Preparing for a Rainy Day

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

I understand that not everybody enjoys a good cloudy dark rainy day as much as I do. I appreciate rainy days probably more than sunny days and when I’m talking about rainy days right now I’m talking about actual rainy weather precipitating kind of days. is I prefer the rain over the sun. When I lived in Los Angeles for almost five years, especially near the end, it started to irritate me when I would get up and it would be sunny again. I’d wake up, see the sun glaring through the cracks of the window shade, and it would actually irritate me. In fact, it was probably sinful some mornings that I was not thankful to God and his control over the weather in that he gave us sun again.

But that actually was something that significantly irritated me. People asked me when they knew that Mo and I were going to be moving to Washington if we were really prepared for all this rain. Because I think in Sleepless in Seattle, they say it rains nine months out of the year in Seattle, which is close to true. And even though it’s not downpours like it is in the Midwest where I grew up, I love the overcast days. And if you throw in some wind and rain to that mix, that’s fantastic as far as I’m concerned. I realize not everybody enjoys those rainy days. This past week I’ve realized that there are some benefits to sunny days as a parent of young children.

Because I was doing some just quick internet research for this sermon, there are actually substantial number of sites out there that give suggestions for parents what to do with their kids on rainy days. Because generally speaking, if the kids have to be cooped up inside on the rainy days, the way they choose to spend their time is beating up on one another and causing trouble and getting into things that they otherwise should not be. And so if it’s sunny outside, that’s benefit because, you know, go play in the yard. Find some activity and play in the yard. Some comedian somewhere, I think, talks about that. So I understand there are benefits of sunny days, though I generally prefer the rainy days.

But when I’m talking about rainy days in today’s passage in Ecclesiastes chapter 11, you can take your copy of God’s word and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 11. I’m obviously speaking more than just about literal rainy days. I’m talking about rainy days, preparing for rainy days of trouble. The rainy days, the cloudy days, the difficult days, the dark days of life, and even as Pastor Z said in his sermon, First Service, life is very stormy. And we do live in stormy days. If you haven’t gotten that picture from the first ten chapters of Ecclesiastes, you’re deaf because he just screams it almost in every chapter. We live in very uncertain times.

The days of our lives are typically very dark or they include a lot of dark days. If you’re not in a dark day, well, that’s certain to be coming pretty soon. is guaranteed and even if the sky is sunny right now, just like in Washington, even if the sky is sunny right now, just wait a few moments, it could start raining at any time.

Chapter 11 begins us on our final stretch home in the book of Ecclesiastes. There are some final exhortations that the preacher gives us in these final two chapters. It includes a number of exhortations and some advice, not just for specific situations, but for life. And in today’s paragraph, Ecclesiastes 11, verses 1 through 6, Solomon is going to give us some advice for uncertain times, for dark days, in particular some instruction to prepare for the rainy days. And there are three instructions, three pieces of advice that it gives us for these potential coming rainy days. The first piece of advice to prepare for a rainy day is found in verses 1 and 2, and that’s invest wisely. The first piece of advice is to put a little something away and I think that this is specifically talking about financial investments, but I think it has some application for other things as we’ll see in a few moments. Both the idea of cast, so the first word in verse 1, cast your bread, and then that first imperative, that first command in verse 2, give a portion,

Both of these suggest the idea of investment. Now there are two parts of investing wisely, one from verse 1, one from verse 2. When we’re investing wisely, verse 1 tells us to invest patiently. Look at verse 1. Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Part of investing wisely means that you may have to wait a while before you see a return on your investment. your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” Now, there are a few possibilities as to what verse 1 means. The idea itself is simple enough, cast your bread upon the waters, but what does that actually mean? What is the bread? Is it actual bread?

