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The Gravity of Glory: Guarding Our Steps Before the Consuming Fire (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to Reformed thinking. So I want you to think about the
• 0:03
  last time you walked into a place of worship.
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  Oh, that's a good place to start.
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  Right. Just picture it.
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  Did you feel a sense of absolute, like terrifying
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  gravity, or did it feel more like stepping into a movie
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  theater with a coffee in hand? Just kind of ready to be
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  entertained, you know? Yeah.
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  Precisely So today we're taking a deep dive into some ancient
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  wisdom to ask a highly uncomfortable question about how
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  we actually approach the Creator.
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  It is a a very uncomfortable question.
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  It really is. We have a pair of really
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  rigorous theological texts we're looking at today.
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  They focus on Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses one through 7.
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  Yeah, specifically The Gravity of Glory and watch your step.
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  Right. Those are our sources, and our
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  mission today is to investigate what it means to approach God
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  with a sense of terrifying yet joyful awe.
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  We're looking at the actual mechanics of worship.
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  And that question you asked at the start, you know, the movie
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  theater versus the realm of absolute gravity that sets the
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  stage for everything we need to cover.
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  It really paints the picture. Yeah, because the author of our
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  sources operates from this conviction that modern society
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  has, well, entirely lost its fear of the living God.
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  Just completely lost it. Right.
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  And because of that loss, the author argues, we desperately
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  need to look backward. We need to recover what is
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  basically slipped through our fingers.
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  I mean, the premise rests on the idea that without a proper awe
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  filled reverence, our religious activities are worse than
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  meaningless. Yeah, they're actually
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  offensive. Offensive, Yeah.
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  So to get the solution proposed by Solomon and Ecclesiastes, we
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  first have to understand the specific modern crisis these
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  texts are diagnosing. We do, and to understand that
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  diagnosis we have to look at the landscape of casual religion
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  today. So the sources argue that modern
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  evangelicalism has essentially become a wasteland of pragmatism
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  and emotionalism. A wasteland.
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  That is a heavy way to phrase it, but.
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  Yeah, very heavy. The authors paint this picture
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  where the sanctuary has been converted into a theater and the
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  pulpit is basically hosting therapeutic talks for a crowd of
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  consumers. Right people walk in expecting
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  like light psychological advice. Maybe a really good.
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  Band. Oh absolutely, a good band and a
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  comfortable seat. They just want their felt needs
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  met. Yeah, and the texts argue that
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  this consumer mindset just utterly destroys the very
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  definition of worship. It does, and the author backs up
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  this critique with some specific sociological data, which I think
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  is fascinating. The numbers are pretty stark.
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  They really are. They point to studies from
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  Gallup and the Barna group, and they note that weekly church
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  attendance in America has dropped to roughly 30%.
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  Which is low, but the author says that's not even the most
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  devastating part, right? No, it's not.
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  The staggering number that the text highlights is that only
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  four in 10 adults claim to prepare their hearts or minds in
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  any meaningful way before they enter into corporate worship.
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  Only four out of 10. That is wild.
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  It is. Just think about the
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  implications of that statistic. 6 out of 10 people are walking
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  into a space dedicated to the creator of the universe with the
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  exact same mental state they have when walking into a grocery
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  store. Like they're just picking up
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  milk. Yeah, just grabbing a carton of
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  milk. No shift in mindset at all.
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  Only four in 10 even attempt to shift their mental state before
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  walking through those doors. And the source material goes
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  further into the symptoms of this crisis, too.
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  Right. Pointing to some specific
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  sociopolitical movements, yeah. And just to be clear for you
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  listening, we're going to neutrally relay these claims to
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  understand the author's written views.
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  Here we are just conveying the ideas contained in the original
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  source material. Right, we're just laying out
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  what the text says. Exactly so.
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  The text argues that believers do not need a pluralistic
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  approach to truth, nor do they need what the author
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  specifically labels as the false gospels of critical race theory
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  and social justice. From the author's perspective,
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  these movements act as horizontal distractions.
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  Horizontal distractions. Let's impact that a bit.
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  Sure. So they force a congregation to
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  focus entirely on earthly politics and social dynamics,
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  rather than focusing vertically on the glory of the Gospel.
