roger ferguson: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon. May He be gracious to you and turn his face toward you and bring you peace, Mother Mind, ancient books. Presented by Modern Mind Ancient Book, we are going back to move forward refining a love for the law, the prophets, and the writings so that we can know Jesus more. Have you ever known that it was time for something to change, but you could not make that change happen on your schedule? I want you to think about a change you knew was coming, but you couldn't make it happen when you wanted it to. Maybe you were ready to begin, and that door just wouldn't open. Maybe you wanted to hold on, but the season was ending. You could try, you could do anything, but you can't hold on because you can't control time. Maybe That is where Ecclesiastes meets us today. We are opening chapters three through five, beginning with the famous poem about a time for everything. Then we will follow the teacher as he connects time to justice, injustice, friendship, worship, money, and joy. By the end, I want us to see why limited control does not mean passive living. It means learning to act faithfully inside of a life. That belongs to God. We often speak as though time belongs to us. We save it and we spend it and we waste it and we manage it. But if you really think about that, time keeps moving, whether we manage it well or not. We live within time. We don't own it. The sentence I want us to carry is simple. We can act faithfully within time without owning time. So instead of speaking like it belongs to us, we save it, spend it, and waste it. We just manage it. We can ask someone to give us more time. That kind of thing. In our first session, the teacher asked what lasting gain. a person can secure from all the work done under the sun. He tested wisdom, pleasure, building, wealth, achievement, and legacy. None of them could make him permanent. Yet the chapter ended with food, drink, work, wisdom, knowledge, and joy received from the hand of God. But the truth is that we live within time. We just don't own it. That matters because the creator is still the central acting subject in this part of the book. God appoints, makes, gives, judges, and enables enjoyment. Human beings work and choose, and those choices really matter, but they do not drive the whole story. Israel's wisdom is teaching us how creatures live faithfully before the Creator. This is one of the most beautiful poems in Ecclesiastes. It is also one of the most easily detached from the book, from its setting, from its context. We hear, well, there's a time to be born and a Time to die, a time to weep, and a time to laugh. And those lines sound comforting just by themselves. As people from the nations who have been welcomed through Israel's Messiah, we should come to this with wisdom and humility. We are not standing over the teacher, correcting him from the modern world. We are sitting beside Israel's scripture, inside Israel's scripture, inside Israel. Their expectations and promises because well you've been grafted in. You are the commonwealth of Israel under King Jesus, the King of the Jews. Listening for what it shows us about God. That's what you're supposed to do with Ecclesiastes with any Bible book. You're supposed to listen for what it shows you about God. But there's also our limits and There's a way of faithfulness. The teacher does not place this poem on a greeting card, okay? It's in Israel's history. He places it beside work we can't make permanent as well. Injustice we can't ignore. Relationships we can't replace, and words we can't take back. Stuff that money can't satisfy. And you know what's at the end of all that? Death. And we can't command it. Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 through 8. Listen for the breath of life, the poem names, and notice that it describes times rather than assigning commandments. So this is wisdom of God. It's just not written the same way. It's not like the Decalogue, right? The Ten Commands. This is Ecclesiastes chapter 3 through 5. We are going to learn how the famous poem about time connects to a Depression, friendship, worship, money, joy. We're going to feel the difference between faithful action and the illusion of control. And we're going to discover that our limits do not need leave us with nothing to do. We have responsibilities. The sentence we will carry is this: we can act faithfully within time without owning it. Last time, the teacher asked what lasting gain a person can secure from all the work done under the sun. He tested. Wisdom and pleasure and building and wealth and achievement and legacy. He discovered that even good things become burdens when they demand that they make us permanent. You can't have it forever. Then the chapter though, it ended with a gift, food, drink, work, wisdom, knowledge, and joy. Well that can be received from the hand of God. That discovery now moves into time itself. Listen to Ecclesiastes three verses one through eight. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to search and a time to count as lost, a time to keep and a time to discard, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to s to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and times for peace. The poem moves through pairs. What what's in front of us? A balanced poem that reaches across the range of human life, birth and death, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing, silence and speech warn peace. The lines are balanced, but life rarely feels balanced while we're living it. Birth and death. I think the first mistake we make with this poem is turning description into prescription. The teacher is not telling every person to perform every action. He is naming times that human beings encounter under heaven. That distinction matters because the presence of an action in scripture Does not automatically make it a faithful example, planting and uprooting. So when the poem says there is a time to kill, that line is description without an imitation claim. It is not a private command to violence. It doesn't make bl blanket moral approval for killing. The poem pairs killing with healing, breaking with building, tearing with mending, war with peace. The teacher is naming a world where terrible and beautiful times, both of them, they occur together. He's not calling evil good. That gives us a way to read the rest of the Paris. A time to refrain from embracing does not cancel love. Sometimes love requires a boundary. A time to be silent does not make cowardice faithful. And a time to speak does not bless careless words. Wisdom has to ask what faithfulness requires in the time actually right in front of us. We can discern a season without owning it. That is why the teacher does not follow the poem with a question about which season we prefer. He returns to the question of gain. Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter three, verses nine through fifteen. Listen now for what God does and for what human beings can and cannot do. The pairs, war and peace, and silence and speech, they reach across the range of human life. They include beginnings and endings, construction and destruction, closeness and distance, private grief and public celebration. The structure is balanced, but life really feels that way while you're living it. When you are grieving, the time to laugh may feel very far away. When you are waiting for something new to grow, uprooting can feel like failure. When a relationship requires distance, the command of love can be confused with the demand to remain available for harm. When peace is what you want, the existence of a war is not made good merely because the poem names it. This poem describes the range of human times. It does not issue 14 moral commands. It does not Tell an individual to perform every action. It does not declare that every event is morally good. That matters especially when the teacher says there's a time to kill. The line, it's not a private command of violence. It's not blanket approval for killing. The poem observes realities within human life under heaven. And the same pair healing stands as the answering movement. Across the poem, building answers, breaking, mending, answers tearing, and peace answers war. The teacher is not celebrating everything that happens. He's naming a world in which we encounter times we did not choose and can't fully control. Some seasons call for planting, but others call for harvesting, uprooting. Some moments require speech, others require silence. Wisdom must discern the difference, but even wise discernment does not give us ownership of the season. The question that follows the poem is there for not which season would you like? The teacher returns to the question that God governs his investigation. Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter three verses nine through fifteen. What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden that God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also set eternity in the hearts of men. Yet they cannot fathom the work that God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and do good while they live, and also that every man should eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his labor. That's the gift of God. I know that everything God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it or taken away from it. God does it so that they should fear him. What exists has already been, and what will be has already been, for God will call to account what is past. The poem doesn't erase the teacher's question, man, it sharpens it. The first question after the poem asks what lasting gain the workers can secure. That tells us that the poem functions. We work inside times we did not appoint, and we cannot guarantee when the work will succeed, fail, begin, or end. So the teacher looks beyond the worker to God. What does the worker gain from toil when the worker cannot govern the time in which the work succeeds, fails, begins, or ends? God has made everything beautiful in its time. Here, beautiful means fitting or appropriate to its time, not that every human act is morally beautiful. God's ordering of the whole exceeds the small parts visible to us. Verse eleven says that God has made everything beautiful in its time. Then we come to the word Olam, pronounced Uhlam. The Berean Standard Bible, which is the free to use one that we can quote all the time, says God has set eternity in human hearts. The Hebrew word can carry an enduring horizon that reaches beyond the immediate moment. I think the teacher is describing something most of us recognize. We are always trying to place this movement or this movement inside of a larger story. Here, beautiful carries the sense of fitting appropriate or right for its time. That does not mean every action is morally beautiful. It means that God's ordering of time exceeds the small part we can see from within it. We ask where we came from and where history's going. We remember generations before us and imagine a world beyond our own lifetime. God has given us an awareness that there's more than the present moment. Yet He's not given us the ability to fathom his whole work from beginning to end. The verse that says that God has set eternity in human hearts. Picture one thread of the underside of a large woven cloth. You can touch that thread and follow it for a while. You may see it cross another color, but you cannot see the entire picture from underneath. Our limited view does not mean that there is no hole. It just means we're not the weaver. The Hebrew word, it's Olam. What judgment leads somewhere practical, right? And does that is that the one? Is that the judgment that leads somewhere? Somewhere practical, because we're not God, we do not need complete knowledge. And this is true before we obey what he has made clear. The teacher says to rejoice and do good. He says to eat, drink, and find satisfaction in labor, because these are gifts from God. The word can carry an enduring horizon reaching beyond the immediate moment toward past and future. The teacher says that human beings carry this awareness. Yet cannot fathom God's work from beginning to end. Notice that doing good remains beside enjoyable. Our limits are not permission for passivity. We do not have to make a meal permanent before we give thanks for it. And we do not have to turn one day of work into an immortal legacy before that work can serve somebody. Faithfulness has value because it answers the Creator, not because it makes us sovereign. Which is kinda what happens when you disregard what the word actually says, right? You become the sovereign one instead of letting God define what is real. We sense that the movement belongs to something larger. Everything God does endures. Nothing can be added to it or taken away from it. That's why fear of God appears here. The teacher is restoring the relationship. God is the creator and we are the creatures. We receive our time from Him. We do not appoint it. We ask where we came from, but I want us to be careful. God's rule over time is never an excuse for ignoring evil. Ecclesiastes will not let us use Providence to call corruption beautiful. We wonder where history is going. Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter three, verses sixteen through twenty two. Listen for the corruption human beings produce, the judgment God promises and the mortality we all share. We remember people who lived before us. We imagine a world that may continue after us. We long for To see the whole pattern, but we stand inside of the pattern. Imagine seeing one thread from the underside of a great woven cloth. You can touch it, you can follow it, you can't see where it crosses, every color, maybe a color, but you cannot see the entire image from underneath. Our inability to see the world as a whole does not mean there is no whole. That means we're not God. And the teacher does not respond to that limit by telling us to stop living. He says, rejoice. He says, do good. He says eat and drink. He says, find satisfaction in labor. This is the gift of God. Doing good belongs beside rejoicing. Faithfulness is not replaced by pleasure. And pleasure is not treated as guilty merely because it cannot last forever. We do not have to make dinner permanent in order to give thanks for it. We do not have to turn a day's work into an immortal legacy in order for that work to serve. We do not need complete knowledge of God's plan before we obey what He made clear. I said that twice for a reason. God's work endures. Ours does not does not have to carry the weight of being God's work. This is why fear of God appears here. Fear is not panic before an unpredictable tyrant. It is the honest reason. Recognition that God is God and we are creatures. Nothing can be added to his work, nothing can be taken from it. We received the time, we don't appoint it. But the teacher will not allow this language about God's time to become an excuse for ignoring evil. Listen to Ecclesiastes three, sixteen through twenty two. Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed. I said to myself, As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts. For the fate of both men and beasts are the same, as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath. Men has no advantage, or I'm sorry, man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is food feudile. All go to one place, all come from dust, and all return to dust. Who knows that the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth? I've seen that there's nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot, for who can bring him to see what will come after him? The place appointed for judgment contains wickedness. The place intended for judgment contains wickedness. The place named for righteousness contains wickedness. There's human action functioning as contrastive or opposite folly or mistake or negligence. Corrupt judgment shows us what human power does when it refutes the creator's justice. We're just not qualified. The place named for righteousness contains wickedness. The teacher does not place the guilt on the person denied justice. He He names wickedness where righteousness should have been, and then he places then he says that God will judge the righteous and the wicked. A human court may fail, but its failure does not erase God's coming judgment. Ecclesiastes does not tell the victim that injustice is simply a beautiful season. It names the corruption of the place that should have protected what is right. Then the teacher takes us back to creation. Language. Humans and animals share breath, death, and return to dust. He's not giving the Bible's final statement about human destiny. He has just affirmed judgment. And the book will end by saying that God will bring every deed into judgment. This point here is to humble human pride. Then it declares that God will judge the righteous and the wicked. Every title, office, institution, and achievement remained. Inside creaturely mortality. The powerful person returns to dust just as surely as the person he tried to control. That consequence shows why the creator's wisdom is wise. Power must answer to God because the person holding it is not God. Human courts may be corrupted. God's judgments not erased. One once more, the teacher lands on enjoyment of work. He does not tell us to worship work or control life through it. He tells us to receive our present portion. Limited knowledge does not cancel faithful action, and mortality does not make goodness useful. The teacher then places human pride beside animal mortality. Humans and animals breathe, and humans and animals die. Humans and animals return to dust. The text now turns from corrupted judgment to the people being crushed by it. Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter four, one through three. Do not rush past the repeated absence of a comforter. This passage is not the final statement about human destiny. The teacher has already affirmed God's judgment, and the book will end by declaring that God will bring every deed into judgment. The point is. To humble and not be so pretentious. Whatever title we carry, whatever authority we exercise, whatever institution we build, our bodies are going to return to dust. Death removes the illusion that we're a different kind of creature simply because we possess more power than animals. And once again, the teacher lands on enjoyment of work, not worship, not control, enjoyment of work. That's your present portion. Limited knowledge does not cancel faithful action. Mortality does not make goodness useless. We can act faithfully within time without owning time. Now the teacher looks away from the movement of time and toward the people being crushed inside of it. Listen to chapter four, verses one through three. Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter. The power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter. So I admired the dead, who had already died above the living. Who are still alive. Ooh, that hurts, huh? But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun. We need to let verse one remain where the teacher places it. What does the teacher put in front of us? Tears with the oppressed, power with the oppressors, and no comforter. He does not blame oppressed people for failing to overcome a system built against them. He doesn't tell them that a better attitude would make the power harmless. The tears belong to the oppressed. His language is severe because the evil is severe. He says the dead appear better off than the living who remain under oppression, and the one not yet born better than both because the person has not seen evil. This is a lament, not a command to like seek death, okay? But it is human. There are lots of people that feel this way. If you do, I want You didn't know that God loves you. Scripture is refusing to make oppression sound tolerable. It's not that. The power, well, it belongs to the oppressors. If our explanation of God's sovereignty makes us unable to weep with oppressed people, then our explanation is not faithful to this text. God's rule never transfers guilt from the oppressor to the oppressed. It gives us confidence that oppression Will not have the final word and it teaches us to place responsibility where the action belongs. The teacher has looked at public power. Now he looks at ordinary motives and habits that can leave a person isolated. The text does not blame oppressed people for f failing to overcome the system. It does not tell them that a better attitude would make the power harmless. It doesn't make their suffering into a lesson for someone else's success. Listen to chapter four verses one through eight. Listen to the two opposite failures and the question, the isolated worker finally asks. The teacher sees tears, he sees power, he sees the absence of a comforter. His language becomes the severe evil because the evil is severe. He says the dead seem better off than the living who remain under oppression. And the one not yet born better off than both because the person has not seen this evil. It's a lament. If our explanation of providence makes us unable to weep with the oppressed, we have not become wiser than Ecclesiastes. We have become less willing to look. God's rule over time never transfers guilt from the oppressor to the oppressed. And because the teacher has looked at power, he looks next at the motives that leave people isolated. Listen to chapter four verses four through eight. I saw that all labor and success springs from a man's envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind. The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and pursuit of the wind. Again I saw futility under the sun. There is a man all alone without even a son or brother and And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth. For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment? This too is futile, a miserable task. The teacher places two distortions beside each other. The teacher places rivalry and self-consuming idleness besides each other. He's not condemning excellent work or commending refusal to work. He is exposing two forms of folly. One is toil driven by rivalry. Envy turns a neighbor into a measuring stick. Another person's good work becomes a threat, so labor becomes an attempt to prove that I am more. The folded hands move in the opposite direction, but