Hey, do you remember that song that the bird sang? Not the Bird's Out Your Window, the Birds, B-Y-R-D-S. They sang this song and here's what they said. To everything. Turn turn. There is a season turn turn, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born. A time to die. A time to plant. A time to reap. A time to kill. A time to heal. A time to laugh. A time to weep to everything. Turn turn. Okay. You probably know the song I just quoted, and maybe you're singing it at this point, but the point is. This song is exactly from our Bible reading. This is what we're talking about here. The birds. Were inspired by the Book of Ecclesiastes to write about the vanity. This is the word that the preacher uses of life. I. So let's dive into Ecclesiastes today. In fact, we're gonna be in, in this book both today and tomorrow, which is a lot of territory to cover in such a short period of time. We're not gonna be able to spend as much time in this book as I would like, but there's so much in it. There's just so much. I know I say this all the time, but I mean it, there's things here that you gotta see and so I would love for you to. At least stroll through it. Maybe not speed read. I know sometimes we have to get the reading done and we don't wanna shortchange ourselves, and so we just get it done. But this is one of those books to spend time in. There's so much wisdom here. This is part of our wisdom literature. In fact, the wisdom literature is a section in the Old Testament where the whole purpose was to give wisdom to the reader. And Ecclesiastes, even though it's in the same genre as the Proverbs reads very differently, it comes across something of like a. A kymera. It's the opposite side. It's the yin and yang. It's the dark, contrasted to the light. Now, even though the wisdom is the same in that it's from God, it's a different angle on the wisdom, and so it's important that you read this with some awareness. First of all, let's start with the title. The Ecclesiastes refers to the preacher. It's a title that comes from the Greek, which also comes from the Latin Vulgate, and it refers to the person who's preaching. And so you'll get that from verse one here, the words of the preacher. This is what the book is named after. Who is the preacher? It seems pretty clear that the preacher is King Solomon. He says here in verse one, the words of the preacher, the son of David King in Jerusalem. And if you skip on down to verse 12, it says here, I the preacher, have been king over Israel and Jerusalem. And if you move on to chapter 12. Verse nine, in particular, chapter 12, verse nine. In the book of Ecclesiastes, it says this, besides being wise. The preacher also taught the people knowledge weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. And so it seems based on the clues that we have, that King Solomon is the best suited to be the author behind this work. Now, I'll tell you this, there's other people that think we can't know for sure. We don't know if it's Solomon or someone who's just writing in the tradition of Solomon. There's guesses about who else it. PO might possibly be, but it seems easiest and most simple to say. This is probably Solomon. We have good reason to think that. And unless we have something compelling to the contrary, maybe we'd consider that. But King Solomon is the best idea here. Now it seems that King Solomon might've written this sometime later in life. Earlier in life. He's young, he spry, he has his kingdom ahead of him. He's doing good things, but then things change. He lives life. He has a couple years under his belt, maybe a few gray hairs on his head underneath his crown, and now he's reflecting more carefully about the way life works. And this extended meditation in the book of Ecclesiastes is his thinking about how life is vain. It's vanity. The word itself means vapor, but it has a richer meaning than just one single approach. In fact Dr. MacArthur in one of his writing suggests that there's three meanings of the word vanity life under the sun. And he says, number one, the word can mean fleeting. That is something that's here for a moment and then gone for a long time, maybe forever. So fleeting, the first one. Secondly, the vanity of life in a fallen world or life under the sun can mean futile. In other words, it's pointless. You're trying to do something, but it doesn't change anything. So fleeting, futile. And finally, the last one it's full of mystery. Yeah, so the vanity of life in a fallen world means that things are fleeting, futile, and full of mystery. It's hard to understand what God is doing in all the ways that life plays itself out in life and death, and riches and poverty and all the things in between. I. An honest person will look at life and say, man, things are so complex. It's hard to make sense of how life works. And it's hard to discern God's hand as he navigates through all of human history. God is always and everywhere operating actively in the lives of all of his people, not to mention the life of everybody who lives on planet Earth. He governs the trees and the rocks and the birds. He governs the weather patterns. He governs every single atom and molecule that exists down to the smallest cork. We don't know. All that God is doing. At any given moment, we might be aware of a few things, but Ecclesiastes extends that idea and says, man, if God's always doing these things, how can we ever know anything? How can we know what God's up to? How can we know what is gonna happen in the next day? Much less the next year? And so vanity of vanities is his cry, and he is saying, we