Ascension Day is the 40th day after the celebration of Easter. Through History, on this day, the Church recalls the ascension of Christ into Heaven and celebrates His triumphant rule over all Creation as the Victorious Priest King who has been invested with all authority on heaven and earth.

Interestingly the Ascension was celebrated for centuries in the early Church with Pentecost as one festival. During the end of the 4th century the Church eventually recognized them as dates to celebrate two festivals. One honoring the Ascension. One honoring Pentecost.

Of course we remember that the Ascension of the Lord Christ is a necessary aspect of the narrative of the Gospel. We confess the Ascension of the Lord Christ when we confess the Apostles Creed.

he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

Too often we so focus on the Cross of Christ that we forget the subsequent Redemptive acts following the Cross — the Resurrection, the Ascension, the co-Regency of the Lord Christ (Session) and the Kingly distribution of the Divine gift of the Holy Spirit upon His people (Pentecost). So, in no way diminishing the luster of the Cross work of the Lord Christ we spend some time on Ascension Sunday speaking to the importance of the Ascension of the Lord Christ, while at the same time seeing the relationship between Cross and Crown.

We first note that the Ascension of the Lord Christ was a enthronement reality. In the enthronement ceremony of the Ancient world what was being affirmed was the Sovereign and rightful rule of the King. We find included in that rightful rule of the King also the theme of judgment because the king was enthroned to judge over his people.

Psalm 96:10, 97:2, 8, 98:9, 99:4

So, when we celebrate Ascension Sunday we are celebrating that Christ is a sovereign King who rules over the affairs of the nations. Indeed, in the Gospel narrative the Ascension of the Lord Christ is the explanation of how God’s reign is incarnated on earth among men.

Luke’s Gospel, for example, very quickly brings us to the Baptism of Jesus, which Jesus describes as a royal anointing (Luke 4:18). In point of fact when, upon Baptism, the Lord Christ hears the Father’s words, “You are my Beloved Son,” there is a echo of the enthronement Psalm of Psalm 2 coming through.

“You are my Son, today I have begotten you …”

So, at the beginning of Christ’s ministry Jesus, as David’s greater Son, is recognized as King, but His enthronement does not come until after his Crucifixion and Resurrection in His Ascension. That there is such a delay between his anointing and His enthronement should not surprise us since there is precedent for that in the OT. David is chosen by God and anointed by Samuel years before he is finally enthroned as King.

Luke describes the Resurrection and Ascension as Jesus’ divine royal enthronement. In his sermon at Pentecost Peter uses the Psalms to show how the Resurrection and Ascension represent the fulfillment of the God’s Promise to David that His seed would forever rule.

Luke cites Psalm 16:8-11 and explains that the Lord has fulfilled David’s prayer for preservation from death not in himself, for he died, but in Jesus who is raised from the dead (Acts 2:24-31).

He then draws on Psalm 110:1 to show how the Lord establishes Jesus as King at his right hand in his Ascension (Acts 2:32-36); through the Ascension Jesus is enthroned at the right hand of God. Though Jesus was “anointed” as king in his baptism, it was only in his Resurrection and Ascension that he was elevated and installed as king.

This exaltation and enthronement becomes a theme again a few chapters later in the book of Acts when Peter says,

(Acts 5:29-32 NKJV) But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. {30} “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. {31} “Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. {32} “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

So, the Ascension of the Lord Christ — His enthronement — was to the end that the Nations would move in terms of His Sovereign rule and authority, and Peter speaks as one who is under the authority of a King who compels him to disobey lesser authorities who rule contrary to the Ascended King’s Law Word.

That the soon Enthroned and Ascended King intends to bring God’s rule to bear on earth is seen in Jesus last recorded words in Matthew 28,

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus, as the Ascended one, who has been given a name above every other name, now sits at the right Hand of the Father to the end of the fulfillment of all that the Gospel intended to accomplish which is the ongoing extension of His now established rule. In His Ascension God has set His steward King as regent over the nations until His enemy nations are made His footstool.

Now none of this truth denigrates the message of the Cross. In order to come underneath the rule of the King one must understand their rebellion against and alienation from the Ascended King. Only the atoning death of Christ can answer that rebellion and alienation. However, once that rebellion is forgiven because of the finished work of Christ and the alienation set aside so that we are now adopted as co-heirs with Christ we now are part of the Kingdom of God and walk in terms of His law Word — a law word that will hold sway over everything once His enemies are made His footstool.

We should say a few words here to elaborate.

There are those in the Church who want to talk about Christ’s Kingship as if the Kingdom of God is going to be reflected absent the proclamation of the Cross of Christ. It is as if they believe that the current Kingdom of God will be participated in by men who never understood God’s just wrath against sin yet were brought into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross. This will never do. The Cross is the center of our proclamation because it constantly reminds us of our only solution for sin and our only standing before God. We can not participate in God’s building up of His Kingdom apart from the Cross.

However, on the other hand, there are those who never want to move beyond the Cross to the resurrection and the ascension. Christ is King NOW and just as His humiliation was seen in space and time History, so His exaltation will be embodied in space and time History as He triumphs by His Gospel over the nations until His enemies are made His footstool. There are those who warn against the dangers of a over-realized eschatology and in doing so they are warning against a theology of glory where the humility of the Cross is ignored. This is a profitable warning.

But we might also warn against a eschatology that is under-realized and one that diminishes the Ascension of Christ. We might warn against a theology that requires defeat and insists that the victories gained by the ascended Christ are only “spiritual” in nature. We might warn against forgetting the enthronement and Ascension of our Lord Christ and His intent on making his very real enemies into very real footstools. We might warn against a theology that closes the door to God’s reign on earth being made manifest so that all the Nations flow into the Mountain of the Lord’s house (Isaiah 2).

What might we say next of this Ascension we affirm and celebrate?

The Ascension belies an objective state of affairs.

Listen to this morning’s text again,

Acts 2:29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,[e] 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.

34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand,
35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’[f]

36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

What we seen here is that the Ascension gives ontological objectivity to our Preaching and our message

We’ve tried to teach from this pulpit, many times, the the Christian faith is capital T transcendent TRUTH. This flies in the face of the post-modern age which deceptively tries to suggest that truth is person or community variable. In other words, we live in times that desires to suggest that if truth exists it only exists consistent with the narrative or story that any individual or group determines to spin.

Peter’s Sermon, in appealing to the Ascension of Christ puts an end to that nonsense.

Peter insists (and the book of Acts everywhere breathes) that this is an objective state of affairs that obtains and that objective state of affairs (Christ ascended and enthroned at the Right hand of the Father) requires all men everywhere to repent (Acts 2:38).

This objective state of affairs is a Universal reality. Christ ascended and so ruling is the way things are. When proclaiming the Gospel we are not primarily speaking of people entering into a personal relationship with Jesus the way that one might decide to go steady with a boyfriend or girlfriend. When we proclaim the Gospel we are primarily speaking of the Ascended one who rules over the affairs of the Universe to the end of restoring all things so that His enemies are made His footstool. Listen to the way St. Paul characterizes that Dominion in Ephesians 1. St. Paul can speak of

the exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

So when we herald Christ we are heralding a objective ontological Cosmic reality. In the death of Christ, Christ defeated all enemies and implemented the Reign of God by brining in a new creational age wherein He intends to set all things aright so as to establish God’s New World Order — God’s Kingdom. This is what the Ascension of Christ bespeaks. Because of Christ’s ascension the age to come has invaded this present wicked age under the instrumentation of the obedient Church, which has been filled with the Spirit of Christ, as gifted by the Ascended King, so that the Church is eager to do good works, unto to the end of being the aroma of Christ unto a world that will be converted by the presently established reign of the ascended Christ.