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  Right. And again, just reporting the
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  author's stance here, but it demonstrates how fiercely they
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  believe our focus has shifted from the divine down to the
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  earthly. Yeah, that vertical versus
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  horizontal distinction is basically the engine driving the
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  author's whole argument. It really frames the whole
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  discussion. It does.
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  The text suggests that when humans lose that vertical awe of
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  God, a massive void opens up in. US and we have to fill it with
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  something. Exactly.
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  We inevitably obsess over horizontal earthly matters to
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  fill that void. Yeah, we start trying to fix
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  horizontal societal issues using the church.
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  Because we've lost sight of the vertical reality of who God is.
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  Right. And the result is a casual,
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  flippant attitude toward the divine.
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  We end up treating God as a mascot for our earthly causes
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  rather than the sovereign Lord. A mascot?
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  Wow. I think we can unpack this
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  casual attitude with this specific analogy.
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  Actually, well, I love a good analogy.
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  Lay it on me. It is like approaching God as if
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  he were a cosmic grandfather. Yeah, or maybe a divine vending
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  machine. Vending machine.
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  Yeah, the tracks. Right.
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  Just imagine walking up to a vending machine.
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  You input a minimal prayer. Maybe you just toss in a few
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  quarters of religious language. Like a quick Lord, bless his day
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  on your commute. Yeah, exactly.
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  Then you hit the button and you expect a maximum blessing to
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  drop down into the tray. You want the prize.
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  You want health, wealth, Peace of Mind, and you want it without
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  any real relationship or reverence.
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  You just want the transaction to work.
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  Right. Put the coin in, get the soda
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  out. Yes, and the text vehemently
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  contrasts this vending machine mentality with the biblical
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  depiction of God. It describes him as a consuming
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  fire. That is a very different image.
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  Completely different. You do not casually stroll up to
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  a consuming fire, press a button and expect a snack.
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  No, you definitely do not. A consuming fire dictates your
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  posture entirely. You can't manipulate it.
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  You cannot manipulate A consuming fire.
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  You cannot bargain with it or expect it to conform to your
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  schedule. You can only respect its nature
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  or be destroyed by it. That's the reality.
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  So to understand the corrective to this vending machine
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  mentality, we have to step back into the ancient world of King
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  Solomon. Which takes us to the historical
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  anchor of this passage. Right.
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  We need to see how worship was originally designed and
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  understood before we layered all our modern consumerism over it.
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  So let's establish that historical and literary anchor.
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  We are dealing with King Solomon here, writing in the 10th
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  century BC. And that historical context is
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  critical for understanding the weight of Ecclesiastes.
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  The text establishes the authorship as belonging to
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  Solomon. Which is a specific theological
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  stance, right? Yes, the author strictly rejects
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  any liberal higher criticism. Now that might sound like
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  academic inside baseball to some folks.
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  Yeah, tell us why that matters for the average person
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  listening. Well, it.
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  Changes how you read the book. Higher criticism often tries to
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  date Ecclesiastes to a much later period.
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  Like they say, it was written by someone influenced by later
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  Greek philosophy. Exactly.
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  But our source insists on Solomon, and this matters
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  because Solomon is the architect of the glorious First Temple in
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  Jerusalem. Right, he's not just some
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  philosopher writing in a vacuum. No, he is the man who built the
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  physicist structure that served as the absolute epicenter of
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  Israel's national and religious life.
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  The. Actual building, yes.
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  The first temple was the specific location where the
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  localized visible glory of God dwelt.
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  And the contrast with the surrounding ancient cultures
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  highlights what Solomon is really trying to teach here.
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  Oh, the Pagan contrast is huge. Right.
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  The text points out that in ancient Pagan cultures like the
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  Canaanites, where the Mesopotamians, worshippers used
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  mechanical vows to try and manipulate their deities.
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  Because they believed their gods were finite.
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  Yeah, with limited knowledge and limited power.
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  And because their gods were finite, the pagans thought they
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  could just bribe them. They thought if ioffer 50 sheep
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  the rain, God owes me a storm. Exactly a transaction, and
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  Solomon is writing against that exact backdrop, establishing
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  that Yahweh cannot be manipulated.
