00:00 Welcome Back!

00:26 Theme of Ecclesiastes: Vanity Explained

02:56 Solomon's Wisdom on Life and Death

06:49 Finding Joy in Everyday Life

14:38 Practical Advice for Living Wisely

17:50 Final Reflections and Conclusion

19:53 Closing Prayer and Farewell

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Happy Friday everybody, and thanks again for joining me for another

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edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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It's me, pastor Rod.

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There is no pastor pj,

at least not right now.

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I do anticipate that he will

be back but he's currently

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vacationing in Southern California.

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I'm sure he is on a beach somewhere

with his shirt off, maybe swimming

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in the ocean, doing all sorts

of fun things with his family.

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So if you do think about

him, please pray for him.

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He would appreciate it, and we would

like him back healthy and ready to go.

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Well, without further ado,

we're going to jump in back

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into the book of Ecclesiastes.

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You might remember this book has the

primary theme of everything is vanity,

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and we said that the terminology for

vanity, even though technically it

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means something that's like a mist

or a vapor, it refers to three Fs.

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The first one is fleeting

things that don't last long.

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The second one is the other F futile.

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It is something that doesn't.

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Seem to have a reason or a purpose.

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And thirdly, the last f is that it

is full of mystery, full of mystery.

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And this is the most

common usage in this book.

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This is the point for which Solomon

writes, there's so many things that

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he studied and learned, but he found

that most of the things that he learned

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about were actually un understandable.

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There's, there's a certain

kind of understanding that

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we can bring to the table.

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There's lots of learning that man

can do, but at the end of the day.

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We're gonna find that we reach the

end of our abilities, the end of our

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understanding, and at the end of that rope

we have to say, this is what God is doing.

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God is operating at levels that

we could never fully comprehend.

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I guess it's not too unlike ai, even

though AI is obviously different.

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This is a manmade thing, but

there's still a truth that we don't

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understand fully how it works.

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Now, it is programmed.

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There's lots of ones and zeros going

in there, but those who design the

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system don't fully understand how

the system does what it does so well.

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And this is what's so terrifying

for us because we don't

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know then how to control it.

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We don't know how to put stop gaps in

place to ensure that it doesn't hinder

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or harm us as opposed to help us.

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Well, God has designed the world in such

a way that there's complexity, there's

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layers of meaning and understanding

that really he alone has full access to.

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We can have some understanding,

but he has ultimate understanding.

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In chapter one verses one

through 11, we read the prologue.

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He, he identifies the

problem as all is vanity.

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That is everything is subject to

futility, everything is fleeting

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and everything is full of mystery.

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He's trying to help us understand

that this is the problem

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that everybody has to face.

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He proves this in the second part

of the book, which is verses 12 from

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chapter one all the way through chapter

six, and you read this yesterday.

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Today we're looking at chapters seven

through 12, and here he's gonna give

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more prescriptive information about

how to live within the framework of a

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fallen world, within the world of vanity.

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He, he's gonna help us think carefully

about how to operate such that we

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don't, not that we eliminate the

experiences of vanity, but that

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we're able to work alongside it.

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That is to recognize our limits.

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And to live well within them.

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And so we begin in

Ecclesiastes chapter seven.

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Now remember, the book

itself is about the preacher.

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This preacher is likely Solomon.

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So we're gonna use the terminology

Solomon, and hopefully you'll

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understand what I mean by that.

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So starting in chapter seven, he

starts with a list of contrasts that

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are meant to help us see what wisdom

looks like in an age of vanity.

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And so he says, one of the most famous

sections in here in chapter seven.

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It's also one of the passages

that I read almost without fail.

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At every funeral or memorial, I go to

Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse two.

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He says this, it's better to go

to the house of mourning than to

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go to the house of feasting four.

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This is the end of all mankind, and

the living will lay it to heart.

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This is the point.

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He's saying It's better to go to a funeral

where you're mourning over the death

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of somebody versus going to a party.

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Now, if someone were to give you

the option, Hey, there's two options

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this afternoon, you can go to

this party at my friend's house,

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or you can go to this funeral.

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Solomon would say that it is wisdom

to to choose to go and mourn.

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He says, the reason why is

the effect that it has on us.

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This is the end of all mankind.

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This is what you're going to

experience and I'm gonna experience

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at some point, and therefore

the whys will lay it to heart.

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We'll let it affect us, we'll let

it motivate us to live differently.