Is this feeding the ducks? Is it actual bread? Is it actual water? What does this mean? One possibility is that, and at least one commentator that I looked at suggested this is actual bread and actual water. To me, and probably to most of us in our day, all we can think about is like taking that slice of Wonder Bread and breaking it up and throwing it out onto the water, either to feed ducks. I’m not really sure what else you would throw bread out onto the water for.

And so we kind of get in mind that that bread would be out there and that glutenous, thick, spongy bread would ultimately soak up the water and it would either disintegrate or get so waterlogged that it would soak and be useless. That would really do nobody any good at all. I’m not sure what advice that would be. Though probably at least somewhat helpful is the idea, or it is at least to remember that in Solomon’s Day probably lots of the bread would have been unleavened, thin and flat, and therefore it could have lasted out on the water for maybe a little bit longer. But I don’t believe that that’s the best understanding of what this verse means. To actually take your bread and put it out on the water, maybe you’ve got a pond in your backyard and there’s not enough room in your pantry and so you take your bread and you put it out on the water and it will come back to you after many days when you’re really hungry and you need something to eat. I don’t think that’s what that means. I mean can you imagine eating that bread? Let’s say just

for sake of argument that is what the verse means. Do you want to eat that bread? Really? No. The wisest person who has ever lived is suggesting to do this? I don’t think that’s what he has in mind. Now another possibility, and this is probably the most popular interpretation from the oldest commentators, is that this verse refers to charity or giving to the poor. And there are actually some other proverb-like statements in other pieces of literature outside of the Bible that are pretty old that make these older commentators think that perhaps this verse refers to giving to charity and so you cast your bread upon the waters just like in the literal picture of taking pieces of bread and putting it out on the water you probably won’t see that again so the idea of giving to a poor person is you give to them, take care of their need, you may not see it again but it’ll come back to you after many days would be the idea that you get good karma.

And so some reward will come back to you later if you give to people who need it now. Like I say, that’s probably the most popular interpretation of the oldest commentators. The problem with that interpretation, that possible meaning is that there is nothing in the passage itself that suggests the poor or giving to charity, alms giving anything like that. There’s nothing in the verses that preceded at the end of chapter 10. There’s nothing like that in the rest of chapter 11. The poor people are not to be found. That’s great to give to poor people. And you may or may not see that return, and maybe you will be rewarded later on from giving to poor people.

That’s a true thing, at least in God’s economy, but I don’t think that’s what the verse means. most likely then meaning of verse 1 in terms of the Old Testament context and the paragraph itself is that casting your bread upon the waters relates to investing, financial investing, and even more specifically than that, investing in foreign trade or foreign business practices. The idea of casting your bread upon the waters referred to investing in some business opportunity that probably was connected to a merchant, some business owner who had a fleet of ships. That business owner would cast those, would send those ships out to other ports and do business there and then come back.

For example, in Isaiah chapter 18 verse 2, you don’t need to turn there, but the same Hebrew word that’s translated cast here in Ecclesiastes 11, The same Hebrew word, cast, is used in Isaiah 18.2 that talks about sending boats out on the face of the water. So lots of the same kind of vocabulary. Sending or casting out your boats on the surface or on the face of the water and the idea there is that it would go and they would do business in other places. Not only then is the word cast connected with this idea of foreign trade or foreign business, but even the Proverbs 31 woman can help us out here because in Proverbs 31, specifically verse 14, we read that the Proverbs 31 woman is like the ships of the merchant.

She brings her food, which is the same Hebrew word translated bread here in Ecclesiastes 11. She brings her bread from afar. Now what does that actually mean? Is that actually talking about the Proverbs 31 woman buys her bread from foreign places? Probably not. Because that would as well be sick bread. Can you imagine? So think back two or three thousand years ago to how long it would take, we’re not talking about the Wonder Bread trucks driving up and down the road. Like they bake it at night and then they drop it off at the morning at your Safeway and you can go and buy it. It wasn’t that fast. So if your bread is coming on a ship, maybe we can think about the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

Imagine that bread traveling as long as they did. Is that the kind of bread, if you had your choice, that you would be interested in securing for your family? I am pretty sure that if your mama was buying bread for you and your family that had been on a ship for a few weeks. That’s not the kind of woman, that’s not the kind of mama you would rise up and call blessed. Because that would probably make you sick, that kind of bread. The Proverbs 31 woman was industrious enough and hard-working enough, she’s probably making her own actual bread.

