What we want to do, we want to take just a few minutes to talk about this last question just kind of summarize message. You've read the book, we've talked through it, to some extent you've read Derrick Kidner's book. Let me just pose a couple of questions relating to the message of this book and it's on your outline if you have that third page of the outline that you pick up tonight. First question is, is Ecclesiastes Anti Wisdom? What does that question even mean? It means, is Ecclesiastes as some have claimed, presenting an alternative to prudential wisdom and alternative to true Yahwism? There's one prominent scholar who says that the writer of Ecclesiastes is, as Nishel was asking, is ascetic and is presenting another biblical, viable alternative to the normal religious faith Yahwism of the book. What do you think? Yes or no? No. Good. I knew we could handle that one very quickly. Scott? What do you think? Okay. The comment is, he's Anti Wisdom in the sense of being Anti Wisdom of the world, but he still points to the fear of the Lord, which is, again, remember the motto of the book of Proverbs and Job 28, 28, really the motto of all of wisdom literature, okay? So we would say, he's not Anti Wisdom, what does Derek Kiddner say? Derek, I'll tell you, since time is short, Derek Kiddner, that was a rhetorical question. Derek Kiddner says that the writer of Ecclesiastes says to prudential wisdom, yes but, yes to that wisdom, but I have seen what life actually brings about. Yes, there's a sense in which that is wise, that's saying is wise, but look at all the exceptions, look at all the frustrations and look at the fact that it doesn't ultimately bring satisfaction and meaning. Is the book of Ecclesiastes pessimistic? No. Okay. We've got a lot of no answers. Yes, by the way, on the test, before I forget and this applies to this class, not necessarily it doesn't apply at all to you who will be watching on video in some future date. If you have a desire to, I would love it if you would bring next week, one or two, don't overwhelm me, but one or two exam questions that you would like to hear, all right? Now they need one or two objective exam questions because don't say write an essay on such and so if you plan to graduate, okay, but if you're interested in doing that, something that strikes you as a good exam question, I would be happy to look at it and possibly include it and that could be the only two you get right. So one or two would be good. Speaking of pessimism, is Ecclesiastes pessimistic? What do you think? Is he pessimistic? It has, the book has sort of a pessimistic tone, but is it, what is pessimism? Well, okay, pessimism is without hope, but what is wrong with being a pessimist? There's nothing good in life, it's one-sided, it's an unnecessarily negative attitude about something. You know, oh, don't be such a pessimist. So is he pessimistic? Not really, not really, he's anticecularist, he's anti-materialist, don't try to find meaning in life, in your secular pursuits, in your materialism. He recognizes that the transitoryness of all human accomplishment under the sun, the impermanence, the vanity of human life, he recognizes also the limits of human understanding, how, even the more we know, how well we recognize, how little we actually understand, he recognizes all these things in a very fine essay on the interpretation of the book of Ecclesiastes, J. Stafford Wright, and I can give you the reference to that essay, if you'd like, says this. He says, all life is vanity in this sense that it is unable to give us the key to itself. The book, this book, is the record of a search for the key to life. It is an endeavor to give a meaning to life, to see it as a whole, and there is no key under the sun, life has lost the key to itself. Now is that, is that pessimistic under the sun? He goes on and says, God holds the key of all unknown, and he will not give it to you. Since then you cannot get the key, you must trust the locksmith to open the doors. Does that make sense? Is that, now is that pessimism, or is, that's realism, okay? I knew someone would eventually say, that is realism. Now it was particularly real then, but it is still real. Stafford Wright goes on to say, the Christian answer is that the universe does make sense, but not even to Christians, has it been given to comprehend the plan? In other words, there are many areas where we are still in the dark, in terms of God's ultimate plans, even though we know far more by God's grace and by His revelation than the writer of Ecclesiastes. So what he says is still true. We must trust the locksmith. Is Ecclesiastes anti-theological, that is another claim that is sometimes made? Hardly. Though it is keeping its gaze mainly, this worldly, there is a very strong sense in this book that God is there, God is in control, what He has made crooked, no one can straighten. What God does remains forever, that there is this sense that, though we cannot fathom it, somehow meaning has to reside in God. And then the final question is Ecclesiastes preparation for the gospel, I think Terry already touched on this. We've been answering, no, no, no, can we answer? Yes. It is. It is preparation for the gospel. Now you might not think that, it may not be the case that that's its central purpose, but it is surely that. Let me quote from La Sore in terms of the Christian significance of the book. He