The Gift (Remastered)

[music] Hey everybody, I'm Tim Mckey and this is my podcast Exploring My Strange Bible. I am a card carrying Bible history and language nerd Who thinks that Jesus of Nazareth is utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast I'm putting together the last 20 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can all be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts and classes about all kinds of topics and Bible and theology. You can find all those resources at Bibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode to this week. [music] [music] All right, this is part two of a three-part teaching series on the Book of Ecclesiastes. We're unpacking the main themes in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. And in this teaching we build off of the first one which was exploring the core metaphor, the teacher, the skeptic in this book, has about all of life that all of life is heaven that is unpredictable, enigma, absurd, ungraspable. And so in the light of that fact, the teacher takes a pretty dim view of you being able to get really a lot of leverage on controlling your life or even understanding its meaning, which is not something you expect to hear from the Bible, but there it is. So how do you respond to this really sobering truth? And that's what we explore in this teaching. There's a handful of passages in the Book of Ecclesiastes where the teaching voice says that embracing the fact that life is heaven, which again, listen episode one to understand what that means. In light of that fact, how then do you live? And what the teacher says is actually embracing life as heaven is a strange gift. It's a gift that can enrich your life rather than diminish it. How and what does that mean? That's what we're going to explore in this teaching. So let's dive in. We're in week two, then of this Ecclesiastes series. And Josh was going to work through chapter two tonight, because I'm going to start at the end of chapter two next week, but instead I'm doing that tonight. So can you cut me some grace? Yes, you can. You can totally cut me at least that much grace. So Ecclesiastes chapters two dive right in. I don't have any pipes or other props tonight, sorry. But this book is just so great. I'm really enjoying studying and being in Ecclesiastes. By the way, you can read it in about an hour, which means as we're in this over the next month and a half, you can at least read this thing at least four or five times through. And I would really encourage you to do it. It's one of those books that actually repays you more and more the more time you spend in it. Because you finish it the first time or second time you ever read. And you're like, what on earth is this about? So you got to keep going for it. But it pays and continues to repay to spend more time in it. All right, let's just kind of reintroduce ourselves. Chapter one, verse one. This book contains the words of the teacher, the son of David, King and Jerusalem, and what are his words? His words are meaningless. Meaningless says the teacher. Utherly, meaningless, everything is meaningless. What do people gain from all of their labors at which they toil under the sun? So we explored last week just this basic idea, the core main idea of the words of this teacher remains anonymous to us. We're invited to come see the life from this Solomon-like teacher's perspective. And some of you have not meaningless, but what in your translations? Vanity, others that you have meaningless, some of you might have something like vapor, something. This is the key to the whole book, is in understanding these key words right here. Meaningless or vanity or whatever about life here under the sun. If you grasp these ideas, you've got the basic idea of the book. Now, is meaningless the best possible English word to capture author saying here? This is good as any. Vanity is another good one. It's decent. But just like in any language, no language has one for one correspondence between ideas and words and one language and ideas and words in another. So we're kind of, we're doing our best here. But how many of you remember the Hebrew word that's used here? Hevel. Hevels. Use over 40 times here in the book of Ecclesiastes. And it means literally smoke, smoke or vapor. Vapor says the teacher. Everything is, it's like, smoke and vapor. And remember, he uses this to mean a couple different things. So let's get the slide up here. So sometimes we'll use this word to mean life or something in life, fleeting, it's short, it's temporary, here today, going tomorrow. But the teacher's also going to use this concept of Hevel to describe how unpredictable life is. It's like it's ungrassable. We can all see that it's there and it seems like life makes sense. But when I actually start the business of living and try and get my hands around it and make it work, things don't go the way that I wanted them to go. And so what he's not saying is, here I am, I surveyed everything. Life has no meaning whatsoever. That's not what he means. He actually, you really believe life totally has meaning. And that that meaning is bound up in God's purposes and history. And that God is going to wrap up history with a final act of setting everything. Right. He says that multiple times in the book. What he doesn't think is that you and I are always capable of understanding what that meaning might be in my life circumstances. I may not be able to make sense out of life and to get my hands around it, but that doesn't mean life has no sense. It just means I'm a small puny human and what I'm fragile, right? And I don't understand the sense that life has all of the time. It doesn't mean it has no sense. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to explore just one passage, but we're actually going to look at a theme through the book. Because this is a conclusion that the author is going to draw. Chapter two, which Jocelyn will now do next week, he's going to talk about how he just like immersed himself fully in the pursuit of pleasure and wine, women, and song, and making gardens, and so on. And he comes to the end of it and he finds that it was all a great weekend. But Monday eventually came. This is Hevel. He says, "Party, all you want." Eventually the weekend's over and this is like fleeting. And you'll find that you haven't really accomplished anything with your weekend warrior ring. Is that a verb? Weekend warrior ring. I just made it one, right? And so he has this real kind of dour, down-sounding tone throughout the book. Hevel, hevel, everything's hevel, everything's hevel, everything's good. Imagine everything. You try everything you're going to do. But then at the end of chapter two, there's a huge shifting of the gears. Look at the end of chapter two with me. Chapter two, verse 24. He says, "A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too I see is from the hand of God because without him who can eat or find enjoyment." So we were going like down this really steep hill. Everything is hevel, everything you try and grasp, but the meaning of life, you can't do it. Stuff happens in your life, you can't control. You try and pursue things. You feel like you're going to give you purpose and meaning and then they don't. Hevel. So here's what I recommend. Enjoy life. Like have a good meal. Enjoy a good drink and enjoy your work because that's the gift of God. Which is it? Is life hevel or is life an enjoyable gift from God? Turn the page or go to chapter three with me. Go to chapter three, verse nine. What do workers gain from their toil? I mean, I've seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He's made everything beautiful in its time and he's referring back to the famous song that was made a time for this, a time for that. Right? You know this. You know this is what I'm talking about. I'm not going to try and sing it, but it's that song. God is orchestrating history and there's a time for all of these different events in life. And God has set eternity in the human heart. You maybe have heard that verse from Ecclesiastes before, but he doesn't see that as necessarily a good thing. Because God has put in us a sense that history should have meaning and that this is all going somewhere and that there should be some transcendent meaning and sense out of all of this, but none of us can fathom what God is doing from beginning to the end. I mean, I sure can't figure it out all the time. Can you? So what should we do in life? The fact that we know there should be some bigger picture to our lives and to history, but none of us can figure out what it is. Here's what he says, verse 12, I know there's nothing better for people than be happy. Be happy. Do good while you're alive. Each of them should eat and drink and find satisfaction in their toil. This is the gift. Go down to verse 20. Everybody's going to the same place. We all came from the dust. We're all going back to the dust. I mean, who knows if the human spirit rises upward or if the spirit of the animal goes down to the earth. Animals, humans, we're all going to disintegrate back into dust again. So how then should we live? So there's nothing better than a person can do than to enjoy their work. Because that's their lot. I mean, who can bring them to see what will happen after them? You're not a control of your life. you're going back to dust again, so at least have a good time. So go to chapter 5, they get better. Oh, it gets better. Chapter 5, verse 15. Everybody comes naked from their mother's womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They can't take anything from their toils that they can carry in their hands. And this too, this is a grievous evil. As everybody comes, so they depart. I mean, what do we gain? Because all our lives we're working, working, working, and we're toiling for what? For the wind, I guess. And all the days, our days we eat in darkness with great frustration and affliction and anger. So here's what I observed to be good. It's good for a person to eat, to drink, to find satisfaction in their toils and labor under the sun during the few days of life that God has given them. This is their lot. And also, when God gives someone, well, their possessions and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toils, this is God's gift. They seldom reflect on the days of their life because God keeps them occupied with gladness of weight. So is life meaningless and hevel and chasing after wind or is life a gift of God that's meant to be enjoyed? Yet which is it? Here's something hevel that occurs on the earth. Here's something that seems to make no sense. The righteous get what the wicked deserve