they also destroy the person. The wise image is one handful with tranquility rather than two handfuls filled with toil and wind. The other is idleness that consumes the person who refuses to work. I think the point is not simply how much you can hold, it is what holding it is doing to your soul. Ecclesiastes does not condemn excellent work, it exposes envy as a powerful engine of labor and success. The neighbor becomes a measuring stick, another person's achievement becomes a threat. Work is no longer service, cultivation, or craft. It becomes the attempt to prove that I am more. Then the teacher shows us a man completely alone. He has no son or brother. His work has no end, and his eyes are not satisfied with wealth. Finally he asks, For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment? Accumulation has continued after relationship and enjoyment have disappeared. Then the fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh. Think of a person building a house room by room, but never allowing anyone inside and never resting there himself. The building keeps growing while the reason for building it disappears. That is the misery Ecclesiastes wants us to see. The answer to rivalry is not self-destruction through idleness. The answer is not a better productivity system. The next wisdom is companionship. The better image is one open hand filled with tranquility instead of two clenched hands filled with toil and wind. Listen to chapter four, verses one through twelve. Listen to the ordinary situation in which another person changes. What happens? The question is not simply how much you hold, it is what holding it is doing to your soul. Verse eight gives us a person who is entirely alone, he has no son or brother, his labor has no end, his eyes are not satisfied with wealth. Then perhaps for the first time in a long time he asks the question his schedule has prevented him from asking For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment? The tragedy is not merely that he lacks a legal air, the tragedy is that accumulation has continued after relationship and enjoyment have disappeared. His work has become a room with no door. He keeps furnishing it, but no one enters and he never rests. The teacher's answer to isolated accumulation is not a technique for greater productivity. Companionship is Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter four verses nine through twelve. Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. For if one falls down his companion can lift him up. But pity the one who falls without another to help him up. Again, if two lie down together they will sleep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though one may be overpowered, two can resist, moreover, a court of three is not quickly broken. Jesus quoted that. These verses are often read at weddings, and marriage can certainly embody the wisdom here, but the passage itself is broader. These verses are often read where you know people are coming together. And it and it it speaks about companionship and work and vulnerability. Two labor, one falls. Two share warmth and companions resist an attacker. It's about companionship and work. And again, vulnerability. It's about having somebody who's got your back. This is faithful wisdom. We may imitate because the passage evaluates the shared life positively and shows its good consequence. A companion is not decoration for a successful life. A companion may be the difference between remaining on the ground and being lifted when you need it. The one who sleeps with you, the one who loves you, the one who talks with you, the one who knows your secrets, the one who knows that you snore, you know? That one. To labor and receive a good return. The chord of three strands strengthens the same point. In this immediate setting, it is not a hidden formula for the Trinity, and the third strand is not explicitly identifies as God, identified as God. We do not Honor scripture by making it say something more spiritual than it is. We honor it by receiving the wisdom it gives us first. One falls and another lifts. Isolation makes us vulnerable. Shared life creates strength. That is why carrying another person's burden is not an interruption of spiritual life. It is one way faithful life takes shape. One is cold and another provides warmth. The teacher then returns to political power. Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter four, verses thirteen through sixteen. Notice what wisdom can change and what public approval still cannot preserve. One is attacked and another stands beside him. The image the images are practical. A companion is not decoration. A companion become the difference between remaining on the ground after being knocked down. The chord of three strands strengthens the same point. It intensifies the value of companionship. In its immediate setting, it's not a hidden formula. We honor scripture by receiving its wisdom, right? So let's take it out of what we know about Jesus and the Bible. Let's just think about it for what it says. Isolation makes a person vulnerable. Shared life creates strength. That's the basic principle. Now carry that forward, right? This is why bearing another person's burden is not an interruption of spiritual life, meaning this. Families are meant to be together. That's the primary unit. This is how a man, you know, gets his checks and balances essentially, but also finds his true help, his true partner, the one who will be there all the time. That's part of a faithful life. And that extends to community, right? So if you're married and you lose, or if you're never married and you, you know, you don't lose your spouse, but you've never had one, then that's what community's for. There are others out there that, you know, you could be around them as much as you can be. Be in church every time you can be. Be it, I don't know, the bingo hall or something. I know some people might not like that, but you know, be a part of something that you enjoy and stand with other people. That is faithful life. Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to take a warning. For the youth that comes from the prison to the kingship. Though he was born poor in his own kingdom. I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the second one, the youth who succeeded the king. There's no limit to all the people who were before them, yet the successor will not be celebrated by those who come even later. Did you hear that? The hard story? Then he disappears and he's never remembered, even though he was loved right? You see how this works? He says this too is futile and a pursuit of the wind. The old king had power but didn't receive correction. The old king had power but did not receive any truth. And that's the contrastive folly, right? He was fit to be a king, but he couldn't be changed. The poor youth had wisdom and rises from prison to kingship. Think like debt or something, not violent crime, you know? The people follow him and the story sounds like a victory. Then time moves and later people they don't celebrate any either one of them. The poor youth had wisdom and rises from prison to kingship. The teacher's not telling us leadership is useless. He's showing us that political popularity cannot make you permanent. No greatness can make you permanent. The king's deepest failure is not his age, it's that he no longer knows how to take a warning. Power has isolated him from truth. The people that follow the