Lesson 30
Ecclesiastes
The Things That Don't
Work!
Chapter Nine
Intro:
It is the same with worldviews. Just as a prescription for glasses
will either help or hinder your eyes, your worldview will either help or hinder
your mind as it tries to understand the world.
Your worldview is like a tree's roots-it is essential to your life and
stability. Just as we cannot see the roots of a tree, we cannot see your
worldview. We see only the exposed part of it-your actions.
Your worldview is like a tree's roots-it is essential to your life and
stability. Just as we cannot see the roots of a tree, we cannot see your
worldview. We see only the exposed part of it-your actions.
The term worldview, refers to any set of ideas, beliefs, convictions,
or values that provides a framework or map to help you understand God, the
world, and your relationship to God and the world.
Philosophies that
are prevalent today
that drive many people:
1. FATALISM
- its all fixed - therefore we might as well resign ourselves
to the events, circumstances of life since they follow an irrational blind
process.
- leads to the philosophy of despair – Nietzche
- system of thinking that sucks all the hope and motivation
from life.
- increasingly feels like a trapped robot and life becomes
depressing and an unchangeably dreadful existence!!
2. HUMANISM
- Humanity is
glorious therefore exalt yourself.
- Denies the
reality of the depravity of man.
- On the contrary -
humans possess great and grand potential & are able to do anything on their
OWN.
- Holds that We're good
enough and strong enough and capable enough
to pull it off regardless.
- This philosophy
was first displayed openly at the
- This philosophy
may be illustrated by William Earnest Henly in a poem often used in high school
lit classes titled "Invictus" which communicates the humanistic
philosophy very eloquently.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable
soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud:
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the
scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
Get the picture - man is the master of
his own fate, the captain of his own soul.
Man is indomitable, unconquerable -
invincible.
Man is in charge not God.
3. HEDONISM -
EPICURANISM
- Life is a ball -
so enjoy yourself (defective definition of enjoyment)
- Old: Eat, drink
and be merry for tomorrow we die.
- New: If it feels
good do it.
- Your free,
unaccountable, available for anything as long as it feels good - forget the
consequences.
- Totally throws moral restraint - self
discipline to the wind.
4. MATERIALISM
- Possessions
satisfy so indulge yourself.
- "one who
dies with the most toys wins.”
- This is a
philosophy that motivates many people today to varying degrees.
- Many become a
slave to the details of life, bigger home, best furnishings, designer clothes,
slickest cars, yachts, campers you name it.
- DOL will not
satisfy - always something more, newer, better, more impressive.
- w/o BD which gives us the capacity to put things into
perspective we'll never be able to truly enjoy the DOL as we should.
REM:
The prodigal son (Lk 15) is a good
illustration of one who pursued this evil insanity.
9:4 For whoever is joined with all the
living, there is hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.
- Always for anyone as long as they are
still breathing there is hope.
-
The significance of life over death in ref to being able to make a choice is reinforced by this proverb. - How's that??
-
Today we might make the contrast something like this -- it is better to be a
homeless street person, a beggar than to be the dead president of GM – IBM.
9:5 For
the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they
any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten.
9:6 Indeed
their love, their hate and their zeal have already perished, and they will no
longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.
-
One of the keys to understanding these
two verses is found in the last phrase of vs:6 - he's
speaking from the perspective of 'under the sun' as life is lived in the world.
- not the perspective of the dead and their status as
dead.
-
In fact the wider context is dealing with enjoying life vs:7-9 no longer have a share - ql,xe (µ˘leq) used in
We must remember
that in the Old Testament and therefore from Solomon’s perspective there was no
heaven as we know it.
So in the Old
Testament since there was no heaven they didn’t look forward to the grave; the
grave to them was not victory at all, and when they looked forward, their
perspective was like this: they died, they went to the grave, and the Old
Testament saints couldn’t see anything in this interval until the resurrection; As we noted in Dan
12:2
So this is why in verse 6 he says, “they had no more portion forever in any thing that is done
under the sun,” you are removed from history at the instant of death.
You changed your
eternal destiny when you made a choice of believing in Jesus Christ. In an instant of time history is totally and
completely reversed when you receive Christ as your Savior.
- Now here he
starts out by saying the living know they will die and the point is that they
then have the opportunity to prepare for it.
-
He grasps the finality of death and makes the observation that it terminates
the enjoyments of life in this world.
9:7-9 Enjoy life while you have it!
9:7 Go then,
eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God
has already approved your works.