, many of which could have been emails. I'm going to get chats that are asynchronous and don't make sense. I'm going to get people asking me questions about questions. I'm going to get meetings about meetings. I'm going to get things that just make me want to lay my head on my desk and go, really, Lord, this is what you'd have me do with my life, my vocation.

I know that you've given me the job, the work. I really want to do the work today. I resonate with chapter 2 verse 18. I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun. Do we have PowerPoint? Check. Testing. I have slides.

Let's see slide 1019. Do I have to hit that button? Yes. OK, I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun. Have you noticed that the word for labor or work or your job in Ecclesiastes is toil in English that has a negative meaning? Well,

in Hebrew that has a negative meaning. That's why the translators do the work they do. They're trying to figure out what word means suffering and pain. And I have a case of the Mondays I've got to go in tomorrow. I really want to. It's

Toil. How often do you have to go to work? Every day. Every day except for the end of the week. You get one day off, but the other in our American, like five and two, you have one day that's technically off as well, but you often have to devote that to yard work, chores, home projects. It's toil, but just a different brand. And then the other day, today, you actually do get to rest.

But then Monday comes again with a vengeance and you just have to work every day.

How long does this go on in your entire life? Well I mean early on you get summers off, but then you trade that for getting two weeks of PTO off and kids don't even know what that is. And then it's not homework anymore. Instead you get a bad grade. Instead of getting bad grades, now you get reprimanded or you get fired and now you don't get to eat. Like you have to toil, you have to work. So this exhaustion, it's not just a problem for students, and people in the corporate world. It's a problem for every one of us. Raise your hand if you're going to work tomorrow. Raise your hand if you've ever thought, I don't want to go to work. I don't really like my job. It's for the construction worker who's tired of framing, for the, say, home mom, who's tired of laundry, cooking, cleaning. For the gardener, the farmer, the physician, the first responder, everybody who has a job, the small business owner who's upon whose shoulders everything rides. Not just yours, but your employees and their livelihoods. Everybody toils.

When your day is long and the night, the night is yours alone, when you're sure you've had enough of this life, we'll hang on. Don't let yourself go because everybody cries. Everybody hurts sometimes. That's not a Psalm, that's R.E.M. I just want to see who's with me on this. So you say, OK, we get it, Steven, you don't like your job. I actually didn't say that, by the way. Let me confuse you just for a second. I actually like what I do for a living. I actually like my

job. I am a software engineer. I can sit I'm one of the weird people that can sit in front of a computer all day and stare at a screen and solve interesting problems and use my head and I like it My     lower back doesn't hurt yet. And it's fun for me most of the time that I'm in my chair other than the meetings and other than some of the red tape and the HR.

I actually like my job, and maybe you're in that position too where you're like,

job, but I like my job sometimes. Maybe I love it and I hate it at the same time. Maybe you're listening to this and you're like, OK, I don't have a job. I really need a job. I'm praying to get a job and I pray that you do get that job because that's probably somebody in here right now. But what's going to happen is the Lord is going to give you that job and you're going to go to that job and this is going to be you soon. And then you wonder, OK, I just need a better job. Sorry, not that. Yeah.

Stay here for just a second. I just need a better job. Surely there's a job out

there that is 100% fun, right? The job out there that I can aim for that's just 100% fun. I thought about this a little bit this week. What job is that? For me the closest approximation would probably be like a pro golfer So in 2016, a very accomplished golfer named Jordan Spieth was five shots ahead in the Masters. He's going up to #12 and he hits two shots into the water and in that hole with a quadruple bogey, which is A7, which means effectively on one hole, he got knocked out of the tournament. So he goes from very winning to no longer in contention. And all of the golfing universe kind of rushed to social

media too. Contribute and to give their sympathies and to read the comments right. They all were opining on this self-destructive blow up and one guy wrote. You know for a minute there I started to feel sorry for a 22 year old millionaire

who plays golf for a living.