new ruler. Well that connects this political scene to the friendship scene. Another person is not a tool for mastery. A truthful companion, counselor or community, can keep a leader human. Yet even wise leadership cannot make cannot own the future or force later generations to remember. I'm convinced that's why pastors have it so bad. Because a truthful companion, counselor, and community can keep a leader human. I think that's pretty true. That story, though, does sound like a victory. You know, anybody who can lead a community is doing very well. You have to be a very disciplined person. So we've moved through time: corrupted judgment, oppression, rivalry, isolation, companionship, and passing political power. Now the teacher brings Israel's worship into view. Listen to chapter five verses one through seven. Listen for the commands because this time the text is not merely describing what people do. It is telling worshipers how to approach God faithfully. Then time moves again. Later, people do not celebrate the successor. Political popularity cannot secure lasting resemblance. Those things are important. That's not how you honor God. Power isolates and the weak who come up and become powerful, they are celebrated, but they're not remembered. So how do you relate to God? He brings us to the threshold of the house of God. Chapter five verses one through seven. Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick to speak. And do not be hasty in your heart to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. So let your words be few. As a dream comes through, many cares, right? You're dreaming of something and you care and you work hard for it. So the speech of a folly comes with many words. When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it, because he takes no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, and do not tell the messenger that your vow was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands? For as many dreams bring futility, so do many words, therefore fear God. The house of God in this setting is the temple. So you know, us Christians out there, we'd like to redefine everything into some ethereal, non existent thing, but we kind of know that it's that, but everything's changed. No, listen, the house is the temple and Solomon is the king. The house of God is here in the temple. So we're standing inside's covenant inside Israel's covenant worship. Torah has already taught Israel that vows made to the Lord. We're not casual speech. He was talking about that, what's been taught, what came from Moses. The teacher doesn't flatten that covenant setting into a generic lesson about positive words. He tells the worshiper to guard his steps, draw near, to listen to the Torah, to fulfill his vow and fear God. The teacher pictures a worshiper approaching the place associated with God's presence, sacrifice, prayer, and vows. What do I think this means? Worship is not a technique for controlling God. That's what it means. The reasons in the passage: God is in heaven and you are on the earth. The creator remains the acting subject, and the worshiper answers him and gives praise and certainly has an influence. His first instruction is not say something impressive. The warning does not reject prayer. Scripture gives us long prayers, short prayers, cries, songs, confessions, petitions, and praise. The issue is speech used to perform, bargain, impress, excuse, or manipulate. It is guard your steps. For many words create the feeling of devotion while hiding disobedience. A person can make a public promise in an emotional moment, receive admiration for making it, and later call it a mistake when faithfulness becomes costly. The teacher says it is better not to make the vow than to make it. And refuse to fulfill it. The messenger in verse 6, draw near to listen, is not identified clearly enough for us to build a teaching around him, and we do not need to solve that question to understand the command. Our words before God matter. Listening comes first because God is not the object of our religious performance. The warning does not reject prayer. Scripture gives us long prayers and short prayers and cries and all these things, praises and petitions. The problem is not the number of seconds a faithful prayer lasts. Reverence is truthful relationship. We may bring our whole heart to God, but we must not hide an unfaithful heart behind abundant religious speech. Therefore, fear God. The problem is speech used to perform, bargain, impress, execute, or control. From the temple threshold, the teacher looks again at public power and private wealth. Listen for Ecclesiastes chapter 5, or listen to chapter 5, verses 8 through 17. Listen for what the system does to the poor and what the love of money does to the person who believes it will satisfy. God is in heaven, you are on earth. That sentence restores the proper relationship. We do not inform God of facts he lacks. We do not manage God with religious promises. We do not make a vow in an emotional moment, receive the admiration of people who heard it, and then call the promise a mistake when obedience becomes costly. The teacher does not identify the messenger clearly enough for us to build a teaching around that figure. We do not need to decide whether the messenger is a priest, temple representative, angel, or another official in order to understand that warning. Our words before God matters. If we vow, we must fulfill the vow. If we cannot promise truthfully, it is better not to make the promise. Many words can create the feeling of spirituality without the substance of obedience. Listening comes before speaking because God is not the object of our performance. He is God. Reverence is a truthful relationship, not a technique for producing an outcome. Let your words be few does not mean. Never bring your whole heart to God. It means do not hide an unfaithful heart behind abundant religious speech. Fear God. The teacher now leaves the temple threshold and looks again at public power and private wealth. Listen to Ecclesiastes chapter five, verses eight through seventeen. If you see the oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter. For one official is watched by superior, and others higher still are over them. The produce of the of the earth is taken by all, the king himself profits from the fields. He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. That's futile. When good things increase, so do those who consume them. What then is profit to the owner except to behold them with his eyes? The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich man permits him no sleep. There is a grievous evil I have seen under the sun, wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, or wealth lost in a failed venture. So when that man has a son, there's nothing to pass on. As a man came from his mother's womb, so he will depart again naked as he arrived, he takes nothing for his labor to carry in his hands. This too is a grievous affliction, exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness with much sorrow, sickness, and anger. The wording of verses eight and nine is difficult, and responsible interpreters explain some of its details differently. We don't need to pretend every administrative relationship is clear in order to hear the warning. Verses eight and nine are difficult, and responsible interpreters are. differ over some of the administration details. The clear point, meaning the