and the wicked get what the righteous deserve. This, I say, is hevel and do you agree? Hold on, this is totally hevel. This is an enigma. It's a paradox. How does this make sense? I don't know. So here's what I commend. The enjoyment of life because there's nothing better for a person to do under the sun than to eat and to drink and be glad and then joy will accompany them in their toils all the days of their life that God has given them under the sun. Chapter 9, verse 3. Here's another evil that happens under the sun. The same destiny overtakes everybody, the hearts of people moreover. They're full of evil and there's madness in our hearts while we live. And afterward they all join the dead. This view of the sun's life here under the sun. So verse 7. So go, go eat a good meal with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart. God has approved of what you do. In other words, it seems that God takes special pleasure when people enjoy the goodness of life. Always work white and to know your head with oil. Which I think essentially what it means is don't dress like a funeral mourner and put some product in your hair. You know what I mean? Like look presentable, right? Don't be like dower and be like the Portland depressed person with like messy hair and always wearing a black overcoat or something like don't be that person. So like look presentable, look like you're enjoying life and actually go enjoy it, right? Enjoy life with your wife whom you love all the days of this meaningless life. In here I think actually means have all this like temporary of your temporary life that God has given you under the sun, all of your temporary vapor like days. This is your lot in life and your toil some labor here under the sun. Last one, chapter 11 verse 7. "Wait, is sweet and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. However many years a person may live and enjoy them, all of them, but you should remember the days of darkness for there's going to be a whole bunch of those and everything to come like a puff of smoke." So when you're young, be happy while you're young. Let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth, follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see and some of us are like sweet. I want to memorize that verse in the Bible, right? But they qualify, he's talking about enjoying every good thing that life has to offer, but he says, but remember that for all of these things God's going to hold you accountable, right? So your enjoyment needs to be done in the fear of the Lord and honoring him. So he says, "Banish anxiety from your heart and cast off troubles from your body for youth and vigor are here today gone. So enjoy them while you have them and remember your creator in the days of your youth." Do you see a pattern here? We just walked from one end of the book to the other. Did you see the pattern? Hevel, smoke, vapor, death. You're all going to die. Well, crazy. So enjoy a lot, right? Like sit back, have some dinner with your friends. If you find a life companion, that's awesome. Just enjoy the days that you have because the days of darkness are coming and hevel and smoke and it's going to be horrible and you're going to be old and to crap that and you're not going to know what to do. So enjoy life because that's coming. Right? Do you see this here? Back and forth, back and forth. So we read this and we think this guy's crazy. You want to hear like he has two people in his head or something? Like what's wrong with this person? What's happening here is that somehow the way that we see the world, this is an either or. Other life, I can't make sense of life all of the time. I don't always know what's going on. I'm in a perpetual state of bewilderment about my life. So I'm going to mope around and do nothing. Whatever. It's all, it seems meaningless to me. Or we have this like starry eyed optimism and like God is going to make on my wildest dreams come true or something like that. None of us actually say that but many of us actually live like that, right? Because we're very disappointed when God doesn't underwrite our dreams. So we begin to resent God and so on. But at least we're going to go pursue and follow whatever is in your heart, you know, all this seeing life through rose colored glasses. What the teacher is going to say is actually this is not either or. So we see failures in life and disappointments as obstacles in my way to a life of joy and fulfillment. And he's just going to turn that right on its head. He's going to say actually it's life's failures and disappointments that are the key. It's embracing a life of true joy here under the sun. We see failure as an obstacle. The teacher sees life's failures as an opportunity to embrace true joy. Why? Let me frame this in a few different ways. So I live by Franklin High School up off of 50th Division and there's this Republic Park by the tennis courts of the high school, which is kind of weird because it's a high school but it's a park for all the little kids of the neighborhood, which means that it's one of those parks that's perpetually filled with high school students, like just sitting around on all the stuff that's for the little kids. Like one of those kind of parks, whatever. So we live a number of blocks away and so I often take my son Roman to the park to go play