Maybe that's the job that you're thinking is the best job and there's 100% fun. But I have heard pro golfers say Ecclesiastes type things about the game of golf. Things like I don't want to take another backswing. I don't want to see another practice screen. I don't like to travel. I don't like the toil. I don't like the workouts, the diet, the exercise, the constant coaching tips, the being separated from my family. I don't like my job that's a pro golfer. That and I've got their quotes, I've got the receipts, they're saying that. Can you just call in sick? An injury.

True story. In recent history, before this sermon series, I was personally comforted from Ecclesiastes just by the relatability of these verses.chapter 2, verse 18, “I hated my toil in which I toil under the sun.” Right before that, in 2:17, “I hated life.”

We work a lot, it's a big part of our time allotment. And because your job is such a big slice of the pie, the author just says, “I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me.

So this book kind of makes me feel seen, like God knows what we're going through. He gave us this toil and he writes this book very sympathetically towards us. I like Ecclesiastes and sometimes I feel like it's like many seasons in our life. It's the only book that will do right now. Does God sympathize with my weakness? Does he know what I'm going through? Yes, because Ecclesiastes exists.

Also, yes, there's the second reason. I'll get to that at the end today. So how then shall we live? Let's look at chapter 3, verse 12 and you can follow along with me. “I perceive that there is nothing better for them to be joyful and to do good as long as they live. Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil–this is God's gift to man.”

Really be joyful in toil. Is this just the Bible telling me that the beatings will continue until morale improves? No, take joy in your toil is really this. I mean, it's a central application point this morning. It's the first verse we look at. It's also the last verse in this chapter. It's going to bookend our topic, our time this morning. But he says, “I saw that there is nothing better than a man who should rejoice in his work.”

I like to say that the second best religion you can have is eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. That's not just a Dave Matthews lyric. That's actually the apostle Paul. If the dead are not raised, let us eat, drink, for tomorrow, we die. So if we look at our text, I want to get into it this morning.

But first, there's a couple of technical hurdles we need to leap over. So in

verse 12 there. Your translation might have ended to do good as long as they live; the literal Hebrew there to do good is actually an idiom where do, which is the verb can also mean to acquire or obtain. And the second word good can either mean good like we mean it, or it can mean pleasure or benefit. And so in

view of this context, which is not really talking about, hey, go do a bunch of good works, it's make sure you spend.

Sorry, it's not. Make sure you spend your time under the sun accomplishing good things, but rather be joyful and thus enjoy the good. So some more modern translations like the Net or the CSB have. I have concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they live. Or I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life.

Really, this fits better with the context, because the whole problem that the author is wrestling with is that what you're doing is in vain. Like that's the theme of Ecclesiastes in large part, at least here in the front. Doing and doing and doing does not result in cosmic change because we're going over and over and over in our systems under the sun.

Secondly, food and toil is a gift. Note that in verse 13 he mentions eat and drink right next to toil. This is another clue about how to interpret your Bible.

So food and drink are obviously gifts. We don't have to jump into that too much food and drink. And so the author says, well, so is work. Work is a gift. It's for your enjoyment. Let's think about food for a second, right? Food's been around a long time. It was in the Garden of Eden. It's pre fall like food is not something that came out of the curse, it's something that. Adam and Eve enjoyed it way back when.

It's also functional. We need food to live. It's also delicious. How nice of God to make the necessary things fun to partake in. How nice of God and how kind of

him to make food taste yummy. He could have said Adam and Eve, you're going to need this 4 drip whatever if you want to keep living or just eat this powder. It's good for you. Like he actually made it yummy and it gives us taste buds and a sense of smell. He doesn't just make food. He makes the cocoa

bean, which makes chocolate. He makes the legumes, which makes the peanut butter and chocolate and peanut butter go together. He saw that from a long time ago. He makes the pigs that turn into bacon. He makes good things and drinks in the same way. It's not just water, but God made fruit juices and coffee and beer and wine and Mountain Dew. He makes fluids to pick you up and fluids to put you down. What else did God command that's functional? He

said. Go forth and multiply. Is that fun?

Is it purely functional? What else did he say? Rule over the world, the animal Kingdom, and name the animals. That's work. I've given you plants. So garden. I've given you a world. Go explore, subdue, be my representatives.

This is your job.

