Ecclesiastes 11-12

THEY RECKON IT'S A DOG'S LIFE, don't they? I'm never quite sure what that expression means. But if you're anything like the Russian pooch that was out for a walk one day back in the 1890s, you've got reason to complain. The poor unsuspecting pup was minding his own business when he was hit by a falling meteorite. And killed instantly. The odds of something like that happening must been millions to one.

Life can be very unpredictable, can't it. Equally, I guess, for the family on TV a few nights back... who won something like 8 million dollars. In the Powerball Lotto. We'll never have to worry about paying the bills again. Odds of something like 55 million to one.

You win some, and you lose some. And you never quite know which is going to be which. You never quite know which way the worm's going to turn.

Life in the world we live in is an unpredictable thing. But as we draw to the end of our brief look at Ecclesiastes, there's a very simple message. Life is unpredictable. But God's judgement is certain. Life is an uncertain bet. But God's judgement... is absolutely guaranteed.

And in a surprising way, we're going to see it's GOD'S JUDGEMENT that gives meaning to everything else. It's GOD'S JUDGEMENT that stands outside the endless cycle of meaninglessness. And makes everything else valuable. It's God's JUDGEMENT that starts to offer something of the ANSWER to the questions that have been there - all the way through.

If you've been reading Ecclesiastes through, we come to a passage at the end of a long string of proverbs that run through chapters 9 to 11. Clever little sayings that the teacher is so good at, as he tries to make sense of things, and put life in order. Break through a wall you might be bitten by a snake. Not just about snakes, but about ANYONE who wants to be a trailblazer. Many fools are put in high positions. Just think of your boss at work. If a man is lazy the rafters sag. Don't curse the king in your bedroom or a bird of the air might carry your words. Stuff like that. But if you think spouting off a bunch of little proverbs means you've got life under control, you're wrong. And chapter 11 reminds us that life is UNCERTAIN. If you think you've got life under control, you're wrong. If you think you've got life worked out, YOU HAVEN'T.

We live in an age that kids itself it can find answers to anything. Scientists can analyse, computers can calculate, electron microscopes can dig around inside sub atomic particles. But verse 5 in chapter 11 still stands. And it always will. "As you don't know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mothers womb, SO YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE WORK OF GOD, THE MAKER OF ALL THINGS."

Watched any weather reports lately? Try picking which way the wind's going to turn. Just this last week - Hurricane Steve has done something that apparently no hurricane's ever done before. Died down and regenerated THREE TIMES. All tied to mathematical chaos theory... that says the flap of a butterfly wing in Perth can end up creating a thunderstorm in Sydney. And just way too complex to ever predict.

And right through chapter 11, there's a list of the unpredictabilities of life. The things you can never know in advance. The chances and changes of this fleeting world.

Cast your bread upon the waters, verse 1, and after many days you'll find them again. Give portions to seven, yes, to eight, for you don't know what disaster may come upon the land. You never know what's round the corner. So spread your assets. Hedge your bets. In other words, don't put ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET. Because you just NEVER KNOW.

Verse 3. Do you reckon it's going to rain? Well, maybe it will, maybe it won't. If the clouds are good and ready, yeah. But who can pick it. Whether a tree falls to the south or the north, what's going to happen happens. And if you spend all your time trying to pick it, all your time trying to predict when the times will be exactly right, you'll never do ANYTHING AT ALL.

We bought a bottle of Bindi spray for the lawn the year before last. I was meaning to spray the lawn to get rid of the weeds and prickles. But there's a problem. It says on the bottle, Don't spray this stuff on your lawn if it looks like it's going to rain within six hours.

Well, you can guess, can't you. Every time I'd go to spray it on the lawn, I'd look up at the sky. And every time, there'd be a little cloud out there somewhere. Over towards the coast. And I say to myself, nah, better not do it. Might rain. And I've said the same thing day after day after day for almost two and a half years. Which is exactly how some people live their lives. And exactly what he says in verse 4. Whoever watches the wind will not plant. Whoever looks at the clouds will not spray for Bindi's. Like a Kangaroo caught in the headlights. Too stunned by the unpredictabilities of life to jump.

But that's exactly what life's like. YOU JUST CAN"T KNOW. Verse 6, he says Sow your seed in the morning, but work at night as well - cause you don't know what's going to succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

So what's left? What's left is to just do your best to make the most of it. Try not to think about it. If it feels good, do it. He says FOLLOW THE WAYS OF YOUR HEART and whatever your eyes see. If you like it, enjoy it... have fun. Read from verse 7. Light is sweet, says the teacher, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. However many years a man may live let him enjoy them all. GO FOR IT. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. And everything to come IS MEANINGLESS.