language, right? The clear point is narrower and strong enough. The teacher sees oppression of the poor, denial of justice, and layers of officials above officials. More supervision does not automatically produce justice. A hierarchy may restrain corruption, but it may also hide it or allow each level to profit from the people below. The teacher sees the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice. Even the king depends on the field. That's easy to forget when authority becomes abstract. The earth produces, workers cultivate, and every official remains dependent on gifts no government created. The creator's orders stand beneath the human system. If he sees layers of officials above officials, then a teacher. Turns from the system to the appetite inside a person. He does not say money has no proper use. Money can buy food, provide shelter, pay a worker, fund generously, repair what is broken, and prepare responsibly. His judgment is that the love of money cannot be satisfied by money. More supervision does not automatically produce justice. A hierarchy, it'll restrain the corruption, but it can hide it, protect it, allow each level. To take something from the people. Why? Because the appetite grows with the supply. Income rises and the definition of enough moves again. Goods increase and so do people. Obligations and anxieties, well, that consumes them. A person may reach the point where the principal benefit of abundance is looking at the number while losing sleep. The field remains underneath the whole structure. Even the king depends on what the earth produces. And what workers cultivate. That's the garden motif. Everything, every bit of abundance, it comes from God, right? The giver of the land. The teacher is not romanticizing poverty. Poverty can be crushing, and the tears of oppressed people are still in this passage. He's exposing a folly. The possession that promised security can become the reason the owner cannot rest. Imagine that. Then the teacher turns from the system to the appetite inside a person. Wealth may be hoarded to the owner's harm, or it may disappear in a failed venture. The imagined inheritance vanishes. Finally, a person leaves the world as naked as he entered it. Hands that spent a lifetime gathering cannot carry the accumulation through death. He does not say that money has no use. The teacher asks the question again, what does he gain? Money can serve faithful action in our time, but it cannot give us Ownership of time. Loving as a master produces sorrow because it promises something it cannot deliver. You get that? Love and money as its master is something that will master you. Money can produce food, provide shelter, pay a worker, fund generously, and repair what's broken, and prepare responsibly for future needs. Ecclesi Ecclesiastes does not end by telling every person to despise possession. It makes a more careful distinction between possessing something and receiving the ability to enjoy it by not letting it master you. By trying to master it by having so much of it, you know. He says that the love of money cannot be satisfied by money. Chapter 5, verses 18 through 20. God is the giver. The appetite grows with supply. Income rises, and the definition of enough moves farther away. Goods increase, and so do the people, obligations, systems, and anxieties that consume them. The owner may reach the point where the principal benefit is looking at the number. Meanwhile, the worker sleeps, but abundance may keep the wealthy person awake. It's not a promise that poverty is peaceful or that hard labor never produces anxiety. Poverty is crushing and it can be crushing. And scripture doesn't ro romanticize deprivation. There are people who don't have enough. The comparison exposes a particular burden of abundance. The possession that promised security can become the reason the owner cannot rest. Does that make sense? That he just has to keep producing because if he doesn't, then he can't support his life. His cost of living has become so high that he has to produce on that level. So now he can't sleep because he's always worried about money. Imagine that. Then wealth is hoarded to the owner's harm, or wealth disappears in a failed venture. The imagined inheritance, well, it just vanishes, right? In both of those cases. Finally, every person leaves the world as naked as he entered it. That's the principle. Death is always in front of us. There is no one greater. It's all futile, as the teacher would say. Kohelet. That's the name, Kohelet in Hebrew. The hands that spend a lifetime gathering cannot carry it through death. The teacher asks again, what does he gain? This is the same question that opens the book. What permanent surplus crosses the boundary? Jesus said that we could build treasure in heaven. That's the surplus that crosses the bound the boundary. So money is a useful servant and a cruel master. It can help us act faithfully within our time. It cannot give us ownership of time. Back to time, right? It's the most important thing. You have a very finite amount of it, and then you die. The teacher does not end this movement by telling every listener to poss to despise possessions. He ends by distinguishing possession from enjoyment. So listen to Ecclesiastes chapter five verses eighteen through twenty. Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting, to eat and drink and to find satisfaction in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his inheritance, says Lot, his truth. Furthermore, God has given riches and wealth to every man, and He's and He's enabled him to enjoy them, to accept his gift, his gift to man, his lot, and to rejoice in his labor. This, these are the gifts of God, to be thankful. For a man seldom considers the days of his life. We don't really think about it. You know, not even really till toward the end. Because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart. That Sounds like Jesus' promise is burden is light. You know? I'd love to live that way. Just be thankful and joyful for everything. Because it is a gift from God. The teacher calls that good and fitting. The teacher calls that good and fitting. Life consists of very few days, and God gives those days. Work, food, drink, riches, and wealth may belong within them, but possession and the ability to enjoy. That's not the same gift. That's something that comes from God. Life does consist of few days, and the days are given by who? By God. A person may own a table and never sit gratefully at it, not even know how beautiful or how nice it is to hear the voice of the people that he loves at that table. To enjoy watching the children grow and playing with things and hearing new words and watching your wife be excited, maybe about cooking something. Or asking you to cook something and being excited about you cooking something, you know? A man may build a home and never rest inside of it. He may earn money and never reach the moving line called enough. He may do work that matters and still be unable to receive the satisfaction of having served faithfully. Work belongs within those days. God may give riches and wealth, and God enables a person to enjoy, accept his lot, and rejoice in the labor. The creator gives both the thing and the capacity to receive it rightly. ⁓ what's the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. And I'm pretty sure that the last one is all of them. Self-control. That is the theological center of this movement. Food and