So in Proverbs 31 verse 14, the idea of she gets her bread or her food from afar is the idea of commodities, of goods, of things that are worth something, probably not actual bread. And so bread stands for any kind of thing that’s important or significant or helpful, maybe spices or some kind of other goods that you couldn’t get, materials that you couldn’t get at your own home or you couldn’t make for yourself. So when Solomon Solomon says, cast your bread upon the waters. He’s talking about, invest in things, put some of your money towards these kind of long-term business possibilities, these long-term kinds of things. Solomon himself participated in these. In 1 Kings chapter 10 verse 22, Solomon had an entire fleet of ships, and you know how long those ships were gone?

Three years at a time. First Kings chapter 10 verse 22, he had an entire fleet of ships that sailed once every three years. You want to get and wait for your bread once every three years? Probably not. But instead it referred to ships going out, doing business, making trades in these other places taking what you had, investing that, trading that for things you couldn’t get or that you didn’t have. So these are commercial business, international merchants and investments. And as you can imagine, those things would take a long time to see any profit. If your ship sales once every three years, it would take a while before you saw a return on your investment.

And yet Solomon is saying, do that, cast your bread upon the waters for, you will find it after many days. That’d be pretty fantastic when the ship actually came back in and you saw what return you got on your investment. And I realize some of you perhaps are in a place where this is important financial advice, where you’re investing in long-term kind of things where you can’t get your money back for some time. It is valuable to see this application or applying to that situation. But I realize most of you as students, you get $5 and immediately you’re trying to figure out how many packs of bubblegum you can buy with that $5. You’re not interested in long term investments at all. Perhaps you should be when it comes to your money. But I think that there are ways that this applies to you, this principle applies to you even if it’s not about your actual money. So it’s about money. That’s the meaning of the verse.

But it does have application for some other things. For example, I realize some of you think the investment in school and the effort that you’re putting into particular classes is an absolute waste of time. And you probably never thought about it like this. You never went into math class. Now I went into math class with bad attitude, but I never went into math class thinking, wow, I’m just casting my bread on the water. And yet, some of you act like that. You act like the investment and the amount of time and energy that you’re putting into school right now is useless. It’s of no value. And yet, by way of application, I wonder if you might be able to realize that what you’re doing is preparing for something long term. You’re putting your time and energy and effort into something that will come back to benefit you, maybe not tomorrow and maybe not next week, but maybe 10 or 20 years from now, maybe even longer than that. I think especially in college, and so I know you guys are not in college right now, but most of you are planning to be. It is so tempting

when you get into college, I felt this way myself in college and in seminary, it is so tempting to think, wow, I could be spending my time actually doing it instead of studying to do it. I could be spending my time actually getting on the job training as opposed to being in class. And I understand that there are some benefits to the on the job training as well, but don’t forget that there are times to invest where it’s going to take a long time before you see your return. That’s true when it comes to your money, and in some ways that’s true when it comes to your time and other kinds of investments that you would make. The first principle of wise investing is to invest patiently. I think this principle might also apply to evangelism. It can apply to a lot of things, but sometimes I feel like it’s useless to keep telling a person about Jesus, to keep telling a person about the gospel, maybe we feel like again it’s just casting our bread upon the water and it goes nowhere.