In the language of the Theologians this is part and parcel of the Christus Victor motif (Col. 2:15). Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension is God’s testimony that He has triumphed over all enemies — foreign and domestic. When you combine this Christus Victor motif with the current reign of Christ over all nations and spheres you get the Gospel. Because of the active obedience of Christ in resisting the Devil and because of the passive obedience of Christ in the work of the Cross, the pretender to the throne of this world (the Devil) has been defeated — the Strong man has been bound — and because of the 2nd Adam’s work, Adam’s seed has had paradise restored — in principle.

You see then that the Ascension compels us to speak of a Gospel that has global implications. In St. John’s language (12:30f) Christ has been lifted up (a double entendre referring both to the crucifixion and the Ascension) and the consequence is that the ruler of this world is cast out. All men everywhere are now commanded to repent for Christ’s new creational age to come has come. This is the Gospel.

One last word on this Ascension Sunday.

Consistent w/ Federal Theology what is predicated of the Covenant head is predicated of His people.

Christ has ascended and so Federally and Covenantally speaking we have as well.

Compare Ephesians 1:20 w/ 2:6

20 which the Father worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

2:6 — Speaking of believers

6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

The good news for Christians is that we died with him, were resurrected with him (Romans 6:4f, Col. 2:13) and have ascended with him (Eph. 2:6) so we are Kings and Priests unto Sovereign God under Christ (I Pt. 2:4f).

On this Ascension Sunday we are thus to be reminded to increasingly become what we have been freely declared to be because of our identity with Christ. We are a people who are now part of the new Creational Kingdom and as denizens of that new Creational Kingdom we are to become what we have been freely declared to be — Preists and Kings unto the Nations.

Conclusion

After this rousing of a Ascension Sermon we have need to be reminded that there is a “not yet” that must be spoken in the context of all this “now.” We are not what we once were but we also are not yet what we shall be. But even here there is great hope. Yes we continue to struggle against sin, and with the remnants of the Adamic nature that clings to all of us, but because Christ has Ascended and sent forth His Spirit we have great hope that we might mortify the old man while vivifying the new man so that we walking increasingly consistent with God’s royal Law Word.

But beyond all of our personal need to grow in the Grace and Knowledge of the Lord Christ the Ascension of our Lord Christ reminds us also of a King whose rule is Cosmic (Romans 8:21). The Ascension of our Lord Christ reminds us of His intent to subjugate His enemies via the Gospel proclamation that includes both their opportunity to appeal for peace and reconciliation based on the finished work of Christ AND the fact that the finished work of Christ is good news of a Victory that covers the world and so will convert the nations.

By the means of a series of contrasts the Preacher makes clear in Ecclesiastes 7:1f that there is a better and worse way and that God’s people should choose the better way. At the same time the Preacher says some things here that seem counter-intuitive. We will examine those as we proceed.

Ecclesiastes 7:1

A good name is better than precious ointment,
and the day of death than the day of birth.

Proverbs

22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold.

Of course our first concern is that our name should be good before God. His assessment is the only assessment that counts. Immediately we are mindful that the only way we can have a good name before God is by having our name hid in Christ. Our names will never have any value or be considered “good” in any sense if our names are not breathed out as a echo of His name for us, and in our place.

So our first concern is to have a good name before God and that can only be the case as we are anchored and resting in Christ. However, taking that as a given it is still important to have a good name among men.

And yet we must hear that counsel for a good name in light of what our Lord Christ said,

Luke 6:26

“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”

From this we could say that to have all men speak well of us would be to have a bad name before God.

Our seeking to keep a good name must be vertically oriented and anchored in God’s revealed Word. Which is to say that we can not adjudicate what a “good name” is by those who are outside the covenant and by those who hate Christ.

There are those who so concentrate on the cash and carry value of their name that they will compromise truth at every turn in order to advance their name and be seen as a fine fellow. They will seldom risk their reputation for Christ with the precise purpose of making sure that they keep their “good” name.

The word “good” here therefore must have a transcendent standard. A “good” name must be counted “good” as God counts “good.”

As Christians we desire then to have a “good” name

1.) First before God
2.) Second before His Saints
3.) Third before those outside the covenant community

The first two should be our priority and the third one as we can, knowing that if they hated Christ that they will hate us as well.

John 15:18

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

So, while a good name is to be valued it must not be wrongly valued.

On this score we would also note that because of the importance of a good name it is proper, when possible, to challenge those who rake our reputation and good name. Many times, I have found it is not possible to do so, but when it is possible we ought to undertake to defend our name, not out of Pride, so much as out of defense of God’s truth. Just so, it ought to be doubly incumbent upon us to protect the names of the saints, dead or living, from false calumny and needless denigration. When we protect the names of God’s people from being dragged through the mud we are at that point defending God’s Church. Such a defense ought to inspire us. To often we don’t want to “get involved,” but if the matter is clear and the good name of a saint is on the line we must involve ourself for the sake of God’s honor and the honor of our brother or sister.

Pray for a good name, and live in such a way that your name will be good as God counts good, despite what men may or may not say of you.

The Teacher then says that the day of death is better than the day of birth and with that he begins a treatment on issues surrounding death. At first blush this sounds like one of those counter-intuitive statements.

Why might it be the case that the day of death is better than the day of one’s birth? (cmp. vs. 8)

Well, if we were to read this passage through the lens of Redemption we would say that such a thing is true because in our day of death, unlike our day of birth, we hear the “Well done thou good and faithful servant.” In the day of death we know that to be absent from the Body is to be present with the Lord. In the day of death we know that to die is gain in the words of St. Paul. We know that the end aimed at from the day of our birth has been answered, while at the day of our birth the end is uncertain. So, I think in that sense the day of death is better than the day of one’s birth.

Vs. 2 we find the second contrast of “Better this … than that.”

I believe what is said from this point on through the next few verses is especially pointed at the fool. Between vs. 4-9 the “fool” is mentioned 4 times. In Scripture “the Fool” is the one who lives life apart from an apprehension of the reality of God.

If we read vs. 2 in light of vs. 4 we might conclude that if is the fool that is being spoken of. It is better for a fool to go into the house of Mourning than go to the house of feasting.

The thrust here is fairly obvious. When men are frivolous and full of drink and partying their end is seldom before them. Ashes to ashes …. dust to dust.

However when men are in the house of mourning they sober up and hopefully begin to consider their own end.

There is nothing like a funeral to possibly catch people’s attention. Scripture elsewhere says God’s people take the end to heart.

Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.

There seems to be a correlation then in God’s Word between an understanding of our own mortality and end and the gaining of wisdom. The fool … the party girl … the carefree who spend all their time in the house of feasting never become a wise people.

In vs. 3 the contrasts continues. Sorrow is said to be better than laughter and by a sad countenance the heart is made better.

That the Teacher isn’t intending that the house of mourning should be our constant residence and occupation can be seen by what he says elsewhere in this book,

2:24f, 5:18f, 11:9-10

Because of this other counsel in this same book, I believe that the Preacher is especially talking to the fool. The fool, has especial need to occupy the house of the dead and consider his end. The fool, who knows only the escape of merriment has need to learn that sorrow is better than laughter.

We must say here that the West, including our country, and too often the Church, lives in the house of the feasting fools. We have taken the fools approach by thinking we can live in defiance of God’s reality and keep up our fiat life of mirth and merriment without taking God into account. The Church in the West needs to hear these words ringing from pulpits all across our land because we have become the fools to which the Teacher spoke to in Ecclesiastes. We have not learned the Wisdom of knowing our end. We have refused the sad countenance that could have, by God’s grace, made us wise.

In vs. 5-6 we hear another wisdom contrast, still in the context of fools and wise men.

The setting for the fool here is still the house of mindless mirth and merriment given the fact that we hear mentioned the “song of fools” and the “laughter of the fool.”

The rebuke of the wise is brought forth as being superior to the song of fools. It is far easier to be comforted by silly songs then to be corrected by the wise. Far easier to absorb the pleasures of Top 40 radio (the very definition of the song of fools) than to listen to a lecture or read a book from the wise that forces us to look at ourselves in a mirror that doesn’t reflect well upon us.