drink belong within those days, not in a promise that faith will make every person wealthy. The passage does not make riches proof of righteousness, and it does not excuse hoarding, oppression, or denial of justice. It tells the person who possesses something good. Not to ask the gift to become God. Riches and wealth may belong within those days. Receive what God gives, use it faithfully, share it generously, and enjoy it gratefully. Then release the demand that it makes you sovereign. But possession and the capacity to enjoy, well, it's just not the same thing, right? It's totally different. And this is what this is all about. Now we can see how this section belongs to the one covenant story. How his motifs move toward Jesus. Ecclesiastes has spoken first in Israel's wisdom world. Human beings live inside appointed times. God judges wickedness. People need companions. Worshipers must speak truthfully. And wealth cannot secure the soul. Or even make you happy. Might even make you more miserable. These are not hidden predictions, they are roads in Scripture that later become clearer in Israel's Messiah. A person may own a table and never sit gratefully at it. The teacher says there's a time for every purpose under heaven. Jesus enters Galilee, announcing that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is near. The movement is not from human beings finally learning to control history, it's from the creator acting at the appointed time through Messiah. A person may build a home and never rest inside of it. Jesus comes inside Israel's covenant story. He does not erase what God has done with Israel or replace Israel with an unrelated people or set of rules or anything. He brings the creator's faithful purpose toward its goal, and the people from the nations are invited to come through him. Jesus. A person may earn money and never reach the moving line called enough. The teacher says God will judge the righteous and the wicked. The apostolic witness announces that God is fixed a day to judge the world in righteousness through the man he appointed, and that he gave assurance by raising him from the dead. Ecclesiastes makes us face mortality. Jesus enters death and God raises him bodily. Resurrection is the creator's answer to the grave that human achievement can never overcome. A person may perform work that matters and be unable to receive the satisfaction of serving faithfully. He was never grateful and in the Andy has too much and he's miserable. So this faithful service just seems like it brought a curse. You catch that? That happens to some people. Don't let it be you. Live for Jesus, your family, your life. Live for God. Walk in his ways. The teacher sees oppressed people with no comforter. Jesus sees people harassed and helpless and has compassion. He announces good news to the poor, confronts hypocritical power, welcomes those pushed aside, and forms the people commanded to weep with those who weep and carry one another's burdens. The ability to accept one's place, rejoice in labor, and enjoy what God provided is itself a gift from God. The church does not follow Jesus by explaining away tears while protecting the hands that cause them. We follow him when truth, mercy, justice, and presence move us toward the person who needs someone to stand beside them. That third chord might be you. This is not prosperity teaching. The teacher says two are better than one. Jesus calls disciples into shared life and sends them together. Under one king, they learn to serve, forgive, correct, restore, and bear burdens. The body of Messiah is not a collection of isolated achievers. The passage does not promise that faith will make every person wealthy. It does not make riches proof of righteousness. It does not excuse hoarding, oppression, or denial of justice. The teacher tells worshippers to fulfill their vows and let their words be few. Jesus carries that covenant concern for truth into ordinary speech. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. We do not use religious words to manufacture an image of faithfulness. We become truthful because we belong to the one who is true. It tells the person who possesses something good not to ask the gift to become their God. The teacher says the love of money is never satisfied by money. Jesus tells of a rich man who built larger barns and spoke to his soul as though stored goods guaranteed many years. The man died that night. The problem was not the existence of barns, it was treating stored goods as ownership of the future. Receive it. Jesus teaches us to seek God's kingdom, trust the Father, give generously, and store treasure where death cannot consume it. He doesn't offer a better technique for controlling tomorrow. He calls us to trust the creator who has acted in him. Use it faithfully. This is why we can act faithfully within time without owning time. We belong to Jesus, the King, the risen King. We do not need to control history before we obey him today. And we do not need to see the entire pattern before he follow next clear command. Just share it generously. I want to bring this back to the season you're actually living. Ask where you have confused faithfulness with control. Maybe you are trying to force a beginning that has not opened or preserve an ending you can't keep. Faithfulness may mean preparing, waiting, grieving, releasing, planting, speaking, while still admitting that the time is not yours. So enjoy it gratefully, what you have. Look at your relationships. Another person is not an outcome. income you manage, the faithful way is to love, listen, tell the truth, honor wise boundaries, lift someone who fails, falls, and receive help when you are the one on the ground. Release the demand that it makes you sovereign. Look at your work. Excellent labor can serve God and neighbor, but rivalry and isolated accumulation can just hollow it out. One handful with tranquility may be wiser than two hands. So full that your soul has no room to receive joy. This develops the discovery from our first session. Look at your worship. If many words are covering a promise you have not obeyed, then the next faithful act is not a more impressive prayer. It's truthful repentance and obedience before God. Enjoyment comes from the hand of God. It's not secured through control. Look at your money. Use it as a tool. Do not ask it to tell you who you are or how long you will live. Receive good things without demanding that they become eternal. We can act faithfully within time without owning time. Ecclesiastes is not teaching passivity. It is teaching creaturely faithfulness. Faithfulness to what? To everything God has said. Everything. Read it, understand it, learn about it, and then what the Spirit speaks, do it. That's what you're supposed to be. You plant when it's time to plant, you mend when it's time to mend. You speak truth when it requires it, and you listen when wisdom calls for silence. Stand with the oppressed people, keep your word before God, share burdens, receive joy as a gift. Now we're ready to trace the biblical motif toward Jesus. Next time we will continue into Ecclesiastes chapter six through eight. The teacher will test wisdom at the edge of what human beings can know. We will ask what is truly good during our few days, how wisdom behaves under flawed authority, and how to remain faithful when outcomes stay uncertain. Ecclesiastes chapter three through five. Do not directly predict each event in Jesus' life, okay? He's