Living Life Realistically

Transcript

GR 2123
04/14/2019
Living Life Realistically
Ecclesiastes 2:18-26
Gil Rugh


We're studying the book of Ecclesiastes together, so if you turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes and we're in the second chapter. Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon and Solomon was the son of David, the wisest man who ever lived and for sure one of the wealthiest men who ever lived. A man greatly used of God. Just think about your Bible, the bulk of the book of Proverbs, the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Song of Solomon, all penned by Solomon under the direction of the Holy Spirit. So, a man used, not only during his lifetime to rule over Israel, to build the temple and the magnificence that would not be seen again until Christ comes and restores all things. Very important person.

The book of Ecclesiastes is a book about life lessons, how we as God's people can live our lives wisely in this world that is under the curse of God. As a result of Adam’s sin, the whole creation came under the curse of God. All the descendants of Adam experience the impact and consequences of the sin of Adam, a sin that we continue to perpetuate, generation after generation. How do we live in this world? It's a difficult world, it's a hard world, it's a painful world. It can be unpleasant. That's what Solomon is dealing with. He's using wisdom that God has given him, and also the inspiration of the Spirit that is guiding him, and he is giving instructions on how we live wisely.

The basic question being addressed is found in Ecclesiastes 1:3, “What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?” And work becomes a key idea—toil, labor. Things that are grievous to us, unpleasant. We're going to be reminded again and again, the theme of the book in Ecclesiastes 1:3 is everything is temporary. We have the English translation vanity, but we've noted the basic meaning of that word is all is a breath, just a breath, temporary, transient, ephemeral, whatever is short, and it can be unpleasant. And that's true for God's people as well as the people of the world. We are under the curse of the sin that has come on the creation, as believers as well as the unbeliever. Life can be hard for us. We've talked about this. We get sick like other people do, we need to work hard, often in unpleasant situations and circumstances like other people do. So, what's the advantage to man and his life as he grinds it out here, is what he is dealing with.

Solomon's search has been both encouraging and discouraging, if you will. The work is wearisome, it is laborious, it can be unpleasant. But he says there is also joy and satisfaction and pleasure that comes even in our labor. Ecclesiastes 2:10 says, “All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor.” This kind of theme will come up repeatedly—it is labor, it is toil, but I found pleasure and satisfaction. It was my reward in my labor. So, both are going on. There can be misery, there can be unpleasantness; he is going to express that very clearly. But that should not take away the joy and pleasure that God intends for us in our labors.

What Solomon is doing is putting life to the test. He is going to do a thorough, careful examination of life on earth, life under the sun, under the heavens, our physical life here. And it is going to be a serious examination. He is going to do it with his wisdom. Ecclesiastes 1:17 says, “I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness…” and so on. I've set my mind, I am intensely examining this, as he repeats. I want to know, how do you live life with its ups and its downs, as we would say? It's not going to be easy, in fact as he tests, and Solomon had the wealth as well as the wisdom from God, to try various things in life. And what he is doing in the various things that we would count worthwhile, profitable, that give us enjoyment? He's sorting through them and evaluating them in the positives and the negatives. And both are there. Work can be crushing and overwhelming and frustrating, but work can also bring joy and pleasure and satisfaction. And a good reminder for us as we grind through life, so to speak, God intends us to enjoy it. We might say, have fun, but that might be too light. But experience genuine joy and pleasure in living day by day.

You sometimes wonder if you focus on a passage, as Solomon has done his evaluations. What he does is, he'll try something and evaluate it. Just look at Ecclesiastes 2:3 before we look at verse 17, where he said, “I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind” or heart “was guiding me wisely…” So, he doesn't get out of control, he is not producing a hedonistic lifestyle, the pursuit of pleasure for pleasure. He is putting this to the test, but he maintains the control, so to speak of his thinking. He doesn't go on a binge where he is drunk and doesn't know what is going on. But the good things in life he is going to try, what people like. And that is what he has worked through here. We want to keep in mind, he is using his wisdom here that God has given him to accurately evaluate and sort out life. And he has tried a variety of things.

