Latest / Reformed Thinking / Breath, Not Vanity: Finding Joy in a Fleeting Life Under God’s Sovereign Hand

Transcript

Breath, Not Vanity: Finding Joy in a Fleeting Life Under God’s Sovereign Hand · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, we live in a society
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  where exhaustion just feels like the absolute default setting for
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  almost everyone. Oh, without a doubt, it is
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  everywhere. Right.
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  I want you to picture yourself running on a treadmill at the
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  gym. But this is not just your normal
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  Tuesday morning workout. The speed keeps creeping up
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  fraction by fraction and the incline keeps getting steeper.
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  That sounds miserable already. It is, and the entire time you
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  are running, you are holding a full glass of water, trying
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  desperately not to spill a single drop.
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  Meanwhile, the digital display right in front of your face
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  keeps flashing these really aggressive messages.
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  And telling you that you are falling behind, I assume.
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  Yeah, telling you that you need to run faster, you need to build
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  more, achieve more, and you somehow need to leave a
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  permanent indestructible mark on the gym floor before your time
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  is up. That is a highly stressful
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  mental image, but honestly it is incredibly accurate to how most
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  people wake up and operate every single day.
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  It is a relentless, breathless way to exist, and if you have
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  ever felt that specific modern brand exhaustion, that feeling
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  that you are constantly striving but never actually arriving,
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  well, the ancient text we are looking at today offers a
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  perspective that is initially shocking, but actually highly
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  comforting. It really flips the script on
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  how we view our daily grind. It totally does.
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  Today we are taking a deep dive into a stack of really
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  fascinating sources. Our mission is to analyze the
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  opening verses of the book of Ecclesiastes, specifically
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  chapter 1, verses one through 11.
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  Which is a heavy section of Scripture.
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  Very heavy. And we are doing this through
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  the lens of two very robust theological source texts that we
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  have sitting on the table today. One is called Breath, not
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  vanity, and the other is the merest of breaths.
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  And just a quick heads up, as we jump in, you know, our goal
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  today is not to preach or take sides.
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  The authors of the text we are analyzing argue very strongly
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  against modern secular interpretations of Ecclesiastes.
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  Right, they do not pull any punches.
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  They really do not. They also launched some heavy
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  critiques at a few modern theological frameworks.
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  So as we map out this material, I will be clearly stating the
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  specific arguments and claims made by the authors of these
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  source texts. We were just reporting on their
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  conclusions to help you understand their specific
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  perspective. OK, let's unpack this, because
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  we really have to start with what might be the greatest
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  linguistic misunderstanding in biblical history.
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  It is a big. One yeah, we are looking at how
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  a single completely misunderstood word has entirely
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  skewed the perception of this book for generations.
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  When most people hear the word Ecclesiastes, they immediately
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  think of the word meaningless. What do you think of the word
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  vanity? Yes, they assume it is this
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  dark. Depressing, cynical book written
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  by someone who has just given up on life.
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  Well, what is fascinating here is the translation history of a
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  single Hebrew word, which is hevel.
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  This specific word appears 38 times in the Book of
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  Ecclesiastes. 38 times is a lot for one book.
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  It is, to put that into perspective for you, That is
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  roughly half of all the occurrences of that word in the
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  entire Old Testament. The author who identifies as the
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  preacher is using this word as the absolute center of gravity
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  for his entire argument. Everything revolves around
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  Hevel. But over the centuries, the
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  translation of this word took a very specific trajectory, right?
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  Yes, a trajectory that the sources argue LED us far away
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  from the original intent. I want to trace that trajectory
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  because words shape worldviews. How did we get from the original
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  ancient Hebrew to the English Bibles sitting on our desks
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  today? It's is basically a long game of
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  telephone. It started a couple of centuries
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  before Christ with the Greek Septuagint.
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  The Sirtujent was the translation of the Hebrew Old
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  Testament into Greek, primarily for Greek speaking Jewish people
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  living in places like Alexandria.
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  Right, so they needed an equivalent word.
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  Yeah, when those scholars translated the Hebrew text into
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  Greek, they needed a word for hevel, so they chose the Greek
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  word matiatz. And what kind of baggage does
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  that Greek word carry? Because words always bring their
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  cultural baggage with them. A lot of philosophical baggage
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  mediotes carries a strong connotation of purposelessness,
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  absurdity, or emptiness. It brings in a distinctly Greek
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  philosophical lens that assumes the physical world is somewhat
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  deficient or absurd. So it immediately makes the text
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  sound bit more pessimistic. Precisely.
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  Then Fast forward a few 100 years.
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  Jerome comes along. He is sitting in a cave in
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  Bethlehem, translating the Greek into Latin to create the
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  Vulgate. When he hits that Greek word, he
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  uses the Latin word Venetus, which.
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  Obviously gives us the English word vanity.
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  Spot on. And in modern English, vanity
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  suggests conceit. It makes you think of someone
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  staring at themselves in a mirror for too long, having an
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  inflated sense of self. Like it is a moral failing of
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  arrogance. Yeah, but the translation issue
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  did not stop there. It evolved into modern English
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  translations. For instance, the very popular
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  New International version, the NIV, uses the word meaningless.
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  So it reads meaningless, Meaningless.
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  Everything is meaningless. The sources we're looking at
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  argue that this translation choice is a massive mistake.
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  They argue it falsely imports a 20th century existential
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  nihilism into an ancient God centered text.