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  You cannot bribe the God who owns the cattle on 1000 hills.
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  It's just a totally different paradigm.
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  It is. And we should also mention that
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  the auto brings a strict dispensationalist view to this
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  historical analysis. Oh right, we should definitely
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  explain that term for the listener.
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  Yeah, dispensationalism is essentially A framework for
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  reading the Bible that draws a hard, distinct line between
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  national Israel in the Old Testament and the Christian
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  Church in the New Testament. Right, so it separates those two
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  eras very cleanly. Very cleanly to the author, this
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  distinction changes the literal real estate of where God lives.
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  The real estate, I like that. Well, in the time of Solomon,
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  Israel was a national entity under the Mosaic covenant,
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  right? And God dwelt in a localized
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  physical temple. But the New Testament church is
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  distinct. Exactly.
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  According to this view, believers themselves are now the
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  temple of the Holy Spirit. But the core requirement doesn't
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  change, does it? No, that's the key.
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  The author argues that while the location of worship has changed,
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  the moral requirement for terrifying reverence remains
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  entirely binding. OK, so that is the historical
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  anchor, but the literary context of Ecclesiastes is just as vital
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  for you to grasp before we get to the specific commands.
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  The literary context is so fascinating.
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  It really is. The core theme of the entire
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  book revolves around a specific Hebrew word, right?
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  Hebel. Yes, Hebel is the lens through
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  which every single verse in the book must be read.
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  How does the source translate? That it translates to vanity,
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  vapor or absolute futility. Think of a wisp of smoke from a
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  campfire. You can see it, You can smell
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  it. But if you try to grab it, your
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  hand just closes on empty air. That is Hebel.
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  It just slips right through your fingers.
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  Exactly, and the text explains a massive shift that occurs
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  between the 1st 4 chapters of Ecclesiastes and chapter 5.
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  What happens in those first 4 chapters?
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  Chapters one through 4 are just an exhaustive, depressing look
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  at the horizontal misery of life as Solomon puts it under the
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  sun. It gets pretty dark.
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  It does. Solomon looks at the
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  accumulation of wealth and realizes you just leave it all
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  to someone who might be a fool. Right, you work your whole life
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  and then some careless air just blows it all.
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  Yeah, he looks at isolation, he looks at political corruption
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  and the oppression in the courts.
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  He analyzes every earthly pursuit and basically concludes
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  it is all a chasing after the wind.
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  It's all vapor. Which brings up a very natural
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  question for anyone reading it. Right.
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  If I am reading Ecclesiastes and Solomon has just spent 4
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  chapters telling me that life under the sun is a miserable,
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  meaningless vapor, wouldn't the logical next step be to become
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  highly religious? You think so?
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  Yeah, if the secular world is empty, shouldn't we pivot
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  immediately to the sacred? That seems like the obvious
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  answer. But why does Solomon suddenly
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  put up a massive roadblock right at the beginning of chapter 5?
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  He essentially says stop walking, do not just rush into
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  the temple. That is the precise tension the
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  author highlights. And here is the terrifying thing
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  about human nature. According to the text, we are
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  basically idle factories. Idle factories.
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  John Calvin used that phrase a lot, too.
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  Yeah. The author argues that when
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  fallen humans find the secular world empty, our fleshly
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  response is not true pure worship.
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  What is our response then? Our response is to try and use
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  religion as a tool to fix our horizontal misery.
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  We want to add a dash of God to our earthly pursuits to make
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  them succeed. I see, we think my business is
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  failing. My life feels like a vapor.
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  So I will go to the temple, offer a sacrifice, and God will
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  fix my business. Spot on.
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  Solomon puts up this roadblock in chapter 5 to warn us that if
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  we approach God with that manipulative mindset, we turn
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  religion itself into the ultimate vanity.
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  Wow. Religion becomes just another
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  vapor. It becomes the climax of human
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  futility. That is a sobering thought.
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  Religion can become just another vapor if the posture is wrong.
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  It really is. So what is the right posture?
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  Solomon gives specific step by step instructions for
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  approaching the Divine. He gets very practical.