We talk about the same things—good food, good friends. You know the advertisements promote that. We look forward to getting together with family. What do we do? We'll have a meal, good food and drink, we'll enjoy the time. The basic things haven't changed. He says that we may not have the wealth of Solomon or the wisdom, but the basic things we all enjoy. We may not have the elaborate food of the wealthiest person, but what we have that brings us together, we are enjoying together, and the meal. So that is what he is talking about. But keep in mind that even though I have wine with the meal, I was evaluating this with my mind.

And he does other things. He built houses, he had gardens, he had slaves. He could enjoy life. Again, he is using himself as a pattern, and the things that he enjoys we still do, like the food, the drink. We enjoy having a place to get away. We like to take vacations. We like to have a break from work and the daily routine And the various things that you would do, he is evaluating.

That's great, you think, Solomon would probably come out to say life is good. And then you come to Ecclesiastes 2:17, “So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me…” Verse 18, “Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor...” Well that doesn't sound very good, you come up and you hate life. Well, you don't have to do much evaluation, there are lot of people who feel that way. But it is reality. Sometimes we as believers think these things, and that's why sometimes people say Solomon is writing when he is away from the Lord and everything is meaningless to him. You have this statement at the end of verse 17, “…because everything is futility and striving after wind.” And we noted the better translation of that word futility, it's a breath, it's transitory. Striving after wind is better translated the desire of the wind. It is out of my control, it is uncertain and to an extent, unknowable. So that's the frustration. There are the positives, there are the negatives, but in it all it is passing. The problem is we are the sons of Adam. In Ecclesiastes 1:13, at the end of the verse, the last statement, “It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men…” We noted that word translated men is really singular, and the Hebrew word for man is Adam. So, “It is a grievous task God has given to the sons of Adam to be afflicted with.” These words afflicted, grievous, labor, toil, you understand, this is the will of God, this is God's plan.

Now it is a result of the sin of Adam. That's why he said we are the sons of Adam, it's the reminder. We've gone back to Genesis 3 on several occasions. Why? Because God pronounced a curse on Adam, his descendants. The result will be that life will become wearisome. You will toil, you will work, you will labor. And do you know what? When all is said and done, you will die. So, the transience, the temporalness. Life is short, and life can be hard. And it's like the whim of the wind, the desire of the wind—you have no control over it. But you see in verse 13 as we have seen, this is what God has given to the sons of Adam to be afflicted with. We don't escape it. As believers in Jesus Christ we don't cease to be living now as the sons of Adam on this earth, which groans, as Romans 8 says, under the effects of the curse. And then Paul says even we believers, too, groan. We don't escape it.

This comes to Ecclesiastes 2:17, “ So I hated life...” I hated all my work. We say well, that's not the attitude of a believer, but it is. And if we're honest, this is what Ecclesiastes is doing. It is giving us a real picture of life. Sometimes we feel pressured as believers not to let how we really feel out, because we want to look spiritual. People say, “How are you doing?” “Doing fine.” I used to joke with my sister, I'd tell her, you have to look on the brighter side. So, every time I'd say, “How are things going?” She'd say, “Just peachy.” Well, it was sort of a joke, we both would laugh. But sometimes we feel that way as believers. I don't get down. If somebody said to us, I just hate life, we think we need to give them a theological lesson on why you shouldn't hate life; it's a gift of God and we quote all these verses. But the reality of it is, this is part of life. Those times that so press down on you, that are so emotionally crushing and so overwhelming, you just think I hate life. And Solomon is not the only one who writes like this.

Come back to Job 3, and I remind you the testimony of God regarding Job is he is the most righteous man on the face of the earth. He is the most godly man on earth at the time. There would be nobody godlier than Job, a righteous man, no one like him. That's a great testimony, this comes directly from the throne of God. And yet you come to Job 3:1, “Afterward Job opened his mouth…” and said, “Thank you, Lord.” No! He “cursed the day of his birth. And Job said, ‘Let the day perish on which I was to be born, and the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’ May that day be darkness; let not God above care for it…” Don't let the light shine, and he goes on to bewail, wished he had never been born.

