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Casting Bread in a Fleeting World: Solomon's Money Makeover (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6) · Reformed Thinking

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  OK. So I want you to imagine taking
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  your entire life savings, like liquidating all of it into
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  physical cash. Right, just stacks of bills.
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  Yeah, stacks of cash. And then you seal that cash
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  inside this frail wooden box, and you just toss it into the
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  surging, unpredictable currents of the ocean.
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  I mean to any modern financial advisor, that is certifiable
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  insanity. Oh totally, it is the quickest
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  way to guarantee you will be living on the street.
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  But to the wisest, wealthiest king of the ancient world, that
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  is the precise blueprint for surviving an unpredictable
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  world. It really is.
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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is a deep dive into the
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  intersection of ancient wisdom and modern life, and today we
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  are analyzing A comprehensive theological exposition of
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  Ecclesiastes 11 versus 1 through 6.
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  Yeah, some commentators actually refer to this specific section
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  as Solomon's Money Makeover, which is pretty fitting.
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  It is, and our mission here is to extract biblical wisdom for
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  financial stewardship in a fleeting world.
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  Right, because for you listening right now, the goal is to move
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  way past those you know surface level self help finance tips.
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  Yeah, we don't want just another budget hack.
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  Precisely, we want to secure a rigorous theological
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  understanding of money, of risk and of divine Providence.
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  Because look, we live in a reality where we have to buy
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  groceries, we have to pay our mortgages and plan for
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  retirement. Very concrete responsibilities.
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  But the wild thing is we control absolutely none of the final
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  outcomes. And that tension, it sits right
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  at the center of the text we are evaluating today.
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  Yeah, because on one hand you have the absolute necessity of
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  human action. You have to do the work right?
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  But then, on the other hand, you have the totalizing reality of
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  God's sovereignty. Which is huge.
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  It is the text demands that we hold our earthly goods with open
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  hands while submitting entirely to a God who governs all things.
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  Which is hard for us, right? Because we like things to be
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  visible. We want them measurable and
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  entirely within our control. Oh absolutely.
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  We want a spreadsheet where the numbers add up perfectly.
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  Yes, but Solomon just shatters that illusion.
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  He really does. So let us start by grounding
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  ourselves in the history, because the backdrop completely
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  changes how we read these words. Definitely we are looking at the
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  10th century BC and the theological analysis we are
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  digging into today. It fiercely rejects liberal
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  scholarship. Yeah, the folks who try to late
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  date this text to the Persian or Hellenistic periods.
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  Right, they affirm Solomonic authorship without any
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  hesitation. But why does that specific
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  authorship matter so much for understanding the economics of
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  Ecclesiastes? Well, recognizing Solomon is the
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  author establishes the entire economic landscape of the book.
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  How so? I mean if some anonymous post
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  exilic author wrote this during a time of national poverty, it
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  reads like a coping mechanism. Oh that makes sense.
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  Like we're poor so wealth is meaningless anyway.
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  Spot on. But if Solomon wrote it, it
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  carries the weight of a man who actually had it all right.
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  During Solomon's era, we see the absolute zenith of Israel's
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  economic prosperity. It was his unprecedented golden
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  age. Because the society was shifting
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  right? Yeah, it was shifting from a
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  purely localized agrarian farming model to a massive
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  global maritime trade network. So before Solomon, Israel was
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  basically a nation of farmers and shepherds.
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  Yes, their wealth depended entirely on local rain patterns,
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  but Solomon changed the game. He partnered with Hiram of Tire,
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  right? Right, a Phoenician king and
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  together they sent out the famous ships of Tarshish.
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  Let us pause there and talk about those ships, because this
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  wasn't just a couple of guys in a fishing boat.
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  Not at all. These were massive multi year
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  commercial voyages. Wow.
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  Yeah, the Phoenicians were the master shipbuilders and
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  navigators of the ancient world, and Solomon leveraged their
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  technology. So how long were they gone for?
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  These fleets would leave the port of Ezian Gebber and be gone
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  for like 3 years at a time. Three years, that is a massive
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  investment of time. Huge.
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  But when they were turned, they were loaded with exotic
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  commodities. We were talking gold, silver,
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  ivory, apes and Peacocks. Apes and Peacocks, that is wild.
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  I know the National Treasury was overflowing to the point where
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  silver was considered as common as stones in Jerusalem.