can't know what's happening in life, and therefore, because there's so many twists and turns and so many unpredictable circumstances, the challenge then is not to let it. Causes to be cynics, but instead to respond the right way. And that's what this whole book is about. How do I respond to the vanity of life? And that's what's exciting about this because he gives us so much great wisdom. It's so rich, it's so powerful. I've been reading through it with you. Obviously I'm a little bit ahead of you, but I've been reading through it and I've been refreshed by what I've been reading and I've been encouraged by what I've been reading. The book breaks down into roughly three parts, which I think are helpful. First in chapter one, verses one through 11. What we have here is basically a prologue. It is his thesis statements. He's making an observation and he's making an A statement, an assertion about how he understands life to work. He says, the problem is basically everything is vanity. Everything is full of futility, it's fleeting and it's full of mystery. We can't understand, we don't know what God is up to. That's part one. Part two is the proof. These are all the proof statements. That all is vanity. And so chapter one, verse 12, all the way through chapter six, today's reading is basically his observations. It's his thinking about how things end up being vain, how it all ends up, showing that everything is essentially vanity. And finally in part three, which you'll read tomorrow, is chapters seven through 12. This is the prescription where everything leading up to it, he alludes to his point, chapter seven through 12 is him giving you an extended teaching about how to live with vanity, how to respond to it. But I'll point out to you all the ways that he leads up to that in the first six chapters, six chapters. Okay, so with that said, let's make our way briefly through these first six chapters, chapter one. Most of it is his thesis statement about the fallenness and the brevity and the vanity of life. He says here in verse two, vanity of vanities says the preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity. What is man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? In other words, everything that you do is eventually just gonna go into the ground. It's all for Naugh. Ultimately you and I know that's not the case. We're not laboring for life under the sun. And I guess, let me, this is important for you to hear at the front end of this. He's talking about life under the sun, life in a fallen world, and even a lot of this is him focusing on life apart from the influence of God. And so he's making an as an assertion here. Life without God is drab. It's vain, it's pointless. It's futile. And he says, there's nothing new under the sun. This is how life has always been. This is how life is gonna continue to go. And this is the problem that he asserts to us and we need to deal with that. Is this really the best way to look at life? And so he says all his vanity, this is the problem. And verses 12 through the end of chapter one, he says, basically, I set myself on a mission to discern how to deal with all this and how to deal with the business that God has given. Man. He says in verse 18, for in much wisdom is much vation and he who increases knowledge, increases sorrow. He says, the more you learn, the more you realize there is more to learn and it doesn't resolve your problems. Learning more, becoming more wise doesn't necessarily make life easier. In fact, in many cases it makes life harder because you know more and you understand more. And with all of that, learning and understanding, it creates a heavier burden for you to bear. There's a reason why only God knows all things at all times because man could not handle it. It's good to be learned. It's good to be wise. It's good to pursue greater understanding. But he says here, you gotta be careful because if you think that's gonna resolve your problems, you're sadly mistaken. In chapter two, he details his experiences with pursuing pleasure. He details his per her pursuit of pursuing stuff. And he shows that at the end of it all, he's got the cars, he's got the house, he's got all of the great, he's got the lake house. By the Prestige. He's got the lake house by the nice lake. He's got the women, he's got everything. He's got everything modern man would ever dare want. And he's saying at the end of the day, I find that it's pointless. It doesn't help, it doesn't satisfy. He says, ultimately, I've gotten everything I've ever wanted and I don't want any of it. It does not scratch the itch. And so he says in verse nine, I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. And also my wisdom remained with me. That is, I'm not doing it in an unhinged way. I am pursuing growth and acquiring possessions with all my wisdom intact. I'm doing so with full eyes open. He said, whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, from my for my heart, found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered that all my hands had done and the toil that I expended in doing it and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun, and that's the brutal calculus. The solution that he came to was, this is not worth it. And so then he interests into his strange section about the vanity of living wisely. You'll see that in your ESV heading, and here's what he's getting at. Look at verse 14. The wise person has his eyes in in his head, but the fool walks in darkness, and yet I perceived the same event happens to all of them. The same event happens to the wise and