It seems like it’s just going to disintegrate, be of no value, and yet maybe a seed that we sowed will come back 10, 20, 50 years from now. I tell you that’s very valuable for me as a youth pastor because I don’t always see immediate return on my investment into my sheep, sometimes it’s relatively discouraging for your small group leaders to come. Small group after small group reminds you of good things week after week and you show no fruit whatsoever. And yet it’s valuable to invest patiently and realize that what we’re doing may come back and have a benefit a long time from now. And so we need that long-term perspective when it comes to investing. With our money, with our time, with our energy, I think that even applies to evangelism. Obviously that’s not what Solomon is thinking about, but I think it has application for that. So be patient. You will find your bread. You’ll find it after many days. There’s a second piece of instruction for investing wisely, and that’s in verse two, invest diversely.

Not only should you invest long term, but invest in many different opportunities. Look at verse 2, give a portion to 7 or even to 8, for you know not what disaster, what rainy day may happen on earth. Again, there’s a couple different proposed interpretations, including the idea of charity. Almost everybody who takes verse 1 as referring to giving to the poor thinks that verse 2 relates to giving to the poor as well. just give all your charity to one poor person, but give it to many different poor people because you don’t know what disaster is going to happen on the earth. And again, I don’t think there’s anything in context that suggests this is talking about poor people.

And I’m not really sure how giving to more poor people helps for the day of disaster. I don’t think that that really makes any sense. I don’t think that has anything to do with the context. Instead, I think this is another principle of investment for a rainy day, for a coming day of disaster. This is how you get prepared for that, investing wisely by investing diversely. Now give a portion to seven or to eight. This is a regular Hebrew formula to talk about a lot. Give to seven, not only to seven, but to eight. Is a way to say give to a lot of different places. The numbers seven and eight aren’t necessarily the point.

Solomon is not saying if you want to have a guaranteed fruitful investment portfolio, only invest in seven or eight different stocks, bonds, mutual funds, whatever. And it sounds like I know what I’m talking about when I use all those words, but I don’t really much. He’s not saying just choose seven. So you’re on E-Trade and you have eight already, and you’re like, oh, I really like that one. I got to get rid of one so I can have eight. That’s not the point he’s saying. Invest in a lot of different things. The principle is that of diversification. That actually is an actual financial term. Diversification. It’s a real word.

I’m not making it up. and if you you go meet with somebody from charles swab someday or whatever then they may talk to you about diversification we have an english proverb that communicates the same thing and you all know it don’t put all your eggs in one basket why? well it’s not because the basket is too heavy to carry if you do that that’s not the point The point is if you put all of your eggs in one basket and something happens to that basket, you have no eggs. It’s to make a point that if you put all of your investment into one place and that gets destroyed, then you have nothing left. And so invest diversely.

Put your investment into a lot of different things, into a lot of different places. And so, if something happens bad here, well, so be it. Then maybe something else will even do better. Now, do remember that this is not necessarily a guarantee. I think about Job and all of the different investments and places that he had things, and that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter where his flocks and herds were, where his kids were. They were destroyed by all kinds of different things all at the same time. So God in his sovereignty can certainly destroy your three eggs in 20 different places. He certainly is capable of doing that, but generally speaking it’s wise to not put them all in one basket.

You can think about when Jacob was returning back to Canaan in Genesis chapter 32 and he diversified his flocks and his herds and his family because Esau was coming out to meet him and so he divides them up so that if Esau, if he was going to come out angry and mad and destroying that he would only destroy the first group which you know where you rate if you got put in that first group. If you’re the first line of defense you understood what Jacob really thought about you you were expendable, but nevertheless that wasn’t their choice, that was Jacob’s choice, but he divided up his group so that when Esau came, if Esau was going to destroy him or attack or fight or whatever, that he could still maybe save some of it left.

Solomon himself gives the reason for diversification in the last part of verse 2, spreading risk around, spreading your investments around is a strategy that’s designed to reduce your loss, reduce your overall loss, reduce your overall exposure to disaster. You know not what disaster may happen on Earth. You don’t know when the rainy day is coming. You don’t know what it’s going to impact, and And so spread it around. Now I don’t like the NAS translation here of misfortune. The reason I don’t like misfortune is because fortune and misfortune are typically terms used to deny God’s sovereign providence over all things.