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This is one reason why I love reflecting

on what Jonathan Edwards wrote when he

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was just a teenager, talks about in his

resolutions, thinking about his death

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often, and letting that remind him that at

some point in his life, he's gonna cease

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to exist physically, and he's gonna have

to face God for the life that he lived.

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This is not meant to say there's a

judgment of condemnation, but this is

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a judgment of commendation that we're

looking forward to, and therefore,

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how we live matters every day.

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Matters.

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And there is no day where you're

able to say, well, no big deal.

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I'm just gonna get another day tomorrow.

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We never know.

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And so the wise here in

Ecclesiastes chapter seven

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says, we will take it to heart.

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We'll go to the house of mourning.

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We'll go and grieve the loss of

somebody, and in order to wisely

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consider what it means for us.

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Verse four, he says something similar.

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The heart of the wise is in the

house of mourning, but the heart of

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fools is in the house of Mirth, the

house of joy, the house of gladness.

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The the fool wants to

placate his conscience and

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to live with superficial joy.

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Because he doesn't wanna face the

reality of his impending demise.

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And so he says here, the heart of the

wise, they're in the house of mourning.

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The heart of the wise is thinking

about their impending demise.

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So have you thought about this lately?

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Have you considered the fact that

today could be your last day?

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Have you weighed the fact

and the possibility that God

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may call your number today?

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And if so, are you ready?

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Are you ready to face God?

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And this is a heavy thought.

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I'll grant that and

certainly we don't wanna.

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Fixate on this thought only,

but we do wanna let it sober us.

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This is one of those few things that

God gives us to say, let's be sober

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minded about how we live, and this is

what's repeated in the New Testament.

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We're to live as unto the Lord.

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We want every day to be lived

as though it were a last.

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Speaking of the days, he says

here in verse 10, something

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interesting that I thought I wanted

to point out to your attention.

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He says, say not.

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Don't say this.

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Why were the former

days better than these?

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He says, for it is not from wisdom that

you asked this, and this is one of those

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phrases that we tend to ask quite a bit,

man, remember how good it used to be

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when we fill in the blank with whatever

it is that we think was really good.

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Sometimes we have this nostalgia

that captures our imagination

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and maybe rewrites history.

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Maybe some things were better back

then and, and maybe there were a

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few things that you could say, wow,

that was objectively better than

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what I had at this point in time.

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But I think that misses the

point of the fact that what

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you have today is God's gift.

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We always have something better than we

deserve, and I think that's his point.

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Don't look back on the past and say,

man, I had it so good back then.

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And again, I'm not to, not to deny the

fact that there probably were blessings

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there, but don't look at the past and

miss what's right in front of you.

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Enjoying the present.

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The good old days are happening

right now, and for the Christian,

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the best old days are in the future.

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It's still yet to come, and so

be thankful for the present.

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Don't long for the past.

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Be grateful for what you have now.

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Okay, verse 13.

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Verse 13 says, consider the work

of God who can make straight

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what he has made crooked.

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And this speaks to God's

inscrutable nature.

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God is above us and beyond us in ways

that we could never fully comprehend.

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To say that God knows more than

us is not saying nearly enough.

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Now, if you tried to explain the

internet to an ant, I would guess

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that you wouldn't get very far.

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They have no frame of reference for that.

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They don't even have

comprehension the way that we do.

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If we're to say God explains to us

certain things, the distance between

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us and God is way further than the

distance between us and an aunt.

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Hopefully you understand the comparison

for you to talk to an ant makes more sense

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than for God to talk to us because the

distance between us is so much greater

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from God to us than from us to an ant.

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And so this particular proverb here talks

about the way that God is inscrutable.

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There's things about God that will

never fully comprehend, and this is

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what makes heaven so interesting.

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We will forever learn and grow

in our understanding of God.

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It's not to say that we're gonna learn

new things, per se, that is we're gonna

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learn about some new facet of his being.

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But that what we learn in

scripture is kind of the bones

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of our understanding of him.

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We'll experience more and more of God

as we grow closer and closer to him.

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Why?

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Well, because he's infinite.

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God has no end.

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He has no beginning.

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You and I are not infinite.

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We are.

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We are immortal, but we are not eternal.

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God alone possesses internality.

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He alone is self existent and never

has a beginning, nor has an end.

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You and I are immortal in that we do have

a beginning, but we do not have an end.

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We cannot die.

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We are immortal.

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We don't ultimately die in

the sense of ceasing to exist.

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You die physically.