Here it is brought to mind the idea of short term vs. long term benefit. In the short term it is more comforting for us to play the fool and avoid the rebuke of the wise. But in the long term it is the rebuke of the wise that makes for our own wisdom and in the long term the song and laughter of the fool is to our harm.

vs. 7 I read as a reflection by the Teacher of living in an age that is characterized by the fool.

Such an age of oppression destroys a wise man’s reason. The threat of destruction is found in the Wise man’s ability to see the folly of his age and to be able to do little about it except lament. The threat of destruction of a wise man’s reason is present because of the temptation of the wise man to embrace cynicism about everything and so be of no aid to those few who desire to escape the age of oppression and be wise themselves.

The Teacher offers that oppression and bribe are common experiences that threaten to destabilize an otherwise good spiritual condition (cmp. 4:1-3)

There is another matter besides oppression that can bite the wise and that is the bribe.

Prov. 17:23 The wicked accepts a bribe in secret
to pervert the ways of justice.

Here the danger is that the wise will give up God’s law word that requires even justice in order to be blind to justice to give favor to the one who is offering the bribe. We are to entrust ourselves to God and to do justice and to not be swayed by the bribe from the wicked. Certainly, it is easier, when living in an age of fools, to take the bribe thinking, “what does it matter anyway? I am surrounded by injustice and fools. What matters it if I profit as well when it won’t matter anyway if I decide what if right by God’s standard.” This is why a bribe can destroy a man’s heart.

We might say here, if we want to connect some earlier matters to this, that the bribe here might be other than money. The bribe could be a good reputation. People could come to the righteous and say … “If you speak this way … or vote this way … your reputation will be ruined.”

In such a case then, he bribe is the promise of a polished reputation for turning a blind eye to wickedness or to becoming mute in the face of injustice.

Whether it is oppression, or whether it is the matter of the bribe we are called to entrust ourselves to God and turn from these wicked temptations.

In vs. 8 we come to another “better” contrast

7:8a I think corresponds to 7:1b. The end is better than the beginning, like the day of death better than the day of birth because at the end one knows if one arrived at what one aimed at.

In 8b – 9 the teacher turns to the dangers of being quick to anger and again juxtaposes the wise man with the fool.

The advice he gives is consistent with what we find elsewhere in Scripture,

James 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

And again in

Ephesians 4:26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,”

If we connect these warnings against anger with what has gone before we might observe that anger can arise in the wise when living in the age of folly, and if unquenched the anger can lead to the fools folly.

We are called by the teacher to be patient in spirit. This patience is consistent with the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians which teaches that Christians are characterized by patience. By contrasting the patient spirit with the proud spirit what seems to be implied is that the patient spirit is a humble spirit.

Vs. 10 moves the wise towards a particular mindset regarding the times God has give us.

What has been described in Ecclesiastes is an especial age of folly. The temptation is to hearken for “the good old days.” The Teacher says that such an approach is not a wise inquiry.

God’s people are to be future oriented. Even in days of decline. We are to look forward to God’s future that He has for us and not to stuck in some imagined or real past.

Conclusion

Now, this pointed and practical wisdom having been given we would note again that it is impossible for anyone outside of Christ to take up this Wisdom. If it is our goal to be a Wise people we must look to Christ whom Scripture teaches is our “Wisdom from God.”

Also, we must realize that the learning and conforming of this kind of Wisdom is at the same time a matter of being conformed to Christ. Only as we walk in sanctification can we hope to increase in wisdom and knowledge. Scripture teaches that in Christ alone is hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So, if we would be wise and heed the Teacher we must look to Christ alone and then be conformed to Christ who was the incarnation of God’s Law and Grace.

We have seen that the Teacher in Ecclesiastes is dealing with man’s attempt to find meaning or to create meaning apart from God. He does so by the usage of two voices in the book. The preponderance of time he speaks from the view of the covenant breaker and when he does so he repeatedly concludes that all is meaningless of meaningless … a chasing of the wind. Also, though we see from time to time he reverts to the voice of one who is the child of the covenant to point to the fact that only meaning can be found in the context of covenant community.

In the last few weeks we have been looking at how this search for meaning has civilizational impact. The Teacher considers not only finding meaning on an individual level, but he also seeks to look for meaning in the context of whole social orders built apart from God.

In the last few weeks we have seen that the Teacher finds that in community life apart from God when one seeks to find justice all one finds instead is oppression. We sought to emphasize how important this observation is because if a social order can not provide justice for a people group then that social order will not last long because one of the very purposes of a social order is to provide justice. We saw that the Teacher so lamented this lack of justice that he concluded, in his covenant breaking voice that it would have been better to have never existed then to live in a social order that only knows oppressors and oppressed.

We then, with the Teacher, considered the social order of men in terms of looking to one’s work as an escape from the meaninglessness that social orders apart from God yield. And there we saw, with the Teacher, in his voice of covenant breaker that no meaning can be found in terms of labor because labor, in a social order bereft of God yields the destructive power of envy against those who do skillful work. We took some time considering the destructive power of envy and how envy is inescapable in social orders that are built apart from God. But it is not only envy that destroys social orders built apart from God but it is also laziness and discontentment the preacher mentions. And of course envy, laziness, and discontentment go together like Larry, Moe, and Curly.

Then we considered, with the Preacher those who operate in social orders apart from God with the purpose of only greedy gain as their god and we saw the loneliness and futility that they are faced with. We mentioned that wealth is not the problem, but rather wealth pursued as an end in itself. Wealth creation is a good gift of God but like any other good gift when it is isolated from the giver it only ends in bitterness and isolation.

Last week we considered the importance of covenant companionship. Here the Teacher speaks in the voice of the Covenant Herald. He contrasts the loneliness of the covetous man without God who is as alone without friends as Ebeneezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve with the person who has companionship. We tried to emphasize that true friendship can only be found in the covenant because only in the covenant do you have people who are not each trying to be God. As men together submit themselves to God they can discover true friendship and the harmony of interests. Apart from the God of the covenant it is the war of all against all and friendships are more temporary alliances, cast aside at the first opportunity for personal gain and advancement, then they are true friendships which look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others.

Illustration — Advice given to Robertson McQuilken regarding his wife.

In our few minutes this week we continue to look at this matter of how men attempt to use social orders to insulate themselves from God and to find meaning and how they fail in such.

In 4:13-16 the emphasis is on discontented people who do not appreciate good leadership. These verses do not provide advice so much as they reflect their mercurial and capricious nature. What the Teacher is noting here is how in godless social orders men will turn to new leadership in the mistaken belief that different leaders will provide them with the stability and order that only God can provide.

Well did Shakespeare write, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” meaning a person with great responsibilities, such as a king, is constantly worried, and more so in a godless social order then any other because people’s perceptions change so quickly has to what ruler might provide for them all the bounty and meaning they are looking to extract from the social order context of their lives.

Michael Kelly in his commentary on Ecclesiastes offers here 4:13-16

“Is the Preachers way of saying that political power necessarily turns to be an unstable good when the people’s Utopian demand requires more than it could possibly deliver. Each generation longs for a political messiah to usher in paradise, History is not short on demagogues who have repeatedly arisen w/ attractive new proposals w/ which to replace the status quo that has come to be perceived as regressive and unresponsive. The masses will support revolution because they can not believe the fault lies with them.”

This is why the Teacher can sarcastically write in Ch. 4 vs. 16.

One political Messiah arises and the people are with him but another generation comes along and despite the fact that this game of False Messiahs and disappointed expectations has been play for generations, still they will insist that they are wiser then all that came before and this time, this revolution, supporting this Political Messiah will the the one that ushers is the New World Order Utopia that has been expected since the tower of Babel.

In our own time.

“… I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that … this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal;”

“To answer these attacks and rid the world of evil,”

Earlier in this Century …. “A war to end all wars.”