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  He does. This takes us into the physical
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  anatomy of approach, specifically the feet and the
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  ears. The very first command in
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  Ecclesiastes 5 verse one is totally bodily.
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  He says guard your steps when you go to the House of God.
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  Guard your steps, and the text brings in some fascinating
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  Hebrew linguistics here that completely changed the tone of
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  that phrase. Yeah, the root word used in the
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  Hebrew text for guard is shamar. Shamar and that's not a passive
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  words. Not at all.
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  The author notes that Shamar implies an aggressive, militant
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  vigilance. Militant like a soldier.
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  Exactly is the kind of word used for a Sentinel standing watch
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  over a military fortress, just scanning the horizon for an
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  approaching threat. Because if a Sentinel falls
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  asleep or gets distracted, people die.
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  People die. It is a bodily command, but it
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  has a completely spiritual target.
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  So you are to fiercely police your own steps as you approach
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  the House of God. Right, you're treating your own
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  heart as a potential threat that needs to be monitored.
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  That is intense. And what happens after you guard
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  your steps? Well, the text contrasts 2 very
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  different actions once you cross the threshold.
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  Drawing near to listen versus offering the sacrifice of fools.
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  Yeah, and the author breaks down the specific Hebrew word for
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  fool used in this passage, which is Kissel.
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  Kissel, how is that different from other words for a fool?
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  This is a critical distinction for you listening.
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  Hebrew wisdom literature has different categories for
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  foolishness. It's not just a blanket term.
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  No, there's the Pathia, which is the naive simpleton.
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  Like someone who is just inexperienced, young or
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  gullible, they just do not know any better.
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  Exactly. But Kiesel is entirely
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  different. A Kiesel is an obstinate,
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  morally insolent person who stubbornly reject wisdom.
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  Oh, so they know better. They absolutely know there is a
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  right way to do things, and they actively choose to ignore it.
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  That is a shocking reality when you apply it to the context of
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  worship. The fool walking into the temple
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  actually thinks he's doing a good thing.
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  He brought his animal. He is standing in the right
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  place. Right, he thinks he is offering
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  a sacrifice and manipulating God for a blessing, but the text
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  labels his thoughtless, non listening sacrifice as raw.
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  Which translates to moral evil or wickedness.
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  Moral evil just showing up without listening.
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  The author is making the point that in the realm of worship,
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  ignorance is culpable. Culpable ignorance.
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  You cannot just plead ignorance when you're dealing with the
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  Creator. Ignorance is no excuse because
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  the posture of listening is strictly required.
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  The wise person draws near to hear the word of God, while the
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  Keisel bounds into the sanctuary to perform empty rituals.
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  The Keisel talks over God. It makes me think of an analogy
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  to understand this culpable ignorance.
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  Let's hear it. Imagine a person attending a
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  crucial high stakes legal briefing.
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  The lawyers are explaining how this person can avoid going to
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  federal prison. So the stakes are absolute.
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  Absolute stakes and this person sits there nodding along, but
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  they are wearing noise cancelling headphones the entire
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  time. Oh wow.
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  They are physically present in the room.
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  They are taking up a chair, but they are entirely absent in
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  reception. They are not hearing a single
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  word of the instructions that could save their life.
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  They're just totally tuned out. In that scenario, their physical
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  presence is actually an insult to the people speaking.
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  It makes a mockery of the proceedings.
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  It really does. That is what the sacrifice of
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  fools looks like. It turns the meeting into an
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  offense. That visual of the noise
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  cancelling headphones is perfect.
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  It captures the essence of what the author means by culpable
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  ignorance. You brought your body, but you
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  left your mind at home. You left your mind and your
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  reverence at home, and the posture of the body and the ears
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  naturally dictates what happens next.
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  Because if your ears are closed, your mouth is usually running.
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  Always. Which brings us to the anatomy
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  of speech and the fundamental creator creature distinction.
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  Let's look at verses 2 and three of the text.
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  It says, be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be
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  hasty to utter a word before God.
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  The author unpacks the Hebrew verb used for rashness here,
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  which is bahal. Bahal, what's the nuance there?