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You can die spiritually in

that you are judged by God,

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but you never cease to exist.

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And so chapter seven prescriptions

about how to live with

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wisdom in a world of vanity.

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Chapter eight continues the theme.

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In fact, we're gonna just focus on this

all throughout the next several chapters.

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So lemme just highlight a couple pieces

here for you about how to live in the, in

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the age of vanity, in an age where things

are fleeting, futile, and full of mystery.

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In chapter eight, verse 15, he says

this, and I commend joy for a man has

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nothing better under the sun, but to

eat and drink and be joyful for this

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will go with him in, in his to in

his toil through the days of his life

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that God has given him under the sun.

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Do you hear this?

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How good this is?

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I commend joy.

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This is what Paul says in

Philippians chapter four.

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Rejoice in the Lord.

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Always.

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Again, I say, Paul says, rejoice.

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He says it twice.

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It was so nice, your job then as a

Christian, even under the old covenant,

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under the Old Testament, they were

thinking along these lines, be joyful.

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I commend joy for man, has nothing

better under the sun, but to eat

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and drink and be joyful to savor

and appreciate the gift of God.

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When's the last time that you enjoyed?

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Truly enjoyed.

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Something that you tasted, you know,

whether it was a piece of cheesecake

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that was delectable and rich and creamy,

or whether it was a good steak or

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something that I don't know, a, a good

stuffed potato or something like that.

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When's the last time that you truly

savored it and thanked God for it?

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Hopefully it wasn't too long ago, but

the challenge for most of us is that

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we experienced so many good things

that we often just forget about them.

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It's like the pilot.

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A pilot will often fly into the air 30,000

feet and they'll see the Aurora Borealis.

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They'll see the beauty and the wonders of

creation, and at some point, and this is

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sad, they stop seeing, they see the same

things and they become so accustomed to

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them that they no longer appreciate them.

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This can happen to us.

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We can see the glory and the beauty

and the majesty of God in his

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word, and yet we can almost yawn.

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We can find ourselves being

disinterested, disinclined, and

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this is what Solomon warns against.

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He's saying your job is to take

joy in what God has given you.

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Eat, drink, and be joyful.

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These are common everyday

things that you do.

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He's saying, take joy in the mundane.

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Are you disciplining your kids today?

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Take joy in that.

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Are you driving to work again on

the same road that you always take?

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Take joy in that.

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Are you spending time with the family?

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Maybe watching the same reruns you always

watch, take joy in the mundane things

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of life because these are gifts of God.

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This is what God has given you to do.

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Don't begrudge that

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In Ecclesiastes chapter nine, verse seven,

he says this, go eat your bread with joy

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and drink your wine with a me Hartford.

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Donna's already approved what you do.

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This is an interesting verse because

what this tells us is that God desires.

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He wants us to delight in

the life that he's given us.

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He doesn't want us to walk

around morose and sad.

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Now, if we thought about it, we could

say, there's a lot of reasons for us

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to walk around that way, couldn't we?

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We could say the world is broken.

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There's sorrow around every corner.

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There's wars.

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There's things that are

taking place that grieve us.

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People are lost and dying.

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There's a lot of reasons to be sad and,

and certainly we don't deny those things.

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We're not trying to superficially

plaster a smile on her face and pretend

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everything's fine, but what we are doing.

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Is taking delight and joy in the

life that God has granted us.

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God has already approved what you do.

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God desires that you be happy.

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God desires that you be joyful.

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God desires that you more than anybody

have a contented heart because you more

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than anybody, if you're a Christian,

have something to rejoice over.

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Verse 10 in chapter nine,

whatever your hand finds to

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do, do it with all your might.

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He says, for there is no work or

thought or knowledge or wisdom

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in SHEEO to which you're going.

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Now, this reflects a first century

understanding of the grave.

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In, in Solomon's mindset, the

afterlife provided nothing.

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Now as far as they knew someone died,

they're in the sheeo, they're in the

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grave, they're in Abraham's bosom.

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Whatever they were doing down

there, they weren't doing what

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they're doing here in this life.

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And I guess to that extent, it is true.

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We do understand when we die, at

least, if we were to die today,

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we go to the intermediate state.

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You don't possess your physical

body, obviously that's still

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here, but you don't lose yourself.

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You're still you.

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You have some kind of temporary vessel.

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Paul talks about this in Second

Corinthians, chapter five.

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He talks about it in the way of saying

that we're unclothed, we're longing to

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be clothed again, to have our flesh.