Social Order that will not bow to the one and only Messiah will create their own Messiahs and will become the slaves of that Messiah. If men will build social Orders apart from God, then they will look for Salvation in and from those social orders.

Consider even a political social order as Atheistic as Marxism will even take on this kind of Redemptive salvation cast for man.

Bertrand Russell has not exaggerated in summing up the present significance of Marxism somewhat as follows: dialectical materialism is God; Marx the Messiah; Lenin and Stalin the apostles; the proletariat the elect; the Communist party the Church; Moscow the seat of Church; the Revolution the second coming; the punishment of capitalism hell; Trotsky the devil; and the communist commonwealth kingdom come.”

― Robert A. Nisbet
The Quest For Community: A Study In The Ethics Of Order And Freedom

Men without God will always be dissatisfied and out of that dissatisfaction they will look to revolution in their political / social order to find the the satisfaction that only God can give. Yet those who come after the latest super hero political Messiah will not rejoice in him and will start the process anew.

In 5:1-7 the Covenant teacher gives the answer in the voice of the Covenant Son.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 – 12

Recap

Last week we emphasized that Teacher in 4:1-3 reveals in the voice of the covenant breaker

I.) The Inevitable End Of All Social Order Arrangements Apart From God — Oppressor & Oppressed (4:1)

We spent some time explaining how it is that when men build social orders apart from God, conclusions can be easily arrived at that find men affirming that the dead have it better then the living. (2-3)

We chronicled such social order oppression we have in our world today that could easily confirm the despair articulated by the Teacher.

We emphasized then that the only reality that can cure the dilemma of Oppressor and Oppressed is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only men who have peace with God can create social orders that reflect that peace with God thus yielding peace among men. Only as men redeemed by Jesus Christ can they walk in terms of God’s standard and so find a harmony of interest that as a byproduct yields social order tranquility. Only as men bow to the Lordship of Jesus Christ can God’s justice be implemented among men.

A failure to trust Christ alone not only bring personal individual alienation but it also creates social order alienation.

This week we continue on picking up where we left off in vs. 3.

II.) Social Order Problems As It Pertains To Work In Communities Built Apart From God (4:4-12)

Apart from God there is no “good life” to be found in the social order man builds. Looking for “justice” in such a godless social order causes one to see only Oppressors and Oppressed. And looking for the “good life” in one’s work in such a godless social order doesn’t bring any relief because of the problem of Envy.

This attempt to build community then is thwarted at every turn as man seeks to build community apart from God.

Here the Godless social order / community that is built generates envy against those who do work or laziness and discontentment among others.

A.) Envy

The following is distilled from,

Helmut Schoeck’s “Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour”
Gonzalo Fernandez de la Mora’s “Egalitarian Envy: The Political Foundations of Social Justice”,

Definition of Envy — Envy is the sin of jealousy over the blessings, prosperity, character, and achievements of others, but more than jealousy it is the positive anguish over the good of others and joy at the anguish and misery of others even if that anguish and misery does the envious no discernible positive good. While being indignant might find its roots in the injustice of the well being of evil persons, envy finds its roots in the happiness of good people. In brief envy is pain at the good in others, and it is most commonly found in those whom wish to lower others, even if that lowering of others does not mean that they will rise.

Well we can understand why God says in Proverbs that it is a rottenness to the bones.

Envy is wounded by our neighbors prosperity. Envy finds pleasure in the ruin or harm of those of whom we are envious. Envy is sickened at hearing praises of those of whom are envied and recoils at the virtues of those upon whom our envy is pointed. Envy only grows more intense the more it is assuaged by those who are being envied. That is to say, that should the envied seek to practice charity towards the envious, with thoughts of reducing their reasons to be envious, the envious envy them all the more because of the their own sense that as being inferiors they had to be assisted by those they believe to be their superiors. The envious hate those who help them because it confirms, in their minds, their lower position. If the envious receive favor from the fortunate the envious suffers even more and the envy grows because the one in the favored position has the power to dispense favor while the envied does not. Envy is not concerned so much with reaching the happiness of others as it is in making everyone as miserable as the envious. Envy is complicated by the fact that it is slow to be self-diagnosed or confessed because of the shame involved in this vice.

Envy is a malevolent feeling towards a person, people group, society, or culture perceived to be superior in one or more ways. Envy is vindictive, inwardly tormenting, displeasure. It arises from a feeling of impotence and inferiority. Envy is anguish from the real or perceived prosperity or advantages of others.

Schoek informs us of the universal nature of envy,

“Not all cultures possess such concepts as hope, love, justice and progress, but virtually all people, including the most primitive, have found it necessary to define the state of mind of a person who cannot bear someone else’s being something, having a skill, possessing something or enjoying a reputation which he himself lacks, and who will therefore rejoice should the other lose his asset, although that loss will not mean his own gain.” (page 12)

We must understand that Godless social orders / communities have such a problem with envy because envy is not the desire to have what the other person has but to be what the envied person is as that is coupled with the knowledge that, that cannot be. Therefore every effort on the part of the superior to eliminate the feelings of inferiority in the one who is envying is seen as condescension, and such condescension on the part of the person envied only works within the one who is envying a magnification of the very thing their work of envy was seeking to remove, and that is the real inferiority of the envious. Because of this the only way that the envious can find satisfaction is by destroying those upon whom their envy is aimed. The possessing of the goods of the envious will not satisfy because the envious still knows that a dispossessed superior remains superior.

The only cure for envy [apart from Christ] is the destruction of the superior.

This envy then may well explain the genocide of the White Boers in S. Africa. They have already been greatly dispossessed by the ANC Marxists but that seems to be not enough. They must be genocided.

Well, then can we understand why the Teacher laments the presence of envy.

Christianity embraces and teaches the truth that men are different with different skills and abilities. As such Christianity alone can build a social order / community where people with differing skills and abilities, gifts and talents, and varying degrees of superiority and inferiority in a multitude of areas can compliment one another thus creating a harmony of interests instead of the destructiveness found in envy.

Only the Gospel can liberate the envier from his ultimately self-destructive envy, and to alleviate the envied of his self imposed false guilt.

B.) Laziness

We looked at this briefly last week but just a few more words here.

As God’s people we were created for work. It is an interesting tidbit to understand that the Hebrew word from which we get the idea of Worship is also where we derive the idea of work. The Hebrew root word means to work or to serve. The cluster of words derived from the root give us insight into the nature of both worship and work.

Both work and worship is about service and serving. In worship we are serving God in Christ with our heart felt praise and adoration. In work we are serving God by taking godly dominion over whatever he has called us to. Laziness then is a affront to God because it is a unwillingness to take up our responsibilities as God’s creatures.

A favor from the Protestant Reformation was the restoration of the importance of work (vocation). All that man was called to could be done to the glory of God.

Luther could write,

“The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays — not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

Work is not something that resulted from the Fall of man into sin so that if our first parents had not sinned we would not have had to work. Adam was called to work in the Garden, to serve and protect it (Gen. 2:15). Adam was to do the work of taking dominion. So, work is an part of what it means to be human and to embrace the folding of one’s hands as the fool does is to deny our creatureliness.

Labor thus is not merely something we must do but something we get to do as those who labor under Sovereign God to extend His Kingdom. Man is called to be a King under the Sovereign Christ to take dominion for God’s glory through his appointed calling and work.

Work thus is not primarily about bringing home a paycheck, though that certainly is one important aspect of work. Work is about glorifying God and laziness thus is an attempt to steal God’s glory.

Of course in ungodly social orders laziness is characteristic because man is seeking not to glorify God in all he does but to glorify himself and one way that man seeks to glorify himself is by escape from work.

c.) Discontentment

In verse 6 the Teacher makes a observation in his covenant keeping voice.