Verse 11, “Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?” I wish I had been a stillborn, I wish I had died immediately after birth. However, you want to look at it. Verse 20, “Why is light given to him who suffers, and life to the bitter of the soul, who long for death, but there is none...” I mean, this is the most righteous man on earth talking—I wish I had never been born, I wish I had died in the womb, I wish as soon as I came out I had died. Anything would be better. That's no different than what Solomon is saying—I hated life. You can't say it anymore directly than that. And we are only into chapter 3 of Job, and in chapters 1 and 2, God has declared him as the most righteous man on the face of the earth. And yet life is already pressed in and crushed down on him to the point he said I wish I had never been born. And if I were born, I wish I had died quickly afterward. He'll get over it.

Come over to Job 10. The chapter opens up, “I loathe my own life, I will give full vent to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.” Righteous people don't escape the pressures and trials that seem to make life unlivable. That's what the wisdom literature is reminding us of, Job is part of that. The righteous don't escape the trials, that are so crushing, so emotionally and mentally and physically overwhelming that you just hate the life you have to live, and you wish you had never been born. “I loathe my own life.” Come down to verse 18, and he is talking to God. “Why then have you brought me out of the womb? Would that I had died and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been, carried from womb to tomb. Would He not let my few days alone?” And we see this expression in Ecclesiastes, the few days of our life. He is reminded his life is temporary, but it can be miserable and not every day is good and great. And the days he is experiencing, “Would He not let my few days alone?” Let me die.

So, you see Job had the same experience, he is a godly man. We sometimes take Ecclesiastes and say, this is Solomon, because of his abandoning God and living an ungodly life, he despairs. No, Job is the most righteous man on earth and God claims him. He claims him at the end of the book and He rebukes his friends for not being as godly as Job. Doesn't mean Job didn't have to do some adjustment, but he is the godliest person on earth and he comes to this.

Come over to Jeremiah, one other example. And Jeremiah is one of the great writing prophets, he is used as God's mouthpiece, but we know him as the weeping prophet. He wrote the book of Lamentations. We call it the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Well, that doesn't sound like a godly man, but the book begins by God saying, I have called you, I have set you apart, you are going to be My mouthpiece. And you will find if you go through Jeremiah, the same ups and downs balance that you have in Ecclesiastes, that you have in Job. This is life. Wisdom is to enable you to see life as it is, not hide from it.

The health and wealth preachers, they want to preach God doesn't want you sick. He doesn't want you poor, but that's not biblical. Because of sin, God wants you both. Not all the time. But because you are God's child, He never says life will be easy. Being the most righteous man on earth couldn't keep Job from trials that made him wish he had never been born. Being the wisest and wealthiest man on earth didn't keep Solomon from hating life. Jeremiah, being God's mouthpiece, bringing the Word of God to the people of God in their rebellion.

And yet in Jeremiah 20:11 see the balance, “But the Lord is with me like a dread champion; therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed, with an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten. Yet, O Lord of hosts, You who test the righteous, Who see the mind and the heart…” Here he is. Then you come to verse 14, “Cursed be the day when I was born; let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me! Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father saying, ‘A baby boy has been born to you!’ and made him very happy. But let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew...” Why? Verse 17, “Because he did not kill me before birth, so that my mother would have been my grave, and her womb ever pregnant. Why did I ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow, so that my days have been spent in shame?” Wait a minute, which is it Jeremiah? Verse 11 or verses 14ff? Yes. Both. Job, which is it? Both. Solomon, which is it? Both. We have to live life wisely, to learn that the suffering, the trials, the unpleasantness is part of God's plan for us. But that's not all there is in His plan for us. There is to be joy, satisfaction. But in it all never forget, everything done under the sun is temporary and ultimately out of your control.

That's what we are walking through with Ecclesiastes. It helps. So, when life turns down for me and I say, Lord, what is wrong? That may be the natural response, but if I wisely look at it, Lord, this is what it is like, living in a sin-cursed earth, being a descendant of Adam. I can get sick, get a disease like anybody else on the face of the earth, we are not excluded. Come to Indian Hills Community Church, they never get sick, they are all rich, it's the good life. It's not that way, just isn't true. So, realizing it, that's wisdom.

