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Rising Above the Tide

Wisdom for the Heart / Dr. Stephen Davey
The Truth Network Radio
December 11, 2024 12:00 am

Rising Above the Tide

Wisdom for the Heart / Dr. Stephen Davey

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December 11, 2024 12:00 am

Is there any lasting advantage to living wisely compared to recklessly? King Solomon, the wisest man in history, explored this question deeply. He found that while wisdom brings clarity and avoids the pitfalls of foolishness, it ultimately shares the same fate: death. In this episode, we dive into Solomon’s reflections in Ecclesiastes as he faces the inescapable reality that human accomplishments, no matter how great, are forgotten with time. Solomon’s raw words remind us that no matter how we build our “sandcastles” in life, the tide inevitably comes. But is there a way to find hope and meaning beyond this inevitability? Join us as we reveal why only a connection to God can give life true purpose and how faith in Christ offers a way to rise above life’s tide and find everlasting significance. If you’re searching for meaning beyond life’s fleeting moments, this episode is for you.

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No matter how smart you were, no matter how much you had, no matter how big your sandcastle was, how many garages were attached to it, no matter how much stuff you had stored in the attic, no matter how many toys you had, that bumper sticker was wrong. It reads, the man with the most toys wins. Solomon would say it ought to read, the man with the most toys still dies.

Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. We're working through a series from Ecclesiastes entitled, Finding Meaning Under the Sun. So far in Ecclesiastes, we've discovered Solomon talking about the futility of pursuing what this world has to offer. In our section today, Solomon makes it clear that living wisely is better than living foolishly. But he also makes an important point. No matter how wise you are, and no matter how much you accumulate in life, you're going to die.

In light of that reality, the only wise thing to do is embrace God's truth. Every year, I find it intriguing, there are a lot of coastline states and other countries along ocean fronts around the world that hold elaborate contests every year in the summer months, sand castle building contests. Some tournaments offer cash prizes of $10,000 and more. Some of the winners I went online and looked from this year's competition around the country featured incredibly exquisite, beautiful artistry. It's amazing what somebody can do with sand.

I used to just pour it out of a pail and stomp on it, but look at what people do. Some of the entries this year were huge in scope and size palaces really made of sand and water. Every year, thousands of people come to watch these contestants as they create their masterpieces on the shore. What's really remarkable to me is that these can be built in such a short amount of time that typically the contest will begin around 9 a.m. and it runs until late afternoon.

The contestants choose their place along the beach and start from scratch. But they've got to finish their masterpieces around 3 o'clock so their entries can be judged. And that's because somebody else is going to show up to take a close look at these masterpieces, these sand castles. He never fails to show up right on time.

When he does, everything stops. We call him the tide. The tide is coming in.

And when he arrives, all these sand castles and these creative marvels are washed away. I did a little digging and found that the history of the English word for tide originally referred to a portion of time. In fact, tide and time are close cousins in the English language. We use the word today, the words glad tidings. That means there's going to be a glad season of time. There are going to be glad events.

Think of the King James Version's translation, recording the angels delivering to the shepherds good tidings of great joy regarding the birth of Jesus, Luke chapter 2 verse 10. It's also interesting to discover that the word tide originally carried the idea that not only was something going to happen, but something was going to happen that was predictable. It was as certain as the rising and falling of the ocean's waters, which is why the word tide got attached to that event.

It was always on time, always expected. In fact, there's nothing a sand castle could ever do to avoid it. No matter how beautiful, how elaborate, where it placed in the contest, how magnificent, the tide was on its way.

You know, it occurs to me it doesn't matter if people spend their time making sand castle masterpieces or just pouring piles of sand out of a plastic pail. That coming tide cannot be rescheduled. The tide is going to come in. That, by the way, happens to be an issue in a sense that's keeping Solomon up at night. And he describes this frustration for us here in his private journal if you're with us in our last study in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Solomon is asking the question, is there anything I can do, is there anything I can experience, is there anything I can accomplish that will make me hang on to happiness? Is there anything that will make it last long, in fact, throughout life?