Better a handful with quietness then both hands full together with toil and grasping for the wind

This sentiment is echoed in the Proverbs

16 Better a little with the fear of the Lord
than great wealth with turmoil.

17 Better a small serving of vegetables with love
than a fattened calf with hatred.

8 Better a little with righteousness
than much gain with injustice.

The wisdom here is not only to be content but also there is a warning against unwise ambition.

In ungodly social orders you not only have the problem of laziness but you also have the problem of those who never have enough and so there is this constant drive for more with the result that they have no rest (quietness).

They are the discontent and those who never will be content. They have acquired but they can never enjoy what they have acquired for they are always toiling for more.

Here the Teacher reminds us of the importance of godliness with contentment.

d.) Avarice (4:7)

In vs. 7. the Teacher speaks again with his covenant breaking voice and I believe he is still examining the faults of a godless community life in the context of labor. This time he speaks of the consequence of a single-minded devotion to fulfill an all consuming lust for wealth (avarice). He is describing for us someone whose unwise ambition has brought him to the point where he has no family or community life in order to share his life with. His single minded covetousness for wealth has deprived him of companionship. Like some kind of ancient Ebenezer Scrooge the one described here is content with the companionship of wealth.

The Teacher mocks such a person by noting that they never pause long enough to ask the larger questions of life. Here I am gaining all this wealth and I have no one to share it with. Note the “good” that the teacher speaks of in vs. 8 is the good of companionship, friendship and family. The acquiring of wealth at the cost of genuine community is vanity and a grave misfortune.

Here we see what ungodly social order does. Whether it is in envy, laziness, discontentment, or avarice, ungodly social order either destroys community life or it produces the community life of the war of all against all.

III.) The Contrast To Isolationist Social Orders

The Teacher speaking in his covenant keeping voice speaks of the importance of companionship – true friendship.

We must say at the outset here that this kind of genuine friendship can only be found among Christians. Men who are not right with God can have no hope in being right with one another. Men who are seeking to be their own gods can only go so far in being companions. It is true, those outside of Christ can, relatively speaking, be a friend, but we must understand that those outside Christ have themselves for their own gods and as such their friendship will only go so far.

“Me against my brother; me and my brother against our father;
my family against my cousins and the clan;
the clan against the tribe; the tribe against the world
and all of us against the infidel”

The Teacher speaks with the voice of the Covenant keeper on the importance of godly social order. It is hell to have a social order where it is the oppression that comes with,

Or where it is the one of the isolated individual who is himself against the world.

Here the Teacher sings of the virtues of the Covenant community. Cooperation and reciprocal interdependence can produce success and harmony and yield a sense of satisfaction.

This should be descriptive of the community of the Redeemed.

Three fold cord — Fasces

Conclusion

Social Orders not founded on Christ can at best give us temporary alliances constructed in order to take down someone else.

Long after the writing of Ecclesiastes we have returned to the conclusions that the Teacher in Ecclesiastes could articulate as he speaks with the voice of the covenant breaker. Remember, in the voice of the covenant breaker the conclusion is “meaninglessness of meaninglessness, a mere chasing of the wind.”

Already, as he has spoken with the voice of the covenant breaker, we have seen him come to that conclusion of meaninglessness as he has examined several areas of life where he sought to find meaning independent of God.

But as man refuses to bow to God, man returns to the Teacher’s search and so we have found that to be the case in the 20th century and today. In the 20th century a Philosophy arose which organized the Teacher’s covenant breaking voice of despair into a school of thought called “existentialism.”

The heart of existentialism is that existence precedes essence, which is to say these philosopher’s taught that man has no inherent nature or meaning in and of himself and consequently man was responsible himself to create his own nature and his own meaning.

Now we can’t go into great detail here explaining 20th century existentialism but I did want to use the introduction to expose you to this idea since it is still with us today in many respects and since existentialism tracks so well with the Teacher’s work in Ecclesiastes.

Jean Paul Sartre, one of the chief existentialists of the 20th century did us the favor of explaining the motto of the existentialists, “existence precedes essence” by writing,

“What is meant here by saying the existence precedes essence? It means that, first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself. If man, as the existentialist conceives him, is indefinable, he himself, will have made what he will be. Thus, there is no human nature, since there is no God to conceive it. Not only is man what he conceives himself to be, but he is also only what he wills himself to be after this thrust towards existence.” Sartre

You see … man has not inherent meaning because there is no God. As such man must make up his own meaning in life but as the Teacher in Ecclesiastes told us thousands of years ago that apart from God all is meaningless, a mere chasing of the wind.

Elsewhere Jean Paul Sartre could write on this score,

“Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first principle of existentialism.” Jean Paul Sartre

If man has no inherent nature, then man has no inherent meaning until he first gives himself that meaning. (And, naturally if man is giving himself meaning then the meaning is not inherent.) And of course that meaning is entirely subjective since there is no personal objective Transcendent point of reference in order to be informed or guided by.

Please understand how relevant all this is for today. All this explains where we are at. If man has no inherent nature and so no inherent meaning, then man is himself what is called a “social construct.” If there is no personal objective Transcendent point of reference then man can say things like …“sexuality is a social construct. Male and Female are artificially contrived categories that can be blended or added to. Objectively speaking, there is no such thing as Male or Female. They can be what we want them and make them to be.” Or, similarly, “Family is what we make it to be. Family can be defined anyway we want it to be,” and so we come up with all kinds of non Biblical families of two Mommies or two Daddies and who knows what else.

And so man, apart from and in denial of God, seeks to be God by giving himself and everything around him meaning. But as we learn in Ecclesiastes there is never any satisfaction. Again, and again we learn that all this attempt to make and find meaning is a chasing of the wind.

Albert Camus, another Existentialist philosopher and popularizer, said something very similar to the task of finding meaning apart from and in denial of God,

“At the point where it is no longer possible to say what is black and what is white, the light is extinguished and freedom becomes a voluntary prison.” Albert Camus

The point of union then between Ecclesiastes, as the Teacher speaks in the Covenant Breaker voice, and Existentialism is, in the words of Sartre,

“Existentialism is nothing else than an attempt to draw all the consequences of a coherent atheistic position.” Sartre

And this is what the Teacher has been doing in Ecclesiastes. When he speaks in his covenant breaking voice, He has been drawing all the consequences of a coherent atheistic position, and finding that coherent atheistic position to be meaninglessness. The only coherence one can find in life apart from and in denial of God is incoherence.

The existentialists admitted that they were looking for meaning. Another of their tribe, Albert Camus could say,

“The world itself, whose single meaning I do not understand, is but a vast irrational. If one could only say just once; ‘this is clear,’ all would be saved.” Albert Camus

But for the modern existentialist nobody could stride forth to say, “this is clear,” and so for the modern existentialist like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes nothing is clear because all is meaningless.

Well, we can understand why Sartre could say, perhaps in frustration,

“Man is a useless passion.” Sartre

For without God, man is indeed a useless passion.

As we continue with Ecclesiastes this morning we see the Teacher turning to observe life apart from God.

The Teacher, viewing social order issues through the lens of the covenant breaker, makes some observations regarding oppression.

I.) The End Of All Social Order Arrangements Apart From God — Oppressor & Oppressed

4 Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. 2 And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

Now of course, if man is left to making his own meaning then in affairs having to do with civilization inevitably what one will get is oppressors and the oppressed. If man is left to create his own meaning in terms of justice then all social orders will ultimately reduce down to these two categories of oppressed and oppressor. And, I would say that it is likewise inevitable that, just as in much of existentialism philosophy you hear a note of despair in the voice of the Teacher, again speaking as in the voice of the covenant breaker.

Better to be dead or never born then to live as the oppressed or the oppressors in a meaningless social order. If all there was, was life as oppressed or oppressor it would be better to have never existed then to have lived and looked to closely at the Holdomar in the Ukraine, or the Killing Fields in Camboida, or the Gulags built by the Soviets, or the abortuary’s in America. If there were no God, it indeed would be better to have never existed.