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  It makes the preacher sound like Jean Paul Sartre.
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  Yes, the French philosopher existential nihilism is the idea
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  that the universe is just a cold, blank void.
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  Right, the whole life has no meaning angle.
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  Exactly that. It suggests that existence
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  precedes essence, meaning there is no inherent purpose to
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  anything and we are just absurd creatures screaming into a black
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  hole. Sartre would sit in a Parisian
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  cafe smoking cigarettes, declaring that life is an
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  absurd, purposeless void. That is a very bleak picture.
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  It is. The authors of our sources are
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  absolutely adamant that we should not baptize the
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  philosophy of Sartre into the biblical Canon.
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  Ecclesiastes is not nihilism. Right, because nihilism says
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  there is no God and no purpose. But the author of Ecclesiastes
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  constantly references God. So if the word does not mean
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  meaningless and it does not mean conceited vanity, what is the
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  actual literal definition of Hevel?
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  Let's break it down for someone who has never studied Hebrew.
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  The literal physical meaning of hevel is a breath, a puff of
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  air, a mist, or a vapor. That's it, just a physical mist.
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  Just a physical phenomenon. To fully grasp why the author
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  uses this physical image, you have to contrast it with another
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  central Hebrew concept, which is cavod.
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  OK, what does cavod mean? Cavod translates to weight,
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  substance, and glory. It is heavy.
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  It is solid. In the Hebrew mindset, cavod is
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  used to describe the character and presence of God.
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  God is infinite weight. He is absolute, unmoving
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  reality. That physical imagery is so
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  incredibly vivid. You can literally feel the
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  difference in your hands between holding a heavy solid stone and
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  trying to hold a puff of smoke. Yes, and the authors point out
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  that in the ancient Near East, false idols were very often
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  described by the prophets as Hevel OH.
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  Because they're just empty statues.
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  Because they were weightless, they were insubstantial.
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  They lacked any real gravity or reality compared to the living
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  God. They were just vapor.
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  And there are scriptural parallels that back this
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  physical definition up throughout the rest of the
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  Bible, right? Absolutely.
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  Think back to the book of Genesis chapter 4.
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  We have the story of Cain and Abel.
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  The name of the first murder victim in human history is Abel.
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  Wow. OK.
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  In Hebrew, his name is literally Abel.
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  His very name perfectly depicts a life that was brutally,
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  tragically cut short. He was a breath that vanished
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  almost as soon as he appeared. That is chilling when you think
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  about. It it really is.
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  The New Testament picks up this exact same physical imagery too.
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  James chapter 4 verse 14 asked the reader what is your life and
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  the answer uses the Greek word at miss which translates to mist
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  or smoke to describe human life. It says you are a mist that
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  appears for a little time and then vanishes.
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  I hear the linguistic argument and it is solid, but I want to
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  push back on this for a second. Let's say I am the listener.
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  I am driving in my car hearing this and thinking OK so my life
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  isn't a meaningless black void, it is just a fleeting vanishing
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  mist. Still sounds pretty depressing,
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  doesn't it? Exactly.
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  Doesn't that still lead to absolute despair?
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  If I try to catch a mist in a glass jar I just end up with wet
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  hands and a massive amount of frustration.
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  How is calling my life a breath any better or more comforting
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  than calling it meaningless? That is a very natural reaction,
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  but the sources make a crucial distinction here.
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  A breath is real, a breath is made by God, and a breath is
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  entirely necessary for life to exist.
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  OK, I see where this is going. Yeah, a misk is a real physical
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  state that can water the ground and provide relief.
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  The text is not claiming that God's physical creation is
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  worthless or absurd or bad. It is claiming that it is
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  completely impossible to master. You cannot put a mist in a jar.
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  You cannot put a padlock on a breath to keep it forever.
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  It will always slip away it. Slips right through your
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  fingers. Right when a preacher calls life
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  Hevel, he's describing life in a fallen world as brief, elusive,
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  and impossible to control. He's not saying the world lacks
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  inherent value. He is saying the physical world
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  lacks permanence. It will not hold still.
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  OK, that makes so much sense. So the intense frustration we
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  feel everyday comes from our attempt to grab the mist and
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  freeze it, not from the mist itself being bad.
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  Spot on. We are demanding the vapor act
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  like solid concrete, and when it inevitably evaporates, we get
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  angry and exhausted. We are building a brick wall on
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  top of a fog bank. That is a great way to visualize
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  it. Building a brick wall on a fog
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  bank will exhaust you and eventually collapse.
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  The ache we feel when things change or fade is not
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  accidental. So the sources say that ache has
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  a purpose. Yes, the authors of our sources
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  point out that it is actually Divine Mercy when God allows us
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  to feel the limits we constantly try to deny.
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  We waste our precious breath when we frantically chase
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  applause, possessions or control, acting as though the
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  mist could be stuffed into a safe and locked away.
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  So if our personal empires are just fog banks washing away,
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  human nature dictates, we will look for a loophole.
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  But the author of Ecclesiastes shuts down every loophole using
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  grammar. He really locks the door on us.
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  He does. Now that we know what the word
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  hevel means, we need to look at how the author stacks these
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  words together to create this crushing linguistic weight right
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  at the beginning of the book. The grammatical architecture of
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  verse 2 is devastating in its absolute focus.
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  The Hebrew syntax uses something called a construct chain.