There it is again. For the 31^st time in the book. It's meaningless. It's that jump out of the plane without the parachute feeling again, isn't it. Enjoy the view on the way down. Cause the ground's getting closer and closer and closer.

THUMP.

There's one thing you've got to keep in mind. There's just one thing you've got to remember. In the midst of all the uncertainty, there's one thing that's SURE. And it's the one thing we've been waiting for all the way through the book.

And maybe... maybe it's not jumping out of a plane without a parachute at all. Maybe it's been more like a bungee jump. And there's a big elastic band tied round our ankles. You know I watched a guy bungee jumping down at the Gold Coast. He stood there for ten minutes, at the top of a huge tower. Then off he went. It's the scariest thing I've ever done. Just watching.

But here we are at the very end of the elastic. And at this point I want you to notice this one certainty that puts all the unpredicatbilites of life into a new perspective.

And in the end it's not just a matter of doing what you like in a totally material under-the-sun world and then a dead STOP. Because there's one more chapter to the story. Where everything gets weighed up. And balanced.

And here's the turning point in the book. Here's where the elastic cuts in on the bungee jump. He says MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR YOUTH. Chapter 11 verse 9. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know ONE THING. And don't forget it. He says BUT KNOW THAT FOR ALL THESE THINGS, GOD WILL BRING YOU TO JUDGEMENT.

Enjoy it. But know that for everything you do, YOU'RE ACCOUNTABLE TO YOUR MAKER. You're going to be JUDGED BY GOD.

And that's the thought that takes us into chapter 12, and that vivid little reminder of the fact we're all growing old. Fast. He says REMEMBER YOUR MAKER. Before it's too late. Because this life's NOT ALL THERE IS. And there's going to be judgement.

It's a funny thing, isn't it, the number of people who reckon they'll leave getting right with God til the last minute. People who say, I don't want God to cramp my style, so I'll live it up. And then when I'm old and I've had all my fun, I'll do something about it.

There are two problems with that point of view. Number 1, it assumes if you're a Christian you don't get to enjoy yourself. Which is absolutely wrong. And second, it assumes that the older you get, the easier it is to turn to God.

I read an interesting statistic the other day. It said that the VAST MAJORITY of people who become Christians, become Christians before they're 25 years old. I forget the percentage. Something like 85 or 90%. Because, this article said, it's a fact. The older you get, the more you get set in your ways. The more rigid in your ways of thinking. It's like saying, look, I'll just wait a bit longer till I step out of this wet concrete cause I like the squishy feeling between my toes. And by the time you get round to it, it's set rock hard.

Which is why the teacher says in verse 1 of chapter 12, REMEMBER YOUR CREATOR IN THE DAYS OF YOUR YOUTH.

Look, I don't care how old you are, he's saying if you haven't got round to getting things right with God, DO IT NOW. Before it's too late.

If you're thirteen years old and you haven't done it, do it today. If you're thirty five, or forty, or forty five, and you're still kidding yourself that life without God is just fine, he says, you need to wake up to yourself. And do it NOW. Before the days of trouble come, he says, before your senses dim, and your mind slows, and the concrete sets rock solid round your feet.

Because it's not going to get any easier.

Run your eye through from verse 2 to verse 5. Cause he's painting a very clear word picture of what's going to happen. He says remember your creator NOW... before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark and the clouds come back after the rain. It's not the sun and the stars changing. It's YOU.

Verse 3 and 4, he's making a parallel; it's comparing an old body with an old house full of servants. Remember your creator, he says, before the keepers of the house tremble, before the strong men stoop, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim, when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; he says your teeth fall out, you can't chew. Your eyes get dim; you can't see; your hearing starts to go and you can't hear. He says "you wake up at dawn with the sound of the birds even though you can't hear them properly; verse 5, you don't even want to climb a ladder to change a light bulb, you're afraid to go out on the streets; and finally, he says, you go to your eternal home; and the funeral procession winds its way through the streets. The hearse pulls into the cemetery. The green plastic artificial grass around the mound; the slow turning winch lowering the casket out of sight. It's over.

