Cast Your Bread, Sow Your Seed | Ecclesiastes 11 (11-19-2023: Mark Evans)

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon encourages us to live life to the fullest despite the vanity of life. He urges us to give generously and spread our wealth, not knowing what disasters may come. He reminds us that our acts of generosity will be rewarded, although not instantly. Solomon emphasizes that the purpose of life is to fear God and keep His commandments. He encourages us to cast our bread upon the waters with confidence, knowing that it will not be lost but returned to us in due time. If you have your Bibles, do make your way to the book of Ecclesiastes. We come now to the second-to-last chapter in this wonderful book, and so we'll be in chapter 11 today, as we'll read the chapter in its entirety before we begin. And these are the words of the God who sits enthroned above the cherubim. "'Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls there will lie. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know the way, the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. And so if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. When the grass withers and the flower fades, let us pray. Gracious God and Heavenly Father, indeed as we just confessed, the dawn of life is but vanity. And that here we are, your children, and yet children of dust are here today and gone tomorrow. That the wind would blow us away and our place knows us no more. And so here we are to humbly come before you, praying that you would bless us, that you would make your face shine upon us, that you would give us, once again, eyes to see, hearts to receive your word. Above all, eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ, the King in His beauty, that we might get a heart of wisdom, being wise for salvation, looking to that final day when we shall see Him as He is and so be like Him. Help me to preach unto this very end by your strength and by the power of your Spirit. In His name we pray, amen. You may be seated. So whenever an important sporting event comes up, my habit is to record the game and watch it later. This is the great advancement that our forefathers could only dream of. We can skip right over the commercials and watch it at our convenience. However, this, of course, also comes with a huge liability in that you have to avoid hearing the score of the game from those who already watched it. Of course, that doesn't always work out. I know during the Rangers run-up to the World Series, someone unwittingly spoiled my viewing pleasure by letting me know the winner ahead of time. And nonetheless, I still watched that particular game, even though I already knew the Rangers would win. And it's funny because I found myself during the game wondering, are they really going to win this game? They look terrible at certain innings, so I thought, there's no way they're going to win this game. Maybe that person was mistaken. Maybe they were talking about a different game, or maybe I misheard or misunderstood them. Sure enough, I watched on as the victory rolled in. And in many ways, that is the experience of the Christian life. We already know who wins. God has already told us that He will win and that He already has won because Jesus Christ has died, is buried, and He is risen. And therefore, He has definitively defeated the principalities and powers. He has put them to open shame. He has triumphed over them through the cross. His victory is secure. This we already know. But just like my moments of doubt when watching the game, we have our moments of doubt. When we watch on to the world, maybe we look at our own lives, we begin to waffle, thinking that, well, yes, I know that Christ has won and He shall win, but sure does it seem like it. Maybe I misunderstood. Maybe the victory is not quite as victorious as I once thought. And before long, we can begin to question whether anything we do for God really matters. We pray and pray, but our prayers seem unanswered. We give our money or our time generously. But does it really change anything or does it just go into a black hole somewhere? We might share the gospel fervently, eagerly, but does anyone get saved? Maybe you start a ministry or a fellowship, but nothing improves, nothing changes. What we see this morning, Solomon has for you not so much answers to those problems, but more like a rally cry to live life to the fullest. Now you might say, well, the one person who is least qualified to give a pep talk is Solomon, Mr. Vanity himself. But in fact, there is perhaps no one better because we know that Solomon will not flatter us. He will not sugarcoat anything. He will have us confront the vapors of life under the sun. And in that context, Solomon says, go and cast your bread, go and sow your seed, not despite vanity, but because of the vanity, go and live life to the utmost. As the New Testament will put it, to live is Christ, to die is gain. And we're just one chapter away from hearing Solomon's version, which is that the whole duty of man, the reason you and I have a pulse, is to fear God and to keep his commandments. And this morning, Solomon starts to rally us to that very end. We can see it right away in verse 1. You've got this image of a person throwing or casting bread upon the waters. Kids, I'm sure you've probably done this at some point if you've ever fed the ducks, right? You walk down to the water's edge and you start tossing bread, left and right, bread for all, spreading it all around. And this is a picture of the Christian's fearless generosity that we give freely, we give liberally, not reluctantly, not under compulsion. As 2 Corinthians just said, God loves a cheerful giver. Now, this may seem a little careless though, right? When you cast bread out onto the water, it seems wasteful, right? It's like nothing more than duck food at that point. Or it's just going to turn soggy and you'll likely never see it again. But notice the second part of the verse says, though casted out, it will come back to you. You will find it after many days. You can recall when Mary anointed Jesus' feet. She took that flask of expensive ointment and she poured all of it out for her Messiah. What did the disciples say? What a waste. This could have been sold and given to the poor. How irresponsible this was. But the Lord Jesus said, no, this is a beautiful thing that she has done and it will be remembered for all time. This is the teaching of our Lord, that the measures that we use will be measured back to us. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. Now, generally, we have a warranted suspicion against anything that smacks of the prosperity gospel, right? This crass idea of giving in order to get. I give God a dollar and now He owes me two dollars in return. But, of course, don't let those abuses swallow up Solomon's truth, which is, as we give generously, as we give sincerely, there is a sense in which we receive it back. Now, this is not scam the system so you can cash out on top. No, as Paul says, you will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous in every way. In God's economy, the bread goes out and then the bread returns so that more bread can be cast back out. There's no hint of instant gratification in verse 1, right? Heaven is not our slot machine. You see, the bread comes back, but only after many days, or as Jesus would even say, you will be repaid in the resurrection, in the life to come. Right? There's a sense in which the money we use down here is just monopoly money, right? It's just paper money, as the true reward waits us in the new heavens and the new earth. Verse 2 continues with that same idea, not just give generously, but give widely. It reads, give a portion to seven, even to eight. You don't know what disaster may happen on earth. Now, some commentators think the idea here is not so much giving, but investing, right? As we say it, diversify your portfolio. Don't put all your money in stocks, or bonds, or gold, or crypto, because as verse 2 says, you don't know what disaster may happen. Real estate market could plummet, bonds go belly up, the S&P tanks. Life under the sun means that the surefire investment is not so surefire. So the verse could simply be saying, diversify your risk, spread it around. But the more likely meaning, I think, is that vanity of life actually is all the more encouragement for generosity. I recall the parable of that rich young fool that we just read. And the topic of, does life consist in the abundance of possessions? That's an Ecclesiastes question, if there ever was. And there he is, hoarding up his treasure, building bigger barns, saying, I have ample goods, what am I going to do now, but eat, drink, and be merry. And then the Lord God comes to him, you fool, don't you realize, your soul is required of you this very night. That conclusion, so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. And Solomon says the same thing here in his own way. This is because you don't know what disaster may come, cast your bread all the more. And hopefully what you love about Ecclesiastes is, Solomon says, yes, eat, drink, and be merry. But the only way to do that rightly is by fearing the Lord. And when that is done, we can cast our bread on the waters with confidence. And though it seems gone to us, it's not lost at all. It goes into that heavenly currency exchange. And we will receive it back, that as we sow generously, we will reap all the more generously. This is one of the reasons why Christians are to be such an industrious people. If you remember from Ephesians, when Paul said, let the man labor so that he might have something to share with anyone who is in need. Now, one of the great marvels that I love of gardening is that when you sow a seed and you watch it grow and you watch it mature, there comes this point when you realize there is far more crop than you could ever consume by yourself. This little tiny seed has produced this mega abundant harvest. And you realize this is how God has made the world. Of course, the only way to see that though is through the eyes of faith. If we look at it through God's wisdom. And that's very much the point with verse 3. Sometimes the simplest truths are the most important truths. And you see the second half of verse 3 reads this. If a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. Now, maybe you hear that and you think, duh. Of course, a tree falls down, where else would it be? It's lying where it fell. You might say, Solomon, are you feeling okay? You know, how much sleep did you get last night when you wrote this verse? Are you losing steam here at the end of your book? But let me put verse 3 in more modern terms that might flesh out its significance. Because if you were to stumble upon a college campus today, maybe you wander into the philosophy department, don't be surprised if you hear someone actually argue against what Solomon is saying. They might respond, well, maybe the tree is lying down from your perspective, but not from my perspective. That's your truth, but I have my own version of truth on this matter. That might even go as far as to say, well, the tree could just be an illusion. You know, maybe the tree is just a projection of my mind. And maybe you say, well, that's just plain silly. Nobody thinks that way. But you see, even many of our current debates today on things like gender norms, human sexuality, are at bottom just wrestling over questions of reality. Is reality real? Or