the foolish, which is something that we have to confess even for all of his righteousness. This is not guarantee. That you won't experience the kind of hardships that all people experience. Death happens to everybody. Bankruptcy can happen to anybody. The death of a spouse can happen to anybody. Everything happens and God is orchestrating all these things and Solomon is trying to rely on wisdom to safeguard him against these things. And he's recognizing wisdom doesn't get you all that far, at least when it comes to preventing the major catastrophes of life. He looks at work and he realizes that work has his benefits. But here's one of his takeaways here in verse 21. He says, now, because sometimes a person who has toil with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. In other words, what am I doing earning all this money and acquiring all these goods if I just end up having to give it all away? Verse 24. Here's something that he says that is actually prescriptive and helpful. He gets into more of this in the second half of the book, but here's what he says. There's nothing better for a person than that. He should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. And this also I saw is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or have enjoyment for the one who pleases him. God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but the to the sinner, he has given the business of gathering and collecting only to give it to the one who pleases God. One of Solomon's major takeaways that you would be wise to hear right now is that it's good to be thankful and to rejoice in what you got right now. You might not have everything you want. In fact, you might be limping, you might be sick, you might be suffering with the loss of some major thing, and yet Solomon would say, man, be grateful for what you got. Enjoy what you have. Take pleasure in the life that God has given you. Because the times change and just as we saw from the birds who sang the song about a time to live and a time to die, that's where chapter three takes us. There's a time for everything under the sun. There are seasons, and we notice this as we get older. Seasons come and seasons go, we see some patterns, although things tend to change a little bit at least. But he notices there's a season for everything in this world, a season to live, a season of die, a season to weep, a season to laugh. All the things. He says, this is the way life works, and this is the vanity that he's talking about. It's this idea that things progress over and over again. There's a cyclical nature to life, which means it's futile, it's fleeting, as we said before, and it's full of mystery. It's hard to understand, even though there's patterns. The patterns don't always remain precisely the same. There's always differences in those things. In verse 11, he says, this is 11 chapter, verse 11, chapter three. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, and this is another major takeaway. Solomon is pointing to the fact that even though this life presents plenty of joy, and God is generous with the joy that he gives us, he's pointing to the fact that because those things don't satisfy, it shows us that we're actually not meant for this life alone, that we're meant for the next life, that there's a bigger and better pleasure that awaits us, and it's not found in acquiring stuff here and now. As good as those things are. In chapter four, he continues making his observations and in chapter four, starting at verse four, here's what he says. Then I saw that all toil and all skill and work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and is striving after the wind. He notes that many of us are motivated not by doing good. Even though good is sometimes there we do good wanna save for our kids' education or we want to build a house that can host ministry. You want to buy cars that are reliable to utilize them for ministry events or whatever It says. Many people are motivated. I. By envy, they're keeping up with the Joneses. That's what Solomon is identifying here. There's a cyclical nature to mankind in that we look at other people and say I want what they have. I want the same car. I want the same house. I want a bigger house. I want a nicer house. I want nicer clothes. And on it goes. And he says, man, that kind of comparison is a trap that puts you in a cycle of vanity futility that will hurt you. You don't want to do that. That's not the kind of life that you should live. In verse nine, he says two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil, for if they fall. One will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. It talks about how good it is to have someone to co-labor with you to have someone who can walk beside you in life. We talked about friendship yesterday. You want someone who stabs you in the front. That's not precisely his point here, but there is wisdom and discerning that life is better with people. Loneliness and isolation. Self-inflicted isolation is so bad for the soul. It shrivels us. We are made for companionship and we need that. He doesn't say it explicitly here, but man, relationships, friendships are what make life rich. Chapter five, he says here in verse one, guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to, to draw near to listen is better than to offer. Sacrifice the sacrifice of fools. For they do not know the evil that they are doing. This is where he makes the case that you ought to be careful in how you approach God, that you should not presume upon him, that you should not come with many words, but that