It sounds like work pre Genesis 3. Supposed to be 100% fun. But then Genesis 3 came. Cursed at the ground because of you in toil. You shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles that shall bring forth for you by the sweat of your face. You shall eat bread. You're going to go to endless meetings that have no point. Your paint layers are going to chip. Your drywall is going to have mold. Your lower back is going to hurt. This is our world. So we still have food

and drink and they're still good. But the bananas turned brown, the wine doesn't keep. And the work that was supposed to be totally fun, well, now it's a mix. It's a mix of joy and sorrow. But the author says look at the point your work was intended for joy. So take joy in your work. Now in our text, we've got 2 brief sidebars to go into.

We'll start in verse 14. Koheleth, who is the author, says this. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it so that people fear before Him. That which is already has been, that which is to be already has been, and God seeks what has been driven away. That last part you can detangle to mean God seeks to repeat what has occurred in the past.

Which is supported by the context. We've touched on this concept a little bit, but it's basically the course of this world is unalterable, right? The sun rises and the sunsets go back to rise again. Rivers flow to lakes, lakes to

oceans, evaporation, clouds, snow, mountains, rivers, and the thing that keeps repeating.

But what's new here, for the first time in this book, is the point. Why did God design it this way? Why are we trapped in this cosmic hamster wheel so that people fear before Him? Did you catch that when we read that?

The reason that God made life under the sun eternally cyclical is that we would observe we are also. Cyclical like we are in the cycle that it would produce in us this thing, this very common biblical phrase called the fear of the Lord.

Now, the fear of the Lord as a whole topic is its own full sermon, but I'll give you a couple of Cliffs Notes.

The fear of the Lord sometimes means things like reverence and awe, but it doesn't only always mean reverence and awe. You can't just take fear of the Lord and find a place in your Bible fear of the Lord with reverence and awe and have it work. It's just incomplete for all that the fear of the Lord can mean, because that phrase sometimes means knees knocking, trembling, very high levels of intimidation in front of the presence of God.

In one brilliant summary, a pastor said the fear of the Lord means the fear of the Lord. What does it mean here? Well, based on the context, the fear of

the Lord here it's a resignation. It is a respectful resignation that says you are God and I am not. I can't change the fact that I was born apart from my will. I will live briefly and I die and I am forgotten. Therefore not my will be done, but Thy will be done. Thy will be done as a resignation.

God, you take it. It's yours. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the Kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as Head above all.

The 2nd sidebar starts in verse 16.

“Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, referring to a court

of law, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness even there was wickedness.”

In Hebrew, whenever you see two phrases next to each other that are so close they mirror each other, they're talking about the same thing. Dave last week brought up this verse. “I passed by the field of a sluggard and by the vineyard

of a man lacking sense.” That's not a field, the end of a vineyard. It's the same thing. The field is the vineyard. So the author observes that in the place where

you would most expect to see justice, justice has been compromised.

In view of this, he says two things. Both of them start with, I said in my heart.

Verse 17. “I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.”

Now remember, we are under the sun. It's this enigmatic phrase in this book that really scopes our interpretation of what's going on down here. So upon observing injustice in the place where we most expect to see justice, the author says, OK, well now let's just wait for the lightning bolts. Injustice took place. God's about to rain down fire.

But the fire doesn't come. So what happens if we keep observing? Sometimes the wicked flourish, sometimes they take their bribes and pervert justice, and then in full view of God and everybody, they spend their bribes and they

get away with it and they live long, fat, happy lives. And the author is watching and scratching his head, going, What is going on?

So he has another observation in verse 18. He says so, I said in my heart, with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. Animals. The animal Kingdom is not a place of justice.

It's a dog eat dog world out there, they say. You're minding your business grazing your plane and you get taken out by a lion. You're displaced by a forest fire, you're attacked by a predator, you're carrying food and you get squashed by a tennis shoe. The animal Kingdom is not a place of justice. The author is simply saying, in this life, since we have no guarantee of justice, are we really faring better than the animals?

Verse19. “For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beast, for all his vanity all go to one place, all are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

Under the sun, we have no visibility into the afterlife. You've never seen a soul ascend. You've never gone behind the curtain and come back to tell

about it. We might say apart from the revelation of God, apart from faith, we're just animals, temporary. We're victims of of chance here today, gone

tomorrow, and forgotten completely in a short while.