can we not just create our own version of reality? And so when Solomon says, where a tree falls, there it shall lie, it's actually a very profound statement on human knowledge. Saying man can know reality and man's knowledge can correspond to reality. It's a way of saying man submits to God's reality, not God submitting to man's reality. And if you're here this morning and not a Christian, this is the bedrock confidence of the Christian faith that God has revealed himself to mankind. And man can really, truly know and believe in the truth. Now, the world would say it's arrogant to claim truth. Scripture says it's arrogant to call God a liar. And his supreme truth is revealed in Jesus Christ. And yet man rejects this truth because of the evil in his heart, because of the blindness of his eyes. But the good news is that for those who cry out with a simple cry, Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. God gives man eyes to see the truth and to know it and to believe it. And that means the Christian can proceed with confidence, even courage, that we are not trapped in a world of illusions. And the more we forget that, the more we become like this poor man in verse 4, that he who observes the wind will not sow. He who regards the clouds will not reap. In keeping with the farmer metaphor, as Solomon says, this farmer who's always waiting for the perfect weather conditions to sow or the perfect weather conditions to harvest will never do so. This is one of those verses that just strikes a blow to the idealist, to the perfectionist at heart, the one who is always inside his or her own head, right? Always waiting for just the right moment, dreaming of lofty goals, but never rolling up the sleeves and getting dirty. As Psalm 131 says, do not occupy yourself with things that are too great or too marvelous for you. Your energy is better spent sowing seeds. This is a good approach to ministry, isn't it? Sometimes we wait and we wait and we wait and we wait for just the perfect opportunity with the perfect conditions, the perfect moment to share the gospel, anxious that if we make just one wrong move, we have thrown off God's eternal plans. It's perhaps helpful also to our younger members. Idealism tends to be stronger when you are younger. You might be saying, I'm waiting for just the perfect job or just the perfect man or the perfect woman to marry. Well, let Ecclesiastes burst your bubble, right? The perfect man is not out there. He is seated at God's right hand and you are going to marry a klutz compared to him. So don't observe the winds. Instead, go and sow your time, sow your talent, sow your treasure generously and you can be certain it will come back to you. Now for all that we do know, one of the things that Solomon loves to show us is the humility of wisdom. Right? The more and more we know, we also realize how little we actually know. The great physicist Werner Heisenberg famously formulated what's known as his uncertainty principle. He rocked the physics world when he said, we cannot know both the position and the velocity of a simple particle. Well, verse 5, you've got Solomon's uncertainty principle. It reads this, we do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child. Now we know far more today than did ancient Israel on conception and pregnancy, right? We know of zygotes and fertilized ovums and embryos and amniotic fluid and so on and so forth. We know a great deal today. And yet for all our advancements, Solomon says, you don't have the first clue how the ruach, how the spirit, how the soul of man makes its way into a mother's womb. Right? This is the woman's glory, that she houses eternity inside of her. She is the mother of all the living. And of course, in a far graver sense, though we may have more medical knowledge than did Solomon's contemporaries, we have become fools in our worldly wisdom. Because by our so-called advancements, we deny that such a soul even comes into a mother's womb. We have become wiser than God, a terrifying place to be. For to modern man, the womb is not a sacred space where God creates a soul that will last forever. Now we're so sophisticated, so enlightened, that it's nothing more than a spiritless, soulless, sterile fetus. This is why debates over abortion are ultimately just debates over the authority of God versus the pride of man. You see, Solomon says, verse 5, quite clearly, we know that God creates a soul in the womb, but we cannot explain it. Right? We can't go into a laboratory and prove it. We can't perform some kind of empirical test to validate this. We can't even go to Mom and ask, Mom, Mom, how did that soul make its way into your womb? No, it is simply the majesty of Scripture, of God's revelation that reveals to us this truth. And how humbling is that? We can't even explain how one soul is formed. And just think of how effortless this is for God. But every day, under the sun, God brings into existence hundreds of thousands of souls from nothing. And we can't even explain a single occurrence. Well, the even greater point, as the verse continues, is just as we don't know something that elementary, comes this greater point at the end of verse 5. So too, you do not know the work of God who makes everything. As Hebrews says, by faith, we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God. Things brought into existence out of nothing. It's sometimes claimed that abortion debates are a distraction, right? They distort and get us off of the church's mission. But you see Solomon's logic, right? If we deny that God creates in the womb body and soul, why stop there? Let's not deny that God created all things of nothing by the Word of His power. And positively speaking, what a rich truth of the Christian