you should listen to what God is saying to you Before you dare offer, speak a word, un. On your behalf. This is the kind of mentality that says we want a hive view of God. Solomon commends a hive view of God, a recognition of his loftiness and of our comparable loneliness. And in doing so, it'll help us approach him rightly, and that's a good thing. He notices I. Second half of chapter five. One of the things he says that I think is important for you to see here is in verse 18, behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun, the few days of his life that God has given him for. This is his lot. Wherever you are, the food that you have in your refrigerator, the kind of car you drive, the clothes that you're wearing, whatever that is, take enjoyment in that. Thank God for the gifts that you have. You have more than a lot of other people. You have so much more than many people, the world over. And yet for us, so many times, our hearts are driven by a desire to acquire more and not all of that is bad. Solomon is making the point though, that if you want to enjoy the good life, recognize you already have it, and that God has given you far more than what you deserve and therefore you ought to enjoy the gifts that God has given. Chapter six continues the thought. It says this, there is an evil that I have seen under the sun and it lies heavy on mankind. Verse two, A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires. Yet God does not give him the power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity. It is a grievous evil. And so he's saying, look, again, the point remains if you want to have the good life instead of striving for more. Enjoy the less that you presently have, because there is a kind of person who does acquire more and more. They get all the goodies, they get all the things that they want, and yet they don't enjoy the things that they have. It's almost like they're on a hamster wheel of acquiring things and yet still never finding it enough, never being satisfied in the things that they do have is, goes back to that old that, that old quote. Of John d Rockefeller, when he died, they asked him they asked his family members how much did he leave behind. And to that, somebody answered all of it. He left all of it behind. There's nothing to take with you. Did he enjoy it? Did he take pleasure in the wealth that God had given him? John d Rockefeller, as you might know, was a large contributor to liberalism and Christianity. And so in that sense, it really wasn't all that good for us. But the point being here, that there's the kind of person who acquires and doesn't enjoy. And I'd love for you not to be that person. I'd love for you to be the kind of person who, wherever God has lift given you wherever God has placed you, you enjoy those things. The amount of kids that you have the kind of kids that you have how tall you are, how shapely you are, you know what kind of food that you have in your refrigerator. Again, whatever it is that God has given you. Would you please just take a few moments to thank God for those things. If you've got a spouse, thank God for your spouse. If you have nice shoes on your feet right now, you got some comfortable sandals on as you're listening to this. Thank God for those things we could stand to have a lot more gratitude and joy in the things that God gives us rather than always and only perhaps striving for the next thing. I've said so much about this, and I thank you for spending time with me to go through these first six chapters. There's a lot here, a lot that we didn't talk about and can talk about, but I'd love for you to again, spend some time stroll through the Ecclesiastes and try to take in what he's talking about. There's so much fun, exciting, and very interesting points of wisdom here that I would love for you to ingest and to understand. Okay? That's all I got. I know yesterday I didn't pray. I'm so sorry about that. Let me pray for you now as you make your way throughout the rest of the day. And God, please help us to understand the vanity of life the fallenness of life, the futility, the fleetingness, and the full mystery that life brings. Help us not to be jaded by these things or to be cynical, but to be grateful, to be a thankful people who see life and give you honor for that, give you thanks, and that we recognize how good we do have it. Even if life is bad right now, we still wanna render Thanksgiving to you because that's right and that's good. We thank you for all these things. God, please help us to see you as you are, to see you as the most valuable treasure that we can possibly own and understand. We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you so much. I am honored to do this with you. Thank you for doing this with me. I appreciate it. I appreciate that you tune in. I appreciate that you listen and I appreciate that you come to our church. In fact, you are part of our church. Thank you for being part of this church. I find it a great joy to be leading you in this thing called life. With that said, thank you for today. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. God willing. Hopefully we're all still here for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. You have a great day. I'll see you then.

thanks for listening to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about ourChurch@compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review to rate to share this podcast on whatever platform you happen to be listening on, and we will catch you against tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.