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  The phrase is hebel hebalem. This is the primary way Biblical
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  Hebrew expresses this superlative degree.
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  Stop there for a second. Explain what a superlative
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  degree is for someone who has forgotten their high school
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  English classes. Sure, a superlative is the
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  highest degree of equality. In English we use words that end
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  in EST biggest, greatest, highest.
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  But ancient Hebrew does not have those S suffixes, do they?
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  No, they do not. Instead of adding a suffix,
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  Hebrew grammar multiplies the noun to express the ultimate
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  version of that thing. Give me an example of that from
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  somewhere else in the text. Well, for example, when
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  describing the most sacred restricted place in the entire
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  temple, the text calls it the Holy of Holies or Kodesh
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  Hakodashim. When describing the ultimate
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  supreme sovereign, it uses the phrase King of Kings or Melek
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  Melekim. The highest song ever written is
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  the Song of Songs. So when the creature opens his
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  book by saying Heba Heba Lam, he is signifying the absolute
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  ultimate highest possible degree of transience. 100% it
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  translates to the merest of breaths, the vapor of vapors,
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  the most fleeting mist imaginable.
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  And the discourse analysis of this verse, how the sentence is
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  actually constructed, shows how incredibly deliberate this is.
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  The author states the phrase vapor of vapors.
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  Then he interrupts himself with an identifying formula saying
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  says the preacher. And then he repeats the exact
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  same phrase again. Vapor of vapors.
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  In Hebrew discourse, that kind of emphatic, repetitive
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  structure is highly intentional. It functions like taking a red
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  pen, bolding the text, italicizing it, and underlining
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  it all at the same time. You cannot miss it.
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  No, it forces the reader to stop their momentum and give absolute
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  focus to the claim being made. It is not just a casual
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  observation, it is a definitive, unyielding thesis statement.
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  And then the hammer actually drops at the end of the verse.
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  The author reveals the universal scope of this vapor.
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  The concluding clause in Hebrew is hackle, Hebel, The whole is
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  breath. The author deliberately suspends
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  the subject, the word, everything, until the very end
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  of the sentence. Oh, for dramatic effect.
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  Yeah, he builds this massive crescendo of superlative
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  transients, interrupts it to verify his authority to speak on
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  the matter, repeats the superlative, and then drops a
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  subject onto the table. Everything.
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  I want you, the listener, to really pause and consider what
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  falls under that umbrella word. Everything.
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  Because it is very easy to look at the trivial things in life
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  and agree. You watch a silly 32nd video on
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  your phone and you say, sure, that video was a vapor.
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  It meant nothing. Right, that is the easy stuff to
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  let go of. But the text says everything.
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  That includes your meticulously crafted 5 year career plan that
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  you stress over at 2:00 AM. That includes the 30 year
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  mortgage you just signed on your house.
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  It includes your anxieties about tomorrow, your stock portfolio,
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  your reputation at the office, and the way your neighbors view
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  your lawn. Every single bit of it falls
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  under the category of vapor. The syntax leaves absolutely
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  zero room for exemptions. The sources stressed that this
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  comprehensive reality must dictate how we view our entire
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  existence on this earth. We love to carve out little safe
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  zones. We really do.
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  We think we are the exception. We look at our specific
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  achievements and pretend they possess eternal weight.
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  We think maybe someone else's career is a vapor.
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  But my company is different. The text does not allow for that
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  illusion. Now, to prove that absolutely
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  everything is a vapor, the text does not just rely on clever
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  grammar. It sets up an experiment.
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  And not just any experiment, but an inquiry using a human test
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  subject who had access to every conceivable earthly advantage.
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  The historical context is absolutely vital for
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  understanding the weight of this argument.
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  In verse one, the author identifies himself as the son of
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  David, king in Jerusalem. We're talking about Solomon.
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  King Solomon himself. Yes, and from a historical
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  framework, Solomon's reign represents the absolute peak,
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  the zenith of theocratic Israel's earthly prosperity,
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  peace and power. We need to paint a picture of
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  what that actually means, because he wasn't just a guy
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  with a nice house in the suburbs who had his car paid off far.
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  From it, Solomon possessed a level of wealth that is
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  difficult for us to comprehend. He had massive diplomatic
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  dominance over all the surrounding nations.
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  The historical accounts describe his trading ships bringing back
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  gold, silver, ivory, apes and Peacocks.
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  Apes and Peacocks, that is just wealth for the sake of wealth.
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  Exactly. He engaged in staggering public
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  works. He built the massive temple
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  utilizing imported cedar wood from Lebanon.
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  He had vast gardens, pools of water and entire choirs of
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  singers dedicated just to his entertainment.
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  He had everything money could possibly buy.
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  And on top of that material wealth, he possessed supreme
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  intellectual acumen. He understood botany, zoology,
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  and literature. He had access to every single
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  form of pleasure, learning and civic authority available in the
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  ancient world. Here's where it gets really
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  interesting. This historical setup turns the
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  entire book into a massive, undeniable experiment.
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  Think about it. If a guy living paycheck to
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  paycheck in a regular neighborhood says money can't
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  buy happiness, you might nod politely, but secretly you are
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  thinking, well, you just didn't have enough money.
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  If I had $10 million, I could absolutely figure it out.
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  I would be happy. Right.
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  There is always that lingering cynical thought that the critic
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  is just speaking from the margins of society.
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  The poor man critiques wealth because he lacks.