life, that not always to humble us before our God, that He is the God who brings into existence the things that are not. Kids, a fun experiment you could do today, or maybe next Sunday school, pose this to your teacher. Try to make something out of nothing. You can make whatever you want, an art, a craft, a drawing, make whatever you want. The only rule is, you cannot use anything at all. You'll soon find this is impossible. See kids, how awesome, how powerful is your God who makes all things of nothing. Well, once again, we get back on Solomon's rollercoaster as he takes us from that lofty height now down to something very practical in verse 6. He says, in the morning, sow your seed. At evening, don't withhold your hand. You don't know which will prosper, this or that, or maybe they'll both be good. I know from my own experience in gardening that when you put seeds into the ground, some seeds will germinate and others won't. And no matter how green your thumb is, there's really no way to tell which seeds will sprout and which ones won't. But Solomon's encouragement is, not only is that a reason to not sow, he says, go for it all the more. Go and sow your seeds in faith. Yes, you don't know what's going to happen, but sow them all the more. And that is to be us. What did Paul say? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. God gives the growth. And it's his prerogative to give 30, 60, 100-fold increase. We don't know. It might be famine. It might be feasting. Why is the gospel spreading more in Africa than America? Why does it spread more in China than in Japan? We can make our educated guesses, but ultimately, we don't know. But our job is to sow and to sow faithfully. And that means with our very lives as living testimonies in word and deed that adorn the gospel. As parents, we're to be always sowing the seeds of faith for our children. When we sit down, when we rise up, when we go about the way, a simple trip to the grocery store, seizing teachable moments to sow God's word. Our work around our non-Christian co-workers, we're sowing seeds of light. And just as the gardener puts a seed in and expects a crop, we should expect and ask that God would bless our meager efforts. The great missionary William Carey once said, expect great things of God. Attempt great things for God. And we are far too often cautious, too risk-averse, too slow to sow. I remember early on in this church plant, one man was questioned as to the risk of leaving a stable church for the uncertainty of a church plant. And his simple answer, I thought, was very wise. He simply said, why wouldn't I go? Why wouldn't I take a risk for the kingdom? And how often we flip that around and we say, why would I? Why should I take a risk for the kingdom? Have we forgotten He is the God who is able to do abundantly more than all that we ask or think? Have we forgotten just how much our God is for us? And a part of our fallenness is that we begin to question just how good, just how gracious our God is, that He's the cosmic killjoy up in the sky. Well, Solomon says in verse 7, look up in that sky, that something as simple as enjoying the sun shining down on you is no accident, that the sun's pleasant rays are a daily witness to God's goodness to us. And how much more is that true for the new covenant Christian, that as Paul says, just as God said, let there be light at creation. God has shined the light of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ into our hearts. And that is how much God is for His people. If He did not spare His own Son, how would He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Go and sow your seed. From these final two verses, Solomon now returns us to something that we do know but often forget, and that is God's final judgment. You see it in verse 9. He says, rejoice, O young man, in your youth, let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes, but know for all these things God will bring you in to judgment. We could simplify that verse in just two words, rejoice and remember. Firstly, rejoice, to be young. I am old enough now to know that I am no longer young. And there's this exuberance, right, a thrill to youth that you should enjoy. This is a gift. There are things that you can do and only do when you are young. If you doubt that, just ask any older person here and they will tell you that is true. Rejoice in this gift. But Solomon also says at the end of this verse to rejoice but also to remember, namely, remember our God is not mocked. What a man reaps, he will...sorry, what a man sows, he will reap. Because when we're young, we're more likely to be impulsive, we're not as wise, we're not as rooted and grounded. We can make rash mistakes with dire consequences. And when you're young, death seems quite far away and even further away is judgment. And here's Solomon's counsel, all that we do from cradle to grave is brought into judgment. And so just a word to our youth, to our younger members, to our young adults. There's a unique temptation when you are young to say, I'll serve the Lord when I'm older. I'll follow Christ when I'm a grown man, a husband, a father. I'll follow Christ when I'm a grown woman, a mother, a wife. I see my parents do it now, I'll do it later on. But for now, I'm going to kind of do what I want to do. The great J.C. Ryle wrote a little book called Thoughts for Young Men. It's this little book that packs a big punch. And there he admonishes young people, particularly young men, of the temptation to put off and delay following Christ. Ryle put it this way, I observe that none pay so little outward respect to Christianity as do young men. They are the most neglectful of church, of Bible reading, of prayer, of the means of grace and so