So we're back where we started, verse 22. “So I saw that there is nothing better than a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot.” What is Lot referring to, by the way?

If you look at your Bibles, it's just, oh, the allocation of my life is the work. Not quite. If you look at it again, rejoice in your work for that is your lot. It's not just the work that is for you to do. Recognize as yours that the rejoicing is from the Lord. This is part of your inheritance. This is the joy in the job. You are called to work, but you're called to whistle while you work.

Why? Because you take after God, you were made in his image, and God loves to get to work. What is the first verb in your Bible? In the beginning, God created. He started with a plan, a blueprint, a design, according to Jeremiah.

He established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. And when it's time to build, he did the very first thing that any man does when he starts a project. He turns on his work. Light, let there be light. And he rolls up his sleeve and exerts his power and day after day develops the world and stops just to say it's good, let's keep going. He works linearly, He works again and he saw that it was good and finally he saw that it

was very good and he rests satisfied. And you just get the literary sense that God enjoyed his week-long effort in creating the world. And of course he did not rest on the 7th day because he was tired after six days of working. He rested on the 7th day because we are tired after six days of working. That's why God took a week to make the world instead of just snapping his fingers like Thanos.

And the thing appears. He begins to model the work rest, balance for us even before he makes it. US.

So I asked in the beginning, how do we know that God sympathizes with our toil down here? One early answer is, well, Ecclesiastes exists. Ecclesiastes exists. This book is for us, and he wrote it to us. But this week, as I reflected.

The other reason I'm. I know that God sympathizes with us because he came into the world and he came to work. He came into the world post fall. And he came to work. He came not to be served, but to serve. And give his life as a ransom for many. Even before the cross, even before the three-year ministry, you had Jesus.

The anonymous Carpenter. Which means from his youth he saw his dad working, Then he worked with his dad in the shop, learning the trade, making the table, the chair, the cabinet, whatever. Over and over, Over and over.

Monday after Monday, after Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all over and over.

Does that sound familiar? Right. Repetitive under the sun. And when he left for the ministry, he worked morning and evening, day after day, walking all over, hungry, tired, serving, giving without complaint or grumbling joy in his toil.

Carrying out the will of His father and his life and ministry for us. He even said as much. My father is working until now, and I am working. Sorry. Get that one next one. There it is. As he approached the cross, he mentions work again in John 17, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.” His dying on the cross and to bring you to God. Cleanse, cleanse us from our sin.

That was his work, his toil, his suffering and justice like in creation, where God's work resulted in his joy in a job well done. Christ's work resulted in joy.

Hebrews 12:2, “Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame.” And he rests. He sat down at the right hand. Of God for the joy of being reconciled with you. Jesus worked and toiled, and even now his work

is not over. He told his disciples. I go away to prepare a place for you, which sounds like work. What is the carpet and what is the carpenter doing? Well, he's building. He is building his church. He is building our future home. He is building the new heavens and the new earth, the new capital city, the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

The creative work He did in Genesis 1, He is doing now for our forever home.

And when we meet him face to face, we will worship, we will rest, we will party, and then we will work. Do you know that's part of your eternal slate?

I hope you like work. We're going to be doing a lot of it. Maybe you get to start on your forever home, right in my view, or my imagination, really. It's not a view, but it's OK. He builds the city and he's the designer, but what about your house?

You get to decorate it, maybe build it. This world is not a great place to build your forever home. I built mine. This is me and my family in front of my house.

That's my wife and three daughters there. That's not my house. I'm just

kidding. I just wanted to know who’s house is this? Does anybody know?

This is also not Dave's. It's the Pittock Mansion outside of Portland. It's one of the top five, I guess, tourist attractions on TripAdvisor or whatever. But if you go there, you get the tour of Henry Pittock, who in 1914 finished his house after a number of years and wanted to enjoy it. And then he died in 1919, which is five years later. He got to enjoy it for five years. You cannot build your forever home under the sun. But you can enjoy your work. You can enjoy your work starting tomorrow, might I add.