We used to try to raise our kids wisely, telling them life can be difficult. When they are young they want to quit because they don't like it. Well, you will learn there are things you have to do even when you don't like it, even when it is unpleasant. Now we try to coddle them. At 30, we are still trying to teach them that life can be difficult, when they have grown to be unteachable. This is what the Lord is teaching His children, to prepare us, to make us realize this is not out of the ordinary, this is life.

Come back to Ecclesiastes. What Solomon is looking for at the end of Ecclesiastes 2:3, “…until I could see what good there is for the sons of Adam,” there is our expression, “to do under heaven the few days of their lives.” We are descendants of Adam, we bear the brunt of the consequences of sin. We have a few days, life is brief and ultimately it will be out of our control.

So, we come down to verse 18. We broke off after verse 17 where he said, “I hated life.” Why? The end of verse 17, “…everything is futility,” transient. What did he just talk about? If I lived my life as a wise person, do you know what? I'll die. If a person lives his life as a fool, do you know what? He'll die. Do you know what? Both the wise man and the fool will eventually be forgotten. It's all temporary and out of my control. I can't extend my life and I can't even guarantee they'll remember me. So, I hated life. Everything is temporary and the whim of the wind, the desire of the wind—uncertain and uncontrollable.

Verse 18, “Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun…” So, we are continuing that—he hates life and his labor, and he had done a lot. I mentioned that previous times. Why? “…for I must leave it to the man who will come after me.” I am temporary and not only am I temporary, I can't control what happens after me. So that's why it's the desire of the wind, it is uncontrollable. I work, I labor, I apply myself, I use my wisdom and who knows? I'll go to the grave, and now it is all under the control of someone else. “And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely…” I was careful, I acted with wisdom, I used discernment, I was careful. And he had acquired great wealth, and it goes to someone else. We try to control, we have wills, I'm not against wills, wills are good. But after you are gone, you don't have much control. And if people contest the will, even the wealthy, so much of their stuff gets eaten up by conflict. I was reading a book on some very wealthy people from the Gilded Age, as a diversion, and I realized they were just as miserable and unhappy. One family had 60 servants; 60 servants to help them get by in life. And they were at one another, they were unhappy. The father ends up sitting on his yacht, which was one of the largest private yachts in the world at the time. Do you know what? In a drunken stupor. That's what you do when you are one of the wealthiest men in the world? You have houses in various places. What do you do? His father had left him a fortune and on it goes, on it goes. “…for I must leave it to the man who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely…” Note that word labor. Labor, toil. You work hard. I have acted wisely in my labor. “This too is temporary.” That's it, it goes.

Back up to Psalm 39. This is despair, but it is life. Just another example. This is from Solomon's father, David. Verse 4, “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient (temporary) I am. Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight. Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.” That's what we are talking about in Ecclesiastes. “Surely every man walks about as a phantom;” just here and gone. “…surely they make an uproar for nothing; he amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.” Same thing Solomon says, that doesn't change from generation to generation. You can't be sure. And then every step you take, makes it less sure.

Psalm 49, he has talked about the fact that man can't go on eternally and avoid death, and we know there are exceptions in the future, for life under the sun. This is what characterizes us—we live, and we die; we live, and we die. And as Ecclesiastes opens, a generation comes and goes. Looking at the white hair here, probably means for most of you, your grandparents are gone at least, if not your parents. A generation comes and goes. We look at the white hair, if the Lord doesn't come, we will go the way that our parents went, or our grandparents went, and our great-grandparents went. So, verse 10, “For he sees that even wise men die; the stupid and the senseless alike perish…” The wise men, the stupid, the senseless, what do they do? “and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses are forever and their dwelling places to all generations; they have called their lands after their own names.” You know nothing is new under the sun, is it? That's what people do today. You can go to New York and look at Trump Tower, we use an example. But they do other things. People name libraries after this person, that person. We name streets after this person, that person. Even some churches. Of course, when I die, they will name this the Gil Rugh Memorial Auditorium. There are churches that do that, that's what we do. Don't do it. I'll come back and haunt you. We think we'll be remembered. But, we are quickly forgotten because life goes on. The next generation doesn't want to live in yesterday, they have their own days to live. And it moves along, and it moves on.