on. And then he says, young men seem to think that they do not need these things. Christianity might be good for women and older men, but not for them. Now Ryle wrote that in the 1800s, and yet it's even truer today, right? Statistics say the most unlikely person you'll find in church is the young man. Now indeed, we have done our youth no favors, right? Our culture idolizes youth. The word celebrates being blown about by the wind and carried around by youthful passions. Even worse, the church has done young men no favors either, right? The modern church is effeminate in countless ways. It's a near-running joke that in the modern church we are singing romantic love songs to our boyfriend, Jesus, as we're longing for a kind of emotional catharsis. These are things that young men generally find unappealing. Well, that's the bad news. But Ryle also gives the good news, and that is that it's possible to be young and to serve the Lord. The time is now, the time is today, to follow Christ. Just think of all the biblical examples. Young Joseph, young Samuel, young David, young Daniel, young Abijah, young Obadiah, young Josiah, young Timothy. They're young just like we are today. They had their challenges, they had their lusts to war against, they had their trials to endure. But hear the words of the boy Samuel, Lord, here am I. Your servant is listening. And above all, consider who else, the young Jesus, who at age 12 is in his father's house worshiping his God. Look to him. He knows what it is to be young and to serve the Lord. Young people, hear us. For better or for worse, you are the future church. On the final verse, we turn from our younger members to our older members, which in a sense is a word for us all. We are all traveling towards the country of age. And so what verse 9 says, rejoicing your youth, verse 10 says, remember, it will come to an end soon. And so his counsel is remove, namely, you see him there say, remove vexation from your heart. Put away pain from your body. For youth in the dawn of life are vanity. Now the assumption of the New Testament is that no one ever hated his own flesh. God made us to be a people of self-interest, and that's good because that trains us how to better care for other people. But yet so great is our fallenness that we can even fall into self-injury. We can remain in abusive relationships. We might neglect medical care. There are times that what we know we are doing is harmful to us, harmful to our bodies, and yet we do it anyways. And a life under the sun means that we will face accidents, injuries, illnesses. And Solomon's practical wisdom is, as much as possible, remove such pain. Of course, Solomon doesn't mean go seek pleasure instead of pain, nor does he mean avoid pain at all costs. But it's just as we confess from the Westminster Catechism. We have this duty to preserve our own lives. So the simple idea is, if you have a headache, seek a remedy. You scrape your elbow, put on some ointment. If you're in perpetual pain, do everything you can to lawfully alleviate it. And above all, I would say, if you are in need of soul care, then seek it out from Mother Church. There is nothing righteous whatever about self-inflicted suffering. The dawn of life is vanity as we wait for that day when there will be no more pain. That is our great hope. Well, how then shall we live in light of this vanity? Is this a call for despair, for apathy, for depression, to build bigger barns perhaps? Let's go back to that opening question. Does it really matter? What does it all amount to? You see, this morning, Solomon says, Go and fearlessly, joyfully sow your seeds. Again, that can be monetarily, but more likely brought it out to our time, our talent, our treasure, in a sense, our entire lives, our living sacrifices that are to be sown unto the Lord. And that brings to the final question. What was the greatest seed ever sown? What was the greatest seed ever sown? You might remember the Lord Jesus Himself had something to say about sowing seeds. In John's Gospel, what did He say? That a seed must be sown into the earth in order to bear fruit, and to do so, that seed must die. If it doesn't die, it will not bear fruit. But in dying and by dying, that seed can bear much fruit. Of course, the seed that Jesus spoke of was His very own life, death, and resurrection. This fruit of salvation, this harvest of righteousness, it's not given to meager portions of seven or eight. No, it is a harvest for every tribe, every tongue, every nation, without number. And church, you need to hear, it is this and to this that Jesus Christ commissions us. That He says, go and cast your bread, go and sow your seed, go and be always abounding in the work of the Lord because your work is not in vain. And so let us sow generously with a confidence that we will reap generously all for the Lord of the harvest. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we praise You that You are the God who is all-generous. That we see this in simply the things of creation, that we can look up at the sky and see Your light shining down upon us, that we can look to our neighbor, that we can look to our spouse, that we can look to our children, that we can look to our health, that we can hardly look anywhere without seeing Your generosity. But we praise You above all that we can see this, that You did not spare Your own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all, and that through Him and with Him, how will You not also graciously give us all things? And so we do pray, Father, we would go forth and imitate and radiate this glorious truth, the truth of the gospel, with our time, with our talent, with our treasures, all to Your glory. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.