there. So he's a year and a half and his whole life is climbing and slabbering and these other things, lower parks. And so we're going to the park one day. It's a school day and the school's letting out is like 3 p.m. So we're going down the sidewalk, pushing Roman is all stroller and so there's a few things. First of all, on the parking lot, I observe a small group of skateboarders, right? Home team. So I'm automatically, I like these guys and I'm like, oh cool and they're like skating around the parking lot. And then I can see they're getting ready to leave the parking lot. So they begin to skate out and it's just like the parking lot, then the driveway crosses the sidewalk out into the street. At the same time that this little group, three or four guys is getting ready to go, there's a group of girls coming towards me on the sidewalk on the other side of the driveway. I can see the look in their eye and I can see what's going to happen here. So they're going to race out of the parking lot. One of these guys, they're like, want to do something cool to impress the girls. They go out into the street. And I'm watching this with pleasure. I'm like, what's it going to have in here? And so Portland here is City Sidewalk, Grass Patch and then the street. And so one of these guys, he starts pushing pretty hard because he wants to come at an angle and like jump over the grass patch into the street right in front of the girls. That's totally admirable. And so we're watching, you know, we're just a number of yards away as we go. And so this guy comes and he doesn't make it. He doesn't jump far enough. And so he's going and then he lands his back wheels in the grass. So he just sticks and then he just pitches right into the street and it's like the shoulder grind. And he's got like his backpack on, you know, and he does it his roll and what have you. And so the girls now, they're not impressed. Obviously they're like, they're laughing or some are horrified and so on. I felt so horrible for what's happening inside of me. On the outside I went like, oh, oh, yeah. But on the inside I had this feeling of like, that was so awesome. I watched this happen with a little bit of relish inside of me. Mostly because I resonated with this guy's experience because precisely the same thing happened to me in high school a number of different times. You're trying to trick in front of the girls that you like and then you fall in front of them. And then you're at the park or whatever and you're hanging out and I was really kind of working this over because you know, it hurts to fall like that. And then I was like, what's wrong with me? Here's a moment. This guy's trying to make something happen in life. Who knows his story? And this is his chance, you know what I'm saying. Make himself a pirate like he's somebody in front of these girls. We have a name for these moments in our culture. We call them fail moments, right? There's whole like websites dedicated to these. The fail blogs and epic fails and so on. And it's been tending to make life go a certain way, usually to make themselves look better and then they humiliate themselves in some horrible accident or something like that. And sometimes they're really like, someone gets hurt, but you're just laughing. You know, like we're laughing at this and we make whole websites out of this. Why is that? And there's a couple of reasons. One is. It's a form of psychological displacement, because what we're really thinking is that could be me. I'm sure glad it's not. So that's one thing we're thinking. But in another, it just exposes this irony in life. We have these ideas about how life ought to go, and we certainly have ideas about how my life ought to go. And the path and the course that my life is going to take. And then things happen in life that you simply cannot control, whether it's something serious like a tragedy, or something more silly like you fall on your skateboard, or there's a whole spectrum in between, of things that happen to us. I had this plan, I had this career, I mean, this relationship, here we go, and then we have these epic fail moments in our lives. And we view those as obstacles in life. And the teacher says, no, actually, that moment in that kid's life could be the best thing that ever happened to him. It could do two things. It could strip him of the illusion that he's actually in control of his life, and that he can actually make things happen the way that he wants them to. And the sooner we are stripped of that illusion, in the teacher's opinion, the better. Because the more we're trying to hold on and control the outcomes of the events in our lives, the more we're going to be so myopically focused on the control of making things go a certain way, that we're actually blind to the everyday moments of joy that present themselves to. So we need to be stripped of that illusion. We also need to be stripped of the illusion that if I could control my life to go the way that I want it to, and get the outcomes that I actually want to achieve, that then I'd finally like take a break, address, I'd have satisfaction and fulfillment and joy in life. And the teacher is just going to deconstructing all of that, too. Because he sees these little moments of joy in life, like a meal, or a drink, or a walk with a friend, he sees them as merely