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  It means to act with anxious trepidation or panicked,
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  impulsive speech. Like word vomit.
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  Basically, yeah. It describes words that fall out
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  of your mouth without any cognitive filter, usually driven
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  by anxiety or a desire to just fill the silence.
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  Think about the psychology of an awkward silence in a job
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  interview. Oh, that's the worst.
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  People start rambling. They really do.
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  They over explain. They make promises they cannot
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  keep just to kill the dead air. And the author suggests we do
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  the exact same thing with God. We feel the heavy silence of the
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  divine. We feel anxious.
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  So we start babbling religious phrases.
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  Right. And Solomon anchors this command
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  against babbling to what is probably the most critical
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  theological sentence in the entire passage.
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  What's the phrase? Kihado him bashmayim, for God is
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  in heaven, and you are on earth. Man, that's weighty.
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  God is in heaven and you are on earth.
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  The text insists that this single sentence restores
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  proportion to our entire existence.
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  And it is incredibly vital to understand what this means.
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  It is not teaching deism. No, not at.
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  All it is not saying God is distant, sitting on a cloud,
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  just uninterested in human affairs rather.
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  It establishes His sovereign transcendence against our human
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  finitude and depravity. God is in the realm of absolute
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  authority. He possesses infinite knowledge
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  and infinite power. While we are creatures made of
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  dust, bound by time and space with severely limited
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  understanding. Exactly that spatial metaphor,
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  heaven versus earth, demands that we restrict our babbling.
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  You just do not talk over Sovereign King.
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  And he also brings up an ancient Near Eastern proverb used in
• 18:09
  verse 3 to illustrate this point about our words.
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  Yeah, the proverb comparing a dream to a fool's voice.
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  Right. It compares a dream, the Hebrew
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  word halom, which is born from heavy burdensome business, the
• 18:23
  word inon, to a fool's voice that is born from a multitude of
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  words. The synthesis of that proverb is
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  brilliant. How does the author explain the
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  modern equivalent? Well, think about a day where
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  you are incredibly stressed out. You answer 100 emails.
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  You argued with your boss. Your finances are a mess.
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  It's a heavy, cluttered day. Yeah, when you finally go to
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  sleep, your mind is cluttered with the anxieties and heavy
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  business of the day. And what happens?
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  You get weird dreams. Right.
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  As a result, it roduces chaotic, fragmented, meaningless dreams
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  You dreamed you were running in slow motion or taking a test you
• 18:58
  did not study for. We've all had those.
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  In the exact same way, when your heart is spiritually cluttered
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  and undisciplined, it produces A chaotic, meaningless Babble of
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  words when you try to pray. So the fool's voice is just the
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  spiritual equivalent of a restless nightmare.
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  That's it exactly. And this chaotic Babble reaches
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  its absolute most dangerous point when it takes the form of
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  a promise. Oh, this is where it gets really
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  serious. Yeah, we transition here into
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  the danger of vows and excuse making.
• 19:25
  The text introduces the concept of the vow, the kneader.
• 19:29
  And in the ancient context, vows were highly contractual.
• 19:32
  Very contractual. You're making a binding verbal
• 19:35
  agreement with the Almighty. You were saying if you do this
• 19:37
  for me, God, I will dedicate this land to the temple or I
• 19:40
  will offer this specific sacrifice.
• 19:43
  Yes, and the passage insists on a very stark reality here.
• 19:47
  Unpromised obedience is far superior to promised
• 19:50
  disobedience. That is a great summary.
• 19:53
  Unpromised obedience over promise disobedience.
• 19:55
  It is better to stay silent, live a quiet life of obedience,
• 19:59
  than to make a grand sweeping promise that you have no
• 20:02
  intention of keeping. Which leads right into verse 6.
• 20:05
  Let not your mouth lead you into sin.
• 20:07
  The text investigates the psychological mechanism of
• 20:10
  excuse making that follows a rash vow.
• 20:13
  Let's imagine the worshipper in that situation.
• 20:15
  OK, they are caught up in the emotional high of a festival.
• 20:18
  The music is playing, everyone is hyped up.
• 20:21
  Right the like a massive promise to give half their flock to the
• 20:23
  temple. But then a month later.