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But until then, we're in some

kind of intermediate state.

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Whether we have a loner body

or whether we're spiritually

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visible somehow, I don't know.

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But he's saying here, Solomon,

whatever your hand finds to do, do it.

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If God has given you something to

do in this life, a job to fulfill a

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dish, to wash a nose, to clean up,

if you're a mom or dad, whatever

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your hand finds to do, do it well.

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Find joy in the things that

God has given you to do.

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Do not begrudge it.

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Don't hate it.

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Don't despise it.

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Don't complain about it.

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At some point you will want

to do the things that you

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perhaps begrudged to do today.

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I always think about this meme

that I saw a long time ago.

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Someone wrote it on their Facebook

page and it got repeated throughout the

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years that it's something like this.

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At one point you picked up your

son or your daughter for the

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last time and you didn't know it.

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Isn't that crazy?

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Doesn't that just make you think,

oh wow, I didn't think about that.

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At some point you pick up your

son or daughter for the last time.

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And then you never pick them up again.

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Now, granted, the shape

of your love changes.

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It's not like it goes away, it matures,

it grows, it manifests something

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other, but you never pick 'em up again.

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And for some people, especially

people like myself who are a little

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more sentimental, you kind of

get a little misty at about that

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say, oh, I wish I would've known.

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I wish I would've appreciated

every single one of those hugs, and

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every time I picked them up and all

those things I, I saw this also.

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Someone said something similar about

spending time outside with your friends.

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They said, like, they

said this at some point.

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Everybody went outside to play for

the last time and then you stopped.

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People move away or things change.

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You get a girlfriend or you whatever.

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Things change all the time.

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And I think that's part of

Solomon's point is to appreciate

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the fact that things do change.

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And what you have now is a gift

and you should take it as such.

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Don't begrudge it.

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And chapter 10 I, I wanna point point

out one verse here, chapter 10 verse 10.

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If the iron is blunt, one

does not sharpen the edge.

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He must use more strength, but

wisdom helps one to succeed I.

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Don't work harder, work smarter

as you often hear, hear, and

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this is what that verse says.

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Moving down to the end of chapter

10, you'll see verse 20 says, even in

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your thoughts, do not curse the king

nor in your bedroom curse the rich.

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Four.

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A bird of the air will carry

your voice, or some winged

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creature will tell the matter.

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You might have heard that old

phrase, A little bird told me.

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I'm pretty confident that idea

comes from this verse here.

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A little bird told me such and such.

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And we also see this multiple times

twice actually in the Old Testament.

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This is one of those times.

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And the other time is when a king

is asking, which one of you guys is

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telling on me who is, who among you

guys is betraying us to the Israelites

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and telling them what we're doing?

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In any case, what God is saying here

through Solomon is that your words are

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gonna have a way of carrying themselves

to the party that you're talking about.

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And this happens, this happens

all the time, and we still tend

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tend not to learn these things.

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And, but you ought to, you ought to

guard the, the doors of your mouth such

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that you're not loose lipped, you're

not saying things about people, you're

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not saying, in this case, the king.

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You're not saying things

about those in power.

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The leaders that you, that you follow

in, in the, in a way that you would

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be ashamed that they hear about.

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And so instead, Solomon says, instead

of doing that, instead of letting

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your words get to the king and they're

gonna hear about it and they're gonna

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respond to it, whatever that looks like.

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How about just don't say anything.

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Don't even curse them in your thoughts.

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You don't want that stuff to

travel, therefore, don't say it.

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In fact, your mom told

you this, didn't she?

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If you have nothing nice to

say, don't say it at all.

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Okay?

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Chapter 11, verse one.

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Cast your bread upon the waters

for you'll find it after many days.

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Give a portion to seven

or even eight for you.

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No, not what disaster may happen on earth.

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I think this is talking about investing.

365

I think this is talking about

spreading your wealth in different

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places so as not to put all your

eggs in one basket, so to speak.

367

This is the wise Christian approach

to how we invest and save and

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anticipate future potential disasters.

369

It's wise of you to have a savings account

that recognizes Murphy comes knocking

370

at the door and you never know when.

371

So prepare for Murphy Scripture calls

you to be wise in putting different.

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Pockets are creating different spaces of

savings and different investments so that

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God will potentially bless those things.

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This is called diversification.

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I think that's what scripture

talking about here in verse eight.

376

In chapter 11.

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It says, so if a person lives many

years, let him rejoice in the all.

378

But let him remember that the

days of darkness will be many.