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  Silver as common as stones. The sheer volume of wealth
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  pouring into the capital must have altered the psychology of
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  the entire nation. Oh.
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  Entirely. So you have a nation that used
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  to look at the sky and pray for rain just to survive, and now
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  they're looking at ledgers tracking international shipments
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  of gold and feeling incredibly secure.
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  Yeah, they move from dependence to a posture of management and
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  control. That is a massive psychological
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  shift. It really is.
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  When you are a subsistence farmer, you know you need God.
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  Right. But when you are a global trade
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  mogul, you start to think your own ingenuity is the source of
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  your security. Oh, that is dangerous.
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  Very. And remember, the original
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  Israelite audience was living under the conditional blessings
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  of the Mosaic covenant. Where physical obedience was
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  tied to material prosperity. Precisely so.
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  Because of all that abundance, they were highly tempted to
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  believe their own hands acquired their wealth.
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  And right at the peak of that economic boom, Solomon writes
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  Ecclesiastes. He does.
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  The governing thematic word of the entire book is the Hebrew
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  word hebel. Yeah, which gets translated as
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  vanity, breath or vapor. I always like to think of life's
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  predictability in this framework, like trying to catch
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  morning fog in a glass jar. Oh that is a great image.
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  Right, you can see it hovering over the grass.
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  It looks substantial, it obscures the trees, but the
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  second you try to close your hands around it and capture it.
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  There is nothing there. Yeah, there is nothing there.
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  It just leaves your hands damp and empty.
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  And the paradox here is stunning.
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  You have the wisest, wealthiest king in the ancient Near East.
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  Yeah, he possessed more physical assets, more land, more gold and
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  more international influence than anyone alive.
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  He had everything. He experienced the absolute
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  pinnacle of what the material world can offer, yet he looked
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  at all of it and declared that wealth without the fear of God
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  is nothing but a vapor. So Solomon's goal was to shatter
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  the idol of human control. 100% He wanted to strip away the
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  illusion that full granaries, successful trade fleets and
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  perfect spreadsheets equated to personal sovereignty over the
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  future. OK, so if wealth is a vapor, but
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  we still have to live in a world that requires money, how do we
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  categorize scripture regarding wealth?
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  That is the big question. Because the commentators we are
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  looking at, they point out a serious tension between two
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  types of passages in the Bible. Right on one side we have what
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  they call totalizing passages. Think of Colossians 3, demanding
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  we seek things above, setting our minds on heaven and putting
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  to death earthly desires. Yeah, or Jesus telling the rich
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  young ruler to sell everything. Right, those passages seem to
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  demand complete detachment from the material world.
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  They do. But then on the other side we
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  have things of earth passages right?
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  Like First Timothy 6, which clearly states that God provides
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  everything for us to enjoy. We're Proverbs, which praises
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  the diligent worker who builds wealth and leaves an inheritance
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  for their children's children. Yeah.
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  And people tend to fall into two fatal errors when they lose the
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  balance between those passages. They really do.
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  Let's tackle the first error. OK, what is the first error?
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  The first error is the prosperity gospel, which the
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  material we are analyzing today aggressively dismantles.
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  The prosperity gospel treats God like a celestial Stock Exchange.
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  It assumes you are buying shares in heaven expecting guaranteed
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  immediate quarterly dividends. It turns giving into a
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  mechanical transaction designed to force a return.
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  Precisely. It essentially argues that God
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  is bound by our actions. Like if I give $50, God owes me
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  500. Yeah, it creates a system of
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  manipulation. Yeah, you are not worshipping
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  God. You are using God to get the
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  things you actually worship. Which is cash health.
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  And comfort, right? It assumes a linear, unbroken
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  line between your financial input and God's material output.
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  Which entirely ignores the reality of suffering.
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  Yes, it ignores the sovereignty of God's timing and the fact
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  that God often blesses his people through deprivation
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  rather than excess. That is such a crucial point.
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  But then there is the opposite ditch error #2 right?
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  This is a form of asceticism or what some call neo monasticism.
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  Yeah, the other extreme. Right.
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  If the prosperity gospel worships wealth, this second
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  error views all physical joy, wealth, and earthly labor as
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  inherently evil or unspiritual. And asceticism has deep roots in
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  ancient Gnosticism. Remind us what Gnosticism is.