• 20:25
  A month later, they realize the financial reality of what they
• 20:28
  just promised. They cannot keep it.
• 20:31
  So they try to back pedal. Of course, they go to the temple
• 20:34
  and they try to call their broken vow a shigaga.
• 20:37
  A shigaga, which means what? A mere mistake or a sin of
• 20:42
  ignorance. They say this before the Malak,
• 20:44
  which refers to the temple priest or the messenger of God.
• 20:47
  They say, oh, I misspoke, I was overly emotional.
• 20:50
  It was just a clerical error. And the author notes the
• 20:52
  terrifying rhetorical question that follows that excuse in the
• 20:55
  text. Solomon asks why you should
• 20:57
  provoke God to Khatsaf. Khatsaf.
• 21:00
  That word means a fierce, boiling anger.
• 21:03
  Boiling anger that is terrifying.
• 21:05
  The text warns that this boiling anger will destroy the work of
• 21:08
  your hands. The point here is that God hears
• 21:12
  the original promise. He is not fooled by the later
• 21:15
  excuse made to the priest. No, you cannot reclassify a
• 21:18
  broken vow as a minor mistake when speaking to the Creator of
• 21:21
  the universe. When you treat God like a
• 21:22
  foolish middle manager who can be easily duped, you basically
• 21:26
  invite destruction. You really do.
• 21:28
  So we have a massive tension here for you listening a.
• 21:30
  Huge tension. If we accept the premise of this
• 21:33
  text, it demands flawless reverence.
• 21:36
  Absolute perfection. Our feet must never wander, our
• 21:40
  ears must always be open. Our words must be incredibly few
• 21:44
  and perfectly chosen. And our vows must be kept with
• 21:48
  absolute flawless integrity. But.
• 21:50
  Human beings are incapable of doing this.
• 21:52
  We fail. We fail constantly.
• 21:54
  If our words are flawed and our promises constantly break, how
• 21:57
  can anyone ever step into the House of God without facing that
• 22:01
  fierce, boiling destruction? That tension necessitates what
• 22:04
  the author calls the Christological fulfillment of
• 22:07
  this passage. OK, let's unpack that.
• 22:09
  Well, the author use that we cannot read the Old Testament as
• 22:12
  a self help manual for moral improvement.
• 22:15
  Right. If we read Ecclesiastes 5 as
• 22:17
  just a list of things to try harder at doing, we will fail
• 22:20
  the moral test every single time.
• 22:22
  Every time, instead, the author traces this redemptive
• 22:25
  historical trajectory. And they specifically note that
• 22:28
  this should be done without resorting to irresponsible
• 22:30
  allegory, correct? Yes, we do not need to make up
• 22:34
  secret codes in the text. We just need to look at Jesus
• 22:37
  Christ as the only perfect worshipper.
• 22:40
  Let's examine how Christ fulfills these specific demands.
• 22:43
  The text says Jesus was the perfect listener.
• 22:46
  Right setting John 530 where Jesus says he seeks not his own
• 22:49
  will, but the will of the Father who sent him.
• 22:52
  His ears were always open, open to the Father's commands.
• 22:54
  Always. Furthermore, he spoke Florida
• 22:57
  State. He never uttered a rash or
• 22:59
  panicked word. He never experienced Baha.
• 23:01
  Never. Even when standing before Pilot,
• 23:04
  his words were measured few and sovereign.
• 23:07
  And most significantly, Christ paid the ultimate vow.
• 23:10
  He did. The author describes the eternal
• 23:13
  covenant of redemption as a vow made between the Father and the
• 23:16
  Son before time began. Jesus promised to redeem a
• 23:19
  people. And he did not make an excuse
• 23:21
  when the reality of the cross approached.
• 23:24
  He did not go to the Father in the garden at Gethsemane and say
• 23:26
  this was a mistake. Let's back out.
• 23:28
  No shake out there, no. He paid the vow of our salvation
• 23:31
  in full with his own blood. The source material also draws a
• 23:34
  sharp attention to the shift regarding the temple.
• 23:37
  This is a massive shift. He mentioned earlier that
• 23:40
  believers no longer travel to a physical building in Jerusalem.