So, you see what he says in verse 12, “But man in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.” That's it. Now he is not saying there is not a difference between a human being and a beast, but when it comes to the life lived under the sun, do you know what? You are going to die like your dog. I didn't say die like a dog, but you are going to die. That's why later Ecclesiastes will say, a living dog is better than a dead lion. Doesn't matter that you are the king of the beasts, if you are dead and the dog is alive, he has one up on you. That's the reminder. This isn't Solomon, and this just isn't the normal life, he is out of it now. No, this is the life of a believer, of the children of God. And, you won't live wisely if you pretend it is otherwise.

Come back to Ecclesiastes 2:20, “Therefore I completely despaired…” When things come into life that make you say I hate life, I hate what I've accomplished, “I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun. When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them. This too is temporary and a great evil.” It is temporary, goes on. There have been fortunes passed on, passed on, passed on, but basically the pattern is they get dissipated and for most of us, it goes on. And let's face it, for most of us, we don't want our old stuff. The only thing I know I have from my paternal grandparents is a vase. It is just a cut glass vase that we were going to take to Goodwill. Well, we ought to keep it, I think it's the only thing I have from my grandparents. But do you know what? I think at Goodwill we picked up another vase. And now I don't know which one, is which. So, it doesn't matter, guess we'll give them both to Goodwill. Nobody cares. You want to give your furniture, your possessions to your kids or your grandkids, but, I don't think they want it.

I told you, I used to go to auctions on the East Coast for just entertainment. They had these big, huge farm buildings. Three days a week, every other week, year-round, from floor to ceiling they auctioned off all kinds of stuff. They traveled the country bringing stuff in. You go open a dresser drawer, all the clothes are in it, all the things these people had. They haven't even emptied it out. Somebody's parents or grandparents died in another state, and they just called the auction company and said, would you have someone go and empty the house out at such-and-such address, or give them the key, or take them in. They just pick it up as is. Nobody wants it, nobody cares.

I've shared with you, my mother put all our family pictures out for us one day when we were back east, because my brothers and my sister were going to be there, and said, “Pick out the pictures you want. What you leave, I'm throwing away. I don't live in the past.” I guess she was telling me I was part of her past. That's the way life is lived. I'm not saying you have to throw away your pictures, you don't have to be like my mother. Bless her, she is in glory.

Verse 21, it's “a great evil.” We live in an evil world. I don't know about you, but I hate death, I hate some of the things that go with this life. It is true, I don't rejoice when a loved one dies. I rejoice that they have the privilege of being in heaven, but I hate the fact that now I am separated from them. They are in heaven, great; I am here, and you miss them and there is a void and things . . . This life, there are things you hate in life. There is nobody here that hasn't in a time in their life, because of the situation and so on, wish I had never been born. I hate life . . . That's reality.

Solomon will experience that. Do you know what happens? You can read this in 1 Kings 11-12. Solomon dies at the end of 1 Kings 11, his son Rehoboam comes to the throne. The counselors that Solomon had were elderly wise men. They wanted to give direction to Rehoboam, his son. Solomon's son, Rehoboam, also had his young friends and he decided he wasn't open to what the old counselors had to say. I'll take the advice of my young friends. And do you know what? Didn't take him any time to blow up the kingdom. Only three kings, remember, of the united kingdom of Israel—Saul, David and Solomon. What happened? Solomon's son, he left the kingdom to a fool and his young friends were fools. So, he listened, and the kingdom is destroyed. He ends up with two tribes, Judah and the little tribe of Benjamin. Two tribes go to someone else. Doesn't take long to ruin and destroy what someone else took a lifetime of wisdom and wealth to build. And he can't even get the seat on the throne warm, and he is shattered. That's how it is.