Understand though that in a social order where man makes the meaning then there is no standard by which oppression or oppressed can be adjudicated. What this clues us in upon is that even when the Teacher speaks in terms of the covenant breaking voice, he must presuppose God in order to lament the damage that life apart from God brings. In other words if the Teacher was being consistent in speaking in his covenant breaking voice he could not complain about oppressor and oppressed because for the covenant breaker … for the existentialist …. for the post-modern … there are no stable categories of oppressor and oppressed, because there is no stable meaning for anything. The covenant breaker, the existentialist, the post-modern, even though they may complain, has no absolute standard upon which to base their complaint.

This reminds us that the way that social orders are organized, or the way that we do politics or economics can not bring us satisfaction if we are operating as covenant breakers. Men who will not submit to God in Christ may build all kinds of different social orders (Democratic, Republican, Monarchy, Socialist, Communist, Anarchist, etc.) but all any of them will bring eventually will be the oppressed and the oppressors. This is true of our social order today here in this nation. Over 50 million unborn children cry out as the oppressed and we the oppressors can find no comfort. Social Orders in and of themselves and by themselves can not bring salvation. They are inert arrangements. Only God in Christ can save men who then will incarnate that renewal into their social orders.

No, the solution to man’s covenant breaking problem can not be found finally in building Utopias. Indeed, man’s very problem is the attempt to build social order Utopias … Utopias that only lead to Dystopias. Man’s problem is that he is dead in his sin and has needs to turn to the Lord Christ who alone has provided a salvation upon which redeemed men can build social orders which reflect justice, do mercy and reinforce in a people to walk humbly with their God. Only in Christ Jesus can meaningful meaning be restored as men bow to the one who is God’s Meaning (the Word) and legislates by His transcendent objective Word.

In vs. 4-6 the Teacher is still exploring the matter of where the good life might be found. Clearly, it is not found in social orders apart from God because they only yield oppressors and the oppressed. And so he probes the issue of work once again.

II.) The End of all Labor Apart From God

The Teacher seems to divide the idea of the worker into three categories

First he speaks of those who diligently labor (vs. 4) and then he speaks of the one who doesn’t diligently labor (vs. 5) and so he seems to be pointing us to the idea that one is damned if he does work because of envy and one is damned if he doesn’t work because of Laziness. In vs. 6, the theme of work is continued as the Preacher deals with the person who works but can never find contentment. So, in 4-6 he deals with the issue of labor, but it could be that he is looking at labor in the context of social order still.

Michael Kelley offers here,

“All of these qualities (envy, laziness, discontentment) are meant to stress that man’s goal of community (what we are calling “social order,”) without God is bound to fall apart, for nothing can eradicate the crookedness in the nature of man himself.”

You have these categories of oppressed and oppressor that he has brought up and then he turns to the issue of envy as it relates to labor. Well, obviously, envy is one means by which oppression is achieved and by which people are oppressed in crooked social orders.

Hence, here you have this social order of oppressed and oppressor where there is the oppression of envy against the one who works.

Well, the alternative to work is not working but that is the laziness of the fool. And then the Teacher deals with the issue of discontentment.

I’m going to take up the issue of Laziness first because I want to give the issue of envy more time next week, since envy is presently such a great destroyer of men.

This problem of Laziness is a theme that is taken up throughout the Scripture,

Proverbs 6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

Proverbs 24:33 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
34 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

II Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

I Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

Clearly the expectation in Scripture for the covenant keeper is to work.

We have seen so far, in our work through Ecclesiastes, that the issue at hand is the issue of meaning.

1:1, 1:14, 1:17, 2:11, 2:15, 2:17, 2:23, 3:9, 3:19 12:8

Where does one find meaning?

As we’ve looked at Ecclesiastes we have tried to advance the idea that this search for meaning is taken up by the Preacher as one speaking alternately with the voice of the Covenant breaker and with the voice of the covenant keeper — though the preponderance of the speaking is with the voice of the covenant breaker. This accounts for the meaninglessness that often surrounds his conclusions. Meaninglessness is found because he is giving us the perspective of life from the position of the man who lives apart from God.

One reason we have advanced this idea is because, as we have noted, there are times periodically in the book when the gloom lifts and we see that life does have meaning. At those times we have suggested that the Preacher reverts to speaking in the voice of a Covenant keeper. He reverts to one who lives life in light of the God who alone can give meaning. Such examples that we have come across thus far are found in,

2:24-26, 3

And so the book of Ecclesiastes is about the search for meaning. But the search is conducted in such a way that meaning is seen to be impossible apart from the Covenant God who has revealed Himself in the Scripture. As we said the book forms a kind of negative apologetic as it repeatedly shuts the door of finding meaning apart from God. It does this with the purpose, I believe, of revealing that meaning can be had but only by presupposing and serving God.

Christ and Ecclesiastes

In our series thus far we have also tried to advance the truth that with the coming of Christ meaning can only be found in Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). If the Old Covenant Preacher could speak of finding meaning because of the reality of the covenant God, how much more so is this the case when the fulfillment of the ages has come in Christ who Scripture explicitly teaches is our “Wisdom from God” (I Cor. 1:31).

We have tried to emphasize that in and because of Redemption we are set on the sanctificational path of epistemological self consciousness. This is merely to say that we become, by God’s grace alone, increasingly wise and self aware that we need to look to Christ in order to find and have ongoing Wisdom / Meaning. This idea of being epistemologically self conscious is merely to say that because Christ is the Truth, and we are rightly related to Christ by being united to Christ, we become carriers of the truth / wisdom / meaning virus.

This is what is implored in all of Scripture

Proverbs 3:13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
and the one who gets understanding,
14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
and her profit better than gold.

Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding.

What else is behind the call in Corinthians to “take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ” save this idea of understanding that wisdom / truth / meaning can only be had in relation to Christ?

James tells us that God dispenses wisdom to those who ask. Elsewhere we are told that we are to have this mind in us that was also in Christ Jesus. The mind that was in Christ Jesus is the mind of wisdom / meaning / understanding.

As Christians our minds are to be renewed (Romans 12) that we may prove what is the good, and acceptable and perfect will of God. How else can we do that except by being able to locate meaning?

All this to say, that what we are looking at in Ecclesiastes, in terms of this issue of meaning is not unrelated to the work of Christ for His people. Christ has Redeemed us to the end that we might be meaning identifiers. We see the spin of this World and because we are in Him who is Wisdom we see what the enemy is trying to do with the spin and we see the real reality behind the spin. We are not the foolish virgins. We are the wise virgins who keep their epistemological lamps trimmed.

All of that said in order for us to see the Macro issues regarding meaning. Yes, we are in Ecclesiastes but the issue of meaning as found in Ecclesiastes relates to Christ and who we are in Christ.

This then takes us to the issue of Evangelism. Men today are much like the Covenant breakers that we hear in the voice of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes. They are men who are given over to finding meaning apart from Christ.
This idea of the search for meaning has not been unique to the ancient book of Ecclesiastes

In our own time

Queen — Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me

Same old song
Just a drop of water in a endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see

Finding meaningful meaning apart from Christ can’t be done. Some will spend years — even decades — trying to find meaning apart from Christ. The elect among them will come to the realization that one can’t discover truth apart from Christ of Scripture who is the embodiment of Truth. To these people we must hold out Christ as not only the one who can save their souls (and their souls need saving) but also as the one in whom they can find meaning.

Let us pause to consider here that what we are speaking of has significant implications. We are not only talking about individuals being Redeemed to find truth / meaning in life, though that is absolutely foundational. We are also talking about civilizational impact. Should enough men and women, in any given culture, bow to Christ, who is God’s Wisdom, that culture and civilization is renewed also unto abundant life. There is a decrease in the patterns of the culture of death. There is an increase in interpersonal harmony in family, workplace, and Church. As men bow to Christ and find meaning there is a return to pursuit of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

Ecclesiastes and Civilization

As we turn to Ecclesiastes 3:16 – 5:7 we have to do with the relation of the legal / moral order to the matter of meaning. Man tries to set up justice and what he finds instead is wickedness and iniquity (3:16). The covenant breaker has these huge aspirations for a “just social order,” but as he seeks to implement that order apart from the God of the Bible while dependent on his how autonomous law word — a autonomous law word that is riddled with sin — all that can come about is wickedness and iniquity where there was supposed to finally be justice and righteousness.