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  Well, Gnosticism taught that the spirit is good and matter is
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  evil. Oh.
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  OK, so when that infiltrates Christian thinking, you end up
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  with believers who feel guilty for enjoying a good meal, making
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  a profit in business, or buying a nice home.
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  They treat the material world as something dirty to escape from.
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  Exactly. I mean spot on rather than a
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  physical creation that got himself called good in Genesis.
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  So how do we find the middle ground?
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  How do we avoid the prosperity gospel without becoming
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  miserable ascetics? The proper theological framework
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  finds its anchor in divine Providence.
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  OK, the Westminster Confession outlines this beautifully when
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  it discusses God's absolute governance over all creatures,
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  actions and things, from the greatest to the least.
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  Right, God ordains whatsoever comes to pass.
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  Yes, yet he does it in a way that establishes the liberty and
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  contingency of second causes. So in the realm of finance, this
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  means mishandling wealth declares a false belief in self
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  determinism, right? Let's break that down for the
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  listener. When you say self determinism,
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  what do you mean in a practical sense?
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  It is an Armenian folly applied to economics.
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  Wow. OK, unpack that.
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  Well, Arminianism in its theological sense places the
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  final deciding factor of salvation in the hands of man's
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  free will. Making man the final sovereign
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  right? So when you apply that mindset
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  to money, you believe you are the absolute master of your own
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  destiny. You believe your hard work, your
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  intellect, and your market timing are the sole reasons you
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  have wealth. Yeah, you think you are the
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  primary cause. Rather than a secondary agent
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  acting under God's primary decree.
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  Spot on. Proper stewardship recognizes
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  that wealth is a lesser gift from a greater God.
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  It functions as a servant, a tool and a test.
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  It is manna in the wilderness. Oh, I love that analogy.
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  Yeah, you think back to the Exodus narrative.
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  God gave the Israelites manna every morning.
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  But if they tried to hoard it out of anxiety, it rotted and
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  read worms. Right.
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  The value of the provision was not in hoarding it to create a
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  false sense of security. It was in receiving it daily
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  with Thanksgiving, trusting the flow of God's provision
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  absolutely Well, that sets the stage perfectly for the specific
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  commands in Ecclesiastes 11. Let's look at the first mandate
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  in verse one. OK, Solomon writes.
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  Cast your bread upon the waters. Now I have to push back here
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  because this sounds completely irrational.
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  It really does. Why cast bread on water?
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  Economically, physically, literally, bread dissolves.
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  It turns to mush. Yeah, it gets eaten by fish or
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  ruined by salt. I mean, to any rational
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  investor, telling someone to throw their primary source of
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  sustenance into the ocean sounds like madness.
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  It does sound like madness until we examine the specific
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  linguistic layers of the Hebrew text.
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  OK, let's hear it. The verb used here is the Peel
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  imperative form of the word shellac.
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  Shellac. What does the peel stem change
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  about the meaning? Well, in Hebrew grammar, the
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  peel stem indicates an intensive, deliberate and
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  forceful action. So this is it's not a casual
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  toss. Not at all.
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  It is not dropping a few crumbs over the side of a bridge.
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  It is an intentional, rigorous sending out.
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  Wow, you're aching. The word lechem, which
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  translates directly to bread, but signifies your capital, your
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  livelihood, or your core sustenance.
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  And you're deliberately hurling it away from yourself.
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  Yes, and doing so on the waters, which in the ancient Near East
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  carried a very specific psychological terror, didn't it?
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  Oh, it carried immense terror. We view the ocean as a place for
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  a beach vacation, right? But the ancient Israelites
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  viewed the sea as a realm of absolute chaos, untamed danger
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  and death. Because Israel had no natural
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  deep water harbors. Yeah, the sea was an alien
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  environment to them. Furthermore, the cultural
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  backdrop of the surrounding nations featured Eucharitic
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  myths. Right, the myths about Yom.
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  Yes, Yom, the multi headed God of the sea and monsters like
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  Leviathan. The ocean was the abyss.
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  It represented everything dark, uncontrollable and destructive.
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  So when Solomon says to cast your livelihood upon the waters,
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  he is telling them to take their security and throw it into the
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  most chaotic, uncontrollable environment imaginable.
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  That is an act of extreme vulnerability.
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  It means releasing your grip completely.
