All right, let’s continue on with the plight of human nature and the plight of Solomon and see how much we can learn from this to apply to ourselves, but also so we can help others today, and to realize that we are in training to be the kings and priests to rule in the Kingdom of God during the Millennium. And so this is going to be a great instruction for us on how we can help people minimize going through this cycle and coming to apostasy. But when they come to the point of lethargy that they can see what they need to do to stir themselves up and to change course and to come back to the things that they need to do. Now I think this. It just came to mind just now, which is this: This is why God has His holy days and His feasts. And this is why the covenant is renewed every year at the Passover time. Because you see, in order to combat this lethargy, and in order to combat being overwhelmed with things, and like Solomon here, he hated life, hated everything that he did because he could see that all of these physical things were leading to nowhere. Because he wouldn’t be around to enjoy it. So this is why God gives us renewal every year with the Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and now the Feast of Tabernacles. Because this gives us the strength and the encouragement and the incentive to overcome these things. And also then gives us a greater desire for the Spirit of God, the way of God, the Kingdom of God. So it’s very important that we learn these lessons.

So let’s come back here to Ecclesiastes 2 and let’s pick it up here in verse 18 and continue on because there’s an awful lot for us to learn. We’re obviously not going to go through all the book of Ecclesiastes, but I encourage you to read through it and to learn the lessons of it and to apply some of the things that we have here as you go through it.

Verse 18: “Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun; because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.” And who was that? Rehoboam. And Rehoboam, as we saw, did not have very much wisdom at all though he was the son of Solomon, and he didn’t listen to the wise counsel, did he? No, he listened to the contemporary fellows. “Going to leave it to the man after me.” And probably looking at Rehoboam growing up and all the things that he was doing and how his life was, see. Now we don’t know how old Rehoboam was when Solomon wrote this, but he says: “And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? [See, because there’s still that choice] yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun.” So here he’s getting conceited in his own wisdom, isn’t he. He says: “This is also vanity.” So it’s also here a selfishness on the part of Solomon because he thought he was wise in his own eyes, which he was very wise. But when you come to the point that you’re wise in your own eyes and you don’t prepare for that which is coming after you then you’re foolish indeed. So he said, this is also vanity.

“Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour which I took under the sun. [“Well, just chuck it all.”] For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion.” So he’s talking about himself, “Look, I did all of these things and I did them in wisdom, but who am I going to leave it to?” It was probably all in the back of his mind about Rehoboam, his son, because it was by inheritance and succession of the firstborn, right? Yes.

So he thought about that and he said: “This also is vanity and a great evil. For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?” What is the final result of all of it? “For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.” So what he’s doing, he’s saying that he lost sleep over this. He worried about it at night. And it still didn’t solve it, did it? It still didn’t resolve it, did it? No. So then he said, “This is also vanity.” So what good does it do to worry? What good does it do to stay up at night and think about these things? Are you going to change it? No, the best he could do was prepare. But he didn’t prepare. He got so busy doing these extra-curricular activities and all the things that he was doing here that he lost sight of the overall goal and purpose of life.

So then he said: “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour [positive thinking – look on the good side]. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God.” So that’s the good part of it. “For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I?” In other words, “I’ve tasted every food, I’ve tasted wine, I’ve had all of these things. And who can do it more than me?” So he said, “Ok, I have that, but it still doesn’t satisfy.”

Verse 26: “For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail [And he did suffer the travail too, didn’t he? Yes.], to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Eccl. 2:1-26, KJV). So he stepped back and got an overall big picture. Now this is good. We need to step back in our lives and get an overall big picture. When we get the overall big picture… But you will see that he was focusing just on the things on the earth. You find very little if anything in Ecclesiastes, and maybe somewhat in the Proverbs, but you find very little if anything pertaining to eternal spiritual values pertaining to the eternal spiritual Kingdom of God. Very little. All on the physical plane. So we’re going to see that part of the solution to this is that God is going to run things differently. However, as we will see, it doesn’t change choice, because God will never take away choice from any human being because He has decreed that we all choose.

So Solomon stepped back and he said, “Well, let’s take a broad view. Let’s look at the big picture – Chapter 3, verse 1: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…” Likewise with God, there’s a time for every purpose. So he says, and he gives the whole cycle of life here, which is very interesting, isn’t it? “…A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill [that’s not murder, but to kill], and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up…” So you have all these things. So he’s looking at the whole cycle of life here.