The answer is no. No matter what accomplishment, no matter what that thrill is, like winning Wimbledon, one tennis professional admitted to her reporter not too long ago, the euphoria she felt she said lasted about two minutes. Hanging on to happiness, Solomon concludes, is like trying to catch the wind in a net. Now, we arrive at a section in his journal where he's going to ask another question.

He's going to ask the question, is there any advantage to living wisely rather than living wildly? So let's pick it up at chapter 2 and verse 12. So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly for what can the man do who comes after the king only what has already been done? Now what Solomon does here is he turns his attention to a new train of thinking, a train of thought.

So I turned, the Hebrew could be rendered, I turned my attention to think about this. Is there any advantage to living wisely or wildly? And by the way, the combination of the words madness and folly are two different things.

They're combined and I'll do it in this journal several times to basically refer to the wildest, craziest party life that you could ever imagine. And notice in this text that Solomon suggests that there isn't any man who's ever going to come after him who can experience it even more wildly than he did. That they could somehow live more prudently than he did.

There isn't anybody that's going to be able to experiment with anything more than he has been able to experience. So here's the question. Is living a moderate, prudent, moral, wise life any better than living the party life? Which commercial is it? Early to bed? Early to rise?

Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Is it that commercial? Or is it you only go around once in life so grab all the gusto you can while you have the chance? Is that it? Which one?

Which direction is going to be better? And I've got to tell you that even though most of this journal has been rather negative and jaded, you know, Solomon's answer might surprise you. Notice 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. And you're thinking, finally, there's a verse I can memorize. I might read that every so often.

I'll let my kids read this one. Using your head is smarter than running wild. Way to go, Solomon, finally. He says there's more gain in wisdom. By the way, the word gain in the Hebrew language is a commercial term which you can translate prophet or advantage.

He's saying yes. There is an advantage to living wisely rather than living wildly. In fact, you notice in the text he equates folly with darkness and he equates wisdom with light. Now he goes on as he does here, has already, he drops in this Proverb, verse 14. A wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.

What does that mean? The wise person has his eyes in his head, meaning as his eyes open. He's got 20-20 vision. But the fool walks through life as in a fog. We would describe a foolish man today by saying something like, that guy's in the dark. He's in the dark. That there's no light bulb turned on in the attic.

He's not thinking. One author commented, a German author, that as I was reading this Hebrew Proverb, this Hebraism is translated into his German culture to read, he who wants to play chess had better not keep his eyes in his pocket, which is a silly way of saying life is like the game of chess and you better have both eyes open and alert. My grandmother taught me that. She taught me how to play chess. One of the things that she taught me was that if I'm playing her in chess, I'd better stay alert. And I never beat her, by the way, ever. You know, she might have been an older woman. She might have been my grandmother. But when it came to playing chess, she was bloodthirsty, vicious, unmerciful. And after years of counseling, I think I'm over it. But at any rate, I never did beat her.

But she taught me a good life lesson. Life like chess is, you better keep your eyes open. The fool, on the other hand, notice, is in constant trouble. Now, the word fool or the term, he's not using this derogative you fool kind of thing that you hear out there. The word fool, the term in Ecclesiastes, and he's going to use it 18 times, isn't referring to somebody with a low IQ or the village idiot or whatever. He's referring to a person who lives an evil life, a dishonorable life, a life that rebels against God, a God dishonoring life. You can think of it this way, the fool does not have his moral headlights turned on. And so he drives in the dark and he just totals his life one event after another. You go to the jails and interview them or the halfway houses and ask them, what is it like to total your life by keeping those headlights off? This is the idea.

Here, the only thing a foolish person seems to be looking for is the next opportunity to sin. That's what they're alert to. You might work around them. Hey, you wouldn't, I'm not recommending you go in and call them a foolish person, but they can't wait for the weekend. Why? Because they're looking forward. They've got their eyes alerted. You can't imagine the sin in front of me.

Man, I can't wait. This is the foolish person. And so back to the question, is there an advantage to living wisely or foolishly? And Solomon says, yes, there is an advantage to living wisely. But before you and I run to the salam, and I say, I'm so glad to see you finally writing a verse, you know, I can memorize or use in my devotions. Solomon says, not so fast, not so fast. Next verse.