pointers to some greater future joy, to the degree that we have never experienced and won't experience here, here under the sun. Chapter 5, we read this, verse 16, "As everyone comes so they depart, what do they gain since they toil for the wind?" Here we are working work is like what most of us do with most of the hours of our days. And so he comes along and he says, "Work, it's like a grievous evil." At least the way we experience work or different jobs at certain times in our lives, because we're working and laughing, we don't know what for. Or maybe we have some goals that we're moving towards or something, but someone's going to happen to those and then a life of change, have a will happen, and then all of a sudden the thing that you're working for disappears or she moves away or something, whatever. And then where are you? Is this like we're chasing after the wind? Not only that, work is stressful. And so all the days that we're working, we're eating during our lunch breaks and darkness, there's one job I had that's the worst, like most depressing, lunch room in the whole world. Anyhow, so darkness, great frustration, a fliction, and anger, that's toil. So this is what I observed to be good, that it's good for a person to eat, to drink, and to find satisfaction, and what? In your work. Somehow there's two ways to approach any of life's same circumstances. If I'm a person that's clamoring for a certain outcome in my life, what the teacher is saying is what's in store for me at work is frustration, anxiety, affliction, and anger and sitting in dark lunch rooms, right? But if my beginning point is not working so that I can achieve my plan to certain outcomes or something, and that's what this is all about, if my beginning point is I release control of the outcomes of my life, then I'm freed. To actually begin enjoying simple moments, like having a good meal, and having a drink with some friends, and actually seeing the funny, ironic things that happen in this workplace that I used to think was horrible, but once I got over my control issues, that could actually. There's some beauty and goodness in these people that I'm around here. It's the same exact circumstances from two different points of view. And actually what he's saying is being frustrated with your work, and finding that it's heaven is the key to finding joy. I have to look at my notes. So what he's saying is that my ability to enjoy the goodness of simple everyday events, like work or eating in the lunch room, he says, is directly tied to my ability to see that I have no control over my life. And some of you that might be like, "What? That doesn't make any sense to me." And that could be a sign. I'm still actually working under the illusion that I have control over my life. But there are some of us who have been in a whole bunch of life circumstances, or time, or age, begin to wiseen you to the fact that you can have the most noble intentions and plans and goals. Life is almost never going to turn out exactly the way that you planned it. And that doesn't mean life is going to be horrible. It just means it's almost never going to work out exactly the way that you planned it. And for some people, that's the worst possible thing that could have happened. But for some people, freedom. So as I've been sitting in this truth, I thought I would have another week to sit in it. But to be honest with you, this truth in the book of Ecclesiastes is taking me to school, personally, right now, in two different ways. And the first one is right here, like this thing that we call door of hope. So there, and Josh and I talk all the time about this. You may or may not be aware of this, but for people who start new churches or for leaders of churches, there's just like a whole industry of books and DVDs and conferences of like, "Make take your church to the next level." You know, whatever, like, you know, lead with power and vision. And a lot of it's really, really helpful, practical, and great. It's really great. Practical stuff for leading, starting churches, and so on. But as you, if you ever, or as I've kind of been exposed to some of that, there's a strange seduction that begins to take place there for church leaders, at least. Especially if it's a person whose personality is wired towards outcomes and goals and making things happen in life, right? And so, because, and I've had this happen, a friend of mine who are pastors, and I can observe the tremors of it, even in my own heart sometimes. Right? So you have, so here's what we need to make this to, we're gonna, like, care about the poor more. We're gonna make an impact in this city, making things happen. We're gonna have 80 small groups by the end of the year. Like, you know, we have these outcomes and goals, and then you realize, like, this is a church. And what's the church? It's not a building. Not once in the Bible is the church connected with the building. The church is people. Are people in outcome? Are people a goal? Can you just make people do what you want them to do? You know, like, of course not. Of course not. So there's two ways you can go down that route as the leader of a church then. You can begin to see the people in your church as a means to an end. I'm gonna take this church somewhere. Here's the power to do it, you know? And then when that doesn't work