What's Expected of You (Ecclesiastes #14)

Text: Ecclesiastes 11-12

Realize opportunities (vss 1-8)

What’s unsure is whether your endeavors will work or not.
- Be generous and it’ll probably come back around to you.
- Verse 3 is such a sobering final statement about your choices.
  - There is such a pride in thinking that what you don’t correct now will somehow be given another chance to correct later. No, now is the test. If pain and misery didn’t correct the drug addict in this life, it won’t correct it in the next. He is still the same man unmoved by pain and suffering, but desiring drugs.
  - Someone says they just need more time to correct things. But if you won’t correct evil when you’re on a deadline, there is no reason to think you’d correct it when there is no deadline.
  - And then why would more chances be given to us when we turned down so many chances in this life?
- People make all kinds of excuses for not doing right according to verse 4.
James 4:13-17 describes this state of man and the way he ought to conduct his life.
What is sure is darkness is coming and vanity is the law of life.

Rejoice in the light (vss 9-10)

Therefore, rejoice when you can.
Rejoice in a right way b/c God will judge your life.
- The idea that Solomon is some kind of agnostic or nihilist who doesn’t know God because of the things he says is clearly wrong.
- Solomon is constantly referencing God throughout this book. But that’s the danger of verse-by-verse study without understanding the point. The details become a confused mess of statements that at worst contradict themselves.
In verse 10 Solomon goes back to the idea of not making things harder on yourself. Don’t introduce things into your life that’ll make life worse.

Remember your Creator (vss 12:1-8)

Therefore, remember your Creator early, while you can.
Solomon poetically describes getting old.
The record of life is in the body. Your body contains your record. Medical people deal with this regularly.

Render to God what belongs to God (vss 9-14)

Vanity is a reality, but there are good things to know and meaningful ways to spend your time during your vain life.
The wise words build a sound structure. It’s reminiscent of Matthew
Romans 2:16 judges the secret works according to the gospel. Solomon is speaking about this part of the gospel years before Paul explains it in Romans.
2 Corinthians 5:10