Verse 22, “For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving…” See, we can't get away from these words—his labor, his striving, “with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest.” This is transitory. It's a reminder. Now the good thing is the bad things are transitory as well as the good things. Life is transitory. And do you know what? You spend the days of your life grinding it out but even what you accomplish, even the wisest men who ever lived, perhaps the wealthiest, couldn't pass it on. I mean, it's temporary.

What do you get for all this life of work? Well, I'm looking forward to retiring. Fine, I think that may be one of the benefits God intends. He intends us to enjoy, have breaks and so on. But it's a hard life, and it can be harder at times, harder for some than others. Understand, this is God's plan, he is coming to this, but he says it is vanity, it is temporary, transitory. It is not worthless. Solomon wouldn't say the years he spent building the temple were worthless. You can't say Solomon had a worthless life. He was used of God, but life is filled with striving. This is the reality of life, you grind it out. Why? This is God's plan.

I love verse 23, “…even at night his mind does not rest.” You know what it's like to go to bed. You have kids, they grow up and get married and you say, thank goodness they are out of the house now, I don't have to be concerned about them. No, they have just doubled your worries. Now they have a spouse that you have to worry about, along with your kid. And then they didn't learn anything, they have kids. Now you worry about the kids and the grandkids and . . . It's just life. And then your job, and you go to bed and you toss and turn, and you think you have done your best, but you have your job on your mind. You labor, and then finally I am home. I'm in bed but my mind is not stopped. There are times I wake up at night and my mind gets going. I just say I might as well get up, go up, and read a book. Do something. I can't sleep. That's just the way life is, it's reality. Sometimes we think, “If I was really spiritual and trusting the Lord, I'd just let it all go.” That's not the real life. I'm not encouraging you to worry at night, but it's part of life. We live under pressure. That great spiritual hymn has a line in it, I never promised you a rose garden. I forget whether that's an Isaac Watts hymn, or which one. But it really pictures life, doesn't it? We have young people growing up today, they've been pampered, and they think life should be easy and good for everyone, whether you work or not. That's not life. And we as believers at least should function wisely.

Verse 24, in all of this, it's one side, one part of life, “There is nothing better for man…” This is an expression that doesn't mean this is despair, what good is it, nothing else to do. No, this is a way of saying this is the best, it doesn't get any better than this. That's what he is saying. There is nothing better, this is the best for man. “…than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good.” Now this is not a hedonistic lifestyle, but it's a life lived realistically and true. You may have to go to a job that you are grinding it out, that there is pressure that is draining, that is whatever. But do you know what? Enjoy life. The eating and drinking were the picture, like we do. When they advertise they'll have a picture of a family getting together around the table, having a meal, eating and drinking. And we look forward to it. Like the holidays, a special time, we get the family together, everybody is together. We eat and drink, and it is just fellowship time, enjoyment time. That's what he is talking about. This is the best for man.

In life the best is not that God will drain all the difficulty, all the pressure, all the strain, all the labor out of it. No, but in it with all that, enjoy your life. This is the best, “to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good.” Now that is not deceiving yourself because you'll note what the end of verse 24 says, “This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.” This is God's plan. He brought the curse because of the sin of Adam, and we bear that as the sons of Adam, but He didn't take all the enjoyment and pleasure out of life. So, in living this difficult life, enjoy it, enjoy the good things. You know sometimes Christians go through cycles, some the hedonistic side—God wants you rich, God wants you to have all this, and those kinds of preachers try to model it by living that kind of lifestyle. Then there are the others, we swing back, they are the ascetics. You ought to deprive yourself, we ought to try to live like those monks back in early church history. They lived out in the desert, they deprived themselves, they went without. Do you know what Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4? That's false teaching! Don't believe it. Everything that God provides is good, if you receive it with thanks. Those that think you shouldn't get married, you shouldn't enjoy life, that's not true. Now we shouldn't live for pleasure, but there ought to be pleasure in our living. The grind of life should not take the pleasure of life from us.