out, then you get passage of leaders who become, like, resentful of the people that they're called the shepherd because they're not responding the way that I think the church ought to, you know what I'm saying? And the very thing that ought to ring joy, people, is the very thing that brings me grief and frustration because my starting point was when making things happen. And we're gonna take this place, take this place. My starting point is I can't make door of hope do one thing. I have no idea what's gonna happen like two years from now, a door of hope. I can't control the outcomes. I can't make people do anything at all. I can kind of sometimes control this person right here. So, not always in the ways that I would like, but I think I'm getting better at it as I follow Jesus longer, but being control of this person, I'm responsible for this. And so what I can do is release the outcomes of God. That's actually not my burden to bury. It might bury me, right? But it's not my burden to carry, right? Like the weight of all of our collective destiny and so what we're gonna do in this, no, like how presumptuous of me to think that I should carry that or just over Josh or the elders or something else. We're people. If I says roles and responsibilities, if my starting point we're gonna make things happen destined for disappointment and bitterness, anger, frustration, affliction, right? But if my starting point is I have no idea where this thing's gonna go. And I can't control it. I begin by acknowledging my powerlessness, I release the results to God, and according to the teacher, now I'm ready to dive in, to work, and to maybe actually have a good time while I'm at it. To see moments of joy because I'm not so obsessed with obtaining a certain outcome. The teacher in the clasiasis is taking me to school in this area, taking me to school also as a father and as a parent. And if your parents you will resonate with this, if you had a parent, you'll resonate with this. And I think that's everybody in the room to some degree. So one thing. So I have this one and a half year old, relevant as I mentioned, and he's like a little caveman right now. He's the sloppers and grunts or whatever. He can't quite communicate. He's pointing everywhere. He's like knocking stuff over. He's always into everything. And he's happy about it. Like this is just kind of what he does. And so I have two responsibilities as a parent. One, I need to help civilize him to like the land of civilized people, you know. And we're reading this parenting book right now. that says parents are ambassadors of the civilized world to these little cave people, helping them learn the grunting and slaubering and so on and so on, it's not okay all of the time. That's one of my roles is to guide it and to train him, right? That's very important that I do that. But so quickly and easily I can slip from guidance and training into control mode with a Roman. And so like if he's like particularly onary one day, which sometimes that happens or whatever, and so like all spend the whole day off and I'm with him like a whole afternoon or something, all spend like the whole day just stressing about like why is he keep doing that? Like I just told him not to go towards the plug five different he's going again, here he is, little caveman, you know? And like oh, don't get into that and so on or maybe if we're in a public place it's even worse 'cause I'm hyper aware of his caveman like quality is and 'cause he's going around running into stuff, you know what I'm like, oh, sorry, you know, excuse me, sorry, and I get into this hyper control mode of like no, he needs to not do that. And sometimes it's necessary, sometimes it's probably unnecessary and a whole afternoon has gone by and what have I not done once? Enjoyed being with him, you know what I'm saying? Because I'm so stressed, I need to control what this kid does. And yeah, I need to guide him, I need to train him. But especially as Roman becomes an adult, I always have a degree of influence in his life but I should never live under the illusion that I can control him, he's a person, the person. And so we have these relationships in our lives and we want there to be a certain outcome, where's this relationship going? Why does my mom always act that way, you know what I'm like? And we want to control the outcomes of these people, these relationships. And it seems to me that what the teacher is saying is if my starting point is why doesn't this person do it? I want them to do, you're just set up for darkness, frustration, affliction, and anger according to chapter five or 17. If my beginning point is I have no control over this person. I might have a degree of influence, I might have a degree of training or guidance in their life. But if Roman grows up and he loves Justin Bieber and going to the mall, I just have to deal with that. You know what I'm like? And so I'll weep in my heart or whatever, but that's whatever, that's okay, like he's a person. I shouldn't carry the burden of thinking I'm responsible for his destiny. I'm responsible for a big part of his destiny, more than most other people because he's my son. This kid was given to me as a gift. He's not mine, he's on loan to me for a while. And I can influence, I have a role. And what it frees me to do is to just wholeheartedly