“…A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing…” And you can think when you read these, just picture in your mind how this cycle of life is, and see the cycle of life in yourself and in your children, and other people around you. So that’s what he’s looking at – the big picture here.

“…A time to get, and a time to lose…” Every gambler knows that, see, but all the gambling never satisfies, does it? A lot of people think when they go to these great casinos and what a wonderful fantastic time it is. And you even have the ads, you know, about Las Vegas – “What you do here stays here”, you know so people can go over and sin and no one will know. You see, but God knows. So they get there and there are all of these lights and all of the glamour and all of the entertainment. You might say everything that Solomon raved about in Chapter 2 you have in Las Vegas. And a chance to lose everything or to make millions, if you could put it that way.

Verse 7: “…A time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?” So here’s the cycle of life. We all have a life to live. We all have things that we need to do. And what is the profit to it all? See, nothing about the Kingdom of God – just this life.

He says here, verse 10: “I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.” And we all are. And life is a struggle, and life is difficult and so forth. Now, for those that we are going to be teaching and ruling over in the Kingdom of God it’s not going to be quite that difficult, it’s not going to be quite that way as we will see here in just a little bit. So some of these things can be short-circuited somewhat. But God is going to provide, as we have seen, the greatest, the most, the best, and everything that there is, and so human nature cannot be unaffected by this. Just like living in the world that we are living in today, we’re not unaffected by it. We have to live in the world. We’re not to be of the world as Jesus said, but we still have to live in it. When we see these things and it exercises in our lives the same way, doesn’t it? Yes.

“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart…” In other words people want to go out and do things, and accomplish, and build, and make, and God set it in our hearts to do that. That’s good and right. “…So that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them…” That is, the end result of all of these physical things are not going to result in good: “…but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.” And then realize that all of that comes from God. Now isn’t it interesting here that through all of this how little God is mentioned. We are going to see he mentions God somewhat, but how in all of this how little God is mentioned, which also tells us that Solomon did not understand the plan of God. And probably his sins cut him off from understanding more of God’s plan than he would have known otherwise.

So let’s go on, verse 13: “And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.” Sounds a lot like what President Bush has said, “We want to bring freedom to everyone in the world. This is the best thing in the world. It’s a gift from God.” True, but not the way he’s trying to do it. See, only God can make that work. And this is what we’re going to do in the Millennium.

Now he says: “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever [so there he brings in a little bit about God]: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him.” So even though he mentions God notice he doesn’t have a detailed understanding of the plan of God. Now because of that I want us to really think and understand and believe how great it is that God has given the knowledge to us that He has, and how we need to act upon it, and how we need to constantly come to God so that when we reach that point where then lethargy begins to set in that we don’t let it happen to us. That’s what’s important, see.

Now he also says here: “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been…” In other words in the whole cycle of human life and the experience of human life cut off from God, there is nothing new under the sun, as he said. And that gives us a lot to think about doesn’t it? Yes. “…And God requireth that which is past.” In other words, whatever we have done God is going to require it of us.

“And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there…” Now all you have to do is pick up your paper. I picked up the paper today and it says the mayor of San Jose made a secret deal with the waste management company to take care of future increases in salary to them not stated on the plan submitted to be approved by the city council. But this was done secretly on the side. So there we have it right there. The place of judgment, wickedness was there. How about our Supreme Court? Isn’t that true? Wickedness is there.

Now let me tell you a little secret about the Supreme Court that no one ever talks about. They think, “Oh well, we’re going to get righteous judges in there. Oh what a wonderful thing it is that George Bush has appointed this man who’s only 50. Just think if he lives 35 years, we’re going to have this country straightened out for at least 35 years.” Wrong ! Let me tell you the secret about the Supreme Court and why there is wickedness in places of judgment. The secret is this: every judge has clerks and aidess. And they now know that many of the judgments written by the Supreme Court justices were not written by them, but by their clerks. So it’s not who and what the judge is, it is who and what is the political philosophy of their aides. Now years ago they used to only have one aide for every justice. Now they have four. And they make fewer decisions, which means whatever the aides do is what the judgment is going to be, because they do the research, they do the writing, and that’s how wickedness comes to our Supreme Court.