That's what he is saying. “This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.” You see the wisdom God has given him and now directing him, that balance. Look again at verse 22, “For what does a man get in all his labor and striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful…” He has sleepless nights. This is temporary because you are to enjoy life. Eat, drink, relax, and realize your labor is good. I may not like the job as a job, but I can appreciate working here. I remember asking my mother when I was in grade school about my dad who worked at U.S. Steel. He came back from World War II and went back to U.S. Steel where he started. He would work long hours, leave in the morning, come home later at night, dirty. I remember my mother talking about how difficult it was to get his clothes clean, and we lived in government housing and lived on the poor side of town. But that's all right. But I said, “Why is dad always at work?” “Well, he works hard.” “Why?” “So, he can make money, so we have food to eat and a place to live, those things.” Well, I'm sure dad is there, grinding it out, not because he would rather be there sweating at 120 degrees with the steel. No, but there is a certain satisfaction and pleasure of providing for my family, I'm doing what needs to be done. And there are breaks; there were time when he played with us kids in the evening or we would do things. You enjoy life. Sometimes Christians feel guilty if they are enjoying life. I know I shouldn't enjoy it. What do you mean? I think God wants us to enjoy life. Now we don't live life for pleasure, we don't want to live life selfishly, but if God has blessed you . . .

My friend, George Stroh, I love what he said one time, years ago. We were talking about somebody saying, you need to finish what is on your plate because there are people starving in the world. Do you know what the person said? “Name one!” We get the idea if you do certain things, it will be better. There are people starving in the world. Do you know what? I'm going out for lunch. I don't say that to be mean. Different times, different places, have different trials. When I was growing up I don't ever remember going to a restaurant with my parents, and nobody did in our neighborhood. But a lot of people in that time didn't go out to eat. That doesn't mean you didn't enjoy life, you didn't have things you enjoyed. So, enjoy life, enjoy what you have. Every good gift comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no shadow or variation caused by turning. It comes from God, I enjoy it. This is from the hand of God.

Verse 25, “For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?” Now we're bringing God into the picture. He's talking about life under the sun, but as God's children what do we recognize? God is in control, it's His sovereignty, He has brought all these things to pass. The trials, the difficulty, the pressure comes from God. Where did Job's trials come from? The devil did not. Why could the devil “did it”? God permitted it and God brought it up. Some day you read that, and you say, Lord, don't bring me up to the devil. Why? God challenged the devil, “Have you considered My servant Job?” Why would you want the devil to attack Job? It's a part, we live in a fallen world, God determines what He brings into our life, and when He brings it, and what is the result. We live every day, and I say Lord, this is a day I have, this is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Well it's not the day I would have picked out for myself, but it's the day the Lord has made. You can't eat and have enjoyment without Him.

Do you know what Job's problem was? He was complaining about what God was doing. Sometimes I miss the enjoyment. I am in God's hands. That doesn't mean He takes the labor out of labor, the toil out of toil, the pain out of pain, the death out of dying. It is real, and we have to be real. I don't want to be a make-believe Christian, pretending that I never get down, I never hate life. We don't always have to be telling people about how bad we feel and what we don't like, but sometimes when we come to be with a person who is experiencing that, we don't have to try to tell them they shouldn't be. This is part of life, this is a down time for you. I may not understand all you are going through but I can understand you would be crushed. You can't imagine going on. Well, it's not because you are not a biblical person, it's not because you have turned away from God. It's because that is life, and you have to live today. Now look for enjoyment in what He is doing. You know God's hand is on you, you know He hasn't abandoned you, you know you have the promise He'll never leave. We have all that to go with, but even in the daily things we do, getting by, working, accomplishing what I can, I can find joy in that.

I shouldn't go to my job hating it. That doesn't mean, maybe God is bringing things together, He wants you to move from your job to another job, but I don't want to run from the hardships of life, the difficulties of life. I don't have to be courting them, I don't have to be looking—I'm going to take this job because I know it is one I'd hate. No, and if I have a job I hate, and I get to transfer to a job that I think I would like much better—thank you, Lord, for making that provision. But the reality, I want to live my life really and realistically, so I can enjoy what God is bringing into my life.

Verse 25, “For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?” We are talking about life under the sun and these basic principles are true of everyone living under the sun. But only the believer can truly live wisely with the understanding that his God, who is his heavenly Father is superintending and directing.

Look at verse 26, “For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to the one who is good in God's sight.” Some commentators say that Solomon has just become irrational here. One time he is saying wisdom is good and another time he is saying the fool is having the same kind of life. Do you know what? The sinner doesn't always gather and give to the righteous one, but the balance in all this, it is all temporary and out of our control. Sometimes we benefit from what the unbeliever has done, and we live in a world where there is this going on and we as believers, sometimes we benefit from the unbeliever. In medicine they discover something, and we receive down through our day. We have medical things now and drugs that can help us. I'm thankful for the wisdom that unbelievers have, a worldly wisdom. And sometimes the wicked do things and we benefit from it, and sometimes we don't.

Don't forget the end of that where he says, “For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner he has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to the one who is good in God’s sight.” Ultimate end, believers win, and we will inherit the kingdom and the unbeliever will not. But in our life under the sun there is a give and take, and sometimes it seems a believer is benefiting, and the unbeliever is losing, and other times it's going the reverse. We'll come to that in Ecclesiastes. So, we want to keep in mind, I underline these things in my Bible, “This too is temporary (vanity) and out of our control (striving after wind).” Otherwise I pull out a verse like this, like some people do with a proverb, pull it out and make that a binding pattern for life. And it is not, but the true ability to live life with wisdom. Enjoy it. It is something that only the believer can truly do, and truly enjoy.
We're going to come to these passages on enjoying, enjoying, enjoying. I had lifted them out, but we don't have time to look at them.

Let me just summarize a couple of things that have been emphasized here for you.
1. Work, with its toil and difficulties, is God's plan for man. And for believer and unbeliever alike that can involve pain, unpleasantness, and hardship. 2. God intends that we enjoy our work even though it may be unpleasant. I want to be careful about complaining about my job because if I have a choice and I can go to a job that I think I would like better, do it. But if I don't have the choice… Why do you go to work? Well, I have to put food on the table, I have to pay the bills. Well, then accept it from God as God's provision for you to do. Then look for the joy you can have in it. God intends that we enjoy our work, even though it may be unpleasant. We can't escape the consequences of the curse, in that sense. 3. God intends we take time to enjoy the benefits of our work. So, if you can take a vacation, take a vacation; if you can take a day off, take the day off. If you can move to a nicer house and you want to, move to a nicer house. We feel guilty, well, I shouldn't be enjoying. Enjoy this life, the days of your life. Don't live for pleasure, but, have pleasure in your living. That's what God intends. He hasn't sucked all the joy and pleasure out of life's grind. So that's part of His blessing for us, living our physical life. 4. We recognize and honor God who gives the work, the benefits, and the joy. It comes from His hand. We have that knowledge as His children. 5. There is no true joy in the toil of work and its benefits apart from God. So, who can eat and have enjoyment without Him? Nobody in the real, full, ultimate sense. We know God's hand is in it, He is directing. 6. Both the good and the bad are temporary and out of our control. The best days will pass, but so will the bad days. And later we will get to, enjoy your youth because the bad days will come. And when you get old your body breaks down, things get harder, we get different kinds of illnesses and physical problems.

So, it's biblical to say enjoy your life while you can. Don’t look back and say I should have enjoyed my life more. We enjoyed life, we are to enjoy it, we should be enjoying our life now. That doesn't mean there aren't days where you say I hate life, I wish it were over. I say that's real. Lord, I want to deal with this pressure, these emotions and this situation the best I can and squeeze every little bit of joy out of the miserable times of this life that I can, by your grace. And then we are all looking forward to what He has promised in the future.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your Word. You are a good God, a gracious God, a loving God, and we are Your children. But, Lord, we are the descendants of Adam and the curse that has come upon this world to bring suffering, sickness, ultimately death, we experience. But Lord, we understand You are the God who is sovereign, working your purposes and even though we experience what everyone experiences under the curse of sin, may we do it with understanding, and we can live with wisdom. All things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. We want to live wisely, Lord, we want to accept what You bring into our lives and find joy in every day because that's the reward You provide for us. Bless this day, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.