• 23:43
  The author asserts that Jesus is the true temple.
• 23:46
  He is the meeting place between God and man.
• 23:49
  And because Jesus is the true temple, the dynamic of our
• 23:52
  approach changes entirely. The author cites Hebrews 10, 19
• 23:57
  through 22, which declares that the veil of the temple is torn.
• 24:01
  Meaning access is open. Yes, believers now have
• 24:05
  confidence to enter the heavenly holy places.
• 24:07
  This is a massive paradigm shift.
• 24:10
  The terror of destruction that hovered over the ancient
• 24:12
  Israelite who made a rash vow is replaced by the assurance of a
• 24:16
  mediator. We still approach with
• 24:18
  reverence, but it is a confidence bought by blood, not
• 24:21
  a terror of immediate consumption.
• 24:23
  Because the fierce boiling anger of God was poured out on Christ
• 24:27
  so that believers can approach the throne of grace exactly.
• 24:30
  So. With this perfect mediation in
• 24:32
  mind, how should the modern listener alter their actual
• 24:35
  day-to-day practices? The text gives some very
• 24:38
  concrete applications based on these ancient principles.
• 24:41
  The author lists specific movements that they believe
• 24:43
  violate the principles of Ecclesiastes 5.
• 24:46
  They do. They attack the prosperity
• 24:48
  gospel, for one. Which treats God as a bellhop.
• 24:51
  Yeah, a system where people make vows or seed faith pledges
• 24:55
  simply to secure a financial blessing.
• 24:57
  It is the exact manipulation Solomon warned about.
• 25:00
  The text also critiques Seeker sensitive pragmatism.
• 25:04
  Right, which treats the congregation as consumers to be
• 25:07
  entertained rather than worshippers to be instructed.
• 25:10
  And finally, they critique charismatic mysticism.
• 25:13
  Which the author describes as relying on mindless repetition
• 25:16
  or ecstatic gibberish. The counter argument presented
• 25:19
  is that true worship requires cognitive reference.
• 25:22
  It involves the mind. Yes, the mind understanding the
• 25:26
  creator creature distinction, not descending into mystical
• 25:29
  chaos or manipulative transactions.
• 25:31
  I want to spend some time here placing you, the listener,
• 25:34
  inside this scenario. Let's do it.
• 25:36
  Visualize your own Sunday morning routine.
• 25:38
  Let's look at what the text demands versus reality.
• 25:41
  OK, the alarm goes off. The alarm goes off.
• 25:44
  Maybe you are exhausted from staying up late watching
• 25:47
  entertainment on Saturday night. You drag yourself out of bed.
• 25:51
  The house is chaotic. You are rushing to get dressed,
• 25:54
  maybe arguing with your family in the car over traffic.
• 25:57
  You pull into the parking lot late.
• 25:59
  You walk into the building holding a smartphone, scrolling
• 26:02
  through social media right up until the music starts.
• 26:04
  Just 0 preparation. You sit down completely
• 26:07
  distracted and expect to immediately flip a switch to
• 26:10
  Revere a consuming fire. And according to the stringent
• 26:14
  criteria of Ecclesiastes, the text labels that exact behavior
• 26:18
  as the sacrifice of fools. You brought your body, but your
• 26:21
  ears are closed and your mind is full of the burdensome business
• 26:24
  of the week. It is a hard truth to swallow.
• 26:27
  The author also connects the ancient concept of the needer,
• 26:30
  the vow, to very real modern practices.
• 26:33
  So the application is not just ancient history.
• 26:36
  No, not at all. The author points specifically
• 26:39
  to believers, baptism, and church membership.
• 26:42
  Those are serious commitments. They are modern vows made before
• 26:45
  God and witnesses. When you join a church, you are
• 26:48
  making a vow to submit to His leadership and support the
• 26:51
  congregation. And the text warns that treating
• 26:55
  these commitments casually or making them, and then just
• 26:58
  disappearing into the surrounding culture when things
• 27:00
  get difficult. That is exactly akin to telling
• 27:03
  the ancient messenger it was a mistake.