379

All that comes is vanity.

380

He says here in verse nine, rejoice a

young man in your youth and let your

381

hearts hear you in the days of your youth.

382

Walk in the way of your heart, inside of

your eyes, but know that for all these

383

things, God will bring you into judgment.

384

He's saying, enjoy your life.

385

But don't forget, God is watching.

386

Take, take delight in the life that

God has given you but never forgets.

387

God is also judging.

388

This is a reality.

389

Christians remember, God does judge.

390

Now remember, the difference is

we're not judged on the condemnation.

391

Our judgment has been satisfied on

Jesus Christ, but we are judged.

392

God's gonna take our life and weigh it.

393

He tells pastors in Hebrews chapter

13 that we will give an account

394

for those who we led, how we led.

395

And so we should take that seriously.

396

You will give an account for the people

that you lead that might include your

397

kids or grandkids, or your students.

398

Keep that in mind.

399

Chapter 12 is the culmination of

all of Solomon's thinking here.

400

And again, I think he

writes this later in life.

401

After he is had a few years under his

belt, and so he talks about aging and how

402

aging is gonna change you and things are

gonna be different for you physically.

403

Your body will change and the

things that you used to love

404

doing, you may not be able to do.

405

And so he says, really, here's

the, the sum total of it.

406

Chapter 12, verse 13, the end of

the matter all has been heard.

407

Here's the punchline.

408

Fear God and keep his commandments

for this is the whole duty of man.

409

For God will bring every deed and

a judgment with every secret, every

410

secret thing, whether good or evil.

411

At the end of the day, the way that

we navigate a vain life, A life that

412

is fleeting, futile, and full of

mysteries, that we fear God, we trust

413

his leadership, what he says we do.

414

We don't rely on our own wisdom.

415

I'll allow.

416

Proverbs chapter three.

417

We trust that his wisdom is sufficient to

guide us through even every complexity.

418

Wisdom is no guarantee that

we won't suffer greatly.

419

Neither is foolishness for that matter.

420

Generally speaking, foolishness leads

to destruction and difficulty in life,

421

and generally speaking, wisdom leads

to success and good things in life.

422

But they're not hard and fast rules.

423

That's the nature of wisdom.

424

And in fact, this is the

inscrutable nature of God.

425

God is always governing

his creation actively.

426

And so when we look at things like

wisdom or folly, we're not talking about

427

mechanical means that govern the universe.

428

We're talking about the way that God

says this is the right way to live.

429

Here are the principles by which you will

generally succeed, but that never changes.

430

The fact that God has the cards, God

will make the decisions as to what

431

happens in your life, and that's

what Job learns In his book, I.

432

We looked at it earlier this

year, God has inscrutable wisdom.

433

He sovereignly rules the universe.

434

And so therefore, at the end of

the day, we're not trusting wisdom.

435

We're not trusting folly.

436

We're trusting God.

437

We fear him.

438

We, we let him lead.

439

And we recognize that everything that

we do, even if it doesn't result in good

440

outcomes, we're not doing it for the

good outcome, at least in the short term.

441

We're doing it because we trust

God for the eternal outcome.

442

And that's what the Book of

Ecclesiastes is all about.

443

Well guys, thank you

so much for joining me.

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Please pray with me as we

close our podcast today.

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Lord, we wanna be wise people.

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We wanna be the kind of people who can

take Ecclesiastes for what it says and to

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apply the wisdom without losing sight of

the fact that you are the God of wisdom.

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And that wisdom is shown to us most

fully and most clearly in Christ.

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Help us to look to him and to

see him as our wisdom, to see

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Him as our delight, as our joy.

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And to let him lead us and guide us.

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In Hebrews or in Matthew chapter 11,

Jesus says, take my yoke upon me.

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Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

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For I am gentle and lowly in heart.

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Help us to trust his leadership and to

take his yoke upon ourselves gladly, no

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matter what the outcome is, and do that.

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And Lord, we trust you, we love you,

and we pray that you'll help us to do

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this even better as the years go on.

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We ask all this in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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Alright, that's everything today.

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Thank you so much for joining me.

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Hopefully I'll see you back tomorrow as we

make our way into First Kings yet again.

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I'll see you then.

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Bye-bye.

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PJ: thanks for listening to another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

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You can find out more information

about ourChurch@compassntx.org.

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We would love for you to leave a

review to rate to share this podcast

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on whatever platform you happen to

be listening on, and we will catch

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you against tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.