The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness and yet, not so fast. But I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. The same event, mikran, the Hebrew language means fate or destiny. The same thing is going to happen to us all. Verse 15. Then I said in my heart, what happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so wise? Oh man, here goes Solomon again. And what is that event that will happen to both the wise and the fool? Skip down to verse 16. The wise dies just like the fool. The tide comes in for us all.

Solomon says, okay, that eliminates any advantage. You thought I was going to take you down that path, but I'm not going to. Do whatever you want to do.

Build an elaborate sandcastle or don't even go to the beach for that matter. It doesn't matter. The tide is coming in for us all. And he makes a couple of observations that affect us all. And by the way, he's telling the truth here. It's brutal whether we want to hear it or not.

Here's the first. No matter what you do, your accomplishments are forgettable. I know it's encouraging to hear on a Sunday morning and he came early to hear that, but this is the brutal fact of life. Look at verse 16 again. For of the wise, as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have long been forgotten.

Now he's already talked about that. In chapter 1 verse 11, if you were with us, he said it this way. Generations go and the generations that come after forget the generations that came before.

We tend to forget. He's not trying to be mean. He's not trying to rub your nose in it. He's trying to be painfully honest.

This is his observation of a very discerning man. Our lives will be forgotten. Solomon already knew, by the way, how the Egyptian pharaohs were living. They had the practice even during Solomon's life nearby of sandblasting off the names of their predecessor pharaohs and chiseling their names into the monuments. They didn't even want their predecessor to be remembered as soon as he bit the dust. Forget about them, and they used to do that, and Solomon knew that.

In fact, the Egyptian text written about the same time Solomon lived, which had been excavated, read, and I read from the translation. Those who built pyramids, the pharaohs, are soon forgotten. Those who were once considered gods lie forgotten in their tombs.

Here's the brutal truth. One day, nobody on the planet is going to remember you or what you did, no matter how big the monument is which you build. In fact, in my research for these studies, I read recently an article by a genealogist who is studying the area of modern genealogy. The article commented that the average person doesn't know the names of their family members beyond four generations on average. If you do, you're remarkable.

You're an exception to the rule. You know your parents' names. You know your grandparents' names. How about your great-grandparents' names? How about your great-great-grandparents' names? Unless you've been named Fred and it's been carried on your Fred V, you know, that doesn't count. Doesn't count.

Just four generations. In fact, the names of people without whom you would not be here today. No matter what you do, your accomplishments are forgettable. Secondly, Solomon essentially adds, no matter who you are, your death is unavoidable.

He adds this exclamation point. Go back then to verse 16, how the wise dies just like the fool. And what he means is we all occupy that tomb, whether you're the brightest person in kindergarten or not so bright. No matter how smart you were, no matter how much you had, no matter how big your sandcastle was, how many garages were attached to it, no matter how much stuff you had stored in the attic, no matter how many toys you had, that bumper sticker was wrong. It reads, the man with the most toys wins. Solomon would say it ought to read, the man with the most toys still dies. Can you handle that truth? Some might with bravado say, I know it's coming, who cares?

I was behind this past week, a Mustang GT who was going faster than I was, which bothered me a little bit, but I let him go. And as he was taking off, his license plate read, hell bound. And I wondered if he knew. The tide is coming in. And with the shadows of death reflecting back on Solomon's life, he comes to three conclusions.

Let me give them to you quickly. First of all, life has become disgusting. Verse 17, just the first phrase, so I hated life.

Not the kind of guy you want to take the lunch. I hated life. You could paraphrase this to read, therefore I was disgusted with life. I mean when I think about the fact, here I am working away, building this masterpiece, here comes the tide.

Well, this is disgusting. He's angry. He's frustrated. He's come to the realization that no matter how long he lives, he's gonna die just like everybody else.

So who cares about the sand castle? And this is true for those that reflect on death, believer and unbeliever. It is, for the believer, a sign of wisdom that we count the days, we number our days, we consider our mortality. For the unbeliever, without any hope, it would lead to this kind of anger. And again, we gotta remember, Ecclesiastes is understood backward.

He gets to his grand conclusion in chapter 12. I came across, by the way, an article of a man that reminds me of Solomon, one of the, I think he's the fourth richest man on the planet right now. He's worth about $55 billion. He's pouring money, he's already poured $40 million of it into what he's calling, quote, lifespan development processes.