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  It exactly. But this critique comes from the
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  absolute summit of human advantage.
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  The sources point out that this is an experiment no poor person
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  could possibly afford to run, and no honest rich person can
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  ever escape. Solomon had the maximum capacity
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  to extract permanent satisfaction from life under the
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  sun. He did not lack funding.
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  He did not lack time. He did not lack access.
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  And his final conclusion, written down for us, was that
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  even at that unbelievable peak, it was still a vapor.
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  If Solomon, with his gold Shields and infinite resources,
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  could not find a permanent anchor in all of that, what
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  chance does a regular person with a standard mortgage and a
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  basic resume have? None.
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  Zero chance. And that is exactly the point
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  the author is making. The historical backdrop strips
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  away our misplaced confidence in human utopias or societal
• 16:50
  perfection. We always think we can build a
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  better system. We constantly think that if we
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  just elect the right politician or pass the right economic
• 16:57
  policy, or invent the right technology, we will fix the
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  human condition. Someone demonstrates the
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  ultimate failure of earthly kingship and human systems, even
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  when the conditions are completely historically ideal.
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  I want to talk about how this fits into the rest of the
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  Bible's teaching on wisdom, because if you read the book of
• 17:13
  Proverbs, which Solomon is also associated with, it seems to
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  suggest a very neat, orderly, predictable world.
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  You work hard, you prosper, you act foolishly, you suffer.
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  A = B. The sources highlight the highly
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  specific role Ecclesiastes plays within Israel's broader Wisdom
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  tradition. Proverbs provides the general
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  normative rules for living in God's ordered world.
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  It is the baseline. Right, the general principles.
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  Diligence generally profits you. Lazy is generally impoverishes
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  you. Honesty builds trust.
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  But Ecclesiastes steps in to document the agonizing
• 17:47
  exceptions to those rules. It documents life in a fallen,
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  cursed world. It is the glitch in the matrix,
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  the realities of living east of Eden, Yes.
• 17:57
  Ecclesiastes takes a hard look at the frustrations, the sudden
• 18:00
  reversals and the delays of justice.
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  It observes that sometimes, despite doing everything right,
• 18:05
  the righteous suffer terribly. Sometimes the absolute fool
• 18:09
  prospers for a long, comfortable season.
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  Which is incredibly frustrating to watch.
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  It is. Sometimes a person works
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  incredibly hard their entire life, builds a great estate,
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  only to die suddenly and leave their entire inheritance to
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  someone who is reckless and lazy, who squanders it all.
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  Ecclesiastes teaches people how to remain reverent and trust the
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  Lord when life entirely refuses to fit into neat, predictable
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  bumber sticker slogans. So from the king sitting in his
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  massive palace, surrounded by imported ivory and gold, looking
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  at the summit of human achievement, the camera suddenly
• 18:39
  pans out. The preacher turns his gaze to
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  the natural world. He wants to contrast our short,
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  anxious little lives with the massive turning wheels of
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  creation. In verses 4 through 7, the text
• 18:52
  shifts into intense poetic imagery to describe the
• 18:55
  meteorological and hydrological repetitions of the Earth.
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  The language the author uses is completely relentless.
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  Give us a feel for that language.
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  A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth
• 19:05
  remakes forever. The sun rises, the sunsets, and
• 19:09
  it constantly hastens back to the place where it rises.
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  The wind travels S travels N circling and circling in its
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  circuits. All the streams constantly run
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  into the sea. At the sea is never full to the
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  place where the streams flow. There they flow again.
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  It honestly sounds exhausting just reading it out loud.
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  It is perpetual motion without any final destination, just
• 19:27
  spinning wheels. And the theological meaning
• 19:30
  behind this imagery is massive. The sources describe these
• 19:34
  cycles as preaching A sermon without using any words.
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  These are not just ancient scientific observations about
• 19:40
  how evaporation works or how trade winds operate.
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  They are pointing to something much bigger.
• 19:45
  They are experiential wisdom. They're showing us visually and
• 19:48
  experientially every time we step outside, that human beings
• 19:51
  cannot master history. The physical world is vastly
• 19:55
  older than our plans, and it will effortlessly outlast our
• 19:58
  greatest projects. We enter the stage.
• 20:01
  We speak our lines. We exit the stage.
• 20:04
  And the creation simply continues its appointed patterns
• 20:07
  without missing a beat. I hear that, but I want to
• 20:09
  challenge this from a modern perspective because the listener
• 20:12
  is thinking about their smartphone right now.
• 20:14
  We live in an era of massive, unprecedented technological
• 20:18
  control. The ancient author of
• 20:19
  Ecclesiastes was looking at a rushing river and saying I can't
• 20:23
  control that. Sure, we have changed the
• 20:24
  landscape. We.
• 20:25
  Have today we build massive concrete dams.
• 20:29
  We generate electricity from those rivers.
• 20:31
  We use satellites and space to forecast those wind circuits
• 20:35
  weeks in advance. We fly in pressurized metal
• 20:38
  tubes 30,000 feet above the clouds.
• 20:40
  We have air conditioning to defeat the heat of the sun.
• 20:43
  Does this modern mastery of the physical world poke a hole in
• 20:46
  the ancient authors argument? Have we finally outsmarted the
• 20:50
  vapor? The sources address this exact
• 20:52
  question head on, and their stance is unequivocally no,
• 20:56
  technology does not change the fundamental human condition.