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  It is the ultimate antidote to the illusion of control we
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  talked about earlier. Yeah, you are taking the very
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  thing that makes you feel secure.
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  Yeah, your wealth and placing it entirely outside your
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  jurisdiction. But you know the text does not
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  leave us in a state of reckless loss, right?
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  There is a second-half to that verse, for you will find it
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  after many days. And commentators point out that
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  this uncalculating generosity is not a seed faith bargain.
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  You aren't throwing the bread to manipulate the ocean.
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  No, you are releasing resources beyond your immediate sight,
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  trusting that the Lord sees what disappears from human sight.
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  That phrasing after many days is crucial.
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  It really is. It completely removes the
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  expectation of an immediate return.
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  Like when you give to a widow, when you support a missionary,
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  or when you fund a church plant. That capital is is gone from
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  your spreadsheet. Yeah, you cannot track its exact
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  return on investment in real time.
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  It just dissolves into the waters of human need.
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  But God guarantees a return, even if it takes years or even
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  if the return happens entirely in eternity.
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  Absolutely. So at first one is asking us to
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  embrace complete vulnerability by throwing our capital into the
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  chaotic sea. My immediate question is, does
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  God just want us to be financially reckless?
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  Do we just MD our retirement accounts blindly and hope for
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  the best? Because that sounds like
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  horrible stewardship. It does, but the text
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  immediately balances that radical trust with what looks
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  like a sophisticated ancient hedging strategy.
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  That balance is what makes biblical wisdom so robust.
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  We move from uncalculating generosity directly into prudent
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  diversification. Verse 2 says give a portion to
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  seven and also to 8. So what is the significance of
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  those specific numbers? Why not 3 or 4?
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  Well the Hebrew word used here is chilek which means in
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  allotted share a territory or a specific portion OK.
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  And the phrasing 7 and also to 8 employs a classical Semitic
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  graded numerical sequence. A sequence.
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  Yeah, you see this XX plus one pattern elsewhere in Scripture,
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  like in Proverbs or the book of Amos, where the prophet says for
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  three transgressions of Damascus and for four.
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  So it is a rhetorical device. Yes, it signifies abundance,
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  exhaustiveness and going beyond the expected limit.
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  In the context of risk management, it basically means
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  dividing your resources across as many avenues as possible.
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  Right. Do not put all your capital in
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  one trading fleet. Do not rely on one single crop.
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  Spread your investments, your generosity, and your efforts
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  across multiple channels. And the text gives us a brutally
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  honest reason for this action. It does.
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  It says, For you do not know what evil will be upon the
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  earth. The Hebrew word is RA, meaning
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  disaster, misery, or calamity. This is a stark acknowledgement
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  of the reality of the fall. We live in a Genesis 3 world.
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  The ground is cursed with thorns and thistles.
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  Entropy is real. We operate in a broken economy
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  where storm systems wipe out agricultural yields, housing
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  markets crash, corporate restructuring leads to sudden
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  layoffs, and sudden medical emergencies drain savings
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  accounts. Right, and I think this point
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  provides necessary pushback against a specific type of
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  reckless presumption we sometimes see masquerading as
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  faith. Oh, definitely.
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  I am thinking of certain charismatic circles where
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  preparing for disaster is framed as a lack of trust in God.
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  Yeah, there is a teaching that says if you buy life insurance
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  or if you build an emergency fund, you are prophesying
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  failure over your life. And that teaching is not just
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  foolish, it is unbiblical. Strongly agree.
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  Acknowledging the Genesis 3 curse means recognizing the
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  structural brokenness of the world God has placed us in.
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  We are not in heaven yet. No, we are not.
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  Therefore, spreading risk through diligent budgeting,
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  purchasing insurance policies, and establishing multiple
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  revenue streams is not unbelieving anxiety.
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  It is Worshipful realism, yes. It is humble stewardship that
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  honors God while recognizing our own epistemic limitations.
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  We do not know when or where disaster will strike, so we
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  prepare wisely, precisely so we have this tension.
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  We cast our bread into chaos, but we also diversify our
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  portions to mitigate disaster. How do we hold those two
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  together without getting paralyzed by anxiety?
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  Well, Solomon addresses this in verses 3 and four.
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  He shifts to discussing inevitable natural laws.
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  Let's read verse 3. If the clouds are full of rain,
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  they empty themselves on the earth.