In other words, ways to figure out how to avoid that tide. Nothing wrong with longer lives. Larry Ellison said this, however, in an interview, death makes me angry. It doesn't make any sense to me. Death has never made any sense to me.

How can a person be there and then just vanish and not be there? The idea of death makes me disgusted in life. Solomon adds, life has not only become disgusting, life has become distasteful. Verse 17, so I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievous to me. He adds that little phrase to a phrase we've already studied. The Hebrew term for grievous can be rendered unpleasant or distasteful.

In fact, it's a word attached to bitter herbs. He's saying life down here under the sun is like one meal of bitter herbs after another. None of it tastes good.

I mean, think about it. The tide's coming in, have some ice cream. And how good is that going to taste when the tide's coming in? He's giving us the truth. He adds thirdly, life has become disheartening. See, under the sun down here, all is vanity and striving after the wind. If there are no pockets in shrouds, as the Jewish proverb says, if, as George Strait, the country western singer, used to sing it, if he's never seen a hearse with a luggage rack on top. It's a deep thought, but it's true. Billy Graham kind of coined it this way.

You've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul to the cemetery plot, right? Then yes, if that's what you're living for, then no matter how much you stuff in your pockets, all you've done is chase after the wind, and in the end, you've caught nothing. For the believer, life can be at times distasteful and disgusting and disheartening. Solomon is telling us the truth, but Solomon isn't telling us the whole truth. Remember, he stuck down here at this point in his journal with the perspective that never goes any higher than the sun.

But if you go to the end of his journal, and I keep taking us there to make sense of what he's writing here, but it's going to be that grand observation. Remember your Creator. Don't forget your Creator. If you don't belong by faith to your Creator who reigns above the sun, then you're stuck down here.

Then all you really are doing is temporarily building a sandcastle without any hope beyond the grave. My friend, you can't avoid the tide. You can't cheat the tide.

You can't reschedule the tide. But by faith in Jesus Christ, you can rise above the tide one day. For Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live. John 11, 25, how? Well, for God so loved the world, the world of humanity stuck down here under the sun, that he sent his son to come here under the sun and live among us and live a perfect life and die for us so that if we believe in him, we will not perish, that is eternal judgment, but have everlasting life.

So do you know him? If you don't, build the best sandcastle you can. But in the end, the tide will come. Perhaps God has brought you here to this moment in your life to hear this truth.

There's more to life than that. In his private journal, another preacher wrote this. His name was John Wesley, and he entered this in his journal on January 2nd, 1777 as a 66-year-old man.

And with this, I close. I have begun expounding on the book of Ecclesiastes. By the way, I wish I had his notes.

I wish I knew how long it would take so I could tell you to encourage you. He said, I never before had so clear a sight of the meaning of it. Neither did I imagine that its parts were so connected together, all ending up to prove that grand truth, that there is no lasting happiness outside of God. That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart.

Today's message is called Rising Above the Tide. Stephen's passion for training men and women for ministry led him to found Shepherds Theological Seminary. Graduates are serving God across the globe, planting churches, and pastoring existing congregations. If you're considering ministry, STS offers a fully paid scholarship for qualified men pursuing pastoral work.

The program is full-time, in-person, and takes three years to complete at the Cary, North Carolina campus. For details, visit wisdomonline.org forward slash STS. Even if full-time ministry isn't your goal, STS can help you grow in your understanding of Bible and theology. Many students take one or two classes to deepen their knowledge without relocating or leaving their jobs. STS offers an online option for every course, making it convenient to study from home. For those who prefer in-person learning, STS holds classes in Cary, North Carolina, Laramie, Wyoming, and Bryan, Texas. Students also gather in local church clusters in places like Birmingham, Alabama and Lincoln, Nebraska. Stephen and the faculty at STS want to invest in you, equipping you to fully interpret and apply God's Word. Learn more by visiting wisdomonline.org forward slash STS. Do that today, then plan to come back here next time to open God's Word and discover wisdom for the heart. Thank you.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-12-11 00:49:16 / 2024-12-11 00:58:24 / 9

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