• 20:59
  It merely, well, I should say it simply changes the costumes we
• 21:02
  wear while we acted out on stage.
• 21:04
  So the plot of the play is exactly the same.
• 21:06
  Yes, we can light up our major city so they shine like daylight
• 21:10
  at midnight, but we cannot command the sun to actually
• 21:12
  freeze in the sky. We can use a supercomputer to
• 21:15
  forecast a Category 5 hurricane, but all the scientists in the
• 21:18
  world cannot stop that wind from blowing and destroying houses.
• 21:22
  That is a very humbling reality check.
• 21:24
  And most crucially, all the technological medical mastery in
• 21:28
  the world cannot pause our own cellular aging.
• 21:31
  You can take all the supplements you want, you can use the best
• 21:34
  anti aging serums but the vapor still claims you.
• 21:38
  So the creation is still humbling us, even if we have
• 21:40
  better gadgets while it happens. Always, the relentless
• 21:44
  repetitions of nature remind us that we are just brief passing
• 21:47
  episodes within a much larger, divinely ordered system.
• 21:51
  Human pride constantly tells us that history basically started
• 21:54
  the day we were born, and the world will surely collapse the
• 21:57
  day we die. It is that main character
• 21:59
  syndrome we all have. Yeah, but the sun rose millions
• 22:02
  of times before you took your very first breath, and it will
• 22:05
  continue to rise after you were buried.
• 22:07
  The creation obeys its appointed rhythms and we are forced,
• 22:10
  whether we like it or not, to learn our creaturely place.
• 22:14
  Because we look at nature and realize we cannot control the
• 22:17
  wind, the sun, or the rivers, human nature pivots.
• 22:21
  We turn our gaze inward. We try to find permanence in our
• 22:24
  own personal experiences, our internal appetites, and our
• 22:27
  historical legacies. The logic is, if I cannot
• 22:31
  control the massive world outside my window, I will
• 22:34
  tightly control the world inside my head.
• 22:37
  And verses 8 through 10 completely dismantle that
• 22:39
  internal illusion as well. The text states that all things
• 22:42
  are full of weariness, a man cannot utter it, the eye is not
• 22:46
  satisfied with seeing, and the ear is not filled with hearing.
• 22:49
  This specific point might be the most intensely relevant part of
• 22:52
  the entire text for someone living right now.
• 22:55
  The sources specifically connect this restless human appetite to
• 22:58
  our current digital age. What is really striking here is
• 23:01
  how our modern era literally monetizes this exact
• 23:04
  dissatisfaction described in verse 8.
• 23:06
  Think about how smartphones and social media algorithms are
• 23:08
  engineered. They are engineered to keep you
• 23:10
  scrolling. Every screen we interact with is
• 23:12
  designed to train the user to believe that the very next
• 23:15
  image, the next short video clip, the next red notification
• 23:18
  badge, or the next online purchase will finally fill the
• 23:22
  void in the soul. It is the ultimate literal
• 23:25
  expression of the eye never being satisfied.
• 23:28
  You pull down to refresh the feed and it operates just like a
• 23:30
  slot machine in Vegas. You scroll and you scroll and
• 23:33
  you scroll, looking for the one post, the one news article, or
• 23:36
  the one viral video that will make you feel complete or
• 23:40
  informed enough to stop. But the feed is endless by
• 23:43
  algorithmic design. It is built to ensure your eye
• 23:45
  is never satisfied. Absolutely.
• 23:48
  The soul's hunger is far deeper than any digital stimulus can
• 23:51
  reach. The preacher observes that our
• 23:53
  desire constantly outruns our acquisition.
• 23:56
  We consume sights and sounds without any rest because we were
• 23:59
  made for something far greater than created stimuli.
• 24:02
  And the text points out the tragic lack of true novelty in
• 24:05
  all this striving. Verse 9 says what has been is
• 24:09
  what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and
• 24:12
  there's nothing new under the sun.
• 24:13
  That phrase, nothing new under the sun, is so famous, but it
• 24:18
  requires some clarification. Yes.
• 24:20
  This does not mean there are no new technological inventions.
• 24:22
  Obviously, Solomon did not have microchips, airplanes or
• 24:26
  penicillin. It means there is no novelty at
• 24:29
  the core level of human nature. We are still the same creatures.
• 24:32
  We are the exact same sins, the same political ambitions, the
• 24:35
  same lusts, the same grieve in the same pride, simply repeat
• 24:39
  themselves in new technological packaging.
• 24:42
  A Twitter mob functioning on digital outrage is driven by the
• 24:46
  exact same human pride and tribalism as an ancient mob with
• 24:49
  pitchforks. The technology is new, but the
• 24:52
  human heart is exactly the same. And when our internal appetites
• 24:56
  fail to give us a sense of solid permanence, we try to build an
• 25:00
  external legacy. We want to be remembered.
• 25:02
  We want our name to echo an eternity, but verse 11 hits like
• 25:05
  a ton of bricks. It says there is no remembrance
• 25:08
  of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later
• 25:11
  things. Yet to be among those who come
• 25:12
  after this strikes right at the heart of our major defense
• 25:15
  mechanism against death. We have a desperate, ingrained
• 25:18
  human desire to build personal brands, to curate our legacies,
• 25:23
  to get our names stamped into concrete on the size of hospital
• 25:26
  wings or university libraries, the sources argue.
• 25:30
  We do this because we inherently sense that being entirely
• 25:33
  forgotten by history is akin to dying a second time.
• 25:37
  We want to leave a mark that the vapor cannot erase.
• 25:39
  It reminds me of watching someone build an incredibly
• 25:42
  intricate sandcastle at the beach during the low tide.
• 25:46
  They spend 4 hours getting the towers perfect.
• 25:48
  They dig a Moat, they smooth the walls, they add little shell
• 25:51
  decorations. It looks magnificent for an
• 25:53
  hour. But the ocean of time is always
• 25:55
  coming in. And the tide will inevitably
• 25:57
  systematically wash it completely flat.
• 25:59
  By the next morning, the beach will look identically as it did
• 26:02
  before they even started. That is a highly accurate
• 26:04
  representation of the texts warning the preacher is exposing
• 26:08
  the sheer folly of seeking immortality through human
• 26:11
  remembrance. Think about it mactically.
• 26:14
  Do you know the first and last name of your great great
• 26:16
  grandfather? Do you know what his primary
• 26:19
  career anxiety was? Most people who seemed entirely
• 26:22
  indispensable to their specific generation.
• 26:25
  People who were famous and powerful are entirely unknown
• 26:28
  just a few generations later. 1000 Human admirers cannot
• 26:32
  confer eternal life. The passage strips away the
• 26:35
  illusion of historical legacy to ask a much sharper question.
• 26:39
  If human labor, internal appetite, technological novelty,
• 26:42
  and historical memory all failed to provide lasting gain, where
• 26:46
  are we supposed to look? Which brings us to the
• 26:48
  theological clashes. This is where the rubber meets
• 26:51
  the road. Having systematically stripped
• 26:53
  away natural permanence, experiential permanence, and
• 26:55
  historical legacy, the sources we're using turn their critique
• 26:58
  toward modern theological systems, specifically systems
• 27:02
  that attempt to bypass this harsh reality and offer people a
• 27:05
  theological loophole. And here we must be very precise
• 27:08
  in outlining the critiques launched by the source texts.
• 27:12
  The authors of these materials come from a specific theological
• 27:15
  angle, and they argue strongly against specific modern
• 27:18
  viewpoints that they believe offer false comfort to people
• 27:21
  living under the sun. Let's map out those targets of
• 27:23
  critique as presented by the authors.
• 27:26
  We're just looking at the mechanics of why these sources
• 27:29
  attack these specific ideas. The first major target is the
• 27:33
  prosperity gospel. According to the source texts,
• 27:35
  the prosperity gospel, often known as a health and wealth
• 27:38
  gospel, or name it and claim it theology, is labeled a dangerous
• 27:42
  lie. It promises perpetual physical
• 27:44
  health, financial wealth and earthly success to those who
• 27:48
  demonstrate enough faith or speak the right positive words.
• 27:51
  And how does Ecclesiastes challenge that?
• 27:53
  The authors argue that this theology is fundamentally
• 27:55
  shattered by the book of Ecclesiastes.
• 27:58
  Why? Because faith does not immunize
• 28:01
  anyone from the fog of life. A faithful believers life is
• 28:05
  just as much a passing vapor as an unbeliever's life.
• 28:08
  A devout Christian gets cancer just like an atheist gets
• 28:11
  cancer. The texts argue that promising
• 28:13
  earthly permanence and guaranteed prosperity is deeply
• 28:17
  unbiblical because it denies the reality of the vapor.
• 28:20
  The second target, the sources critique is Arminianism.
• 28:24
  Now we need to break that down because that is a heavy seminary
• 28:26
  word. What are the mechanics of this
• 28:28
  critique? Arminianism, in broad terms, is
• 28:31
  a theological framework that places a heavy focus on human
• 28:33
  free will and human autonomy in matters of salvation and daily
• 28:37
  life. The text critique the idea that
• 28:39
  the primary locus of control in the universe resides in human
• 28:42
  choice. So it puts too much weight on
• 28:44
  our own shoulders. The sources argue that this
• 28:46
  perspective places far too much confidence in human capability.
• 28:50
  The author of Ecclesiastes frequently pairs the word hevel
• 28:53
  with the phrase striving after the wind.
• 28:56
  The authors of our sources use this to demonstrate the absolute
• 29:00
  impossibility of shepherding the unpredictable circumstances of
• 29:03
  life through human will. You cannot control the wind, and
• 29:07
  you cannot dictate your own destiny through sheer willpower.
• 29:10
  So if you believe you are the captain of your own soul,
• 29:13
  Ecclesiastes comes along and shows you that your ship is
• 29:16
  sinking, the wind is tearing your sails apart, and you are
• 29:19
  not actually steering anything. Precisely.
• 29:22
  The critique is that focusing on human autonomy gives a false
• 29:25
  sense of control in a world that is dictated by divine
• 29:28
  Providence, not human choice. And the third major critique
• 29:31
  from the sources is aimed at Seeker sensitive pragmatism.
• 29:35
  Let's unpack how that model actually functions and why the
• 29:37
  authors take issue with it. Pragmatic, seeker sensitive
• 29:41
  approaches to church often design their entire model around
• 29:44
  making the unchurched person feel as comfortable as possible.
• 29:48
  The authors of our sources claim that these models deliberately
• 29:50
  avoid the sobering heavy realities of human mortality.
• 29:54
  How do they do that practically? What does that look like on a
• 29:56
  Sunday morning? By removing traditional symbols
• 29:59
  of mortality like crosses from the sanctuary.
