Old things New Podcast

PrayRead: Ecc 3:9-13.MeditationSolomon says in verse nine that the deepest pulse of the human soul is the desire for beauty and joy and goodness. We long for it. We want to see it, and taste it, and touch it, and hear it. We want fulfillment and laughter, and wonder, and beauty, and joy. There is an insatiable, ravenous desire in every heart, longing to be satisfied with goodness and beauty. We are compelled to pursue it, and we always want more. The truth is that there is an infinite hole in our souls, constantly longing and craving to be filled with something good. That is what Solomon means when he says in verse 11, “He has put eternity into man’s heart.” And nothing in this world can fill that hole.But there is something else here as well. This desire for goodness and satisfaction is not doomed to emptiness. God made us this way. That desire for goodness, truth, and beauty is a gift from him. As verse 11 says, “He has put eternity into man’s heart.” He did that for a good reason. The reason is not to deny us joy. The reason, in Christ, is to fill us. Why would he make a hole in our hearts as wide and infinite as eternity itself? There is one single reason, because he wants to fill it.Our souls were designed to feast upon God. They were designed to be lavished with his love again and again. We were designed to be drowned and immersed and saturated and overcome by his beauty and goodness. The psalmist puts it this way in Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the Lord.” Again he says, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And the earth has nothing that I desire besides you.” God the Father, revealed through Christ by the Spirit, is our ultimate good. This is the reason he has saved us, so that he, the source and substance of all that is beautiful, God himself, will satisfy our hearts.Have you ever noticed how much you enjoy the company of people you love, friends and family? When we enjoy dinner or conversation together, hours pass like minutes. We could just keep talking and talking. It is a delight to come to know one another more deeply. We drink in each other’s attention and delight in the connection we share. This is a small picture of what life with God is meant to be like. Knowing God is like a constant conversation. We delight in his presence. We speak with him and we listen to him. And, astonishingly, as he draws us to himself through Christ, and as he sees us as being in Christ, he delights in us.This is why God pictures our relationship with him like the relationship between a husband and wife. In that relationship there is deep and profound intimacy and connection. There is love and nearness, and joy, and beauty, and pleasure. So it is to be with our God.If you would gain in life, if you would find what is good, start here. Stop stressing and start trusting God. Embrace the mystery of God’s providence. You cannot work out why he has appointed everything in your life, nor should you try to. Verse 11 tells us that we cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end. His plan is too big for us. Solomon is saying, walk by faith. We may question God’s providence and agonise over why certain things have happened, but the truth is that we cannot and will not fathom the fullness of God’s plans. His work is eternal, as verse 14 says. It is so wide and deep and high that we can never get around it, over it, or under it. His work endures forever. No one can add to it, and no one can take away from it. God is the sovereign ruler of history. Everything that happens is sovereignly appointed by him. So do not resist it or endlessly question it. Embrace it. Live as a child trusting your Heavenly Father. He does all things well, and he makes all things beautiful in their time, even the hard things.There are two more applications. Trusting God can sound abstract, so what does it look like in everyday life? Solomon says it means at least two things. Do good, and enjoy life.First, do good. Verse 12 says there is nothing better than to do good. As we live the Christian life in dependence on God and in thankfulness for our salvation in Christ, one question we can prayerfully and continually ask is: How can I do good right now? If we ask that question in any circumstance, and look to the word of God for guidance, we will be equipped to live well. As God answers that question and empowers us by his Holy Spirit to live it out, we will live lives that are pleasing and honourable before God and before others.Second, take pleasure in all your toil, as verse 12 says. There are two ways of enjoying things. There is a self-oriented enjoyment, which every sinner is naturally good at, and there is a God-oriented enjoyment. Solomon is teaching us the second kind. In verse 13 he tells us to take pleasure in our toil, not as pleasure in isolation, but as pleasure rooted in the knowledge that this is God’s gift to humanity. We enjoy life as a gift, not as an entitlement and not as an addiction. We do not abuse what we have. We enjoy it for what it is, a good gift from our Heavenly Father. When we drink a glass of wine and taste it on our lips, our souls are not filled with a mindless craving for more. They are filled with wonder and thankfulness that God has done all things well, that he has made taste buds and the vast variety of food and drink to go with them.Think of it this way. Watching a movie or enjoying a piece of art with someone is very different from doing it alone. There is a shared awareness of the experience. We talk about it afterwards, enjoy it together, and learn from it together. Enjoyment in life should never be done alone. Sometimes it will be with other people, sometimes it will not, but always it should be with God. We must learn to enjoy life in his presence, in constant prayerful communion with him as we receive his good gifts. In the quiet chirping of birds on a warm summer evening, as we sit in the shade and hear children laughing in the garden, a sigh of contentment rises, and with it a note of thanksgiving to our God. As we run on the beach or walk in fresh air, we laugh at the sheer exhilaration of life and exult in the glory of what God has made, worshipping him with all our souls. As we watch small children laughing and running, we too laugh in wonder at the mystery and beauty of the life God has made. As we enjoy life, there should be a constant awareness of God’s goodness and grace, an inescapable sense of his presence in all that we do.My Dad once said to me, make sure you enjoy life. Our Heavenly Father would have us do the same. Enjoy your sleep, enjoy your work, enjoy your food and drink. That is what he has made them for. And above all, enjoy him.Everything in life is empty without him, as chapter two shows us, because he is the true source of all joy and peace and beauty. If you would have good in life, if you would see life and beauty and truth, then the answer above all answers is this. Pursue Christ. Love the Lord your God with all your mind. Search the Scriptures so that you may understand. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Cry out to him and learn to delight in him. Love the Lord your God with all your soul, for he has purchased your soul with the blood of Christ. Love the Lord your God with all your strength. Spare nothing. Constantly strain after him. Only in Christ will we find our best life now. Only in his beauty and goodness will our souls find lasting peace and rest. Only as we rest in him will we find ultimate and eternal rest.And on that day, when we stand in the new creation in new bodies, every single day will be a day in which we see more of his beauty, further and deeper, and it will never end. He has put eternity into our hearts, and in the fullness of time he will fill our hearts with eternity, never-ending, everlasting joy and peace. More and more and more, without end. His infinite beauty and goodness will be our portion forever. So brothers and sisters, as you look forward to that day, make it your business even now to pursue him with all that is within you. Do good. Seek Christ. Enjoy the gift of life. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 3:9-11.MeditationSolomon has challenged our perception of the good life, showing us that life as a gift from God is itself a goodness to be thankful for. And yet, the question stubbornly persists, doesn’t it? Is there any good in life? We still want and desire what is good, and with the brokenness of the world around us, the question is pressing. And Solomon has more to say to us. Because believing in God is not just about some cold-hearted fatalism. No, what Solomon will go on to show us is that this longing in our hearts, this too, is a gift from God.And so the first thing he says in verse 11 is that he assures us that there is good in life. It’s not just an endless misery fest. It’s not a hopeless enterprise where we are doomed to despair and pain. In verse 11 we find this wonderful affirmation: He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Life is God’s gift, and everything is part of his wonderful and beautiful plan.And so we may ask: iI there anything good in life? My friend, in God’s plan, let me tell you with absolute certainty that everything in life is beautiful. Every single thing in existence plays its part in a symphony so magnificent, so breathtakingly beautiful, so astoundingly good, that no eye has seen it, no ear has heard it, no heart has imagined it. And note carefully that word: everything. He has made everything beautiful. There is nothing in all existence that falls outside of his good and perfect plan—not pain, or suffering, or toil. We serve and love a good God.We do not serve a God who takes pleasure in pain. He is not sadistic. He is not evil. He is not dark or twisted. He does not take pleasure in destruction.Our God is a God of beauty. He is good. And everything he does is good. There is not the barest shadow of darkness in him. And we see his goodness everywhere, don’t we? He has made a world full of colour, an endless variety of flowers and fantastic creatures. He made the vastness of space and all its awe-inspiring wonders. He made people. He made laughter and kindness, and compassion, and tenderness—in fact, he is those things. When we see laughter and kindness in the face of a friend, we are seeing a reflection of God’s beauty and goodness. He is love.And so our God is a God of beauty. He is Himself unspeakably, unfathomably, and infinitely beautiful, and the source of all goodness and beauty.It is this sovereign God who has made all things beautiful in their time. Every single thing in existence, every leaf on its tree, every fibre of clothing, every bird on the wing, every invention and artwork, every composition of music, every second of time, every person in history—all of it has been custom-designed, minutely and perfectly, to manifest his beauty and goodness. He has made everything beautiful in its time.Now take note here, because there is something important to see. Notice that the passage does not say God will make everything beautiful in its time. It says he has made everything beautiful in its time. Every moment has its beauty for those whose eyes are open to see it. Every created thing in every single place is beautiful as it plays its part in his plan.Maybe you have watched a skilled artist drawing a picture. It is quite amazing to watch the picture unfolding, to see the skill of the pencil strokes, to see the mind of the artist materialise before our eyes on paper.So it is with God, but his canvas is the canvas of creation, and his brush strokes unfold in ten thousand countless places in every single moment andmedium. History is his masterpiece, and moment by moment he is painting, always and in everything.And so it is that Solomon reminds us of the truth: “we cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (verse 11). How can we possibly hold the master plan of God in our puny minds? How can we possibly conceive of the beauty that is unfolding on the canvas of history? We cannot even see it in our own lives. All we see are glimpses. We see the smile and hear the laugh of a small child as we pick them up. We hear a beautiful piece of music. Something clicks in our hearts as God reveals something beautiful to us from his word. Small adjustments. Small steps on the path of sanctification.Now maybe you have an objection here. What about the bad things? How can God possibly say that he has made the bad things beautiful in their time? How can cancer possibly be beautiful?Well, let me take you to a hill. It is a hill outside Jerusalem, 2000 years ago. It is dark, and there is a man on this hill, bloodied, beaten, and crucified. His lips are dry and cracked. Tears run down his face. His body has been whipped. He has been shamefully stripped and nailed to a cross. He is the very embodiment of shame. He is scorned by all. Even his loved ones are cowering and afraid at a distance. And it is worse still, because this is no mere man. This is the Son of God. Bleeding, crying out in agony. And even God himself has abandoned his Son. Mankind has met its Creator, and it has crucified him. It is ugly. It is shameful. It is the most hideous act of evil that has ever been committed under the sun.Now let me tell you something about the cross of Christ. Because as the worst crime of humanity was committed, as the full darkness of our sin was revealed, as the ugliest thing in history transpired, as our faces were twisted and contorted in anger at him, as we whipped, beat, nailed, scorned, scoffed, and taunted him, as the most unthinkable evil in the history of the world was perpetrated, as the wrath of God for sinners was borne in full by Jesus on the cross, as the single ugliest, vilest, and most disgusting act of history was committed—in this disgrace, God was doing the most beautiful thing that has ever happened in history. He was reversing pain and suffering and evil. He was redeeming our