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  And if a tree falls to the South or to the north, and the place
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  where the tree falls there it will lie.
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  Those images establish A theological baseline regarding
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  human limitation. Clouds do what clouds do.
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  Trees fall where they fall. These are fixed decrees
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  completely outside human manipulation.
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  You cannot domesticate every outcome.
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  We try though. Oh, we definitely try.
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  We build massive dams. We seed clouds.
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  We buy the best meteorological software on the planet.
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  We do, but at the end of the day, the rain might water your
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  crops or it might flood your house.
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  The tree might fall and provide you with a decade's worth of
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  firewood, or it might crash through the roof of your barn.
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  The wise person accepts that certain events and certain
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  macroeconomic factors are completely outside their
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  jurisdiction. Because God governs the weather
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  and God governs the global markets, right?
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  Wait, but isn't that just an argument for fatalism?
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  Oh, so like if the tree is going to fall where it falls and the
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  clouds are going to rain regardless of what I do, why
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  should I even bother planning? That is the exact trap Solomon
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  anticipates in the very next verse.
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  OK. He warns against using the
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  unpredictability of the world as an excuse for inaction.
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  Look at verse four. He who watches the wind will not
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  sow, and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.
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  This is where the text exposes us completely.
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  It really does. Think about a modern scenario.
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  Imagine a young married couple delaying having children.
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  They say we just want to wait until our finances are perfectly
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  stable. So they wait for a flawless
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  economic forecast. They want 0 inflation, a perfect
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  housing market, total job security, and an administration
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  in government they agree with. And that forecast never arrives.
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  Never, because a flawless forecast does not exist under
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  the sun. Is that true?
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  The text is exposing a highly respectable sin.
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  It exposes procrastination disguised as caution.
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  Oh wow, procrastination disguised as caution.
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  Yeah, the grammatical construction here uses the
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  participial form shomer, meaning to watch, guard, or carefully
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  observe. So it is not just a passing
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  glance at the weather. No, it describes an ongoing,
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  habitual watching that eventually becomes a form of
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  servitude. Wow.
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  The farmer walks out to his field, holds up a wet finger to
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  the wind, decides there's a 10% chance of a storm, and goes back
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  inside. He is so obsessed with assessing
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  the risk of the wind that he completely neglects his primary
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  duty, which is to plant the seed in the dirt.
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  Yeah. If every possible problem
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  becomes a veto, you will never act.
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  Let me push back on that, though.
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  Sure, if I know inflation is at 8% and the housing market is
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  incredibly volatile, ignoring the economic weather seems
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  deeply irresponsible. Where is the line between sinful
• 20:07
  procrastination and actual financial prudence?
• 20:10
  If I see a literal hurricane coming, shouldn't I board up my
• 20:13
  windows instead of planting corn?
• 20:15
  It is a vital distinction. Prudence looks at the storm,
• 20:19
  boards up the windows and then figures out what productive work
• 20:22
  can be done inside the house while the storm passes.
• 20:25
  OK, that makes sense. Prudence acknowledges risk and
• 20:28
  mitigates it, which is why verse 2 told us to diversify.
• 20:33
  Paralyzing perfectionism, however, demands a guarantee of
• 20:36
  success before taking any action.
• 20:38
  The farmer who watches the wind demands 0 risk.
• 20:41
  Precisely. The biblical steward accepts
• 20:44
  that risk is inherent in a fallen world, diversifies to
• 20:47
  blunt the impact, and gets to work anyway.
• 20:50
  And the commentators apply this principle far beyond personal
• 20:53
  finance. They do.
• 20:55
  They provide a sharp critique of the modern church growth
• 20:58
  movement based on this exact verse.
• 21:01
  The parallels are striking. Think about how many church
• 21:04
  planting strategies rely entirely on demographic surveys.
• 21:07
  Yeah, pastors will constantly observe the cultural winds.
• 21:10
  Right. They will delay planting a
• 21:12
  church in a hard neighborhood, or they will avoid preaching
• 21:15
  difficult countercultural biblical truths until the
• 21:18
  demographic data shows perfect receptivity.
• 21:20
  They want a friendly culture that guarantees a massive launch
• 21:23
  Sunday. They're looking at the clouds,
• 21:25
  waiting for the perfect spiritual weather.
• 21:27
  But waiting for a culture to be perfectly receptive to the
• 21:31
  gospel before you preach the gospel is a fool's errand.