• 30:03
  By removing clocks so time feels suspended.
• 30:07
  By using upbeat concert lighting and only preaching positive
• 30:10
  therapeutic messages about self improvement.
• 30:12
  So it is more a motivational seminar.
• 30:15
  The critique claims that these models seek to entertain people
• 30:18
  rather than preparing them for the unavoidable reality of
• 30:21
  death. The sources argue that skipping
• 30:23
  over the hard, dark truths of Ecclesiastes to maintain a
• 30:27
  positive, upbeat atmosphere leaves people entirely
• 30:30
  unequipped for the actual tragedies of life under the sun.
• 30:33
  When someone in that church gets a terminal diagnosis, A sermon
• 30:35
  about 5 steps to a better you is completely useless.
• 30:38
  It absolutely is. So if those three systems, the
• 30:41
  prosperity gospel hyper focus on human will and seeker sensitive
• 30:45
  entertainment are flawed according to the authors, what
• 30:48
  is the alternative offered by these source texts?
• 30:51
  The texts advocate for an absolute, unflinching reliance
• 30:55
  on God's meticulous Providence. Because trying to wrestle
• 30:58
  control away from God's sovereign decree is like trying
• 31:01
  to catch a hurricane in a butterfly net.
• 31:03
  You just cannot do it and you will destroy your own Peace of
• 31:06
  Mind trial. If we connect this to the bigger
• 31:08
  picture, all of these theological critiques presented
• 31:11
  by the authors essentially boil down to identifying the exact
• 31:15
  same root issue, the sin of pretending to be permanent.
• 31:19
  That is a great way to summarize it.
• 31:21
  Whether it is assuming you can decree your own financial
• 31:23
  wealth, assuming your free will dictates human history, or
• 31:26
  avoiding the topic of death to stay comfortable in a padded
• 31:28
  seat, the core error is demanding a level of control and
• 31:32
  permanence that belongs exclusively to God.
• 31:35
  It is the creature trying to steal the attributes of the
• 31:38
  Creator. If human striving cannot fix the
• 31:40
  vapor, if the greatest human king with all his gold couldn't
• 31:43
  fix it, and if our clever modern theological systems cannot
• 31:46
  bypass it, where does the solution actually come from?
• 31:50
  It logically cannot come from under the sun.
• 31:53
  It has to come from outside the closed system of this physical
• 31:56
  world. This is where the sources point
• 31:58
  toward the Christological fulfillment of the text.
• 32:01
  Ecclesiastes does an incredibly painful, thorough job of
• 32:04
  exposing a massive human need that no earthly wisdom can cure.
• 32:09
  The solution requires the Incarnation.
• 32:11
  I want to look at that transition because we leave the
• 32:14
  Old Testament with this heavy fog hanging over everything.
• 32:17
  How does the New Testament answer the despair of
• 32:20
  Ecclesiastes? The sources describe it
• 32:22
  beautifully. The eternal Word, the second
• 32:24
  person of the Trinity who possesses infinite weight.
• 32:26
  In reality, that solid cavada we discussed earlier voluntarily
• 32:30
  steps down into the vapor, the Hevel.
• 32:32
  God did not save breath like creatures.
• 32:34
  By remaining distant from their breath, He subjected Himself to
• 32:37
  life under the sun. He entered the exact same
• 32:40
  frustrating cursed spinning system that Solomon was
• 32:43
  complaining about. He felt the heat of the sun.
• 32:47
  He felt the wind. He felt the exhaustion.
• 32:49
  Yes, the text highlights that Christ experienced the shifting
• 32:52
  winds of Providence. He experienced profound, or
• 32:56
  rather severe structural injustice.
• 32:59
  He experienced weariness, sweat, tears and in the end, physical
• 33:04
  death. But unlike us, his labor was not
• 33:07
  a feudal striving after wind. The sources detail how Christ
• 33:10
  dealt with the curse through a concept called penal
• 33:13
  substitutionary atonement. Let's break that phrase down.
• 33:15
  Penal substitutionary atonement. Explain the mechanics of that
• 33:18
  like I'm five years old, because it is a massive theological
• 33:21
  term. To break that down, imagine the
• 33:23
  sheer weight the cavada of God's eternal perfect justice coming
• 33:26
  down against human rebellion. Penal refers to the penalty for
• 33:30
  that rebellion. Substitutionary means someone
• 33:33
  else takes the head in your place.
• 33:34
  So Jesus stands in the gap. Jesus steps into our vaporous,
• 33:37
  fleeting existence and acts like a divine lightning rod.
• 33:41
  He absorbs that cosmic penalty, that infinite weight of wrath on
• 33:45
  the cross, so that we do not have to bear it.
• 33:47
  The solid reality of God took on the curse of the vapor.
• 33:51
  And the bodily resurrection is the definitive physical answer
• 33:54
  to the vapor. The resurrection shatters the
• 33:56
  finality of heaven. Explain the mechanics of how a
• 34:00
  resurrection fixes a vaporous world.
• 34:03
  Because a physical body walking out of a stone grave introduces
• 34:07
  literal indestructible permanence back into a world of
• 34:10
  decay, death is the ultimate vapor.
• 34:13
  It erases everything. But because Christ conquered the
• 34:16
  grave and rose in indestructible physical life, death is no
• 34:20
  longer the final word. It changes the whole equation.
