Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

Ecclesiastes chapter 11 and reading verses 1 to 6 Cast thy bread upon the waters where thou shalt find it after many days give a portion to 7 and also to 8 but I’ll know us not what evil shall be upon the earth if the clouds be full of rain they empty themselves upon the earth and if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be he that observeth the wind shall not so he that regard if the clouds shall not reap as thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child even so thou know us not the works of God who makeeth all. In the morning so thy seed, in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that or whether they both shall be alike good. And God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. The birds are wonderful creatures and we find that those who study birds have told us that the great albatross flies around the world three times during its lifetime. And these giant birds that have seven-foot wingspins can stand the buffeting of ocean gales for days as they fly. But strangely enough, if they land on the deck of a ship out on the ocean, they get seasick. In flight, they have no problem. If they land on the boat, they get sick. A true believer can go across the face of life buffeted by all the winds of adversity as long as he soars above the world by faith. as long as you remember you’re not of the world. You may be in the world, but you’re not of the world. And you live different. You’ll be okay. Now Solomon is concerned with the meaning and the direction of life. He has been considering in the first ten chapters the secular life, the under the sun, living where God and eternity are ignored. And in those ten chapters, we might say he has exhumed the corpse of humanism, living for this world. A futureless thought as far as with regard to life. A godless, secular living. people have. And he said, and he says it repeatedly, it is a vain and meaningless life. Now Solomon, in the last two chapters, is going to focus here on the life of faith. And the writer’s tone changes. He’s been very sober-minded up to this point, but he’s more triumphant at this juncture. From the dark pessimism that he has laid out for us in these ten chapters, he now gives us bright hope. Fearing God and keep his commandment, keeping his commandments, is the whole duty of man. He’s going to tell us at the end of this book, living for the Lord is a good life. It would be a happy life where it provides meaning. and purpose for you. I’m going to talk about the life of faith. Now let me say this. Your life must be an adventure in faith. In verse one, we read this, cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days. Casting your bread is a faith-based exercise. Casting your bread upon the waters reminds me in my younger years when we used to take the girls with us, the North Park, and we’d throw out bread when you were allowed to do it. It was to throw out bread and the ducks would come by and get it and big swarms of fish also would become schools of fish. They’d be coming following it up, looking for any piece of bread they could gobble up as well. You know, we’d take a couple loads of bread and feed the fish and the ducks. But you know what? I never got my bread back. They gobbled it up and I didn’t get it back. So that’s not what Solomon’s talking about here by casting bread upon the waters. He seems to have in mind planting and harvest, either in the now Delta or in the Jordan plains. Each year the Nile River or the Jordan River would overflow its banks. And that was the time for sowing seed. Because before they had modern irrigation methods, the annual flooding would recede. As the waters began to go down, you’d throw your bread, or actually your seed, to the water and it would sink down into the mud and get buried. And then it would spring up and give a crop afterwards. Your seed might be you know, wheat, barley, spelt, rye, whatever. And it would disappear in that rich soil. That’s the way they planted many times. And so it would germinate and give a rich harvest. The word for bread here in the Hebrew is lecum, or the grain from which the bread was made. So the bread in seed form here must be hidden in the soil in expectation of a later harvest. Now, the farmer has to do this in faith. He has to sow the seed, believing that God will cause germination and production of a greater amount of food than those seeds, in just the seeds themselves. So when you plant a seed, you get this plant from it, and out of that plant, you get a whole bunch of new fruits or vegetables, and in that you get all the different seeds. seeds that come with that as well. So we would say this, that farming is really a faith-based exercise. Plant your seat, trust in the Lord to provide whatever rain is necessary, whatever sunshine is necessary, and eventually you look to him to give you a harvest. Commerce and business also provides a model here that illustrates this point. It takes bread we think of that as money or capital to make an investment. Some people call this seed money. And it takes a degree of trust to venture that capital in uncertain situations, the uncertain seas of the commercial world, are you going to gain anything with your money? Well, we have to do it in faith. We have to trust that God will bless our efforts in this regard. In ancient times there was a rich import, export business that ran through the cities of Tyron Seiden. And they did all their trading across the sea, across the Mediterranean, to all the different parts of Europe and even Africa. And thou made them rich. So casting your bread upon the water, obtaining a return may indeed be, a way of describing the mercantile enterprises here. You can make a fortune in foreign trade over the seas. Today we might talk about real estate, we might talk about the stock market, we might talk about some type of business venture that people invest in. In the 19th century, Tycoon