souls.Because from this act of redemption, in all its ugliness and pain, from this single act hearts and lives would be transformed. Souls would be rescued from the very pit of hell. Through the cross, all the evil and darkness and defilement of this world would be, has been, is being, and will be washed from the face of history. And so, as the Saviour hung bleeding and dying, we see the most beautiful sight that a sinner could ever behold. We see the sight of our Saviour redeeming us. Our life, our hope, our Christ. All our desires for goodness are wrapped up and bound up in him.And so, how can our personal sufferings be made beautiful? The answer is simple. They are beautiful because they are miniature images of the cross worked out in our own experience. Think about that. Philippians 1:29 says: it has been granted to you not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for him. We image the gospel through our sufferings. We image Christ through our sufferings. And as a selfish sinner is transformed by a selfless Saviour, let me tell you, that is a beautiful sight. He has made all things beautiful in their time. And in the fullness of time, you will see the way that he has used your sufferings to draw you nearer to himself, to make you more like Christ. Is that not a beautiful thing?We may complain about our suffering, but we really are in no place whatsoever to have an opinion on that. Are we in the place of God to judge whether or not our suffering will serve his good purposes? When God was designing the brain, do you think you would have looked over his shoulder and made suggestions? There is not one human alive who even understands the brain, much less could we possibly be in a position to judge how well it was made. No, when we look at a brain, we do not offer suggestions, we marvel. We worship God that he has made such a remarkable thing as the human brain! And God’s plan in history is no different. It is incomprehensible to us. What right do we have to think we are even worthy of an opinion? No, as we look at what is before us in our lives, it is not ours to question or complain. We need to remember who is in charge. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

A new perspective on finding joy (Ecc 3:10).PrayRead: Ecc 3:9-11.MeditationOne thing we must always remember, says Solomon, is who is running the show. Take a look at verse 10: “I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.” Stop for a moment. Do you see what he did there?Solomon’s very first response to the bigger question he’s asking here (i.e. is there anything good to be found) is to recall what life really is. Life is not the sum total of our own efforts. If life were something we ourselves invented, then we might ask whether there is anything good in it. When we make something, we usually have a purpose in mind. But we did not invent life. It is not a plan that we made and then executed. It is not something we designed. It is not something we achieve. It is something we have been given.Life is a gift of God’s grace. And so life is not first about what good we can get out of it. It is about what God has designed it for. That is what Solomon points to in verse 10, and that is an important shift, one that we need to make.When you receive a gift, by definition you are not entitled to it. It is not something you control for the purpose of self-satisfaction. It is something given to you by someone else.And so we may ask, is there anything good in life, as though we are entitled to something good. No. Wrong question, says Solomon. Start here: life is a gift from God. Pause for a moment and feel the weight of that. Your life is a gift from God. All this business of life that we are engaged with is the gift of God.In itself, this should be enough to answer the question anyway. Is there any good to be found in life? Well, who gave it to us? God did. So tell me, when the all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, altogether good God of the universe gives a gift to someone, will it be good? It is a foolish question really. Of course it will be good. Everything he does will be good and perfect in every possible way. He does not do things that are not infinitely and unspeakably wonderful.The issue is that when we ask whether there is anything good, our expectations are shaped by what we think of as good. Yet we are not in the place of God. And so we must give this question over to God by faith, and simply receive the gift of life and everything that he has in it for us. We are not entitled to something good, because life was never ours to begin with. Life, and everything in it, is the gift of God and belongs to him. As we saw in a recent meditation, he ordains every season and circumstance. In spite of what we may think or feel, we must trust that our God does not do anything useless, fruitless, hopeless, or worthless. He does all things well.Here, then, is a golden piece of application. Whatever may occur in your life, remind yourself that this is a gift from God. God has given you your life. Whatever is on your plate right now is what God has called you to do at this point in your life. In your family situation, with a spouse or without a spouse, in your workplace, in the place where you are living, everything you do and all the business you are engaged in is given by God’s sovereign appointment.This matters because we are so vulnerable to complaining. We do complain about our circumstances, and we do feel profoundly dissatisfied with them at times. But we must remember that these things are the gift of God. That is a reality check. In all your circumstances, then, do not ask what you can get out of this. Ask instead: How can I serve God in this? How can I grow in Christ through this? How can I look to him to enable me to walk on the path he has given me? And if anyone lacks wisdom, scripture says, let him ask of God and he will give it. So we must always keep this fresh before our minds: life is a gift of God. It is crucial for fearing God in a fallen world. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 3:9.MeditationIn the spirit of Ecclesiastes, let me pose a very un-cheerful question to you: If there was nothing good in life, would you really want to be alive? If misery was your only companion, would you want to be here? I think our honest answer to that question would have to be no. If there was no good, no beauty, no satisfaction, peace or joy, if there was only pain, and suffering, and misery and darkness, we would have no reason to live. You see, there is a God-given desire in the human heart, a desire in each of us, a longing to find goodness and joy, to see beauty.As Solomon has taken us down the pathways of the labyrinth of life, we have considered the frustration of life under the sun. He has shown us the impossibility of understanding all of life’s problems. What is lacking cannot be counted, he said in Chapter 1. He has shown us our inability to fix it. What is crooked cannot be made straight. He has shown us that no matter how much material wealth and pleasure you gain in life, none of it is lasting or ultimately fulfilling. All of the wealth, possessions, power and prestige in the world will come up empty. You cannot hold on to them, and after our few short years of life they will all be stripped away. Our wealth will go to someone else. Our work will be cut short. Beauty will sag and disappear. Music will fall silent as our hearing fades. Everything is temporary and fleeting. Life’s seasons are constantly changing. And so we have seen that there is no permanent and lasting good to be found in what is done under the sun.Solomon has looked everywhere, and so at last, as he continues on his discourse in Chapter 3, and having considered all the possibilities, he asks the grand question: Is there anything good at all? Is there anything to be gained from life? This is what he is really asking in verse 9: What gain has the worker from his toil?”Now probably, when you read that question with this particular translation, you think he is talking about work. What gain has the worker from his toil? The idea in your head is likely this: What benefit does a labourer get from all the work that he does? What is the good of work and employment? But that is not what Solomon is asking here. He is asking something much bigger.There are two words I want to bring to your attention in verse nine. The first is “worker”, and the second is “toil”. That word “worker”, what gain has the worker, is not referring to an employee. Let me give you another word instead: doer. What gain does the doer have in all his doings? Solomon is referring to the general sense in which we are all active. People are always busy doing stuff. Life is full of business and doing things. That is what Solomon is getting at here. For all the business and happenings and movement that there is in this world, what benefit does a person really have?Now the second word is “toil”. “What gain has the worker from his toil?” Ecclesiastes is a book that echoes Genesis repeatedly, and he does that here. This word “toil” echoes and reminds us of the original curse. In Genesis 3, God said that man would sweat, that he would toil in a fallen world.So this toil is full of difficulty, anguish and, well, it is toil, isn’t it? That is consistent with the life that we know. We are always toiling. We are often struggling. Getting through life is not a breeze.And so Solomon’s question here is this: For all of life’s struggles, what good can we gain? He is asking if there is anything good for us in this difficult life. For all of our toil, is there anything of lasting benefit for us?Maybe you have felt like this before in your life. Sometimes it all just feels like it is too much. The bad things are so numerous and heavy that they seem to block out all the good. Maybe you feel like there is just no real good in life. For all of your struggles and toil, what have you really gained? As you toil along at the daily grind, will anything ever really come of it? After four decades of work. As we are in the trenches of parenthood, and it seems like day after day after day we are struggling along and the end is not in sight. As we walk day after day feeling the constant burden of loneliness. As we sit by helplessly and watch relatives bicker and fight, and we can do nothing. These things are a burden. We struggle to make ends meet. We struggle to find reasons to push on. Life feels like a barren wilderness. Is there anything good?The world will try to say “yes”, and it will peddle every lie under the sun to try to meet your need. Whether it is drinking, or entertainment, or education. Joining the gym to get the body of a greek god. The endless stream of advertising telling us that this time the new product will make us happy. Whether it is travelling, or voting for the right political party. Even so-called preachers will try to tell you that you can have your best life now. The world will try to sell you the lie that there is something under the sun that can ultimately satisfy you.But you know it, don’t you, that your hunger is far deeper than any of that. This is why Hollywood superstars, with all the wealth and prestige and opportunity that life can offer, sometimes get to the top and commit suicide. Because none of those things can fill the hole in our souls. The world is full of empty promises and would-be gods.And so Solomon muses: Is there anything good that will come of our lives? As he ponders his own question, the answer he gives us is quite different from anything the world offers. He does not promise a new car or experience. He does not promise you your dream job or a beautiful spouse.The path Solomon leads us on in the next part of our text is far deeper than anything like that. What he shows us is that there is something wrong with the question. You do not really need an answer to this question. What you really need is a whole new way of looking at things. I wanted you to feel the weight of the question in this meditation, and consider now the oddity of his answer before we begin unfolding it next time: Is there anything to be gained? Wrong question.If we’re looking at the world around us, at everything under the sun, and asking: What is to be gained? We are looking in the wrong place for our gain. This question is a set-up to wean us from vanity. It’s the beginning of a call to lift our eyes above that which dwells under the sun, and consider him who dwells in heaven. As an immediate application, this is a reminder of Colossians 3:1, which says: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Christ, he is the one upon whom we must set our attention! Let your mind be occupied with him, let your focus be absorbed with him.Maybe you do feel the weight of Solomon’s original question. All Christians do at times, which is why God ministers to this need in Ecclesiastes. Maybe your heart does long for something good. But here’s your application for this meditation: park the question. Park the earthly longings of your heart. Forget the dissatisfaction you have with the things in your life for a moment. Suspend everything, and come prepared to see a whole new paradigm in our next meditation. And above all, seek the things that are above. What’s one thing you can do differently today in pursuit of that goal? SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 3:1-8.MeditationThere is a time to weep and a time to mourn. What we see here is that we must be prepared, because days of sadness will come. The goal of this life is not to be always happy or always comfortable, because there is a God-appointed time to mourn. Living in a fallen world means that we should expect tears and mourning at times. As Solomon says elsewhere, there will be many dark days. And so, in preparation for those days, we should not think of suffering as something unusual, but rather fortify our souls now and be prepared for when those times arrive. Our Saviour was a man of sorrows, and