• 27:05
  The gravity of a vow remains even in the modern church
• 27:08
  context. We cannot treat our verbal
• 27:11
  commitments to the body of Christ as temporary, easily
• 27:15
  discarded contracts. This brings us to the ultimate
• 27:18
  cure for the vanity of life proposed by Solomon.
• 27:21
  We have looked at the disease of casual religion.
• 27:23
  We've diagnosed the symptoms of hasty words and broken vows.
• 27:27
  Now we look at the cure. Holy fear and joy.
• 27:30
  The climactic imperative of the passage is found in verse 7.
• 27:33
  What's the Hebrew there? The author analyzes the Hebrew
• 27:35
  syntax at a Elohim era. But God you must fear.
• 27:39
  The syntax is designed to place massive exclusive weight on God
• 27:43
  alone. He is the sole object of our
• 27:45
  awe. You do not fear your
• 27:47
  circumstances. You do not fear your horizontal
• 27:49
  misery. You fear God.
• 27:51
  You fear God. We need to clarify what kind of
• 27:53
  fear this is because the word fear carries a lot of baggage.
• 27:56
  Definitely. People hear fear and they think
• 27:58
  of terror. The text makes it clear that
• 28:00
  this is not a servile, cowering dread.
• 28:02
  Right. It is not the fear of an abused
• 28:05
  animal shrinking away from a cruel pastor who might strike at
• 28:08
  any moment. That is the fear of a tyrant.
• 28:11
  This is a filial reverence. Filial meaning like a family
• 28:14
  dynamic. Exactly.
• 28:16
  It is the awe of a child who respects the immense authority,
• 28:19
  power and righteousness of a loving father.
• 28:22
  And the synthesis of this entire concept is that fear is actually
• 28:26
  the friend of joy. That sounds like a paradox.
• 28:29
  Fear and joy. It does, but the core belief of
• 28:32
  the author is that joy without holy fear becomes incredibly
• 28:36
  thin. Becomes sentimental and fragile.
• 28:39
  Trivial, lighthearted worship, the kind you find in the theater
• 28:42
  model of church, cannot sustain a person through the real
• 28:44
  miseries of. Life.
• 28:45
  No, it can't. When you face a terminal
• 28:47
  sickness. When you face aging or the death
• 28:50
  of someone you love. A casual buddy buddy
• 28:52
  relationship with God falls apart.
• 28:54
  It's not strong enough to hold you.
• 28:56
  But holy fear gives gravity to our joy.
• 28:59
  When you realize that the God of the universe is a consuming
• 29:01
  fire, the fact that he offers you forgiveness becomes
• 29:05
  astonishing. It ceases to be an expectation
• 29:08
  and becomes a miracle. That astonishing reality
• 29:11
  produces a joy that is indestructible.
• 29:14
  Let's consolidate the main take away from all of this for you.
• 29:17
  Your life under the sun is a vapor.
• 29:19
  It is fleeting. You cannot hold on to your
• 29:21
  wealth, your youth, or your earthly accomplishments.
• 29:24
  But your life is not worthless. True wisdom, according to
• 29:27
  Ecclesiastes, means approaching the Creator of the universe with
• 29:30
  a listening ear rather than a demanding mouth.
• 29:32
  It means guarding your steps. It means recognizing the
• 29:36
  infinite between heaven and earth and letting your words be
• 29:39
  few, weighty, and truthful. To leave you with a final
• 29:42
  thought on this, the author quotes CS Lewis.
• 29:44
  What does Lewis say? He wrote there is a kind of
• 29:47
  happiness and wonder that makes you serious.
• 29:49
  It is too good to waste on jokes.
• 29:51
  That is so good. Too good to waste on jokes.
• 29:54
  When we encounter the living God, the appropriate response is
• 29:57
  a serious, weighty joy. Building on that quote, consider
• 30:01
  this idea. What if the absolute silence of
• 30:04
  your own ego is the precise condition required to finally
• 30:08
  hear the voice of God? Just total silence.
• 30:10
  Well, what if we have to stop talking, stop planning, and stop
• 30:12
  demanding in order to realize He is in heaven and we are on
• 30:16
  earth? Thank you for joining us for
• 30:18
  this deep dive into Ecclesiastes.