John Jacob Aster garnered his first million as a fur and sea trader. And yet, it was the budding New York City real estate market where he made his killing. Confident in New York’s bright future, he would buy up all the suburban land around New York City that he could buy. In 1810, he sold a plot of land near Wall Street for a seemingly paltry sum of $8,000. The buyer asked him, why didn’t you wait a little while? In a year from now, it’s probably going to be worth $12,000. Asked a reply, that’s true. But see what I’m going to do with that $8,000. He says, I’m going to buy 80 lots above Canal Street. And by the time one lot is worth $12,000, my 80 lots will be worth $8,000. thousand dollars and that’s what he did with the money. Times soon vindicated his faith in New York City and the real estate market. And to this day, Manhattan’s richest locations are land that John Astor bought and then sold. And it made him the wealthiest American of his day. So he cast his bread upon the waters an investment and he got a handsome return. But for us, as Christians, casting our bread is a faith-based exercise. We do it believing that God will bless our efforts. Now, living and working by faith is what God expects you to do as you go through this life. Solomon is teaching here that life is a faith venture. Casting your bread upon the waters is not an honest. option. It seems to be like a command. Do something productive with your life. To increase your money or what you have by wise investment, whether it be farming, whether it be business, or whatever it may be. Do you remember the story of the parable, the talents that Jesus told? The money given to each of the servants by the servants by the children. the rich owner of the household was to be invested and the money was to be made from that money some risk would be incurred but the idea was to increase it. The first two servants doubled the money they were given and he commended them both for being faithful. The third servant, remember, buried the money in the earth and then gave it back to the owner and he was very upset with him and condemned him. He said the least you could have done is put it in the bank and I could have got interest from him. You got it got something on it. So he was condemned as a wicked and slothful servant, wasn’t he? Whatever is not a faith is sin. And so he wasn’t praised for his actions. The bottom line of the parable is this. The two investing servants were men who lived by faith. They did what they could with what they had, and they made a profit. I think this is what God would require of us, that we must work and live believing that what we do, that God will bless it and prospered in some fashion. we’re not to act like the wicked servant and merely sit around and do nothing. Invest your time and effort believing in God’s blessing. Whatever you do, consider it in investing, of investment. And realize that in due time, God rewards the diligence. There’s a principle of scripture that we find in Proverbs 10.4. He becomeeth poor that deal with with this laccan. But the hand, but the hand is a principle of scripture that we find in Proverbs 10. He is a principle of scripture that we find. of the diligent, make it rich. So your life must be an adventure in faith. Secondly, your life of faith involves commitment. Now, you must hedge against the evil day, he says here in verse 2. Give a portion to seven and also to eight, for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. Any investment we engage in, we should diversify in order to reduce our risks. As Solomon urges you to diversify your investments, hope against the evil day. Trouble could come. We don’t know what’s going to happen. Misfortune, calamity are part of life. Who knows what crop will fail? Who knows? What ship will be seized by the coastal pirates. Who knows what merchant will run off with the profits? What real estate will decline in value? Or what stock that you have in a company will go to nothing because the company goes bankrupt. So you spread your investments. He says in seven or eight places, he says. In other words, do the wise thing. So that a simple tragedy don’t wipe you out, Solomon sees this is the pathway to success here in prosperity. We have a saying, you know, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Well, this is sort of the equivalent of that, the biblical principle of economic diversity. So as a Christian, don’t be too narrow-minded in what you do. As though there’s only, you know, one. one type of investment in which you could make money. We don’t know that. Often it’s wise to try different approaches. You know, a farmer doesn’t just plant corn and think, well, that’s going to be enough. That’ll get me by. He plants, you know, the corn and the rye and the oats and the barley and the spelled and the soybeans and so forth. Who knows which crop is going to be the best one? Who knows what disease will eat up one of the crops or something? So he’s spread. He puts it into different categories. And somewhere along the line, he’s trusting that something, maybe several of them, will make money for him. So the key idea is being diversified and have multiple interests. It doesn’t actually matter if you’re making a lot of money, per se, you’re being productive. You’re making something. You’re doing something with your money. So your time and effort and investment in business and family and church will be rewarded by God and he will bless it. So try different things, he says. And then he says you must by faith redeem the time in verses three and four. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth. and if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, and the place where the tree falleth there it shall be. He that observeth the wind shall not sow, he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. The time and events do not wait for any man. Clouds full of water pour out the rain and they pass on. So if you want to catch some of the rain, if you want to collect it, you’ve got to be ready for. for when it’s raining. Take advantage of that. Trees lie as they were falling, and time has passed perhaps to remove it. They’ve rotted, they’ve fallen down. Now you’ve lost the opportunity to use the wood. And it just lies there to the north of the south and rots away. You don’t control these things. And so there’s so no simple, it’s simply no use for us, I think, to wait for the ideal time of working. convenient season to time every site thing precisely because you can’t. We have to strike why their iron is hot. Take advantage of the opportunities as we see them coming on the horizon. So if you put off living life as you ought to live it, you’re going to find it slipped away from it. I mean, the farmer, if he sat around merely watching the weather report or listening for the weather report, looking for an excuse not to plant, then he never plant. The farmer must take advantage of a seeming calm day, maybe in the morning when the wind isn’t blowing very strongly, so he can sow his seed, or a dry day where he can harvest his crop. Everything happens in God’s good time, according to his providence. Your responsibility, then, is to get on with living by faith in the world. and find out what’s best for today. Do what’s best for today’s situation. Urgency and aggressive faith are demanded. Procrastination is therefore not only a theft of time, but a robber of blessing from you. He becometh poor who dealeth with the slack hands, we’ve already read. So redeem the time you have on the earth. I like what Ecclesiastes, 9 tense says, whatsoever thy hand find it to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whether thou ghost. You got to do it while you’re alive. You’ve got to take advantage of the time you have. Now your faith doesn’t require your full understanding, as verse 5 indicates to us. As thou knowest not what, is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child. Even so thou knowest not the works of God who makeeth all. We don’t know exactly how God works things. And he gives us an example here. We shouldn’t try to guess all of God’s ways just because we have knowledge of some of his ways revealed to us. Faith in God requires us to receive his blessing despite the fact that we’re ignorant to exactly how he’s going to work. There is a mysterious element to God’s providence. He illustrates this by the mysterious act of conception. The new King James version and some other versions have the word wind here. The word for spirit is used for both wind and spirit in scripture. But I think King James is correct. For Solomon appears to be speaking about conception and the mysterious formation of man’s spirit and body in the womb. The spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the almighty have given me life. God forms you in the womb and it’s as Russell read tonight from the Psalm I think it was 139 that we read. And then God gives the spirit. He breathes into us the breath of life and we become a living preacher, so to speak. How once human soul comes into existence we don’t exactly know, but that’s what the Bible seems to indicate. How do the bones and these these tiny cells grow in the womb of the mother of the baby? I have no idea. We don’t know. You don’t really know the answer to these questions. That shouldn’t stop us because we don’t know the answer answer to this from viewing the fact that God is at work in all things in this life and trusting in him and going about our life of faith. You know God’s working for your good, so we try to take advantage of that. Commit by works under the Lord Bible. And that’s what we should do. Proverbs 16, 3. So turn to the Lord for strength and guidance in all things and do not worry about the matter. God can give you peace of heart even if you don’t know how everything is going to turn out. Faith doesn’t require your full understanding. And you must by faith work hard. Notice verse 6. In the morning so thy seed in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou know us not whether shall prosper either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. Several years ago, the South African territory of Kawazulu. We should find that the government dug irritation ditches alongside both sides of a river. And this allowed the rich soil to be farmed. Now the Christian Zulus, who lived on one side of the river, produced lush crops and prosper. The traditional demon worshippers, who lived on the other side of the river, continued to live in abject poverty, and almost nothing was made out of the land, even though it was pretty much exactly the same. Why? Well, the Christians believe that they were responsible before God to work hard and live soberly. So they had the pure at work, I think. They did the work under the Lord. And the pagan neighbors, on the other hand, viewed work as woman’s responsibility. The men spent their time drinking and fighting. Solomon says here, engage in hard work. He says, work in the morning, you know, work in the daytime, work in the evening too. With our limited understanding, we don’t know what is going to be successful. We don’t know the future. And so by doing so, you can have confidence that the Lord will prosper your efforts because you put your hard work into it. You put your heart into it. You’re trusting by faith that God will blush. The great albatross can stand the buffeting ocean winds for days as it flies vast distances. Get seasick, though, if it lands on a ship. As a true believer, you’ve got to soar above the world if you want to be successful. You have to live by faith. Live in a way that’s a way an adventure by faith. As your life of faith is lived, it must be one of commitment. Faith in works, go hand in hand. So we trust in the Lord, and we put our effort into what we’re doing, and we can be successful because the Lord blesses his people. And so let’s keep that in mind. Let’s close with the Word of Prayer.