God has ordained our sorrows as well, for our good. Remember the promise of verse 11, He makes all things beautiful in their time. Our tears will turn to pearls in the fullness of time, and we are called to believe that.There is a time to laugh and a time to dance. This is one area where many of us might do well to be challenged. How expressive are we in our joy? What cultural avenues exist in our lives to express ourselves exuberantly? To dance, Solomon says, there is a time to dance. When did you last dance? And yet many of us find ourselves uncomfortable with bold expressions of joyful emotion. There is also a time to laugh, and laughter is good for the soul. It is a gift of God. Perhaps we need a push in this area sometimes. Perhaps we need to think about it more deeply, and learn again how to enjoy God’s good gifts with gratitude and freedom.Verse 5 tells us, there is a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together. There will be times when we gather resources and build projects, and there will be times when we throw resources away. Either way, we must remember not to become too attached to these things, because as surely as we gather, the time will come to cast away. Our projects and possessions in this life must be seen as temporary opportunities to further the kingdom, not as things upon which we set our hearts. Our treasure is not built out of stuff. Our treasure is Christ, seated at the right hand of God.There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. We will have seasons of singleness and seasons of intimacy. There are times and relationships where embracing is appropriate, and there are times and relationships where it is not. Relationships, particularly sexual relationships, can easily become idols to us. The world around us tells us that we should have an unfettered right to sexual fulfilment, but sex serves a higher purpose, and at times it is right to abstain. And so, whether in marriage or in singleness, these relationships must be held lightly and seen for the temporary things that they are. In the next life, marriage as it now exists will cease, as Jesus himself said. In all our relationships, then, our highest goal must not be personal satisfaction, but growth in Christ and faithful service to God.There is a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away. There is a time to tear and a time to sew. Once again, this reminds us to hold our possessions lightly. The true value of what we own is measured by the degree to which it helps us love, serve and honour Christ. As we consider purchasing something, or as we reflect on what we already own, we should ask how it helps us fulfil life’s real purposes. You may probably heard of the KonMari method, where you go through your house and get rid of anything that does not spark joy. Perhaps we need a Christian KonMari, where instead of asking whether something sparks joy, we ask how useful it is for kingdom purposes. We might do well to ask ourselves more often why we are buying something in the first place. And if a thing has served its purpose, then perhaps it is time to cast it away, or even give it away. Our purpose in having things must never be simply to have things. Things can so easily become idols, and our materialistic culture is habitually idolatrous when it comes to stuff. We buy and buy and buy, but as Christians we must know why we buy. Do our possessions enable us to love and serve Christ better, or do they hinder us?There is a time to keep silence. There is a time to stop speaking and listen, a time to pause and ponder what has been said, and a time to be still in the presence of the Lord. The best time for silence is when God speaks. We must learn to quiet our thoughts and become skilled in the art of receiving the wisdom that God gives.There is also a time to speak. We must learn to tame our tongues and use them well, because if we do not, we will not be prepared when the time to speak comes. God’s Word is full of wisdom about the use of our tongues, and we must be diligent students of it. There is a time to name the name of Christ before the world. There is a time to speak a word of kindness to a broken soul. There is a time to offer instruction to the simple, to ask wise questions of our elders so that we may learn, and to lift our voices in praise to God. There is a time to seize opportunities to share Christ with the lost, and a time to speak words of repentance. Perhaps above all, we must pray for wisdom, so that we will know how to speak well, and how to speak at the right time. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 3:1-8.MeditationThere is a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. There will be seasons of hard work in life. Planting is by definition a time when you invest rather than gain. You work hard, and you give of your resources. This runs counter to the right now mindset of many Australians, who would rather spend in advance than work hard at the grind-stone and save. Yet there will be seasons of hard work, and we must embrace those seasons. So work hard at your jobs, work hard at your relationships, work hard in your homes and in raising your children. Work hard at your marriage and invest in it. Even reaping itself is hard work, but the day will come when we will reap a mighty harvest. There will be harvests in this life, but the greatest harvest of all comes in eternity. Honouring Christ in this life will mean working hard.There is a time to kill. This probably jars a little against modern western ears, and the reason for this is that today sin has completely twisted our minds. We refuse to kill murderers, for example, and yet we defend to the hilt the right to slay unborn innocents. The death penalty is seen as abominable, but abortion clinics are treated as practically a civil right. Yet God, in his wisdom, declares clearly that there is a time to kill. We must look to God’s Word to learn the standard of right and wrong. In Gen 9:6 we read, Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. The reason our lives are precious is because they image God, and modern society has almost completely lost this insight. There is, in fact, a time to kill. When somebody murders somebody else, they deserve to die, because in murdering another person they have committed one of the purest acts of hatred against God possible. To murder is to show oneself to be worthy of death. There is a time to kill. And beyond this, it is always a good time to be killing sin. There is a time to kill, and so we must be skilled in the art of spiritual warfare. We must take up the sword of the Spirit each and every day. We must wage war against, and kill, our sinful nature every day.There is a time to heal. Has it ever occurred to you that if you are sick, then by definition, in God’s good and perfect plan, it is not a time to heal, because you are always in exactly the season of life that God wants you to be in. This does not mean do not seek healing, and it does not mean do not ask for it in prayer. After all, there is a time to heal. But since there is a time to heal, we must also accept the fact that there is a time to be sick or injured. Think about that, and it will help you live patiently through sickness.There is a time to break down, and a time to build up. In a fallen world, sometimes a thing may be so thoroughly corrupted by sin that all that can be done with it is to break it down and destroy it. Destroying things is a sad but necessary part of life in a sinful world. Conversely, there is also a call upon our lives to be building up in Christ: building up one another in Christ, building up our families in Christ, building a business, and building an education. There is a time to build. As we saw last week, we are called to be constructive with the gifts and opportunities that God gives us. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 3:1-8.MeditationThere are particular seasons of life that Solomon brings to our attention in verses 2 to 8, and he starts with the big guns. There is, he says in verse 2, “a time to be born, and a time to die.” These are the great realities of time, the bookends of life.There is a time to be born, and this reminds us straight away that we are not in charge. When we were born, we had no say whatsoever about anything: where we would be born, when we would be born, what we would look like, who our family would be, our country of origin. All of this was determined for us in the sovereign decree of God.We should therefore be thankful and content with our lot in life. This challenges some of our sinful thought patterns. For example, did God make a mistake by making you look the way you do? When we wish we looked different, that is what we are saying. Did he make an error in judgement by giving you certain abilities but not others? When we envy the gifts of others, that is exactly what we are saying. Did he drop the ball when it came to limiting your opportunities? When we complain about these sorts of things, what we are really saying is that we do not trust God. No, wisdom humbly accepts the circumstances which God has decreed in our lives.There is a time to die. Have you ever thought about the fact that God knows the precise moment when you will die? He knows the circumstances under which it will occur, and what is more, he appointed it. There is a time to die.The great question with death is this: Are you ready for it? It is possible that your appointed time to die may be in the car park after church tonight. It may be lying in your bed many years from now. We do not know. But what we learn here, and what we are warned about in many other parts of scripture, is that we must be prepared for the day of our death. Hebrews 9:27 puts the matter plainly: “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” So let me ask you: are you ready for judgment?Listen carefully, because this is extremely important. The cold, hard truth is that we cannot stand up under judgment. We are guilty. Psalm 130 says, “Lord, if you mark iniquity, who shall stand?” If our sins and evil were brought against us, who could maintain innocence? The honest answer is: no one. No one is innocent.Maybe you are thinking that your good will balance out the bad. My friend, that is a dangerous idea. There is no cosmic scale where good and bad deeds are weighed against each other. Think of it this way: if a man lives an exemplary life, works hard, gives to charity, raises a family, loves his children, and then one day, at age 56, shoots a man in cold blood, he will face the full force of the law. Not all the good deeds in his life will earn him a let-off for his crime, nor should they. This is justice. And God is a God of justice.Perhaps you think that is fair enough for a murderer, but that eternal hell is too harsh a penalty. Even if you have done the wrong thing at times, you think you do not deserve hell. Truth be told, you think it is unjust for God to send people to hell. You reject the idea. Let me tell you now that it is perfectly just for God to do so. Let me explain why.According to Scripture, God is a perfect spiritual being of absolute and infinite purity, goodness, and holiness. Note that word infinite, because it is very important. If you steal one hundred dollars from someone, there is a certain value attached to that. Justice may require you to return the one hundred dollars and compensate them with some extra. That would be just. But imagine if you stole one hundred dollars and were then forced to pay that person one hundred dollars every day for the rest of your life. That would be unjust.The problem is that when it comes to God, we have small thoughts of sin. Maybe you think you have only stolen a hundred dollars from God. You think your anger, irritability, or lust are not really that bad. But we have not merely stolen one hundred dollars from God. Let me show you how this works. Every time we sin, it is a sin against Almighty God. Psalm 51 says, “against you, you only, have I sinned.” Every sin against God is by definition a sin against his infinite goodness. Are you following me? Again, note the word infinite. He is infinitely good, and so anything wrong we do against him is against his infinite goodness. What this means is that any single sin at all, because it is against the infinite goodness of God, is a sin that is by definition infinitely bad. A single act of spite or hatred echoes infinitely against God’s goodness. For this reason, it is just that our punishment should also be infinite. Infinite punishment in hell is entirely just on God’s part.So let me ask again: Are you prepared to die? Are you prepared to face judgment?If you do not know the answer to that question, there is only one hope of escape. That hope is to cast your soul on Christ. This is the message of the gospel: Christ died to save wretched sinners. He bore the punishment of God’s infinite wrath on behalf of all who would believe in him. If you cannot say that you know Christ, then let me tell you plainly: you are not prepared for the day of your death. It is a sobering thought.I know this is bad news, but it is because things are so bad that we call the gospel the good news. And here is the good news for you: even if you have not yet come to Christ, there is nothing whatsoever hindering you from doing so right now, even in this moment. Come and believe. Come and drink freely of God’s forgiveness in Christ. Admit your sins, accept Christ, and follow him. There is a time to die, but in Christ we will be prepared for that time. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 3:1-8.Meditation“Time flies,” we often say, don’t we? And probably it would be a cliché, if it weren’t such a constant and powerful reality. Time really does fly by. As children, we don’t tend to notice it. I distinctly remember waiting for my parents to stop talking after church on Sunday; five minutes felt like an eternity. In our twenties, we feel invincible, and existence still seems timeless. And yet, as life goes on, we realise the truth as the decades continue to roll by at a startling rate. The older among us are acutely aware: time flies.In Psalm 90, Moses says, “like grass that is renewed in the morning: in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.” That is what our lives are like.Things are continually changing. An older sibling moves out of home and gets married. New babies arrive. A career changes. We move house. Elderly relatives die. The seasons of life are constantly moving, and everything continually changes.And so, in the midst of this changing life, it is important to ask ourselves: How can we use our time well? This is why, again in Psalm 90, Moses prays: teach us to number our days. We must use what little time we have wisely, redeeming the time. In our passage, Solomon very helpfully instructs us on how to do that. This book is all about the “hevel” of life, the shortness and transient nature of existence. Solomon wants to teach us how to be aware of time so that we can use it well.Picking up in verse 1, Solomon says: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Let’s pause here for a moment. Solomon is not just waxing lyrical about the nature of life. Yes, we have different times and seasons, but what he is saying is far more profound. He is saying that there is an order to time. One translation puts it this way: for everything there is an appointed time.And if time has been ordered, then someone has ordered it. We should not misunderstand Solomon here, because the overarching truth he is pointing out is that God is behind the seasons of time. God appoints times and seasons. We do not live in a random universe. Everything has a God-appointed time; for everything, there is a season. Solomon even says this explicitly in verse 11: “God has made everything beautiful in its time.” Note: God has made. As Ephesians 1:11 puts it, God “works all things according to the counsel of his will.”Let us not beat around the bush: Solomon is saying that God is the sovereign ruler over all history. He ordains time and all its seasons. One of our hymns calls him the “Potentate of Time.”In God’s good order, there are different seasons in life. There are appointed times for different purposes. One does not live as a child when they are 40 years old. One does not begin university studies at the age of 10, unless one happens to be a child prodigy.There are three life-applications that flow out of this meditation.Firstly, we must accept the seasonal nature of life. We must accept and embrace the natural changes of life. You can try to resist the change of time, and many people do, but it is as futile as trying to reverse a tidal wave with your bare hands. God has ordered it. This might seem like basic advice, and yet many people rebel against God’s ordained seasons. Our culture is often in outright rebellion against them. Everyone wants to be in their twenties. Teenagers look forward to the freedom of their twenties. People in their thirties pretend they are still in their twenties. People in their forties and fifties do everything possible to hold on to their youth. And even those actually in their twenties are often dissatisfied; all the travelling and partying in the world cannot bring true satisfaction.Even in our final years, rather than contentment and joy in God, there is often a sad lamentation that our best is behind us, which is not true. Euthanasia is another example. One reason it is gaining traction is that people refuse to accept God’s appointed seasons, whether old age, sickness, or difficulty.We might think ourselves immune to these mindsets. And yes, we will and should oppose euthanasia. But do we not sometimes long for a season to end, or pine after one that has gone? We do. No, says Solomon, we must embrace the seasons of life that we are in. They are ordained by God and are in his hands. Honouring Christ, fearing God, will look like living in and engaging with each season in its proper time.Remember, this is not just Solomon speaking to us. This is Christ speaking words of wisdom to us. Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24; Col 2:3). He says to us: “I have saved you. You are in my hands. I have ordained the seasons of your life. Whatever comes to pass for you is under my control.” Accept these seasons and all that they bring. They may not be what you hoped for, but your seasons have been custom designed by God. He calls you to embrace them, and one day he will show you the glorious things he has accomplished through them. Do not idolise a change in circumstance; live and walk through your seasons in reliance on him.The second application is that we ought to focus on the present season. Not only do we embrace the seasonal nature of life, we throw ourselves into each particular season. We are aware of life’s stages, the advantages and temptations of each, and we seek to please Christ in them. If we are young, we use our energy and freedom to grow in Christ and serve others. We listen to and honour those who are older because they have experience. If we are older, we do not long for days gone by. We give thanks for them, we may reminisce at times, but we do not live in a fantasy land of seasons past. Instead, we apply ourselves to the present time. We pray for the younger, mentor and disciple them, as Titus 2 instructs. As parents, we throw ourselves into the tasks of our season. As singles, we learn to take advantage of the gift of singleness while we still have it.Prayerfully applying our minds and searching the scriptures allows us to live for Christ in whatever season we find ourselves. If we struggle with longing for what we have lost or do not yet have, we can replace daydreams with prayers of thanksgiving, recalling our present blessings one by one and giving thanks to God. We can also consider prayerfully the opportunities and advantages of the present. Remember, each season is limited. If we do not focus on the present, doing good, we may find ourselves with regret later when the time has passed. Everything changes. Christ has placed you exactly where you are, but you will not be here forever. Even our time in this world is fleeting.Finally, we may draw from this that we are called to live fully in each moment. We must live in the moment of each day. It is easy for our minds to wander instead of focusing on what is happening now. We may think about later tonight, next weekend, or the next chapter of a book we are reading. But fearing God in each season includes applying our minds to the present moment, living in today. God wants us aware of the season and engaged in the moment, with our minds in the here and now.Today, that might mean listening well to a sermon. Later, it might mean driving safely or going to bed on time. Jesus says in Matthew 6:34: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”When we set aside time for morning devotions, having our attention fully there is essential. At work, we keep our focus on the task. When someone is speaking to us, we listen. Whatever we do, we need to be self-aware of what is happening, why we are doing it, and deliberately engage in it. Verse 3 reminds us there is a time to break down and a time to build up. You cannot build well if your mind is on demolition; you must apply your attention appropriately to the present.This is particularly relevant today, in an age when technology scatters our attention. Our phones ping in our pockets, drawing us away. We scroll through feeds and receive countless messages in seconds. Christ says: be self-conscious about how you use your phone. Set aside times for emails or social media. Ask yourself why you are on it, what purpose it serves, and how it helps you live for Christ. Once you know the purpose, determine how much time it deserves. Hours or minutes?Ephesians 5:15-16 says: “Look carefully – carefully – then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time.” Time is a limited resource, and careful diligence is required to use it well. We are often aware of our money, but time is far more precious. Each second spent disappears from the bank of our lives. There is a total account, and one day it will all be spent.When Christ saves and restores us to God, forgiving and redeeming us, he redeems our time as well. It belongs to him. He gives it to us and calls us to use it for him. Christ imparts wisdom: walk carefully and wisely. He has ordered the seasons of our lives and given us one day at a time. Live in today, focus on what is before you, and be aware of the seasonal nature of life. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 2:24-26.MeditationWe see a change in Solomon starting at verse 24, because in God’s plan of redemption our labour may become fruitful again. So let us take a quick look at verses 24 and 25: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”The first thing to see here in verse 25 is that although we now live in a fallen world, and although we no longer have endless time to work and develop the earth, still something of the goodness of work endures. It really is amazing what can be achieved in one lifetime, and even in the mundane everyday of work there is enjoyment to be found. It is satisfying to work on a project and bring it to completion. It is satisfying to labour for a day, earn money, and enjoy a good meal at the end with friends or family. These are good gifts of God and they should still lead us into thanksgiving and worship.Life is short, and yet while we are here God has given us these things to enjoy, to give thanks. The taste of a hearty meal at the end of the day is an opportunity to taste God’s goodness in a very tangible way, and it tastes like a well-cooked steak with mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes. As we taste we give thanks to our Maker. He loves to give us good gifts, and he still gives us gifts, abilities, and talents, and he expects us to use them to serve Christ.Even in a fallen world the workplace is still a place to worship, serve, and enjoy God. That is what it is supposed to be. And as a word of application, while we may not have forever to develop our gifts and abilities, we should still use what we have to develop and subdue the creation to God’s glory. If you have natural, God-given abilities in a certain area, why not develop them? Why not find ways to use them in his service? Use them for the extension of his kingdom. Everyone will be different here. Some will be mathematicians, some artists, some builders, and some doctors. The way we all contribute in different areas is part of the glory of it all. It is a good thing to use your particular God-given talents and develop them to serve others, including in the marketplace. If you did not do this you could not provide for your family, and there would be no tithes to bring into the church. As a word to parents, it is good to keep an eye on our children, seeing the areas they enjoy most and are gifted in, and perhaps encourage them to develop those areas.But redemption in the workplace is not just a personal redemption. We have seen that God created work with a grand vision, a cosmic vision that encompassed all humanity. The final thing we need to see is that Christ’s redemption also redeems work in a cosmic sense as well. That is what we see in verse 26.The original design for work may have been lost at the fall. We cannot live forever. We cannot escape the effects of sin on work: greed in the marketplace, a world full of darkness, creation groaning, workplaces corrupted and barely a shadow of the glory of what might have been. And yet in Christ there is hope and redemption.When Christ came to earth he came to save sinners. He came to undo the works of Satan. When he saves a sinner he does not just save their soul. Faith in Christ is not a purely spiritual thing. Christ did not spill his blood to deliver only our souls from hell. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Redemption has a very earthy aspect. Christ forgives a drug addict for sticking a needle into their arm and committing actual physical acts of violence. He forgives adulterers for what they did with another person who was not their spouse. Sin works itself out in very tangible ways, and so does salvation. Christ’s work of redemption, our salvation, will unfold in the workplace. It will unfold in grace to graceless colleagues, and in loyalty, honesty, and hard work towards our bosses. And it will also unfold cosmically as well.Death robs us of any lasting benefit from our work. So we must ask: Is it all for nothing? Is it all lost? A pipedream? Are we doomed to work for a lifetime and then watch our labours crumble to dust and become nothing? The answer to that question, according to verse 26, depends on whose side you are on. Are you with God, or are you playing life for yourself? Are you for Christ, or against him? That is the ultimate issue at stake.Verse 26 says: “For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to the one who pleases God.” Do you see what is happening in that verse? To the sinner, the sinner is doomed to the despair that Solomon has been talking about, doomed to work for a few short decades and then watch it all slip away. But to the one who pleases God there is blessing and knowledge and joy.And you see it there, do you not? All the wealth of the wicked flows into the coffers of the righteous. This is why Christ said that the meek shall inherit the earth. This is why Proverbs 13:22 says: “the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous.” In Christ, as we waltz out of Egypt dancing at our redemption, as they did with Israel at the Exodus, so always the Egyptians will pile up wealth and gold on God’s people.We see this principle at work even in this life. Many godless men made contributions in shipbuilding in years gone by, and yet it was the missionaries who used those ships to bring the gospel to the Pacific Islands. Many godless people contributed towards the invention of the iPhone, and yet we can use it for eternal gain, to spread the gospel, to publicise and listen to sermons, to access thousands of Puritan books. All the wealth of the wicked will ultimately be stripped from them. It will do them no good unless they turn to Christ, and in Christ we will benefit from it to the glory of God.The final thing to remember is this: in our labour and work we must always depend on Christ. Verse 26 twice mentions the one who pleases God, and it is this one who will benefit. Now let me ask you, who has ever pleased God? Not me. Not you. At Christ’s baptism God himself declared: “Behold my son, in whom I am well pleased.” It is only in Christ.In Christ all the promises and wisdom and joy of God are given to us. True meaning in work is restored. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says it plainly: brothers and sisters, be “always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.” Without Christ all our labour and toil will be in vain. In Christ we will find meaning and purpose and eternal reward for our labour. It will endure across the generations and it will echo into eternity.So go in Christ. Go to your workplace in his grace and strength, and consider how you may use your gifts and talents and opportunities best to honour him who saved us.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 2:18-23.MeditationEcclesiastes is like a labyrinth, a giant maze. One of the things Solomon does in this maze of life under the sun is show us which paths not to walk down, the dead ends, and which paths we should walk down, the paths that lead and instruct us in the fear of the Lord. Remember, that is where Solomon wants to take us ultimately. This book is designed to teach us to fear God. We see this clearly in Ecc 12:13, where Solomon says that the end of the whole matter is to fear God. His ultimate destination, if you like, in the labyrinth of life, is to teach us to fear God as we live our lives.In Ecc 2:18-23, Solomon is showing us a dead end in the labyrinth: the frustration of work. In verse 18 he says, I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun. His soul is vexed. In fact, in verse 20 he says, I gave my heart up to despair. Solomon is recalling and recording the way he felt about his work.The first obvious question is this: Why did he feel this way? Why is he so vexed and troubled? Why does he consider his work and turn to despair?To put it bluntly, the reason Solomon is in so much despair here is a reason that will largely be completely foreign to the average modern person. If we get depressed about our work or do not like it, we might feel that way because our boss is overbearing, or we are not having fun in the job we are doing, or the pay is low, or our colleagues annoy us or make life for us, or we are discontent because we think the grass would be greener elsewhere. I am not trying to undermine these things, because they can be valid challenges. But what Solomon is getting at is far deeper.Let me put it this way: Have you ever thought about what work would look like if the fall had not happened? That is a serious question. It is not one we often ask. We can imagine what relationships might look like without the fall. There would be no hatred, selfishness, bickering, fighting, or anger. Relationships would have been harmonious, loving, and selfless. Things would have been great. But what about work? If the fall had not happened, what would work have been like?Many things might come to mind, but perhaps the most obvious is that there would be no retirement. With no death and no aging, retirement would not exist. It opens up a whole new idea about work. You would not have just a few decades to develop your skills and experience. You would have endless centuries. Year after year to work, grow, build, develop, achieve, and complete projects. It is hard to imagine. Forget about leaving a legacy; you would live a legacy and build one that kept going.This may sound strange, but I want to put to you that this is actually what work was supposed to be like. Yet there is an even deeper question here. When you take the limitation of time out of the equation, you are forced to ask: Why do we have work? Why do we get up day after day and do things? Let me give you a few answers from the modern mindset: you work to get money; you work to get the stuff you need to live, such as food, a place to live, and transport; you work to enable you to do the things you actually want to do. Work, for many people, has become a means to different ends.I want to put to you that this is very far removed from what God intended for work and from what Christ intends for us in work. In Genesis 1 we find out what work is for. In Genesis 1 verse 28 we read: And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.Fill the earth and subdue it. That is what work is about. It is about developing God’s creation so that God may be glorified. In Christ we are restored to this calling, and even to a higher calling in the Great Commission, though we will come to that later in Ecclesiastes 3. Work is about developing God’s creation, subduing it, and having dominion.What does it mean to develop and subdue God’s creation? You see it everywhere. People subdue the elements, form and manipulate metals, discover their properties, and push these developments into new arenas. They build and construct. Think of the discovery of fire and electricity, and then the things you can do with them: cars, phones, computers. There are other areas too, like music. We discover principles of music and art and find new ways of making and experimenting with sound. We create beautiful things in painting and sculpture. With the written word we achieve endless things. We grow food and care for our environment. This is part of what it means to develop, nurture, subdue, and take dominion of God’s creation.When God created the world it was a vast storehouse of untapped possibility. When he looked at Adam and Eve he said, go, discover, build, subdue, construct. Multiply together, have families, watch your children develop what I have made, work with them, work together, do amazing things, and you will see more and more of my glory, and you can show others the wonders of my creation.This is what work is really about. It is about worship. It is about developing this world so that the wonders of God’s infinite mind may be displayed before all, so that we might see his wonders in and through his handiwork. The world is a great book, the book of nature, as the Belgic Confession says, and even today with all our technology we have most likely not yet read the first page.Work was supposed to be magnificent. It was not a drudgery to be escaped. It was not a tool for self gain. It was a means for declaring and beholding the glory of God. It was a means for serving, benefiting, and loving mankind. Even today that is how it is meant to work. When we see grand feats of engineering we ought to think, this is the world God has made; this is the dignity and honour of being created in his image. It is also meant to serve one another. When you receive good customer service from someone who genuinely cares, you return and recommend them. The problem with capitalism and the free market is not the system itself but that fallen man is self oriented rather than service oriented.Imagine the world as it was meant to be before the fall. Imagine artists honing their craft for centuries. Imagine Bach’s compositions after two thousand years of playing and composing. Imagine transportation and space travel in a world where scientists had perfect harmony in their relationships as they worked. You quickly stray into science fiction, and even then, the fallen imagination of most writers falls short of what could have been in God’s creation.My point in all this is that these ideas actually inform Solomon’s frustration over his work. Scripture has a contour that runs from creation and paradise, to the fall, to redemption and hope in Christ. We have looked at creation, and what we see now in Solomon’s vexation is the fall. In verse 18 he says, I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool.Solomon’s true frustration with work has nothing to do with the cosmetic complaints we have today. He senses the true consequences of the fall in his work, and that is what drives him to despair. He knows he could spend decades working and building, as we saw earlier in chapter two. He built magnificent buildings and gardens, great vineyards, and he formed choirs of musicians. Solomon’s achievements were staggering. Yet he saw clearly that the day of his death was approaching. At the end of verse 19 he says, This also is vanity. It is passing. It is hevel, temporary.We can achieve great things in a lifetime of work: huge projects, new inventions. Steve Jobs took technology to a whole new level. But what is gained? What good does an iPhone do for Steve Jobs now? We die after all. We do not get to live on and enjoy the benefits of our labour. Verse 21 says, Sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. In a fallen world we no longer get to develop the potential that was there. We barely begin, then our bodies break down, and everything we have achieved is left to someone else. In verse 19 Solomon says, Who knows whether that person will be wise or a fool.Here is the true vexation of the workplace. In verse 22 Solomon asks what we gain from it. The answer is nothing. We cannot keep it, cannot hold on to it, cannot ensure the next generation will carry on our vision. Most likely, everything we have done will crumble and be forgotten. Our wealth will be squandered by fools.This is what Solomon truly hates, and it is a godly thing to hate sin and its consequences. One consequence of sin, one aspect of the curse, is this innate frustration that has become part of our work. When Adam was cursed, the curse was in relation to his work. He would no longer sow and reap vast productivity. He would sow and battle thorns and thistles.We can barely grasp the vision of what work was meant to be under God, much less achieve even a shadow of it. This is lamentable. So much of God’s glory might have been displayed, and now work has been reduced to a pale, selfish, sinful shadow of what it was created to be. Worse still, fallen man has twisted it beyond recognition. People ply their skills in perverse ways: prostitution, thievery, abortion doctors, the slave trade that still exists in many parts of the world. Work in a fallen world, without Christ, is a dead end. Yet in Christ there is hope. Your labour is not in vain in the Lord. As we feel the weight of the curse of sin in the workplace, the frustration of the fact that both our our work and our very hands are disintegrating before our eyes, let us rest in Christ’s work, and commit what work we do unto him. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbh

PrayRead: Ecc 2:18-26.MeditationOne very important question every Christian should ask is this: What are you supposed to do once you have become a Christian? What should or will change in our lives? Is it only our Sunday mornings that change, or does being a Christian shape our life during the week as well?Some imagine that it means becoming hyper spiritual. Perhaps it involves becoming disconnected from the things of this world, going to Bible studies every day instead of working, using every possible spare moment to read the Bible with as much fasting as possible, or even withdrawing from everything and joining a monastery.Others imagine that being a Christian simply means adding certain things to an otherwise ordinary life. We still do mostly the same things as before. We have families, we go to work, we buy a house, yet we also include a fair amount of Christian activity. We go to church, we join a Bible study, and we try to have a daily devotional time. Christianity becomes a kind of “segment” of our lives from this perspective.But what does it actually mean in real, everyday life to become a Christian?I want to make a little bit of sense of this question in this meditation, and here is where I want to start. I want to begin by asking you to consider what it is that actually changes when you become a Christian. I have one word for you. Listen carefully: everything. Absolutely everything about your life should change in some way. Let me explain what I mean by that.In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we read, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come. When we come to Christ, repent of our sins, put our faith in him, when his blood covers us and God forgives us, and we submit our lives to him as Lord, what happens is that we are, as Jesus says in John 3, reborn. Something basic and fundamental in our very being changes, our very spirit receives life. This spiritual rebirth, which occurs when someone comes to Christ, can, should, and will change everything.Now, don’t get me wrong. Becoming a new creation in Christ does not mean that we cease to be human. We still eat dinner, have a job, raise kids. In short, we still live in God’s world. But the way we view these things, the way we live in all these areas of life, undergoes a paradigm shift. You could say we gain a Christian worldview, we begin operating from new assumptions about life and the world. We view everything from the perspective of faith in Christ, and this change should flow out into everything we do. In Romans 12:2 the Bible calls this renewing your mind.Raising children, for example, should look very different for Christians than it does for those who live without God. Living as a Christian single should look very different from living as a godless single. The books we read, the movies we watch or choose not to watch, will be informed, shaped, and defined by our faith in Christ. Everything we do will, in this sense, be different, changed, and redeemed.We cannot address all of the connections to this issue in this meditation, we’ll follow up with a closer look in the next few. Overall, however, we see in this passage that there is one particular area of life that Solomon focuses on. It is a big area, one where we spend a huge portion of our time. It touches on a fundamental aspect of human identity. It goes back to one of the main things we were created to do in Genesis 1. In modern terms, we simply call it: “work.”In some form or another, many of us go to work each day, or have spent or will spend most of our lives doing it. There are office workers, labourers, garbage collectors, missionaries, and home makers, which is a vocation too by the way.So how should we as Christians think about and do our work? What does it mean to honour Christ our Saviour in the workplace, as we pursue a vocation? Have you given much thought to the relationship between your work and your faith? If not, well it is high time to start. Ecclesiastes, not to mention plenty of other passages in scripture, give plenty of attention to work. If you have thought about this before, then let’s open the scriptures, and the wise will become wiser still. We’re going to be giving this topic some prayerful consideration across the course of the next few meditations and see what wisdom Solomon will bring us. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 2:14-18.MeditationWe find a most peculiar encouragement in Ecclesiastes 2:17. Look again at the end of verse 17: all is vanity and a striving after the wind. All is a breath. All is fleeting. All is insubstantial. The blessing I am speaking about here is this: that life is short.Now maybe that shocks you. Maybe you are thinking, short? I do not want life to end! I want to see my grandchildren. I want to enjoy the good things for as long as I can. And that is ok. It is ok to desire to see your grandchildren. In fact, let me assure you, one of the things Solomon will show us later in the book is how to enjoy life. He is not a killjoy, far from it.But my point here is not to say that these things are not good. My point is to say that the affliction you are now suffering, the burdens you bear, they truly are momentary and light.Ask anyone over fifty: Does life go quickly? You had better believe it. Life will fly by. And as you start looking back over the years, and you hear Solomon say life is but a breath, you realise, yes, it is so true.Years go by. Decades. Life passes. Childhood. Teenage years. Your twenties, they will be over just like that. And in just a few more short decades you will be nearing the end.We are tempted to fear this progression, to feel apprehensive about the shortness of our time. A much better approach is to see it as a blessed mercy. Absolutely, enjoy God and his gifts in this life. But see too that the shortness of life is a blessing.Again, why do I say that? I say it because we can know with absolute certainty that these hateful things in life, sickness and suffering, death and disease, their power is limited, and it is waning. It is like winter in Narnia. This life is quickly passing, and we are small drops in a large bucket, but Jesus continues to move. The winter is thawing and the spring of a new creation is nearing; each day it is nearer.And so when that day comes, when you close your eyes in this life for the last time, this is not a day of sorrow but a day of gladness, because to go and be with Christ is much better. And when you close your eyes on that day, you will open them again and you will behold unspeakable things, and all the shadows and darkness of this life will be gone. The sound of victory and joy and glory will greet you. The faces of long lost loved ones will be there, smiling. You finished the race. Your spouse, who you have not seen for thirty years, in Christ he will be there. The ache in your heart, the pains, the sense of loss at dear friends’ departure long ago, all these burdens will fall from your shoulders as you are reunited again.But even this is not the best part. Because on that day you will see him, the One who died to save you, the One who rescued you from darkness. He will be there. You will see the wounds in his hands, his feet, his side. You will see the smiling face of the One who has loved you. And in Christ, if you have put your faith in him, you will be welcomed home.And even this is not the end. At the last day, as the trumpet is sounded, our old bodies too will rise in resurrection, and a new heavens and a new earth will be there. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.A new world, Eden restored and enhanced. Blessing and light and life and wonder and hope and joy. All this is the heritage of those who are in Christ, who have put their faith in him, who have believed and followed.This life is just a breath. It is a breath with numerous joys and blessings, and it is a breath with countless burdens and sufferings. There will be many dark days; we will suffer under the common curse. But either way, it is nonetheless still just a breath. And so these clouds that loom so dark above us now, these clouds that we so much dread, they will soon break, and the sun will shine, and we will know fully, as we know now a little by faith, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed.Call me crazy, but the book of Ecclesiastes actually gets me excited, because it teaches me to enjoy life’s gifts without clutching at them, and it teaches me to look past today’s sorrows to a brighter future, and again and again it reminds me: not long. We are not long for this world, and we will soon see him who has loved us and saved us. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayRead: Ecc 2:12-14.MeditationSolomon’s point in this passage is not so much to highlight the value of wisdom, which we considered in the previous meditation. He does far more of that in the Book of Proverbs. No, his purpose here is to point out a certain frustration in life that seems to be at work in spite of wisdom: the reality of the suffering of the wise.You see, we may be living wisely, but as Solomon goes on to say in verse 14, “yet I perceived that the same event happens to all.” As he observes the world, takes it all in, and reflects on it, he notices something. He notices that whether a person is foolish or wise, he might just as easily be struck down by a common evil. This troubles Solomon deeply. And so he says in verse 15, “Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.”If we are to make sense of this, we need to start by being honest. Solomon is right. Calamity may strike both wise and foolish people, the godly and the godless. We should not hide from that fact, nor put up a fake Christian veneer that pretends these difficult truths are not real (such as the prosperity gospel teaches). True Christianity is not about living an ignorant life in search of some false happiness. We are called to have a realistic view of things. And so let us be clear: this happens. One person might spend his life drinking, living immorally, being a godless person; another might live wisely, honouring God, obeying him, pursuing Christ. And both might be struck by cancer.This is a great source of vexation to Solomon. Wisdom, so it seems, is not the answer, because it does not offer deliverance from these troubles. And so Solomon asks the question: Why live wisely if things might go wrong just as easily? What is to be gained from it? Ultimately, he says, the bottom line is that we all die anyway. Verse 16says: “the wise dies just like the fool.” And so he finishes with that most troubling comment: “and so I hated life.”Before we explain this, let me say one thing: perhaps you can relate to Solomon here. Perhaps you sense this reality. Perhaps you have struggled with it. Things do not seem just. Why be a Christian if we are just as prone to troubles and difficulty? What is the point?So how are we to understand this? How do we make sense of the fact that these things happen? And how do we make sense of Solomon’s reaction? Christians are not supposed to hate life, are they? Are we not supposed to meekly, calmly, and happily accept everything?There are a couple of things that help us see what is going on here, and how we can learn to fear God through it.The first thing, again, is to admit that Solomon is right. There is a common curse that afflicts the godly and the ungodly alike. We are all vulnerable to sickness and death.Let me put it this way. You might be familiar with the idea of God’s common grace. He sends his rain on the just and the unjust alike (Mt 5:45). Many godless people enjoy countless blessings from God. They enjoy food, shelter, families, friendship, a beautiful world in which to live. Theologians call this the doctrine of common grace. God extends his common goodness to all people.But something we do not often consider is the doctrine of the common curse, and this is what we see Solomon wrestling with here. When Adam fell and mankind was cursed, things like sickness and bodily death entered the world. In this present life, whether you are one of God’s people or not, we are all afflicted with the common curse of our race. In Psalm 90, Moses also wrestles with this reality. All people are subject to sickness and bodily death. That is the way it is in this present life.The first step in dealing with this unpleasant and difficult reality is to admit that it is true. Humanity has invited the judgement of this curse upon ourselves by rejecting God. We deserve it. In fact, we deserve far worse. The corruption of our world, and all the suffering that follows, is our fault, not God’s.The second thing to see is that, especially as Christians, it is actually acceptable to be grieved by this common curse. That is what we see Solomon doing here. In verse 17 he says that he hated life because what was done was grievous to him. And to an extent, he is right. The fall and all its effects are a hateful thing. We ought to despise sin and all its consequences. Solomon is not just a bitter old man who hates life. He is not a grumpy pessimist. He is a man who looks on the world through the eyes of wisdom and is deeply disturbed and burdened by the reality of death. He finds it grievous, he says in verse 17. He hates what has happened to this world.As we walk with Solomon here, he shows us something profound. He shows us that it is acceptable and necessary to grieve over the devastating effects of sin. It is acceptable to weep over the grave of a loved one, because death is a horror. It is acceptable to be deeply disturbed by the common curse under which we all live. It is acceptable to feel a surge of hatred when you see a body struck down by sickness, hatred at the existence of sin in this world. Because this reflects the heart of God. God hates sin. He hates it so much that his plan through Christ is to eradicate it completely. He will not tolerate one iota of evil. His mission is to obliterate all sin, darkness, and moral pollution in his world. He hates it.So it is acceptable to be disturbed by sin. In fact, when you gain wisdom, that should be a normal response. This is why Solomon says in 1:18 that in gaining wisdom you will also gain vexation and sorrow, because you will increasingly come to see the world as it truly is.One thing to keep in mind here, however: we have an advantage over Solomon. As we grieve over sin and learn to hate it and all its consequences, we also learn to long for the world to come. Solomon did not have the benefit of God’s full revelation. Many things were not yet revealed. The afterlife, for instance, was far more mysterious to him than it is to us. So learn from Solomon. Learn to grieve and to hate death. But do not wallow in it, as Solomon is tempted to do here. Let your grief drive you to Christ.In 1 Corinthians 15:19, the Apostle Paul says that if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.Yet in spite of the grief of death, in spite of the frustration of the common curse, we know that we have our hope in a Saviour who has conquered death. The One who came to earth and healed, who made the blind see, the lame walk, and the deaf hear. The One who gave his life so that we, his people, might have life abundantly. We belong to a Redeemer who is reversing the curse.And in this sense, the grief and trials of life are actually a mercy. They are friends in disguise, blessings thinly veiled as curses. That may sound strange, but suffering in this life is a blessing, because it teaches us to run to Christ. It weans us off lesser goods and forces us to look to the greatest good, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus. Suffering teaches us to set our hope in Christ.As you struggle, you may be tempted to bitterness. You may be tempted to foster hatred in your heart as you feel the burden of the common curse. In fact, arm your mind, because in this life you almost certainly will be tempted to hate life. Arm your mind with this knowledge: the path of suffering is the necessary path to glory and true fulfilment in Christ.When our Saviour walked on this earth, he felt and lived with the weight of the common curse. This is why we sing that he was a man of sorrows. Isaiah says he was acquainted with grief. He knew what it was to live in a body that grew weary. He knew what it was to stand by the tomb of a loved one and weep. He experienced the longings and burdens of this life. He knew what it was to stare into a tomb and feel the coldness of death creeping towards him, more deeply than we ever could.Yet in spite of this, in spite of the horror he faced, he walked the road to Calvary.And my friends, no matter what sufferings you bear, no suffering can compare to his – which he endured for your sake. He endured mocking, rejection, shame, pain, bleeding, whipping. And above all this he endured the holy wrath of God against sin. He suffered the anguish of ten thousand infinite hells heaped upon his shoulders.Brothers and sisters, we do not have a Saviour unfamiliar with suffering. We have a Saviour who has suffered more deeply than any of us ever will. He walked that path.So remember this in a dark world, when you are tempted to hate life. Think often on it. Look to Christ upon the cross. Though the world sees him hanging there and thinks he is a fool, remember: the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men.We may suffer sickness; Solomon is right. We may lose loved ones to death, and it will hurt. It will tempt you to bitterness. It will tempt you to hate life. But in all this we can be sure: Christ has conquered. He did die on a Friday. But he rose on a Sunday. And in his resurrection is our hope.If in this life only we have hope in Christ, then we are most to be pitied. But we do not have hope only in this life. Christ is risen. He is coming again. You will see Him soon. The sun will rise, and darkness will be no more. SDG. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