just present because he's the author in my mind, you know. We begin with the Kohletz. Message, the teacher's message was Solomon's message. Human beings live inside appointed times. They cannot master God's whole work. They remain accountable to God's judgment. They need companionship and they must speak truthfully before God. And they cannot make wealth satisfy the soul. For now, remember this. We can act faithfully within time without owning time. That's that's the rule. You gotta let it go, you gotta let it go. If it's not time, you gotta wait for the time. Because the creator has not surrendered his work and Jesus, well, he's risen. So he's he's proved he's trustworthy. Within the whole biblical story, these lines open several roads toward Jesus. The teacher says that there's a time for every purpose under heaven. Jesus entered Galilee announcing that the time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was near. He does not arrive as a human being trying to seize the right moment. He comes in obedience to the Father's purpose. His ministry had an hour. His suffering had an hour. His resurrection occurred at the appointed time, not as an accident outside of it. Everything was decreed. Everything was known. Everything happened the way it was supposed to. The teacher says God will judge the righteous and the wicked. Do you believe that? The apostolic witness says God has fixed a day on which he would judge the world in righteousness through the man he's appointed, giving assurance that By raising him from the dead. Jesus is trustworthy. Ecclesiastes forces us to look at death. Jesus does not avoid death, he enters it. He doesn't merely offer a comforting thought about mortality. God raised him bodily, making resurrection the answer to the grave that human achievement can't overcome. The teacher sees the tears of oppressed people and says they have no comforter. Jesus sees People harassed and helpless, and he has compassion. He announces good news to the poor, confronts hypocritical power, receives the excluded, and forms of people who are commanded to weep with those who weep and bear each other's burdens. Doesn't that sound a lot more like God than other things? There's so much truth in the Bible. It is meditation literature. That's why you shouldn't overlook Moses. Moses was wisdom. And when you truly understand it, when you actually read it and think about it, you see much more than you ever would if you just disregard it. You can be faithful to love God in all the different covenants. You just have to let the Spirit speak as to what you do and do not keep. And don't worry about other people. Be free. Jesus' burden is light. Do what the Spirit speaks, but don't disregard learning it. It's important. Trust all that God has spoken. The church does not follow Jesus when it explains away tears while protecting the hands that cause them. We've seen that in recent history. It's been on the news. We follow Jesus when truth, mercy, justice, and presence move us toward people who need someone to stand beside them. The teacher says two are better than one. Jesus calls disciples into shared life. He sends two together. He teaches them to serve, forgive, correct, restore. Carry burdens. The body Messiah is not a collection of isolated achievers. You hear that the second time now? It's a people learning faithfulness together under one king. The teacher says to let our words be few and fulfill what we vow. Jesus brings the same demand for truth into ordinary speech. Let your guest be yes and your no be no. We do not use religious words to create an image of faithfulness. We become truthful people because we belong to the one who is true. The teacher says the love of money is never satisfied by money. Jesus warns against storing up treasure as though it could secure your life. He tells us about that rich man who built the larger barns. But he died. The problem was not that that barn existed, it was that he treated the stored stored goods as a future. That's not what we have. We don't have a guaranteed future. Jesus teaches us to seek God's kingdom, trust the Father, give generously. And place treasures death cannot consume. And here the governing sentence becomes the advice for stress management. We can act faithfully within time without owning time because we belong to Jesus, the risen king who holds our future. We do not need to control history in order to obey him today. We don't even really have to know everything. We just have to read God's word and let the Spirit speak. We do not need to know that entire pattern or follow to the next clear command. What we got to do is just do what we know and continue learning so we can do more that we know. Because the world needs us to be salt and light, a city on a hill. Jesus said that. We don't need possessions to make us permanent because our hope is not stored in possessions. It's all staying right here on the earth. We do not need influence to preserve our names because our identity is in Jesus. With Jesus you'll never be forgotten. We do not need many religious words to manage. We do not need many religious words to manage because Jesus teaches us to approach the Father truthfully. And we do not have to face every season alone because Jesus forms the people who lift, warm, defend, comfort, and carry one another. So where are you confusing faithful action with the power to control? Is it the time? Are you trying to force a beginning that's not open to preserve an ending that God's asking you to release? Is it another person? Are you treating relationships as something you manage for an outcome rather than a place to love, listen, tell the truth, and remain faithful? Is it work? Has excellent labor become rivalry, isolated accumulation, or a demand that achievement prove your worth? Is it worship? Are many words covering a promise you don't obey? Is it money? Has useful resource quietly become the measure of safety identity or enough? 'Cause it'll just never be enough. Ecclesiastes does not ask us to become passive. It asks us to become faithful creatures. When it is time to plant, plant faithfully. When it is time to mend, mend carefully. When it is time to speak, speak truthfully. When it's time to remain silent, just listen deeply. When someone falls, lift them up. When oppression becomes tears, don't look away. When you approach God, guard your steps. When you promise, keep it. When God places good things in your hands, receive them without asking them to become eternal. They come and they go. Act faithfully. Share burdens. Listen before God. Speak truthfully. Resist money's false promise. Receive joy without pretending to own tomorrow. Next time, Ecclesiastes will take us into chapters six through eight. The teacher will test wisdom at the edge of what human beings know or can know. He will ask what is truly good during few days, how wisdom behaves under flawed authority, and what faithfulness looks like when outcome remains uncertain for now. Carry this sentence into the season you are actually living. We can act faithfully within time without thinking we own time. Thank you for joining us. Follow Modern Mind Ancient Book and share this teaching with the people you love. Find the way. Meet Rabbi Jesus. Walk the way. Modern Mind Ancient Book. May the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face shine up. May he be gracious to you and turn his face toward you and bring you peace. Walk the way. Modern mind, ancient book.