So here’s another lesson: even though you appoint people in there who are not overt sinners, such as they may say that one of the women Supreme Court, former ACLU lawyer who’s currently on the Supreme Court today, even though you appoint people who appear to be right and upstanding, who are the aides? And in particularly, when the Supreme Court Justice becomes older the aides do more work and thinking for the justice. Very interesting, isn’t it? A great lesson for us. That’s why we have to learn the right judgment of God. That’s why we are not going to allow these things in the Millennium. That’s why God is not going to leave the Kingdom to other people.

Now continuing on: “…And the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.” True isn’t it? Where righteousness should be, what happens? Iniquity is there. Why? Because everyone (him or her) has the law of sin and death within, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that tomorrow about the law of sin and death and how we’re going to deal with it with the people during the Millennium. Quite a thing, isn’t it?

Now have we experienced that in our lives? Yes. Have we seen that within the churches? Yes. Have we seen that men of great repute have been filled with iniquity and sin and never told the people until it becomes so corrupt and rotten that it can’t be hidden anymore? Yes, you find that in churches, you find that in business, you find that in society in general, you find it in the courts, you find it in the politicians, you find it among the homeless, you find it among the ner-do-well’s. All there. So these are great lessons for us.

“I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked…” Yes, He will. See, so he came to the point of understanding, “There are certain things that I have no control over, that only God can take care of.” And that’s what we need to do in a lot of these things – realize only God can take care of it. But what God is also saying is, “I need you to help Me take care of it.” And that’s why the Kingdom of God.

Now continuing: “…For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work”, we can say of God’s way, of our lives and so forth. “I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.” So the greatest thing he learned from all of his experiences was this: human nature, uncut and raw and uncontrolled makes them like beasts. So now you know why in the book of Daniel and in the book of Revelation the great world systems are depicted as beasts.

All right let’s go on. Then he says (he got another point of wisdom here): “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath [We’re all breathing the same air, true? Yes]; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast [as far as extending his life]: for all is vanity. All go unto one place [dust you are to dust you return]; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward [which it does – it goes back to God who gave it], and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” (Eccl. 3:1-21, KJV). In other words whatever spirit that God gives to animals to give them a functional brain is different than what He gives to human beings. The spirit of man is special. And that goes back to God. And when it’s united with the Holy Spirit of God then that brings us to eternal life. But whatever intelligence there is in the beasts, it is governed by whatever spirit of the beast is. So therefore I think you’re going to find this: injecting human brain cells into monkeys is not going to make them smarter, because you can inject the brain cells in there – you may get a little different rearrangement of some things, but essentially they have discovered that all brain matter is very similar in all mammals, etc. And it is the spirit of man which distinguishes between the beast and man. So it’s not going to change the animal any because God retains the spirit of man in man and men can not take of the spirit of man and inject it into animals. Now they can inject the cells in there but it has nothing to do with the spirit of man.

So, then you can read the rest of it. You can see how then he gives us some good insight and more philosophical things to learn, and so forth. Let’s come over here to Chapter 11 and let’s understand a great lesson. And this is for all, especially young people. Let’s come here to Ecclesiastes 11:9. All young people, young men and women: “Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth…” In other words use your life properly in the realm of the physical life that you are living in. Don’t go out and sin. Don’t go out and destroy your life and everything like that, even though Solomon experimented up close to the point of destroying his life.

“…And let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth…”, because you’re going to get old. That’s what he’s leading up to. “…And walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.” So he’s saying, “All right, everyone who’s young, consider: you go do what you want to do because you have freedom of choice, but understand one thing: God will bring you into judgment.”

“Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart…” Don’t get involved in things that are going to bring heartbreak. “…And put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity” (Eccl. 11:9-10, KJV). Now you don’t see that during the time that you’re growing up. And children don’t see that in themselves. And young adults don’t see that in themselves. Only when you come to a time in life and experience that you can look back and you can see that that is true. And so that’s why God says to the young people, “Honor your Father and your Mother, and honor the one who is older because they have lived life, and they have experience. And don’t look upon them as if that they are perfect. And don’t look upon them to criticize them because older people made mistakes in their lives growing up because you yourself are going to make mistakes in your life as you grow up and as you live your life and get married and have family and children like this, you’re going to make mistakes in your life. So one of the big problems of youth is they look at older people and they see the difficulties and problems that they have and see the hypocrisy that they view, which is really not truly hypocrisy but just experience in living, and they discount what their parents have done and older people have done because you see, being good is ok for them, but we want to do what we want to do and Solomon says, “Hey, wait a minute, God is going to bring it all into judgment. And the judgment doesn’t necessarily come at once.

Let me give you an example. Today they found out this: one of the drugs which is in use more than any thing else today is methamphetamine. And meth is highly addictive, and highly connected to sexual activity as well. And that’s the thing that grabs hold of them and addicts them, because it magnifies and accelerates the sexual experience. Well after a period of time the meth no longer works as it should so they have to take more and more and more and it begins to affect the liver, it begins to affect the whole thing. And now they have what is called meth-mouth. The dentists can identify methamphetamine takers because their teeth all turn grey and then they rot and then they fall out. And they lose their natural sex drive because they have accelerated it with methamphetamine. Now you see when they’re taking the drug that’s the beginning of God’s judgment, but it’s not finished until they have destroyed much of their lives. That’s what he’s talking about.

So he says here: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth…” That’s when to remember God. Remember God when the times are good, not when you’re in trouble. Don’t be like the prodigal son who got all vain and said, “Father, give me all that’s due me because I want to go live my life the way that I want to.” And he made the choice, and the father gave him the money, and then he went off and ruined his life, didn’t he? He was able to repent. He was able to come back, that is true. But why do it in the first place? And then those who don’t do it, don’t be like the other son who looked down and condemned the other one who repented, because you’ve had all those blessings all along and you didn’t have to go through this horrible downward, absolutely terrible vortex of experience that the brother went through. So: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them…” And every older person will tell you this: growing old is not the problem – it’s the rust and the breakdown because of age that becomes the problem. And so this is what Solomon is saying, so he did learn something in the end, hopefully, at least written here.

“…I have no pleasure in them; while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened…” And they didn’t have glasses like we have today that you can put on glasses and you can still see pretty good. And they didn’t have the kind of operations that they can have now that when you’re 80 years old they can operate on your eyes and you have 20/20 vision. But that still doesn’t stop the people from dying when it comes to the time of the end of their lives, right? Now it’s important that we’re going through this so tomorrow we can see what are we going to do to help as many people as possible avoid this.

“…Nor the clouds return after the rain: in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves…” In other words they’re giving honor to you as an old person. “…And the grinders cease because they are few…” The grinders are the teeth. They wear down. Today we have false teeth, but you still get old and die, right? Yes. So we have the day of the false grinders. So when you take them out and there’s nothing there that’s the real you. But when you put them in it’s a convenient thing and you can eat, you can chew food, so forth and so on. “…And the grinders cease because they are few…” And I imagine that they were trying to figure out how they could solve that problem. Even George Washington had some carved false teeth. So I don’t imagine he was the first one to have those.

“…And those that look out of the windows be darkened…” In other words, you go look out the window, you can’t see very far. “…And the doors shall be shut in the streets [you can’t go out and do the things you used to do when you were young], when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way…” And when you get older you have more fears. You just do, because you realize how fragile that you are. So what he’s saying in this whole thing: Don’t forget God, because that is the first point of lethargy then, which will lead to what? Apostasy.

And then he goes on, bringing it on down here to verse 7: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was [you’re going to die and be put in the grave]: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” So it’s a good time, during the Feast of Tabernacles for every one of us to take a real look at our lives and understand that without the Spirit of God, the laws of God, the commandments of God, that it’s going to be just like Solomon said here in verse 8: “Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.” So where he began, he ended up. “And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.” Yes, he did. So this was at a time just before he started his apostasy.

“The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened [in other words the strong things in lives which make it proper and so forth]… which are given from one shepherd [that is from God]. And further, by these, my son [so he wrote this to his son], be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” And that is true. Just think of all the books in the world today. An amazing thing, isn’t it? See, all of this is so if you don’t keep in mind the purpose of God.

Verse 13: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God [all your life long], and keep His commandments [all your life long]: for this is the whole duty of man…” It says “duty of man” but it means “the whole of man.” And let’s add one more thing: And you cannot be whole without the Spirit of God. The one final admonition he gives: “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Eccl. 12:1-5, 7-14, KJV). And so tomorrow we’re going to then see how that during the Millennium we can, in teaching all the people in the world, minimize this and yet not take away their choice.

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Feast of Tabernacles – Day 6 – 2005

Scriptural References

1. Matthew 25:1-9

2. Ecclesiastes 2:1-26

3. Ecclesiastes 3:1-21

4. Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

5. Ecclesiastes 12:-5, 7-14