• 34:23
  The sources argue that human labor under the sun cannot
• 34:25
  create eternal profit on its own, but labor done in union
• 34:29
  with the physically risen Christ is gathered up into God's
• 34:31
  eternal purpose. The vapor does not have the last
• 34:34
  laugh. Permanence has invaded the mist.
• 34:36
  The sources also include an explicit note here about the
• 34:39
  future. They do not just stop at the
• 34:40
  resurrection, they look forward. Yes, the text explicitly note a
• 34:45
  premillennial view of the end times.
• 34:47
  Meaning what for the listener? Meaning they point toward a
• 34:50
  literal, physical return of Christ to the earth in the
• 34:53
  future. The argument the authors make is
• 34:56
  that the true and lasting Kingdom of peace will not be
• 34:59
  achieved by human political efforts, or by passing better
• 35:02
  laws or by building better technology.
• 35:04
  We cannot build our own utopia, no.
• 35:07
  It will only happen by Christ physically returning to
• 35:10
  establish a Kingdom of true justice.
• 35:12
  This culminates in a new earth, and on that new earth there is
• 35:15
  no more curse, no more futility, and absolutely no more vapor.
• 35:20
  The permanence we so desperately crave right now, the permanence
• 35:23
  we try to build with our four O 1 KS and our sandcastles, will
• 35:27
  finally be realized, but only through Christ's future reign.
• 35:30
  So what does this all mean? We have covered a massive amount
• 35:33
  of theological ground today. We have gone from ancient Hebrew
• 35:36
  translation history in Alexandria to Solomon's massive
• 35:39
  wealth to the incarnation of Christ, to the mechanics of
• 35:41
  atonement to the future New Earth.
• 35:43
  But we need to bring all of this high theology down to the
• 35:46
  listeners. Tuesday morning commute.
• 35:48
  The sources site a very sobering statistic from the CDC.
• 35:52
  The average life expectancy in the United States right now is
• 35:55
  77.5 years. If you break that down into
• 35:59
  weeks, it is a shockingly small number.
• 36:03
  Life is incredibly, undeniably short.
• 36:05
  You are a breath on a cold winter morning.
• 36:08
  You appear, you are visible for a second, and then you vanish
• 36:11
  into the air. And the text offers several
• 36:14
  highly actionable takeaways based on this stark reality.
• 36:18
  The first is a direct call to repent of functional atheism.
• 36:21
  Which means what exactly? Or what does that mean in
• 36:24
  practical terms for someone sitting at their desk at work?
• 36:27
  It means repenting of living your daily life as if God does
• 36:30
  not sovereignly dictate every single heartbeat.
• 36:32
  You might profess a belief in God on Sunday, but functional
• 36:35
  atheism is the arrogance of assuming tomorrow is guaranteed
• 36:38
  on Monday. It is making your five year
• 36:40
  plans without considering Providence.
• 36:42
  We all do that planning like we control the future.
• 36:44
  We do. The sources challenge the reader
• 36:46
  to actively number their days, recognizing that pretending to
• 36:50
  have endless time is the root cause of much of our delayed
• 36:52
  obedience, our procrastination, and our intense anxiety over
• 36:56
  controlling the future. The second major take away is
• 36:59
  about how we interact with the good physical things in our
• 37:02
  lives. We need to hold earthly things
• 37:05
  with open hands. Because life is fleeting, we
• 37:07
  must receive our daily work, our meals, and our relationships as
• 37:11
  callings and gifts from above, not as ultimate saviors.
• 37:15
  The text encourages you to eat your bread with joy, to love
• 37:18
  your spouse, and to work diligently at your job.
• 37:21
  But you must do so knowing these are unmerited, temporary gifts
• 37:25
  from God's hand. If you demand that your career
• 37:27
  provide you with a sense of eternal worth, or you demand
• 37:30
  that your spouse fix the void in your soul, you turn a good gift
• 37:34
  into a crushing out all you ask the mist to be solid concrete,
• 37:38
  and it will break you. That is completely true.
• 37:41
  The text also notes a very specific application regarding
• 37:43
  the practice of believers, baptism.
• 37:45
  Yes. The sources note that believers
• 37:47
  baptism functions as a highly public physical declaration.
• 37:50
  Going down into the water is a picture of dying to this
• 37:52
  passing, vaporous world. Coming up out of the water is a
• 37:56
  picture of being raised to a new eternal life in Christ.
• 37:59
  It is an outward physical sign of refusing to cling to the
• 38:02
  fleeting, fading things under the sun.
• 38:05
  It is a profound, I mean a truly beautiful picture of leaving the
• 38:10
  vapor behind. I want to leave you, the
• 38:12
  listener, with a final lingering question to Mull over as you go
• 38:16
  about the rest of your day, as you drive to work, or as you
• 38:18
  finish that treadmill run we talked about at the beginning.
• 38:20
  We talked earlier about the idea of a breath on a cold window
• 38:25
  pane. It appears for a second, it fogs
• 38:27
  up the glass and then it evaporates.
• 38:28
  It is just gone. If your life is truly just a
• 38:32
  brief breath on a cold window pane, why do you spend so much
• 38:36
  energy fighting the wind, trying in vain to stop the evaporation,
• 38:40
  instead of deciding what precise shape you want that breath to
• 38:43
  leave on the glass before it inevitably fades?
• 38:45
  That perspective change is absolutely everything about how
• 38:48
  you spend today.