So obviously you can explain that, but I don’t prefer misfortune as the translation. I think disaster or calamity, which at least leaves open with the word the idea that God is in control of those things, because he totally is. But this disaster, this rainy day may be coming, so invest patiently, wait out the rainy day, and invest diversely. Maybe the disaster won’t destroy everything. It’s probably better, for example, to keep some small umbrellas, maybe one in your office and one at home and one in your car, than to have that huge monster golf umbrella and only have one, but to never be around it when it’s raining.

Invest in some smaller ones. Put them around where you might be rather than have that one that you’re likely not carrying with you that’s just not going to be as beneficial for you. So prepare for a rainy day by investing wisely. That is patiently and diversely, that will help you. That leads to the second way to prepare for a rainy day and that is found in verses 3 and 4 and that’s don’t overanalyze. I’m actually really excited about verses 3 and 4. I think that these are some fantastic instruction and encouragement. It’s interesting that there’s no command found in verses 3 and 4. I’m giving the point as a command, don’t overanalyze, because I think that’s what Solomon is trying to point out.

But he gives us commands in verses 1 and 2, and he gives us a command in verse 6. Now he’s just making a comment on some of the excuses for not working, not preparing even for a rainy day that various people give. You know the rainy day is coming. We expect it. It’s inevitable. But one of the worst things you can do to prepare for a rainy day is nothing. You’re so worried that the rain is coming that you do nothing because you’re overanalyzing. There’s two parts to verses three and four. First are the pictures in verse three. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. I know Solomon is brilliant.

I can figure that out. And that’s part of the point. Same as in the last part of verse 3. If a tree falls to the south or to the north in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. That’s deep. what you guys are going to want to do is write that on a little 3x5 card and stick that on your mirror. If a tree falls to north or south, where the tree falls, there will lie. Now the bigger question is if no one’s around, doesn’t make a sound. That’s another issue. Two illustrations set the stage for the point that he’s going to make in verse 4. First, that the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the Earth.

This is a real rainy day. This is actual rain, rainy day. Even though we can’t control it, we can see it coming. It doesn’t take the sophisticated Doppler radar equipment to look up at a cloud that’s full and dark and ready to basically explode on your head. You can see that coming. You can watch it. You see it, and if it’s ready to dump, it’s going to dump. The cloud is full of rain. They pour themselves out. They empty themselves on the earth. By the way, this is potentially one of the forms of disaster in verse 2. It’s not necessarily a storm, but it could be a storm. And therefore, we don’t know what disaster may happen on earth.

This could be a flood, a flash flood. This could be some other kind of storm that could destroy things. So the first picture is of rain. The second picture is if a tree falls to the south or to the north in the place where the tree falls, there will lie. Now, there’s nobody chopping down this tree. There’s nobody felling or falling this tree. This is not somebody who’s chopping or sawing in such a way to get it to fall in the right place. This is the wind blowing it over. I say that it’s the wind blowing it over largely because of verse four talks about the wind and the clouds. And so I think the wind coming in as part of this rainy day, as part of this storm uproots the tree and wherever the wind has blown and uprooted the tree where it falls, that’s where it lies.

This isn’t trying to tell you that if you just put the rope on it and pulled it when the wind is uprooting it at the right time, you can make it go in a different direction. It’s simply a way to point out the inevitable conclusions of Captain Obvious. If the clouds are full, they’re going to empty themselves in rain. When the wind blows over a tree and it falls down, That’s where it is. These are inevitable things. Clouds are going to rain. It will rain. Tree falls over. That’s where it is. Both pictures are of simple, observable, obvious situations. You can’t do anything else than take life as it comes. Who is it that commands wind and rain?

