3 Days of Prayer and Fasting (2024/11)

11¹ Cast your bread upon the waters,

    for you will find it after many days.

² Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,

    for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.

³ 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 it will lie.

⁴ He who observes the wind will not sow,

    and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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 the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

¹⁰ Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

12¹ Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”;² before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain,³ in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed,⁴ and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low—⁵ they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets—⁶ before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern,⁷ and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.⁸ Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

Chapter 11 Verses 7-10 teach us to rejoice in your youth. Note the repetition of the word “rejoice” in verses 8 and 9: “So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all.” “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth.” The verb “rejoice” or the noun form “joy” are keywords that we have seen repeatedly in the Carpe Diem, “Seize the Day” passages throughout Ecclesiastes:

Rejoicing and thanksgiving are so important, because they fortify our hearts against the wedge of discontentment, which drives in other distortions of God and disobedience to His commands. In Deuteronomy 28:45-47, Moses says to the Israelites, “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. … Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things.” What led the Israelites into disobedience to the Lord’s commands? A lack of “joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things.” Because joy and gladness at the “abundance of all things” that God has given us, fortifies us against the temptation to think that we’ll be better off apart from God, that we can find more joy in things that God has forbidden. That’s how all broken relationships with God begin.

Ecclesiastes 11:1-12:8 specifically addresses the “youth” (11:9-12:1) four times, and exhorts them to remember that old age and death are fast approaching. In a 1931 interview, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying, “Youth is the most beautiful thing in this world—and what a pity that it has to be wasted on children!” This is likely the origin of the popular saying, “youth is wasted on the young.” The saying laments that the youth lack the wisdom and experience to make the most of their health and energy, but by the time they gain wisdom and experience, they’re old and their youthful health and energy have gone.

Ecclesiastes has taught us to number our days and remember our impending death over and over again, but have you really reckoned with your mortality? 19th century English writer William Hazlitt wrote an essay that captures what it’s like to be young versus old. And he writes that, to the young, death and old age, are “words without meaning.” They are merely “a dream, a fiction,” and life is “a delightful journey” with no end in sight “to prospect after prospect.” “To be young,” he writes, “is to be as one of the Immortals.” Is the thought of your immortality and perpetuity fixed on your minds?

Because we are creatures and not the Creator, many things in life are outside of our control. If we preoccupy ourselves too much with things that we cannot control, then we will be indecisive and inactive. Chapter 11 Verse 4 says, “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.” If we’re spending all day “observ[ing] the wind,” waiting for the perfect time to “sow” seeds, we “will not sow.” Likewise, if we’re watching “the clouds” all day to see whether it will rain or not, waiting for the perfect time to “reap” the harvest, we “will not reap.”

There is a helpful application here for evangelism. In the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, the Master entrusts His wealth to three servants. Two of them put the money to use and earn some dividend, but one of them “[digs] in the ground and hid[e]s his master’s money” in it. And when the Master calls him to account, the servant gives this excuse, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.” The Master is understandably upset with him, because this lazy servant didn’t do anything with the money he asked him to manage. He could’ve at least put it in the bank to earn some interest, but he didn’t even do that. He just buried it in the ground and didn’t do anything. This servant had a hard view of the Master, he saw the Master as stingy, difficult, and hard to please, so he was “afraid.” He feared that something might happen and he might lose the money, so he just hid it. But the point of the Parable is that God, our Master, is not a hard person, He is gracious and kind. And He has given us his grace, He has entrusted us with the good news of Jesus Christ, so that we might share it with others. He wants us to take gospel risks and sow our gospel seeds widely.

Some of us never share the gospel with our unbelieving friends and neighbors, because we’re always waiting for the perfect opportunity. We’re observing the winds and watching the clouds, waiting for the moment when no one will be offended, waiting for the moment when you will not be embarrassed, waiting for the moment when you will have all the theological answers, waiting for the moment when the perfect gospel opportunity will fall onto your lap, but that moment may never come! So listen to the exhortation of verse 6, “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.” Brothers and sisters, stop observing the wind and regarding the clouds, let us sow in the morning, and sow in the evening, because we don’t know which one will bear fruit.