says, it's realism in depicting the ironies of suffering and death, helps explain the crucial importance of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection. Cohellis insistence on the inscrutability of God's ways underscores the magnificent breakthrough in divine and human communication, which the incarnation effected. His dreary pictures of wearying toil paved the way for the master's call from taxing labor to gracious rest, and his command to enjoy God's simple gifts without anxiety found echo in Jesus' exhortations to trust the God of the lily and the sparrow. And he concludes, with burning eye and biting pen, Cohellis challenged the overconfidence of the older wisdom and its misapplication in his culture, thereby he prepared for the greater than Solomon in whom are he had all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There's a real sense in which the book of Ecclesiastes then and now is pre-evangelism. It knocks the blocks out from under people who are thinking that they are moving toward a meaningful and satisfying existence outside of Christ. The writer says, I've been there, I've done that, I did it better and to a higher degree, I rose higher, I am massed more, I built more, than you will ever dream of doing, and I found it nothing more than a chasing after wind, ultimately meaningless, trust me. Now he says, I know that the meaning is in God, but he doesn't know how to flesh that out. Now we do, because Christ has become flesh, and we can turn people away from the vain pursuits that will lead them ultimately to depression and despair and say, no, there is real meaning, it's just not going to be down that pathway. Now the best testimony to that as Christians is, if we don't walk down that pathway either, have you ever noticed that sometimes the Christian community is only, you know, mildly different than the world? How easily we fall in step with the world that's marching down the wrong path? I think we need to recognize that danger and dare to be distinctive and lead down a different path. Now comments or questions for a minute or two, we're not going to go to the end here, so we've got about 14 minutes, but while you are pulling out, I want you to pull out this little, this last page, the Ecclesiastes 3. Any comments or questions that you're, yes, that it seems off-balance, oh it's the book of Ecclesiastes seems to give us a balance, yes it does, if we're, if we're losing our balance in terms of placing confidence or hope in the wrong things, yeah, it pulls us back, yes, in the very back, yes, right, right, yeah, good, okay, the comment there is that in a condition to turning people away from seeking meaning in the wrong things, it is a recognition that depression is real in the real world. Now I don't know whether we could get into a debate in terms of whether depression is okay, in other words, something that we should embrace, but this is life, I mean, we do get up sometimes on Monday morning thinking, what is being accomplished here? You know, I've been doing the same thing and nothing much is changing, that's a real observation about life. And that's when, again, this book can at least even in the midst of those feelings say, you know, but God is there and what God does is permanent, and insofar as God is at work in my circumstances, even though I don't see it, maybe something permanent is happening. Yeah, Dave. Okay. Okay. I would think the latter, don't you think that's the latter, that he's using the latter? Yeah, I think you can hardly read that without hearing a little bit of irony at least in there. You know, that is the way of the world, though. You know, a feast is for the laughter, wine makes life merry and money is the answer for everything. There is a sense in which it's the answer for everything, but no real answer, no ultimate answer. All right. Well, what I want us to do, and we've got about, darling, has to leave, but we have about 12 minutes, 11, 12 minutes. What I want us to do, see you, darling, I told you I would embarrass you. I want us to think about this question, and maybe we'll just get started thinking about this question and leave it with you. But this exercise is something that I think you can use on your own or you can use in a Sunday school class, as I did recently. I tried to use something like this in a Sunday school class, and that is to ask this question, how does knowing Christ change our situation and our perspective over that which we read about in the book of Ecclesiastes? And there I gave sort of a proposition that because through Christ, God is now our Father, we can face life's uncertainties with confidence. Confidence that this writer didn't have, we can face life's stages, life's inequities, life's ultimate challenge, which is all of what chapter 3 is about, with confidence. And the purpose of these blocks was simply to say, well, let's flash that out with some verses, with thinking about what do we have in Christ that helps us answer these questions. I think what I'm going to do is have you break up just for a few short minutes and have your groups talk about one of the three, not all three questions, just one of the three for about 10 minutes, and then I'll call us to a halt. Let's see if we can pull it off in a very short order. So, break up into your groups and choose one of the three and just work through those verses or other verses that you discover.