The Goodness of Wisdom (Ecc 2:12-14).PrayRead: Ecc 2:12-14.MeditationIf nothing under the sun can give us lasting joy, where do you go from there? It can feel as if there is nowhere else to go. So do you give up? Do you despair? In this passage Solomon tries something else. He asks the question: If “stuff” is not the answer, what about wisdom itself? Can you find peace and meaning in this life in the pursuit and possession of wisdom? After all, if the answer is not in possessions, perhaps it is in wisdom.This is where he begins in verse 12: “So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly.” What he is saying here is that he wants to consider the value of wisdom in comparison to wickedness. When he says madness and folly, that is a shorthand reference to moral evil, and we see that clearly as the passage continues.I turned to consider wisdom. And so the question sits before us as well. Perhaps you feel jaded about life. Perhaps you are struggling to find meaning. Perhaps you have realised that life’s pleasures do not provide ultimate and lasting satisfaction. Solomon’s question then becomes relevant to you. What value is there in wisdom? Can wisdom itself help us make sense of life? Is it worth pursuing? Can it bring any lasting goodness for us?The first thing Solomon shows us about wisdom is that we must see the goodness of wisdom. As Solomon considered the world around him the answer was quite obvious, in verse 13: “Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.”Solomon goes on in the first part of verse 14 to paint a colourful picture of how this works in daily life: “The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.”When we walk in accordance with God’s wisdom, when we walk in righteousness according to the law of God, we are doing what we were designed to do. When you do what is right, things simply work. Wisdom allows you to see the way life is supposed to go. Or, in Solomon’s language, it is as if you have your eyes in your head. The foolish person, on the other hand, is like someone wandering around in the dark. They run into things, they injure themselves, and they lead others astray as well.Let me give you a few examples of what this looks like in everyday life.When a man cheats on his wife, he loses everything. His reputation, friendships, perhaps his relationship with his children, and most likely his marriage. It is hugely damaging. Children’s lives are harmed. The spouse is deeply wounded. And so is the man who did it, for he has done immense damage to himself as well. He does not have his eyes in his head. He is a fool who chases after what is evil.Another example. When a man lives a life of violence, he will likely be injured or even killed by someone else who is violent. People in drug gangs are always placing themselves in dangerous circumstances.Another example. When a man lives as a thief, there is a good chance he will be caught. He will have a criminal record, perhaps do jail time, and he may find it hard to get work later on.Even something as simple as forgiveness makes the point. Christ calls us to forgive each other. Holding grudges leads to bitterness, hatred and conflict. Forgiving one another leads to healing, love and restoration. Wisdom sees this, and folly ignores it. The fool says in his heart that there is no God, and he spends his life wandering in the dark.So Solomon says, there is no question. If you walk in the ways of wisdom you will find that things in life simply work, because God’s moral laws are woven into the fabric of the universe.There is definitely more gain in wisdom than in folly, Solomon says. In Proverbs we are often exhorted to pursue wisdom, and as a side note, we should. We should seek to know, to understand, and to obtain God’s wisdom. We should be constantly reading his sord so that we may grow in wisdom.This wisdom ultimately comes through Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:24 says that Christ is the wisdom of God. As we turn to God by faith in Christ, repenting of our sins and believing in him, we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to receive the wisdom of his word as we ought to. As we follow Christ, as we look to him, we should grow in wisdom. If you have not read the Book of Proverbs in a while, it might be a good time to start. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

And so, at the end of all, Solomon looks back and realises that there is no hope for lasting happiness under the sun. Where does this leave us? Are we destined for disappointment? Is despair our only option? Is our desire and search for contentment a form of madness?We have seen the dead ends, have we not? Money, alcohol, music and the arts, industry, technology and grand projects, and sexual love. And yet, as Solomon has shown us these dead ends tonight, we have nevertheless progressed in our journey. As we walk the paths of the labyrinth, we are getting closer to the destination, step by step.On the question of happiness and lasting satisfaction, the answer is clear. If the only place you look is under the sun, then you will not find it. There is nothing in all the world that can meet our deepest desires. You could gain everything, as Solomon did, and you will still gain nothing in the end. If we chase these things, we will find ourselves, as the prodigal son did, wasting away in a muddy pen full of dirty pigs. As the Lord Jesus said, what does it benefit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?Solomon does not want to drive us to despair, but he does want to lift our eyes away from trying to find satisfaction in the things of this world. Stop looking for joy in things under the sun, he says. Where, then, should we look? The end of the matter is this; all has been heard. Fear god. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)Do you know god actually wants you to be happy? Do you know that, for all who are in Christ, followers of Jesus, god works all the things in our lives together for our good? Do you know that in Christ it is his purpose to banish every evil and painful thing from your life? Do you know that in Christ it is his plan to ravish your soul with unending, increasing, unspeakable pleasure and joy for all eternity? Each day your joy will increase. Each day you will marvel with fresh delight as you see more and more of god’s infinite beauty. Each day he will show you something that will make your eyes grow wide in wonder and make your heart sing loud in worship.Listen to these words of Jesus in John 15:11: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Did you see what happened there? Jesus actually wants our joy to be full. He wants us to abound in joy. He wants us to rejoice in the Lord always, and again he says rejoice (Philippians 4:4). “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name.” (Psalm 97:12)But the key here, as Solomon so clearly shows us, is not to set our joy on the things of this life. They cannot satisfy. The key is to learn to find our joy in god. “Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.” (Psalm 105:3) “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord.” (Zechariah 2:10)The answer to finding true happiness is this. Seek it in god and you will find it.The world is full of people on a me-centred search for satisfaction. Yet there is nothing that can meet our infinite appetite for eternal joy. That is why there is so much misery, because we live in a world full of people looking for something where it cannot be found.God designed us for joy, but it is a joy that may only be found in him. As we find our joy in him, we will be properly fitted to enjoy his gifts in this life as well, and we will be fitted for the infinite and sublime delight that awaits us in the world to come.So, in closing, let me ask you, where have you been searching for joy? Have you been looking in wine bottles and fine dining? Have you been looking in your workplace? Have you been looking for it in your spouse, or in a spouse? Perhaps money and possessions are where your heart lies.As Christians we are vulnerable to search in these places, and yet our treasure is in Christ, our redeemer and our saviour, the one who gave himself for us, who has loved us and restored us, the one who forgives and has forgiven us. The kingdom of god is like a pearl discovered in a field, and the one who finds it sells all that he has to purchase that field.The love of god provides a joy that no earthly treasure can afford, a satisfaction that transcends circumstances and flows as a fountain unto life eternal.There is only one place where we will be satisfied, in Christ himself. Christ, the full revelation of god in all his beauty and glory and majesty. You remember the words of Jim Elliot: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” If you have Christ, then you have infinitely more than Australia’s top ten rich list. Have you ever thought about that? If you have Christ, then you have more than all the celebrities, sports stars, millionaires and world rulers combined. If every rich, influential, beautiful and important person in the world could somehow pool all their resources and give them to you in exchange for Christ, then you would have gained nothing and lost everything. If you have Christ, then you have food that this world knows not of.And yet, in spite of this, our appetites for him are so poor, are they not? We live as though heaven and hell were not realities. We live as though the gifts of this life were more precious than the giver. When a bride comes to marry, she does not rejoice most of all in an expensive wedding, or a feast, or a beautiful wedding gown, or even in her friends and family. She rejoices in her husband.Do you rejoice in Christ? Does your heart yearn and bleed for his return? Take Solomon’s words to heart. Come now, test your heart with pleasure. Come and see the riches and wonder and beauty that are ours in Christ.There is an invitation before you this week, an invitation to look past the temporary pleasures of this life and to delight in Christ.This invitation cannot be accepted by accident. If you walk carelessly into this week, your sinful desires will strive to take your heart.Set your heart to seek the Lord. Delight yourself in god alone, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Confess your weakness. Confess the smallness of your desires for him. Ask him daily to strengthen and enable you to seek him. Then pursue him violently, desperately. Run to him as a lover runs to her husband returning from war.Jesus has saved you. His heart yearns for you. He longs to wean you from the lesser desires of your heart, and he longs to fill you with infinite and eternal delight. As we go into this week, may the Lord so change and challenge our hearts. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayReadEcc 2:1-11.MeditationWhat about love? The pleasures and delights of sexual relationships? As Solomon looked around, he saw that this was an obvious candidate for satisfaction and joy. In verse 8 he says, “I got many concubines, the delight of the sons of men.” And there’s no doubt about it: sex can be a true delight. It is a gift of God, as we see in Proverbs 5:18 where Solomon says, “rejoice in the wife of your youth.” And so Solomon looked here for lasting joy too. In 1 Kings 11 we read that he loved many foreign women. It says he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. In Jewish culture, a concubine was basically a wife of inferior social status, which is why 1 Kings 11 notes particularly that Solomon’s 700 wives were princesses. So what it is saying is that he had 1000 wives—700 of whom were princesses, and 300 of whom were normal women.The point is that when it came to the area of sex, if anyone could ever find satisfaction and joy there, it was Solomon. He had his pick of every beautiful woman that he laid eyes on. He experienced love.And so we ask: Is there satisfaction to be found in sex? This is a particularly relevant question for us today. We live in a time when sexual fulfillment is basically seen as sacred. The highest crime a person can commit is to dare suggest that someone should not pursue their sexual desires. Every person, apparently, is entitled to pursue whatever manner of sexual fulfillment takes their fancy. And we see every perversity under the sun—marriage partners leaving their spouses to pursue someone more desirable, university students sleeping with someone new every weekend, sad lonely people staring at naked bodies on computer screens, people pushing the boundaries: men with men, women with women, men trying to live as women, and women as men, people with animals, even trees. I read an article about a woman who married a bridge. If you can imagine it, it’s out there. And if it is still taboo generally, there is a group somewhere fighting to normalise it. Sexual fulfillment is a modern-day religion with many followers.But if you are looking here for ultimate fulfillment and happiness, Solomon says, think again. Even if you could have 1000 wives as Solomon did, it would all leave you empty. All is passing. Beauty fades. Our bodies age. And sexual fulfillment is not the answer.And if you are looking in this area, fantasising, do not be fooled. No man or woman can give you lasting fulfillment. Marriage was not designed to do that. It was designed to image and glorify Christ (Eph 5), and to sanctify us. In fact, the apostle Paul warns us that those who marry in this life will have trouble (1 Cor 7:28). When two people come together, it is a union of two sinners. Perfect sexual harmony will not be possible. In fact, sex is not so much a means for personal satisfaction as a means for learning how to serve another above yourself. If anything, it will probably show us up for how selfish we are. The answer to fulfillment in life is not a good sex life, and Solomon provides an epic example of this. In fact, all he gained from 1000 beautiful women was apostasy. His wives led him astray, and he worshipped false gods.Again, marriage is a good gift, and in a sense it points to the best of gifts in the love of christ. But marriage itself will not satisfy. If we choose to marry, our highest goal cannot and must not be our own satisfaction—for we will be disappointed. Our goal must be to serve and glorify the living God. There is joy in marriage, but it is a temporary institution here on this earth. In the new heavens and the new earth, Jesus said, we will neither marry nor be given in marriage. SDG. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayReadEcc 2:1-11.MeditationDo you listen to much music? I feel like I have a soundtrack for every season of my life, and the right music at the right time can touch the soul in profound ways. Some people live for music. Some devote the lives entirely to it. In verse 8 of our passage, Solomon calls us forward, because there are more dead ends he wants us to see in this labyrinth. There was no answer in alcohol. Industry and achievements did not work. All our money will be blown away in the wind. What else is there? What else can we try?How about arts and culture? Again, we can hear the critics saying that Solomon is still thinking too small, he needs to sample the finer things of life. The real answer to lasting happiness is in pursuing and appreciating the higher pleasures of the arts and music! And so, in verse 8 he tests this pleasure as well. He says he got singers, choirs, professionals, the finest musicians money could buy.Music can be a kind of drug to many people. Next time you are on a train, take notice of how many people have headphones on. And there is no doubt about it, music is a wonderful gift and something to be enjoyed. But of itself it, can it fill the longing of the human heart. We always need more, don’t we? A new song might get stuck in our heads for a few days, but then it wears off. It doesn’t have the same effect any more. Yesterday’s favourite eventually becomes tiring to hear. We need new songs and new artists. You could pour a lifetime into music, both doing it and appreciating it. And then at last, as arthritis takes our fingers and our ears grow dull, the music would cease. No answers there.Music is a carrier for a higher glory. A heavenly glory. We must tune our hearts to the delights found in God alone. Perhaps the psalms will help us, they are heavenly songs after all! We ought to pay attention when the Lord gives us a book of songs in his Word! Which other songs can boast divine inspiration? Here, then, is an application for us: start looking for ways to bring the psalms into your life. SDG. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Money, money, money! (Ecc 2:7).PrayReadEcc 2:1-11.MeditationSolomon has found that both alcohol and work are dead ends in the search for satisfaction. What else can we try? As he looks around, he notices that people seem to like money and possessions. They chase after it. They hoard it. That is still true today. There is a constant chase for a higher pay grade. People buy lottery tickets in the hope of a dream. The pursuit of wealth has always loomed large under the sun. So Solomon sees all this and says, alright, let us see if wealth and possessions can do the trick.Verse 7 reads, “I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces.”In 2 Chronicles 9 we learn that Solomon had so much gold that he ate with golden cutlery. He drank from gold cups. His interior decorators specialized in gold. In the reign of Solomon, scripture says, silver was considered worthless. That is how much money he was racking in. He made Bill Gates look like a pauper. And yet, as he gains mountains of treasure, what does he find? Is it satisfaction? Lasting contentment? True happiness?It is vanity, says the preacher. All of it is passing away. You cannot take it with you. There is no real gain to be found in money. I heard a good joke from another preacher, and I am going to steal it and use it here because it illustrates a good point. There was a rich old man, and as he approached his death he made his wife promise to bury his money with him. She agreed to do that. After a time the man died. As they lowered his body into the grave, a friend noticed the wife dropping a piece of paper in with the coffin. The friend came and said, did you bury him with his money as he requested? And she said, yes I did. I put all the money into my account and wrote him a cheque, and he can collect it all just as soon as he cashes that cheque. What good can money do us? What lasting satisfaction is there to be found in it? To chase after money and heap it up truly is as foolish as trying to take hold of the wind. It is to seek after something that you cannot hold.And this is so challenging to us, is it not? Because it forces us to ask, what place does money hold in our hearts? How precious are our possessions to us?I know of an older couple through a pastor friend of mine. This couple were Christians, faithful, church-going folk. This is a true story. They were good at saving their money and using it sparingly, if that is a good thing. As they approached old age, they had to sell their farming property. They had bought it decades before, and for a number of reasons it had increased in value significantly. They had a lot of money, and their property was worth a lot of money. Yet as they went through the selling process, at one point it looked as though they might lose a significant portion of the equity in their property. They were full of anxiety and concern. The thought of losing that equity filled many of their waking hours and often occupied their minds with worry. My pastor friend said to me that these people had more money than most could ever dream of possessing, and given their thrifty lifestyle, it seemed highly unlikely that they would be using it all before they died.There is nothing wrong with leaving a good inheritance behind. In fact, that is a godly thing to do. Proverbs 13:22 says, “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” But as our hearts are occupied with money and possessions, as we strive for more of it, as we clutch what we have of it, we need to remember that it is temporary. Wealth is not to be gained for the purpose of satisfaction. It is to be gained so that Christ may be honoured.Here is a counter-cultural thought for us to consider as we think about our possessions, our money, our homes, the equity of our belongings. The question to ask is not, how can I preserve and add to what I have? The question is: How can I use what I have to bring honour to Christ? How can I use my savings to honour Christ? How can I use my home to honour Christ?The great cricketer C. T. Studd said, “Only one life, twill soon be past. Only what is done for Christ will last.” Money is not there to make life easier, more fulfilled, or better. Money is there to further Christ’s cause in the world. SDG. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayReadEcc 2:1-11.MeditationSo there was no answer in drink.But surely, Solomon, his critics say, you just need to do something more meaningful. Drinking is such a base desire. You just need to look for pleasure in something more meaningful.“Alright,” says Solomon, “try me. Let’s go with projects and industry, with development and achievement. Let’s pursue something more noble. I will build great houses, plant spectacular gardens with fruit trees, and design an irrigation system that the world has never seen. Our technology will take leaps and bounds.”And indeed, we see here that Solomon was a man of industry. You can read more about it in the book of Kings. He assembled a workforce of eighty thousand stonecutters and seventy thousand labourers. He spent thirteen years building a palace for himself. He built other palaces, administrative buildings, and courts. He built the temple of God itself, a magnificent construction. This wasn’t just a house project—Solomon made monuments and buildings that would be the envy and wonder of the world.And there’s no doubt about it: there is a certain satisfaction to be found in projects like these, in advancing technology, and in achievements at work. Even a humble, well-kept garden can bring immense satisfaction—a model ship completed, the interior of a house freshly painted. And as technology advances, our new phones continue to amaze us, opening up opportunities that people could not even have imagined four decades ago.Well, Solomon tried it all. He planned, he built, he labored. He achieved astounding things and amazed the world. And when he had finished it all—when his heart surveyed his achievements—he came to the end and realized: it is all vanity.Probably our children’s children will be doing things with their equivalent of a smartphone, things we cannot even imagine right now. They will be amazed to live in the early twenty-second century. But we won’t be there. We won’t benefit from it. Even the things we do now—our jobs, our projects, the advancements of technology that we enjoy—when we are dying in just a few short years, these things will not bring lasting contentment. We will not be able to take them with us. We will hold our phones in our hands and say: it is vanity. It is all a breath.“Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it,” Solomon writes, “and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”You can build the grandest of designs, you can achieve great things, but there is no lasting satisfaction to be found there. We cannot take these things to the grave with us.And in a culture of busyness, where being a workaholic is an easy temptation, we should take note of this. Our jobs will be satisfying to an extent; we can achieve and complete projects; but the working lifestyle can easily draw us in. The working world will take everything it can from you. I watched it happen in Canberra. Work will take as much as it can—if you give a little, it will ask for more, and then more. And soon you see executives with broken marriages, working long hours. And for what?Don’t follow the path of obsession with labour, Solomon says. There is no lasting happiness there. You won’t find what you’re looking for.We need a building project that’s larger than we are. Larger than anything this world has to offer. That project exists, it’s called “The Kingdom of God.” As we come to Christ for cleansing from our sins, he calls us into his agenda for history: the establishment of the Kingdom of God. As we labour in service to our Saviour, we find that our work is not in vain. Let go of the idols of workaholics, embrace the full satisfaction that is found in Christ alone. SDG. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayReadEcc 2:1-11.MeditationIn verse 3 Solomon begins with wine. People everywhere enjoy wine and alcohol, don’t they? That was true in Solomon’s day, and it’s still true now. I remember in high school, at university, and in the workplace, people looked forward to drinking on the weekend. For some of them, it was the highlight of their lives. You probably look forward to a good drink yourself from time to time, in moderation of course.So Solomon says to himself, everyone enjoys a good drink, let’s see if there’s an answer there. I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. Notice that he still used his wisdom. Solomon didn’t become a drunkard, but you can be sure he was having a good time.And what was his conclusion? Vanity. You enjoy a good night out, you wake up the next morning and it’s over. You do it again, and it’s over just as quickly. Then you grow older, and you lose your appetite for it. There’s no real satisfaction in drink.I met an alcoholic on the street once. It was a Sunday, and as we strolled through the park, we came across him and started talking. He didn’t look healthy. He told me he’d struggled with addiction for many years and had just been told by his doctor that his lifestyle was killing him. As I looked into his grey eyes, I didn’t see a man who had found satisfaction. I saw a man who was haunted. He was looking for a church, looking desperately for salvation. We invited him to come. We weren’t in our own area, but we knew of a faithful church nearby, and apparently he went along to the evening service there. I don’t know what happened after that.But I can tell you this: Alcohol promises much. Good times, enjoyment, pleasure. And to an extent, it gives you that. But it doesn’t last. And if you make drink your god, it will haunt you all the way to your grave. Only Christ can satisfy. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationLord, I confess that I have often sought comfort and joy in the fleeting pleasures of this world rather than in you. I have looked for satisfaction in what cannot last and have forgotten that only your presence gives true delight. Cleanse my heart from false idols and quiet the thirst that leads me away from your living water. Teach me to drink deeply of your grace, to find strength and gladness in your will alone. I consecrate myself to you anew, that my life may be filled with your Spirit and my joy rooted only in your eternal goodness. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe