Finding Hope in a Hopeless World: Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. Here we are. We are right here where we always are, in the studio that is owned by a friend of ours who. Are the headquarters of the Bible guys. That's what it is. That's and other businesses in this in the shopping center that's funny, or in this what is it called industrial boning? I guess the Ivory Tower. Yes, well that's exactly what it is, Mount Olympus, what ticnic. Something like that is. Yes. Hey, we're going to launch into a segment that Desi Rae has put together. And this segment is great only depending on the material. Yes, right, it's completely but it's important. It is important. It is a dad joke competition, and the competition is we're going to decide which joke is better. Okay, here we go. Yep, are you going to go? For sure? Am I going to go first? Ahead? If there were a pill to cure prostant procrastination, Okay, let me try it again. If there were a pill to cure procrastination, I would probably take it tomorrow. Yeah, that's a rough one. There's a rough one. Even if you had delivered that. Yeah, yeah, it would have been a rough Yep, it came out poorly. Yeah, well that's okay because it was rough. Anyways, how about this one. Did you hear about the fight at the fish and chip shop? No? Five fish got battered and a bunch of chips were assaulted. Oh now, okay, so I won that one. Yeah yeah, okay, okay, okay. Some people have trouble sleeping, but I can do it with my eyes closed. Wow, I like that. Yeah, okay, it's not horrible. Yeah, it's not horrible. It's not horrible. Okay, okay. How about this one? Ready? Batman once forgot to pay his electric bill. It was a dark night. Oh okay. I don't know. Do you like better the dark night? One dark night? But I say that I'm winning here. I like the eyes closed. Okay, Well, you're the voter. You're the voter. You get to do it what I've been voter. Okay, I've opened three birthday cards and I'm already one hundred and fifty bucks up. I love being a mailman. That is great. I like that. I like that a lot. That's really good. We should, you know, we should do we should call to We should call Tori and tell her that one. She'd she'd love it. I'm gonna try to remember that. Okay, here we go. What do you call a group of anxious dinosaurs? I don't know, nervous reres. Nervous res. I like the mail better. Okay, I'm gonna say two to one now, now, why. Couldn't Why couldn't the mailman one go against the dark Knight one? I don't know why, because because that was the nervous Wrex. Is funny. That's a funny one, okay, Okay. I was up super early this morning and I started wondering what time the sun would rise, and then it dawned on me. What did I like that one? And then that's really good? Okay? How about this one? I received the flyer on anger Management the other day. I lost it. That's a good one. I liked it, Okay, I liked it all right? Okay, So which one one? That one? Oh? What was yours? Wins? Okay? Yeah? I like mine? Okay, but I think don wins. I think we're too all right. This one's clever, Okay, this one's clever. Will glass Coffins be a success? Remains to be seen. Remains to be seen. Very clever, Yes, very clever. Yeah I liked it. Yeah, but you had it's clever. You have to think about that. Nobody wants to think about dad jokes. Yeah. Hey, uh, this is the one that wraps it up. Here we go. Nine months isn't really that long. But for some it can feel like a maternity. Yes, that's true. Okay, So which is it then? So I was almost going to call it a tie. That one felt like a tie to me. I thought the maternity was fine. Well, considering that you somehow assigned me to be the voter, which we've never done before. You're the voter, Well, then I will vote a tie. Okay tie? Oh, yes, there you go. H I will vote a tie. Okay, good job, Dez. That's really great. Okay, it's five and five. I'm gonna I really like the mailman joke. I'm gonna have to remember that to pass on. So I opened up three birthday cards today and I'm already one hundred fifty bucks up. Man, So good, all right, Ecclesiastes. I don't even have a transition for this one. I don't know. I always forget the transition. Okay, I have nothing nothing. Speaking of funny. There is literally nothing funny at all about. Oh I got speaking of Coffins. This entire section is about death comes to all. Ooh, that's what the chapters are. It is yeah, okay. Yeah, so we just finished class. Coffin's joke Yeah leads right into what a great transition remains? Why that's why you are who you are? Yep, yep, that's it. It's the one thing I'm good at. If you're wondering why see transitions. How is Jeff? Jeff? That's why is it? Right here? Under pressure, he comes up with the clutch transitions. Ecclesiastes nine is where we're at. Verses one through twelve says this too, I carefully explored. Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God's hands, no one knows whether God will show them favor. The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who make promises to God are treated like people who don't It seems so tragic that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. That is why people are not more careful to be good. Instead, they choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. There's nothing ahead but death anyway own, there is hope only for the living. As they say, it's better to live dog, better, as they say, it's better to be a live dog than a dead lion. The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. Whatever they did in their lifetime, loving, hating, and being is all long gone. They no longer play a part in anything here on earth. So go ahead, eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this. Wear fine clothes with a splash of cologne. Live happily with the woman you love through all them meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife gives the wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil. Whatever you do, do well, for when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning, or knowledge or wisdom. I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. The whys sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy, and those who are educated don't always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by a sudden tragedy. Yeah, this is perhaps the most depressing of the four chapters this week, don't. You think you think so? I don't know, there's some pretty I mean, it's not like he's been super super happy. Yeah, but he goes into this whole like it almost sounds like what he's saying is maybe maybe you shouldn't even try to be careful for being good, because you're gonna end up with the same fit anyway, what's the point? Yeah, right, And I don't think he's really said that in the other four chapters that we've covered, So for me, that sounds way more depressing because now when you're talking about vanity and you're talking about futility, and you know death comes for everybody, well, that's that's one thing. But then when you say so, it doesn't matter, Yeah, you know, whether whether morality good or bad. Well, I think it's interesting because Solomon doesn't seem to have in any of his writings. He doesn't seem to have a sense of eternity other than God has placed eternity in the hearts of men, meaning he understands that people desire eternity, but he doesn't seem to have any any consequence or any sense of consequence after death. Right, And with that perspective, his view is the natural way to see things. Right, there's nothing after there's nothing to live for after death. Only live for now. But it changes for those who understand, Hey, these seventy or eighty years are just dress rehearsal for life. So when you read this, you're reading you're reading when you read Solomon's perspective on you only have one life and then it's over, and then nothing else exists afterwards. This is how most people live their life. No wonder they make bad choices, no wonder they are hopeless. And Paul says, we grieve, but not as those who have no hope when we think about death right. So when we have the hope of eternity. It totally changes our perspective. We're preparing now. This is dress rehearsal for eternity. So when you read Solomon's writing, Solomon is writing like somebody who has no concept of heaven. He has no concept of anything after. And so of course he's miserable because I did all this work and it didn't matter. I lived and I worked, and I planned and I accumulated, and none of it matters. And I didn't really do anything good with my life. That's kind of how he's feeling. But if you live a life preparing for eternity, then you have all the benefit of a good life in this life, plus hope for a better life in eternity. And so when I read it, I just I think it's sad that he doesn't have a sense of heaven at all. Yeah, it certainly doesn't seem that way, it doesn't, huh. Yeah. Otherwise, you know, there's no other way to say. How could you say that there's no consequences of choosing bad or good? Right, if it's not connected to beyond death, then then yeah. Yeah, if you get away with it, you get away with it. That's kind of what he's saying here, if there's nothing after this life, you get away with something, you get away with it. And hey, so let me be the guy to say that that is unusual. Right. Solomon was raised by his mom and his dad, who believed in God so much, where they trained him differently than this. So now again, he didn't say death ends everything and there's nothing afterwards. He didn't say that. It's just that that's the way that he's acting, that's the way that he's that's the way he's writing. Right, So he didn't he didn't say he didn't make a definitive statement that says when you die, nothing happens. Well, he keeps, he keeps saying things like verse five. The living at least know they'll die, but the dead know nothing, right, he said, he said, he said that kind of thing many times, that kind of implying there's nothing after this life. It's kind of how he's said. I didn't read it that way. I think what I was reading it as is he was. I was reading it as not necessarily eternity, because I mean, it can be read that way, but I was reading it as he's talking about life. It's the stress is on the life part. In other words, like, once you die, then your life is over, and so it doesn't mean anything after you die. So therefore let's concentrate on the you know, conclusions of life. So I wasn't reading it as you know, he's concentrating on what's after death. He's just saying, No, he clearly doesn't think there is anything after death. Well, it seems that way sometimes, right, That's what I'm saying. I think he references that probably half dozen times to the Book of Ecclesiastes, that after you die you don't know anything. It's all over, and so because of that, there's a hopelessness here. That's that's what I'm saying. The difference between our listeners who are followers of Jesus who know that there's there's reward and eternity after this life. We live our life with a totally different perspective than a guy who has no concept thinks that, Okay, I lived my eighty years and now I'm dying and there's no point I'm gonna lose everything, no wonder, He's spiraling there's no hope, right, And that's that's the difference between Solomon's view and you know, a godly Christian's view. Is that so the other one that I was gonna mention, And I think this is interesting, he said, I've observed something else Verse eleven Under the Sun. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the win the battle. The whys sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. Those who are educated don't always lead successful lives. It's all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time. He's like, Hey, sometimes in a fight, the weaker fighter wins by luck. Sometimes the fastest runner doesn't win, the slower runner wins, and it just turns out to be a lucky thing that happens or whatever. And just being in the right place the right time. Hey, there's a lot to be said about being in the right place at the right time. There really is. There's a lot to be said about that. But I think you can kind of manipulate a little bit of that. It can make sure you're in the right place around the right people. You either are right now or soon shall be. Just like the crowd you run with. If you want to do a thing or be a thing, you need to get. You need one to develop skills that get you around those people, and then you need to get in there. Arnold Palmer is famous for saying, the more I practice, the luckier I get. That's so much right. There's something that Thomas Jefferson had a phrase similar to that. The more prepared I am, the luckier I get. Samuel Goldwyn, you know, the famous movie producer, had a saying very similar. All three of them have independent sayings, but they're very very similar. The more I practice, Arnold Palmer said, the luckier I get. There is something to that. Hey, a guy who practices every swing with every club at every distance is going to get more holes in one than I'm going to get. Right. Yeah, I'm having a brain fart. The uh I was trying. I was trying to think of the as a technical term on the Bible guys. Yes, I was trying to think of the who's the Kinsman Redeemer that we covered bo ass yeah, bo as in his fields. Uh. That was that was an example of trying to manipulate being at the right place of the right show. She put herself in the right place in the right time, and then that gave opportunity. You know, I think that there's there's something to that going to the right schools, being around the right people when you want an opportunity to get in front of Probably one of the greatest moments of my life to discover this principle. I was working my way through college. I had lost my sky warship because I got kicked out of school. Remember I've told that start for pranks. So now I'm at a new school. I don't have a full ride scholarship. So how's a poor kid go through school? Right? Got work? So I was working forty plus hours a week, and I was working at UPS in Chicago. And UPS is a great company. I really loved the company. My boss was a nightmare to work for. And I just got to the point where I was getting you know, I'm barely sleeping. It's an hour away from where I'm staying in the dorms, and so I'm driving ten hours a week or more. I'm working forty hours a week. I'm taking twenty credits. I was just I was exhausted, and this part of my life was the only part of my life I could control. Was my job, right, And so I decided I'm going to go find a different job. So I called in two days, called off, and I started going through Chicago trying to find a job. Put on a suit and tie my second day. First day I went just casual clothes. Second day, suit and tie. I go downtown and I start going to hotels, and I decided I didn't want to work in CD hotels. I thought, you know what if you're going to work in Chicago, work on Michigan Avenue, work on Magnificent Mile. So I decided, I want to work in the fanciest place in all of Chicago, and I want to be in service. I want to learn how to do service work. So I decided I was going to go every hotel, Intercontinental, Marriott, Highatt, all of them that's up and down there, the drake at the end of the street, all that kind stuff. I went to all of them, and the last hotel I was in because they had these little timeslots when you can put in applications. Last hotel I was in was in Marriott, and it was me and a friend of mine. We're both wearing suits. There's probably fifty people filling out applications. Because they had one day a week they'd accept applications. Nine hundred employees worked in our building, and so I'm filling things out and this young guy walks in. He's wearing a suit. He walks in behind the counter. He's clearly into a manager of some kind. And we make got contact and I nod and I got up on purpose. I said, excuse me, can you help me for a minute? And my brain is scrambling, just trying to think of a question, and I went, am I supposed to write? Like? Like? I go by the name Jeff, but my legal name's Jeffrey. So on an application do I do? Do I do Jeffrey or Jeff? He goes, oh, your name's Jeff, said, what do you want to apply for? I said, I want to apply for the best manager in this building to try to help him get his work done. And he goes, hey, why don't you come back here with me? And he pulls me back, so suit and tie, nice haircut, and I put myself in front of that manager. Clearly he was just surveying who was out there. He winds up hiring me, and Tom Pontel wanted up being a brilliant manager. I made all kinds of money. I learned a ton of things. And it was in that moment I decided I'm going to be I'm going to get myself in front of that guy. Now I can't control his response. He might have blown me off, but dude, that was It was incredibly lucky in that moment, right. But it was because I was dressed right. And that's what he told me, he said, I looked out across the room, went there's nobody in here. I want to hire everybody, I mean, and you know, almost house coats and slippers, you know what I mean. It's kind of that look everybody in the room. And then there's two guys sitting in the room wearing suits. He hired us both, but he hired my buddy. He said, Hey, is that other guy in a suit with you? As he yah and he said, are you guys roommates? I said yeah, he said, bringing back, so he came with me. He got the job because I had the guts to go up and get in front of that boss in that moment, right. And so there is something to that. It's not always the fastest, it's not always the strongest, but it is the person being in the right place at the right time. But it's not always chance, right, you can kind of get yourself in the right places. So the more I practice, the luckier I get. Yeah, you know, he just throws this thing at the end of the chapter of the sentence that says people can never predict when hard times might come, like a fish in a net or a bird in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy. Holy cow, is that a statement or what? Yeah? Right, I mean, there's really nothing to say about that. I just wanted to point. It out, like sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes bad things happened. Yeah, and he's talking. It's really a continuation of this thought about you know, chance just sort of happens, right, Just things come and things go. Yeah, that's interesting. And that's okay, yep. Right. We live in a broken world. We forget, even as Christians, we forget that this world is cursed and everything in it right is cursed by sin. Sin has affected every single aspect of our lives every day, and we just don't we forget that. So then as we honor God and we go his path, we have his favor, But we still live in a very broken world. So car accidents happen. That's not that God made it happen, as somebody who just ran a red light they weren't paying, some drunk did too much. Bad people do bad things sometimes, you know what I mean. And sometimes even the righteous get caught up in those things. Not because God's trying to punish us, but because we live in a broken world. Bad things happen sometimes, and so we are shocked and horrified by them. But at the same time we can just accept God's not bad because of those things, and we have no right to expect that we would never have a sudden thing happened to us, right. Instead, we just trust God that whether we live, as Paul said, whether I live or I die, it's for Christ. Right to live is for Christ, and to die is gain. And you know, I've made jokes about it, told stories about when I found out I had cancer, and I just came to a conclusion, the Devil's not going to threaten me with Evan right, I'm not gonna be miserable, I'm not gonna be terrified. If I live great, if I go to Heaven even greater, that's okay. And if you can live with that, with that perspective that to live is Christ and to die is gain. Then these sudden tragedies, these sudden things that aren't manageable by us. It turns out we're not in control anyways. Control is an illusion and things happen. But that's okay. God's in control. And if I'm here on earth, wonderful, He's got a plan for me here. If he decides, okay, you know what, I'm not going to intervene in that moment, and that's how you're going to go to heaven, then we're in heaven for e turnity, and then to die is gain. Yeah, you know, you sort of hinted that you know why bad things happen, you know, just it's not always God. We live in a broken world. You and I just recently had several conversations with people who responded so well to that idea at a funeral that I did recently, because you know, Romans eight says we're under the bondage of decay. He calls it the curse of this world. And you know the idea that you know, people lay at the feet of God sometimes because God is all powerful, and God is able to do whatever God wants to do, and so therefore we assume and presume upon him that he should and can't or doesn't do what is always the best choice, and so and so. Anyway, the idea that people would just say, oh, some bad tragedy happen, and then I've heard people actually say, well, God must have wanted it that way, And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What about all the verses that talk about how bad things happen and how we're living a broken world and it's messed up, and you know, there's death and disease, and there's cancer, and there's weeds and there's death, you know, all these different things, and you know that came with the curse of the fall. And yet sometimes what people do is they lay at the feet of God that which should never be laid at the feet of God. This was God's will, This was God's intention. Its like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Back up, buddy, you know you know God's intention is paradise again, right, you know there was paradise. God gave man free will. Why did God give man free will? Because true love cannot exist without free will, and God created us for true love. Response man chose to go his and her own way. We live under the bondage of sin. And one day Jesus will come and he will do away with all evil. He will conquer evil, he will do away with it. He will wipe every tear from our eye. And there will be no more death. Yes, there'll be no more disease. Yes, there will be no more violence or hatred or right. And he says, and I'll be your God right, and I'll make everything new, right right. And that's that's God's intentions. You want to talk about God's will when it comes to evil, that's God's will. And in the meantime, we live in this curse that we created. Right and that one verse you know you're so right, and that it doesn't read well. Solomon says, whatever you do, do well, for when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom. And again I read that meaning like, hey, take advantage of this life, because death ends this life. Right. But when you read it, like, whoa, what is he trying to say after eternity? When you read it that way, it's horrible. He's despondent. Yeah, there's no hope in the way that he views it because he doesn't see eternity. Because which, by the way, we will have purpose and work. And after eternity. Undreds we're going back to God's original plan for the garden. Right right, and so and so if you think you're getting out of work, uh, you know, people actually think, oh, I'm just gonna sit on a cloud all day and play a harp and have nothing to do. No not no boring. It sounds really boring. Might be nice for a few weeks, but a billion years in it's going to be pretty rough, right right right, God has there's purpose in eternity. That's right, all right, Well, hey listen, that is our time and so hopefully we will see you tomorrow on the Bible guys. H