I am reminded of the various Communist Revolutions which always promised justice in place of the systems they were overthrowing. I cite a couple of their versions of legal order justice to make the Preacher’s point about

In the place of justice
Wickedness was there
And in the place of Righteousness
Iniquity was there

After the Revolution was in place — this Revolution to overthrow the Bourgeoisie law order — there was issued a edict

“There is no such thing as a woman being violated by a man; he who says that a violation is wrong denies the October Communist Revolution. To defend a violated woman is to reveal oneself as a bourgeois and a partisan of private property.”

And another …

“By virtue of this present decree … all woman become the property of the nation…. The distribution and maintenance of nationalized women, in conformity with the decisions of responsible organizations, are the prerogative of the group of Saralof anarchists … All women thus put at the disposition of the nation must, within three days after the publication of the present decree, present themselves in person at the address indicated and provide all necessary information … Any man who wishes to make use of nationalized woman must hold a certificate issued by the administrative council of a professional union, or by the Soviet of workers, soldiers, or peasants, attesting that he belongs to the working class.”

Men apart from God, whether in the times of the preacher or in the 20th century find little if any justice or righteousness in their legal – moral orders erected apart from God and His Christ. Man apart from God is forever crying out for social justice, and fairness, but when he gains the whip hand what he institutes is oppression and social injustice.

So here again, in 3:16-17 we see the negative apologetic of the Preacher at work. Speaking in the voice of the Covenant breaker he speaks of the attempt to set up justice and righteousness but instead what is found is wickedness and iniquity.

Ecclesiastes & Judgment

In vs. 17 we hear the voice of the Covenant keeper again. Yes, times of injustice masking as justice arise but in the end God will judge the righteous and the wicked.

17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. (cmp. vs. 15)

Man may think he gets away with injustice and wickedness where God requires justice and right judgments but there is a time when these matters will be set straight.

(By the way, the mentioning of “For there is a time,” with reference to God’s judgment in vs. 17, indicates that 3:1-9 is indeed dealing with God’s times and not man’s times.)

Comparison Between Men & Animals

In vs. 18 we continue to hear the voice of the Preacher as covenant keeper. God is testing men who are outside the covenant. Here you have these men setting up these legal orders and moral orders in order to have “justice” apart from God and what transpires is wickedness and iniquity. God is testing them that they may see that justice apart from God turns men into animals. The Preacher is not saying here that men and animals have are qualitatively the same. He is merely noting that man apart from God are LIKE animals.

And the 20th century has provided for us all the empirical evidence we need to see that man’s inhumanity to man can be just as red in tooth and claw as the Animal Kingdom.

1915 – 1918 — Turkish Armenian genocide — 1.5 million
Turks slaughter Armenians

1932 – 1933 — Soviet Ukrainian Political famine (Holdomar) — 7 million
Communists slaughter Christian Ukrainians

1932 – 1939 — Soviet White Russian Purge — 11 million

Communist Russians exterminated non Communist Russians. The tales are gruesome.

1937 – 1938 — Japanese Rape of Nanking — 300,000 killed

1938 – 1945 — Nazi Holocaust with accounts of the death total anywhere from 4-6 million Jews. Slavs and Gypsies

1944 – 1953 — Soviet Gulag Archipelago — 29 million killed

1949 – 1957 — Maoist Counter Revolution Repression — 3 million Chinese killed by the Chinese Gov.

1958 – 1961 — Mao’s great leap forward — 38 million

1966 – 1976 — Mao’s cultural Revolution — 3 million more

1949 – 1976 – Maoist Laogai camps — 27 million

1975 – 1979 — Khmer Rouge — 2 million

Abortuaries in US since 1973 — 60 million

When we talk about the dangers of man forgetting God … when we talk about the possible eclipse of muscular Biblical Christianity these are the truths and realities we are talking about. When man forgets God man becomes like an animal, and like the animal creates a “red in tooth and claw” world.

So, the Preacher is not saying here that man and animals are the same. He is merely speaking of how the covenant keeper becomes animal like in his behavior apart from God. There is another similarity between men and beasts and that is they all die. When the preacher says that man has no advantage over the animals and that all go to one place, and that they are all dust, the point of commonality is that both man and beast perish. Who can deny that? The point may be that for all his strutting in setting up legal and moral orders, man like the beast dies.

So the similarity is that they are both mortal. However there is dissimilarity mentioned in the following verses.

“This verse is not a continuation of the thought of the preceding verses. They have shown in how far man and beast are alike. Now there comes a statement in how far they differ.” (H. C. Leupold)

21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

The Preacher will re-affirm this in 12:7

7 then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

vs. 21 returns us to the idea captured in vs. 17. Man, once dead, will be judged by God as his spirit returns to God.

H. C. Leupold has accurately rendered its thought:

“There are not many who take to heart as they ought to the fact that the spirit of man goeth upward, and that the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth.”

Michael Kelley makes a connection regarding the Teacher’s observation that the Spirit of man goeth upward,

“The covenant people especially must be reminded that God will bring every activity of man into judgment, for it is the Preacher’s way of saying, as Hebrews 9:27, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment….”

However we must note that for those in Christ, the eschatological judgment of the end time has already fallen on them in Christ. Christ received our judgment and so we have no fear of condemnation (penalty after judgment). Should there remain any further final judgment upon those in Christ it is a judgment that will vindicate their vindication in Christ Jesus. Their judged works, likewise being imputed with the righteousness of Christ, will be testimony to their completely gracious salvation.

In vs. 22 the Preacher continues with his Covenant keeper voice,

v. 22— “…there is nothing better for a [covenant] man to do than to enjoy his work….”

If we connect the work he is to enjoy with the context we might conclude that he is to enjoy his work of establishing God’s righteousness in the legal – moral order. However, the enjoyment of our work — an enjoyment that defies the despair of the covenant breaker (16) — can only come in the context of covenant keeping.

Rejoicing in his own work seems to be the cure for a angst about the future. Man, the covenant keeper, also has eternity set in his heart but the work he can do can only be for his generation. He cannot see what will happen after him. So, covenant keeping man rejoices in his own work and doesn’t let the unknown future dissipate his current joy.

The Teacher searches for meaning but he realizes in Chapter 3 that his search for meaning is a search that is conditioned by God’s sovereignty over the affairs of men. Man is a limited being and his search for meaning comes in the context of understanding that God has set the times and seasons.

3:1 picks up where 2:24-26 leaves off. In 2:24 The Teacher admits that his eating and drinking and enjoying his labor is from the hand of God. In 3:1 he expands that thought so as to communicate that all of our living comes from the hand of God as God has designated times and seasons under the sun for His purposes. As pure enjoyment stands not in the power of man, much rather is a gift of God (2:24). God bestows or denies man according to God’s will, so in general all happens when and how God wills, according to His own ordained plan comprehending all things which man can neither completely understand nor in any respect change. God does this so that man should sense his dependence upon God and learn to fear God.

To often 3:1-8 has been taught as a text that communicates our needing to order our own lives according to what we determine are proper times. Also it has been taught that we have to determine when the proper times are ourselves. Before my study of this passage I was guilty of this misreading. Indeed, in the notes of my Bible I have inscribed,

“Our prayer should be that God would give us wisdom to be able to discern the appropriate times.”