dive into being a dad and to have open eyes to these moments of joy when he says really silly things. He said, "Shoo today for the first time." He was looking at my shoe. He was like, "Shoo." And they tried to stand in my shoes. You know, it was this beautiful little moment and so on. It's because I wasn't in stress control mode because I was stressed about preparing a sermon. (laughs) That's right. So that's what he's saying. The same exact events, work, life, relationships. He's gonna go through all of them. They'll either be held to you or a taste of heaven. It depends on whether you're willing to give up control of where this train's going. Failures, disappointments, frustrations, the teachers' mind are the way into enjoyment in life. There's the second illusion, the final illusion that he's trying to strip us out of. Chapter two, verse 20. We're gonna come back to this passage. We're gonna spend a whole Sunday talking about the meaning of work in the Cleansianities, verse 20. He says, "So my heart began to despair over all my toil some labor under the sun." Because look, a person may work in labor with wisdom and knowledge and skill, but then you gotta leave it all to somebody else who hasn't worked for it. This is heaven. It's a great misfortune. What do you get for all the work and the anxiety and the striving that we're working for here under the sun? All their days work is like grief and pain. This is a big issue. What do you get out of this? You work so hard, what do you get? And so in the teachers' mind, we're all here like working and striving. We're like the skateboarder kid. We're trying to make things happen here. And for all kinds of different reasons, we're trying to get something out of life. We're trying to get admiration. We're trying to justify our existence in the universe, trying to make ourselves feel competent in the eyes of others, in our own eyes. We're trying to get joy. But somehow paradoxically, he's saying, "Joy never comes if you're trying to work for it. If you're trying to do all of these life accomplishments, you might get little bits of joy, but eventually you'll see that they're heaven too, 'cause the weekend always ends and Monday always comes." And so somehow he wants us to see that even, like the best that we can get are moments of, verse 24, having a meal, having a drink with friends, seeing satisfaction in our work, joy. He's trying to strip us of the illusion that even under the best of circumstances, we're going to find ultimate satisfaction in fulfillment. We want to control life, 'cause we think I got 70 years, and even if I say I'm a Christian, and I say I believe in Jesus' return and the new creation, you know, virtually none of us actually live like that. We actually live as if all we got is our 70 years. And so we control these 70 years because we want to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. And what he's essentially saying is even the maximum amount of pleasure that you can get for yourself at a controlling your life here, I mean, it's actually quite minimal, actually quite heavily Monday always comes. And the capital M Monday, the grave, it's coming and none of us can stop it. And it reduces all of our pleasure or work to have it. Why does he commend having a meal and a drink with friends and trying to find the joy in little moments in life? This struck me because Jesus, every single passage that we read about being happy and joy, involves what two activities, eating and drinking. By having feasting, feasting. Why did he choose that image? Feasting is one of the most common biblical motifs and themes from cover to cover to describe what human beings are made for. So eating and drinking is actually what we're doing. We're engaging in mystery every time you open your mouth and eat something. And acknowledging your dependence on something outside of yourself every time you open your mouth and eat. Did you produce all the food that you ate? No, and McDonald's sure didn't, didn't. You know what I'm saying? Like, they got it for somewhere else. You know, no, it was where that came from, right? So, but so every time we open our mouths to eat, we're acknowledging my fragility, my smallness, my dependence on larger forces that work outside myself. And so when we eat, we're just announcing our dependence on others. And when we eat, typically it's with others. I'm announcing that I need others in my life and in relationships. So feasting, so feasting is what God and humans were doing in the garden and so on, all the fruit trees that God made and God and humans and the garden was great. Feasting is the image of how Israel was to enjoy the promised land. Every seven days, they're supposed to have a big feast and rest from their labor. Feasting was what Jesus did with all of the wrong people, right? At least in the eyes of religious leaders, feeding and drinking to announce and celebrate the fact that God's kingdom has finally arrived in Jesus and He's come to rescue His world. And feasting is the last moment of the story. In Revelation, this heaven and earth come together. So the author of Cleezy Astey is the teacher. This is not like incidental that he chooses. Feasting is something we do every day, where we have a chance to make the relentless movement of time to make it stop for a second. And we pause without