I did ask Mr. Sauer if we could sing that song today. Do you command wind and rain? God controls wind and rain. You don’t. You can see it, you can watch it, you can know what’s coming, but ultimately God is in control of that. Well look at the point in verse four. Those are the pictures of rain and wind that we don’t control even though we see it coming. The point is in verse four, he who observes the wind will not sow and he who regards the clouds will not reap. This is not just somebody who is looking out their window and noticing that it’s going to rain. This is someone who is giving detailed over emphasis on observing weather patterns and the direction of the wind and what kind of clouds that are in the sky.

He observes the wind, will not sow. He’s afraid that the wind will blow away the seed. If you’re out scattering seed in your field and it’s so windy, then maybe the wind will blow away the seeds and so nothing will actually get to the ground, get into the soil and germinate. The word observes is a word watches as the NAS says, pays close attention to, scrutinizes the wind patterns, waiting for the perfect condition. They’re paying so much attention to the wind that they don’t actually do any work. Makes him apprehensive. And he who regards the clouds will not reap. Regards or looks at in the New American Standard as parallel to observes refers to analyzing and examining so much, waiting for a clear sky that they miss the opportunity to do anything.

Now it’s true that rain and harvest wasn’t helpful. Proverbs 26, 1 does point that out, but they’re so afraid that the rain is going to destroy the crops before they harvest that they don’t actually go out and harvest before the rain comes. The principle is known as the paralysis of analysis. Have you ever heard that before? The paralysis of analysis. You spend So much time trying to outguess your chess opponent that you never make a move. And then there is no game. You’re sitting there at the table, and you pick up a piece. And before you put it down, you’re trying to calculate every possible move your opponent across the table can make back.

And so then you put your piece right back down where it was, and you don’t make a move, because you’re scared. You’re going to lose so bad. You don’t do anything. You’re so afraid of making a bad decision that you don’t make any decision at all. You fear that if you choose a paint color for your room, that you’re not going to like it in 10 years. You don’t know if you’re not going to like it in 10 years, but maybe you won’t like it in 10 years.

So then you choose no paint color, and you just sit there and look at the wall and think, wow, is really ugly. I should paint it.” But you’re too afraid to make a decision about what color to paint it because, well, maybe I won’t like that in two weeks or two years or 20 years or whatever it might be. So you sit on your hands. You paralyze yourself and you rationalize your procrastination based on what might happen. Well, the wind might really pick up. I think about some of the computer golf games that you play where it shows you where the wind is blowing. It shows you the direction and the speed of the wind blowing. Anybody play those games before? The point is you’re supposed to watch that so that you can swing at the exact right time to either like embrace the wind with the golf ball or to avoid the wind blowing your ball somewhere where it’s not supposed to go. And so you just sit there and you’re like watching the little flag, the fake flag, blow in the wind and you’re seeing the miles per hour of the wind increase and the gusts and then it slows down and so

you end up not making any shot at all because you’re so afraid that you’re going to hit it at the wrong time. That’s over analyzing the situation and then not doing any work. It’s the paralysis of analysis. You’re so afraid of the rainy day you spend all your time watching the weather channel instead of actually finishing the roof. And it’s no surprise then when the rain comes and you get wet. Because likely the rainy day is coming, but if you’re so busy worrying about the rainy day coming that you don’t actually do anything, that’s overanalyzing. It’s no surprise then when you get wet. Now obviously that doesn’t mean that you should plant your field in the middle of a tornado.

There are wise ways to work. There are some ways that are wise, some times that are wise. Solomon has talked about some of those already in Ecclesiastes. The point is, don’t spend so much time paying attention to what could be the problem that you don’t prepare, that you don’t do your work. It’s like knowing that you have a paper due tomorrow, sitting down at the table or in front of your computer to write out your paper, and then realizing, Oh, my pen could run out of ink. I should really, before I start and to get into this, and my pen runs out of ink, I should probably get up and get an extra box of pens. So you get up and you go get your box of pens, you come back down, and then you’re like, you know, I got the pens, but I might write so much I’m going to run out of paper.

I should really not start writing my paper just yet. should probably get up and go get another pad of paper just in case I run out. I have lots of paper here, but I might run out. I’m going to go get another piece of paper. So you get back, you got your pen in hand, about ready to write, and you realize, you know, I don’t know if I paid the electric bill. I could be in the middle of writing my paper and the lights could go off and that would be really bad. So you get online and you make sure that you’ve paid your recent electric bill. And even though you’ve done that, well, what if a storm knocked out the power?

I should get some candles and matches or at least a flashlight just in case, make sure that the flashlight has fresh batteries in it. Oh, I don’t have any fresh batteries. I should really go to the store and get some fresh batteries for the flashlight before writing my paper because you never know. My papers due tomorrow, I can’t really afford to not be able to finish it. So finally you’ve gone to the store and you have all your supplies and you sit down and then you realize, you know, I’m really thirsty. I don’t want to die of thirst in the middle of writing my paper. That’s not good, right? Dying of thirst is a big problem.

I really need to get something to drink and at least have it there in case I need it. And you can imagine that illustration could go on indefinitely and some of us that’s exactly how we are. If I write in my Bible, I’m just thinking of other illustrations, if I write in my Bible I might mess up.

You’ve got this Bible that you bought for the purpose of writing in and yet you never write in it because you’re afraid you’re going to make it not look pretty. This happens all the time. It’s overanalyzing. Worrying about something that may or may not happen causes you to not do any work at all. That’s a bad way to get ready for a rainy day is to just fear that the rainy day is coming and do nothing. So invest wisely. Don’t overanalyze and then verses five and six. This is the third piece of advice to prepare for a rainy day and that’s work twice as hard. Work twice as hard. The reality is in verse five. We’ll see our responsibility in verse six. But verse five, as you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones and the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. Again, Solomon prepares us for the responsibility for the point by giving us a picture, but unlike the pictures in verse 3 which are obvious, we can see it coming, the picture he gives here in verse 5 is of something that we can’t see, that

we don’t know about, something that’s not inevitable, but something about which we’re ignorant. I know that that’s the point, talking about our ignorance, because three times in verses five and six Solomon says you do not know. Twice in verse five, once in verse six, you do not know. In verses five and six we’re so busy over analyzing the inevitable that we don’t do anything. In verses five and six the excuse for not doing our work is because we’re ignorant. Well, we don’t know if it’s going to work. We don’t know how this happens, And so we don’t prepare for the rainy day. Now there are significant translation differences in verse 5, specifically between some of the major translations that are out there.

For example, the NAS gives two pictures. The ESV gives just one. So the NAS, the New King James, and the NIV all give two pictures. They say just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman. The NAS, the New King James, the NIV, suggests that there’s two pictures, one of the wind and one of the womb, one of the direction that the wind is going. We can’t control that or we can’t know how that’s going to happen. than the bones forming of a baby that’s inside.

The ESV and the New Revised Standard Version go the other way. They say that there’s just, or translate it as just one picture, I’ll read it again, the ESV. As you do not know, the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child. Suggesting that it’s just one picture, one image of the baby getting life, not just developing physically, but developing the spirit as well. One of the reasons this is difficult to translate is because the Hebrew word ruah, and for those of you who know, it’s the same exact thing in Greek with the word numa. Ruah, the Hebrew word can mean wind, breath, or spirit. or spirit. It can mean any one of those three things.

In verse 4, it’s the word Ruah talking about actual wind. Really the only way you can make the difference between Ruah, what it means in different places, is the context. What’s the best way to look at it here? Does Ruah mean wind? Or does it mean breath or spirit, life coming into a baby? I prefer the ESV, Again, as you do not know, the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, I prefer that because I think that that is the most mysterious, unexplainable thing for us that we can participate in, but still be ignorant of how it actually works. It’s hard enough to understand how the bones themselves form in the womb.

How a zygote gets a skeleton. You can meditate on that later on today. How does a zygote get a skeleton? How does that work? That’s difficult to understand, but what is even more unexplainable is how that little zygote actually then is a person, a human, more than just an animal, more than just flesh and bones, but actually gets a spirit. I can’t explain that. You can’t explain that. We can’t explain that at all. Solomon gives that as an illustration of what he says at the end of verse 5, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. There is a level of ignorance that all of us have about how stuff works. And you would think that Solomon would say, okay, you have no clue, so just take a nap. You don’t know how it works, So go inside, curl up in the fetal position ironically, and just take a nap because you don’t know.

And he says just the opposite. Not only should we still work and prepare when we know the inevitable is coming, we should work and prepare for the rainy day even when we’re ignorant of how it all works. Look at our responsibility in verse 6. Ignorance is no excuse for inactivity. In the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening, withold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. Working the land is the original example of labor. An illustration we get all the times in the Old Testament. Solomon is commanding us to work. In the morning, sow your seed.

It’s an illustration from the farm. Get up and get to work. There’s work to be done. Stop worrying about the inevitable storm that may or may not come. Stop worrying about your ignorance. Just sow your seed. And don’t stop working. Even that evening with hold not your hand. And there’s a couple different possibilities for what this means. It could either mean sow your seed in the morning and then keep working all day long, preparing your land, fertilizing it, or keeping the weeds out, or whatever it is. Word could actually mean sow seed again at night. Sow sow seed in the morning and sow seed in the evening. And I tell you what, I think that that’s actually what it refers to based on the last part of the verse where you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

The final explanation is you don’t know whether the seed you sow in the morning is going to work or the seed sown at evening will be good or whether both will work out. So work twice as hard. Certainly don’t then be inactive, don’t do anything. Work twice as hard. As Solomon already told us in chapter 9, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Get up, get to work. There isn’t just one right time. In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads to nothingness. Don’t just talk about it. who I don’t know if this is going to work. And so you just sit there and hold the seat in your hand. I don’t know how this works.

Stick it in the ground and then later it comes up. Well, because I don’t know how that works, I’m just going to hold on to it. Our ignorance is not a reason for inactivity. Inevitable difficulty is not a reason for inactivity. We ought to get up, get to work. If you want to prepare for a rainy day, for disaster, invest wisely. don’t overanalyze and work twice as hard. All three of those pieces of advice require our effort, our initiative, our work. They require us as humans to do something, and all three of those also require fear of God, recognizing that ultimately he’s in control. We don’t know what day disaster might come.

We don’t control wind and rain. We don’t know how God works everything out. And so we’ve got to fear God, but that does not lead us to just sit on our hands. It ought to lead us to work. We can enjoy the process. We can find enjoyment in our toil even when we’ve got to wait for results. That’s why we invest patiently. Even though it’s never the perfect time. Look, if you are waiting for the perfect time to write that paper, forget about it. If you wait until you’re not sick to accomplish something, if you wait for the perfect conditions, the ideal time, you’re not going to find that. You can still enjoy the process by getting to work, even though you don’t understand how it all works and everything that God is doing.

You can still enjoy the process by working hard and by fearing God. That’s a lot of wisdom. that God’s Spirit will continue to help us apply that as we fear Him in the process. Father, help us do that. It’s so easy for us to make excuses about why we’re not working. If we don’t see the immediate benefit of what we’re doing, we’re tempted to avoid it. If it looks like it’s going to rain, we’ll just rather stay inside. If we’re ignorant about what’s going to happen, it’s tempting to just take a nap yet instead we are supposed to work. Work twice as hard to be wise and invest whether that’s our money or our time. Help us to not overanalyze, get so busy analyzing what’s happening that we paralyze ourselves. Again help us to enjoy our toil as we fear you. We pray all this in the name of your Son. Amen.