But 3:1-8 is not about us. These are not prescriptions but descriptions of God’s work. To read the text as if this is a list of prescriptions is to miss the whole thrust of what the Teacher is conveying. The Teacher is communicating that there is one who has ordered the Universe in such a way that all that comes to us as covenant keepers can have meaning. It is not a totally random world where we are the ones imposing meaning on the world. The world comes with ordered meaning because God has given everything a season and all times a purpose.

We can take great encouragement from this. There is a structured order to the life of man, even when it involves
sickness (3), death (2), and war (8); for, in spite of the curse, God does not permit the world, and man’s life in it, to fall into complete chaos. He makes sure there are times for birth (2), health (3) and peace (8) as well.

So while man is to learn from this and order his days aright because of this description of God’s ordering the Teachers primary purpose is to emphasize the perspective of the God Who “orders” every single aspect of man’s life and actions.

I submit to you that the fact that 3:1-8 is not about us — about our needing to order our own lives according to what we determine are proper times is seen in vs.2.

“A time to born … a time to die.”

All would agree that none of us determine the time of our birth, and I would contend that not even the person who commits suicide and rushes into God’s presence un-summoned determines the time of their death.

Vs. 1 then makes it clear that what is said in vs. 1-8 is not about our necessity to figure out when we need to do one thing or another but is about how God ordains all things.

So in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 we find words which covenant-keeping man may read for understanding and encouragement, while covenant-rejecting man in his state of alienation from God is estranged from their meaning.

“… To every purpose under the sun”

The purpose here being spoken of is not man’s purpose but God’s purpose. God marries times and seasons to His purposes and the Teacher recalls here that God is the one who has ordained the times and seasons to accomplish His purposes.

Man has very little control over the comings and goings of God’s seasons. From verses 2-8 we have God’s time stamp; indicating His times of change, of direction, of progress, and no man can touch the clock on whose minute and hour hand these times are marked.

Covenant keeping man finds these words comforting because it reminds us that our times are in God’s hands. These words remind us that there is rhythm and meaning to life because God is the one who is purposing the times under heaven. Life is not coming to us by time plus chance plus circumstance and life is not spinning out of control when our purposing under heaven does not come to fruition.

The Teacher saw that, notwithstanding the vanity which so broadly marked all human life, there was a partially discovered method underlying everything. Things that seemed to come by chance really came by arrangement, and all the irregularity of life was only on the outside. Considered from a macro point of view all of life comes to us by the hand of God who is the one who regulates all of our times. The covenant keeper finds his sense of equilibrium and stability in this truth in the seasons that we mark off as adversity.

However, Covenant rejecting man finds these words exasperating and hateful to his desired sovereignty. These words stand as a rebuke to men who would be as God, — men who would structure all reality according to their fiat word. These words are hateful to the covenant rejecter because they remind him that they live in a world that is conditioned and controlled by God. Their times are not in their own hands but remain in God’s hands.

In these words the teacher provides comfort for the covenant keeper but at the same time these words are a javelin slung at the heart of the Idolatrous worldview of the covenant rejecter. He must live his life in submission to God’s ordering.

Still, the covenant rejecter as always tried to ascend to the most high in this matter of controlling the times.

Rushdoony reminds us,

“In ancient paganism…humanistic man sought to govern time by means of rites whose purpose was to control time and nature. In fertility and chaos cults, men believed that they could make nature fruitful again, wipe out past history and sins, reverse time and order, and regenerate themselves, nature, and history.”

That this remains a goal of modern covenant rejecting man is seen in Aldous Huxley’s novel, “Brave New World,” where man seeks to take up God’s predestinating purposes in regard to running the world. Huxley reveals to us that man wants to be the one who determines the “time to be born.”

“The Director of the Centre (the D.H.C.) conducts a group of new students, as well as the reader, on a tour of the facility and its operations — a biological version of the assembly line, with test-tube births as the product. They begin at the Fertilizing Room, move on to the Bottling Room, the Social Predestination Room, and the Decanting Room. Along the way, the D.H.C. explains the basic operation of the plant — Bokanovsky’s Process — in which one fertilized egg produces from 8 to 96 “buds” that will grow into identical human beings.

The conditioning that goes along with this process aims to make the people accept and even like their “inescapable social destiny.”

The Social Engineering done today by way of science and politics is just another example of covenant rejecting man seeking to throw off the reality that God is the one who has given everything a season and God is the one who has given a time for His every purpose under the Sun.

As we consider the list in 1-8 we would do well to remember that these are not listed from a moral point of view. The vantage point that is taken up is of the God who disposes all things and who can take even the adversity that He ordains and makes it subservient to his plan.

1-8 also reminds us that as there are God ordained times so there are fitting human reaction to those times. God has made us in such a way that no one emotion is in and of itself evil.

God has made the time to weep, and the time to laugh. He has made the time to mourn and the time to dance. He has made the time to embrace and the time to be aloof. The time to speak and the time to remain silent. The time to love and yes even the time to hate. No human feeling is in and of itself wrong. The error lies not in the emotion but in the marriage of the wrong emotion to the wrong time that God has ordained.

Ill. — Nietzsche’s lie that Christianity is a killjoy religion is a demonstrable falsehood because God gives times to laugh.

In vs. 9 we see a repeated idea from back in Chapter 1:3 where the search was to find meaning in work. 3:10 returns to the theme of 1:3 — The Burden of God and points mnen to God’s covenant faithfulness with a reference back to God’s doing in God’s time (vs. 10). So, the profit that a worker does or does not have from his labor as part of the God given task that God has given can be anchored in the reality that God has made everything beautiful in its time. God has made it beautiful in its time. However, if we cannot find the satisfying good in the events and affairs of life, that is because God has put eternity in our hearts. (vs. 11)

This idea of eternity in our hearts is the Teacher reminding us that God has placed in each one of us a impulse that leads us beyond the temporal to the eternal; it lies in our nature not to be contented with the temporal, but to break through the limits which it draws around us, to escape from the bondage and the disquietude within which we are held, and amid the ceaseless changes of time to console himself by directing his thoughts to eternity.

The idea of eternity in our hearts reveals that for men created as the Image of God that which is temporal cannot satisfy. We are made for something higher and grander than the temporal, though having a place, cannot ultimately satisfy what we thirst for. We are beings limited by time but in our innermost nature we were made for eternity. That which is temporal has just enough of the eternal in it to cause us to sigh for the eternal which will remind us of the Temporal.

So, everything is beautiful and appropriate in its season from birth to death, from war to peace (11). If we cannot find the satisfying Good in the events and affairs of life, that is not because we could devise a happier order for those events (though we often think we could) but it is because God hath put “Eternity in our hearts,” as well as time, and did not intend that we should be satisfied until we attain an eternal good.

The fact that we are time bound is emphasized again in 11b. We are creatures that are created in time. We can not get out of our time to know what God has done from beginning to end. We want to know. We are like people who are in a long play. We have our part and we think we know where the play is going but the curtain falls on our part before we can see all that God as the producer and director of the play is doing.

So, while we can’t know God’s beginning to end, we are called to rejoice and do good in our lives. We can not control the times. That is God’s doing. But we can enjoy the times that God gives and do good. We can live our lives then in light of eternity. This is what we are called to do throughout Scripture. Since our times are in God’s hands (Ps. 31:15) we are to bless the Lord at all times Ps. 34:1.

And in terms of the doing good … well, as we say repeatedly that is found in God’s law,

David could say,

“My soul is consumed with longing for your law at all times.” (Ps. 119:20)

“Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly [i.e., at all times] do what is
right.” (Ps. 106:3)

With this in mind Paul writes, “Be careful, then, how you live —not
as unwise – but as wise, making the most of every opportunity [i.e., redeeming the time]….” (Eph. 5:15)

In 14-16 the teacher makes some concluding remarks for this section.

Implicit contrast between God and Man — vs. 14
One purpose of God’s doing — vs. 14 (Fear God)
Nothing new under the sun — vs. 15 (cmp. 1:9)
God will judge

The covenant keeper has been judged in Christ.