And you think you'll get around to getting things right with God... one day. But you've never quite got around to it. DO IT NOW. While you can still see. While you can still hear. While you can still make up your mind.

I can't tell you how many times I've been called to a hospital bed. When it's been too late. Some sort of vague idea that a minister can help at the last minute. Usually it's the relatives who ring. Or the duty-sister. But he'll be lying there on the bed doped up on morphine, semi conscious; the wife in tears, she'll say, "Say a little prayer." Trouble is, the person on the bed won't be engaging with God at all. TOO LATE.

Verse 6. Remember him - before that fragile silver cord of life is severed and the golden bowl crashes to the floor. Do it now. Before - he says in verse 7 - before the dust returns to the ground it came from; ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Because then it's too late. And you've missed your opportunity.

Which brings the teacher back to exactly where he started. Remember chapter 1 verse 2? His first words? Exactly the same words here at the end in verse 8 of chapter 12. "Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher. Everything is meaningless. Everything the world's got to offer, no matter how glossy the advertisements, no matter how catchy the jingle, everything is meaningless. If this is all there is, life's got no meaning at all. And death brings it all to an end. So REMEMBER YOUR MAKER. And get right with him. Before it's too late.

CONCLUSION

Money doesn't give life meaning. Success doesn't give life meaning. Whether you're wise or a fool, you'll soon enough be forgotten. The teacher's tried everything he can.. He's taken us with him, and shown us step by step. In a world heading for death, in a world where there's nothing more than life under the sun, doesn't matter what you try. Nothing has meaning. Because of death.

So here's his last word. Verse 13 and 14. We've looked at life under the sun. The life bounded by this world. Cradle to Grave. And if you reckon that's all there is, the truth is, there's nothing in it. So if you want to know what real lifes about, if you want to know what REALLY gives life meaning, here it is. And the teacher finally gets down to it.

"Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter; here's what it all boils down to. He says LIVING WITHOUT GOD DOESN'T WORK. So let's get things in perspective. Here's the conclusion of the matter. FEAR GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil..

Hold God in reverence and awe. That's what it means to REMEMBER GOD. Treat God as God. Which is something that a lot of people just don't want to do. Live under his RULE.

Treat God as God. Because death isn't the end at all. And one day, everything you've ever said or done or thought, every hidden thing, it's going to be brought to light. It's going to be brought to judgement.

Coming to Jesus...

That's the teachers last word. But we can't quite leave it there, can we?

We've seen it every week, haven't we, how living now, living on this other side of Jesus, we can actually see things a whole lot clearer than the teacher. He wrote Ecclesiastes hundreds of years before THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS. And in his heart he knew that there was somehow going to be judgement. Accountability.

But what he didn't know was that in SENDING HIS SON, God was going to make this Under the Sun World an INCREDIBLE OFFER. And when it comes to the question of Judgement, we've seen Jesus pinned up to a cross groaning under the load of the wrath of God. Carrying GOD'S JUDGEMENT ON HIMSELF... for us.

God's judgement puts life into perspective. God's judgement says WHAT YOU DO COUNTS. God's judgement says in the face of a seemingly unjust and unpredictable world, IT'S ALL GOING TO ADD UP; it's all going to balance. And the cross says to us, in the face of that judgement, in the face of all that - you can stand before God forgiven. Because Jesus will BALANCE THE SCALES FOR YOU.

Which makes it even MORE IMPORTANT that you DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

How are you going to go when it comes to God's judgement. Funny, a lot of people believe in it. And you'd ask them that question, they'd say NO IDEA. I've DONE MY BEST. But I dunno.

I want you to listen to this. Because you CAN know. It's John 3:36. A key verse. Whoever believes in the Son... HAS LIFE... but whoever REJECTS THE SON will NOT SEE LIFE... for God's wrath remains on him.

Great offer. Unpredictable life, this life under the SUN. But absolutely PREDICTABLE JUDGEMENT. That if you've believed in the Son, God's wrath is lifted off you. Which is why we can enjoy REAL LIFE now. And look forward to a time when we'll be free from the futility. Free from the meaningless cycles and circles of the life under the sun. Free from the unpredictabilities. Free from the tears and the crying and the mourning. Free from the curse of DEATH.

Meaningless, meaningless. That's the Christless life. But for followers of the resurrected Jesus who can face God's final judgement without any fear, let me tell you, it's terrific. And we can say MEANINGFUL, MEANINGFUL. And we need to be saying it with a passion... to the empty meaningless world around us.