os. And I remember my smallness, my dependence, my need for other people. And in theory, you're hungry, you eat, and then what do you experience afterwards? Satisfaction. It's not permanent. It's a short, momentary state of just pause and rest, people, food, all as well. Feasting is an image of shalom and well-being in the scriptures. But the moment that we see like Big Mac as like the thing in life, none of us, that was ridiculous. Those ridiculous, we've never seen that. But the moment that we look for feasting, moments of feasting, we try to manufacture those moments of joy and feasting and so on. The Portland Holy cow, you could feast every night of the week, you know, I made it, and do place. And it might be fun for a while, but event Monday always comes. And capital M Monday is always going to come, you know, it's heaven, it's heaven. And so feasting, I think in the teacher's view, is a forward pointing symbol. To what he says in the last words of the book, fear God, for he's going to hold all of us accountable. He's going to bring a moment of justice, to set right all wrongs and restore his world, the store's world. And when we feast, we pause for a moment. We experience a momentary sense of shalom with those around us. In theory, we remind ourselves that all of my experiences of joy in life, there's just little breadcrumbs that I'm following in a trail that lead to the great wedding feast of the Lamb, and the reuniting of heaven and earth. And when I miss you. mistake the small momentary joys of day-to-day life for the real thing. It's a Hevil. Because the Monday always comes. Monday always comes. So it seems to me that the teacher is not schizophrenic. Death, death, heaven, heaven. So enjoy life. What he's actually saying is that recognizing my lack of control and recognizing that my life here under the sun and broken, compromised world, I shouldn't expect this to be heaven on earth. Why should we expect that? It's clearly not. It's a world compromised by evil and by sin and selfishness and our own stupidity. Why would we think for a moment? Think for a moment that we can find ultimate shalom here in these seven years. But we do all the time. Let me close with some words from Blaise Pescault. He was a 17th century French Christian philosopher. He describes the restlessness inside of us that causes us to believe in the illusion that we can control our lives and that we can find joy here. He puts it this way. He says, "We're never satisfied with the present. We anticipate the future as too slow in coming as if we can hasten its course or we recall the past to stop its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times which are not ours. And we don't think of the only one which belongs to us. We are so idle that we dream of those times which are no more and we thoughtlessly overlook the only one that exists. It's because the present is generally painful to us. We conceal it from our sight because it troubles us. If it just happens to be delightful to us, we regret to see it pass away." Next paragraph. We try to sustain it by the future and think of controlling matters which are not in our power and so we're preparing for a time which we have no certainty of reaching. Each one of us lets examine his thoughts and he will find them all occupied with the past or the future. We scarcely ever think of the present and if we think of it, it is only to take white from it to a range of future. It's great. So depressing but enlightening at the same time. So the past and the present are our means and so we never live. And as we're always preparing to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so. And precisely what the teacher is saying. The moment I give up the illusion of control and the illusion that life here under the sun can give me the ultimate shalom I'm looking for then, then we're in business to enjoy and to see life. See life as a gift from this one who loved me, created me and despite my own sin and folly who gave his life for me to save me and to give me new life. It's then that I can experience joy. Amen. I don't know how this speaks a word of God to you but I just put it out there and as we go to the bread and the cup and into a time of worship I would just encourage you. Like Pascal says, examine our hearts. Are any of us like white knuckle-clinching our teeth holding onto a person, a situation or a certain outcome that's robbing you of joy? Listen to the teacher. Are there any of us under the illusion that this person or career or something in my life you realize I'm working so hard because I really think this is it. This is the best it's ever going to get. This is an illusion. It's a pointer to the best that yet to come. That sounds cliche. I'm sorry. The best that's yet to come. All right. Thanks for listening. Just as a side note, I remember being deeply impacted as I studied and reflected on the themes for this message. It's been a very rich set of ideas that have turned into a set of practices in my own life trying to push my own mind and heart towards contentment and receiving life as it comes to me rather than as I would prefer it to be. And I don't know where that lands with you today, but I trust that that's something that you need to hear as well. So God's peace be with you all and thanks for listening to Strange Bible Podcasts. [Music]