• 21:34
  Because the culture is dead in its trespasses and sins, right?
• 21:38
  The weather will never naturally be favorable to the Cross.
• 21:41
  Pastors who operate this way are violating the spirit of this
• 21:45
  text. Obedience must happen in the
• 21:47
  weather God actually sends, not the weather we wish we had.
• 21:50
  You preach the Word in season and out of season.
• 21:53
  That requires massive humility. You have to admit you don't
• 21:56
  control the outcome of the sermon, just like you don't
• 21:59
  control the outcome of the seed. Which brings us to the 5th man
• 22:03
  date and verse 5. Theological humility.
• 22:06
  Fellowman shifts from agricultural metaphors to human
• 22:09
  biology. He outlines a grand mystery.
• 22:12
  The text says as you do not know the way the spirit comes to the
• 22:15
  bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know
• 22:18
  the work of God who makes everything.
• 22:20
  We have to unpack the Hebrew word ruach here.
• 22:24
  Yeah, depending on the context, ruach can mean breath, wind, or
• 22:27
  spirit. The translators often struggle
• 22:30
  with how to render it here because Solomon is likely
• 22:33
  employing a double entendre. Oh, so he is playing on the word
• 22:37
  wind from the previous? Worst in verse four he talked
• 22:40
  about the wind in the sky. Now he brings it to the rooks
• 22:43
  that gives life to a child. The text is drawing a direct
• 22:46
  analogical line from biological mystery to theological reality.
• 22:52
  Just as you cannot trace the invisible path of the wind
• 22:55
  across the mountains, and just as you cannot comprehend the
• 22:58
  miraculous hidden formation of a skeletal structure inside the
• 23:03
  dark womb of a pregnant woman. So you do not know the work of
• 23:06
  God. You know modern people read this
• 23:08
  and get a little arrogant. Oh for sure We think, well
• 23:11
  Solomon didn't know how bones formed in the womb, but we have
• 23:14
  4K medical sonograms. We can track fetal development
• 23:18
  week by week. We know exactly how calcium
• 23:20
  deposits form the skeletal system.
• 23:22
  But. We confuse observation with
• 23:24
  sovereignty. Having a high definition
• 23:26
  ultrasound of a baby does not mean we knit those bones
• 23:29
  together. Wow, yeah.
• 23:30
  We can observe the biological mechanism, but we cannot create
• 23:33
  the spark of life from nothing. We can measure the wind speed
• 23:37
  with an anemometer, but we cannot command the wind to blow.
• 23:40
  Data cannot make us God. Say that again.
• 23:43
  Data cannot make us God. Our advanced economic algorithms
• 23:47
  and our medical technologies give us a higher resolution of
• 23:50
  the mechanisms God uses, but they do not bridge the infinite
• 23:54
  gap between the creator and the creature.
• 23:56
  There is a hard epistemic limit on humanity.
• 23:59
  We simply cannot know all things.
• 24:01
  And that real evasion is designed to bring us comfort,
• 24:04
  not despair. Comfort.
• 24:06
  Yeah, human ignorance is not chaotic.
• 24:08
  It is bounded by God's exhaustive knowledge.
• 24:11
  Because God is the one actively making, ruling, forming and
• 24:14
  directing all things. He decrees the end from the
• 24:16
  beginning. When we realize our own
• 24:18
  limitations, the appropriate reaction isn't existential
• 24:21
  dread. No, the appropriate reaction is
• 24:22
  falling to our knees in reverent worship of the Creator, who
• 24:25
  holds the universe together by the word of His power.
• 24:28
  So we have this massive, unsearchable sovereignty of God.
• 24:33
  He controls the wind. He forms a child in the womb.
• 24:36
  He decrees the outcome of our investments.
• 24:39
  Does that mean we just sit back and let go of the steering
• 24:41
  wheel? Well, verse 6 answers that with
• 24:44
  our 6th mandate, relentless industry.
• 24:48
  Let me read it, Solomon writes. In the morning sow your seed and
• 24:52
  at evening do not let your hand rest.
• 24:55
  That phrasing, morning and evening, is a merry ISM.
• 24:59
  Remind us what a merry ISM. Is a merry ISM uses 2
• 25:02
  contrasting extremes to encompass an entirety of a
• 25:05
  thing. Oh, like when we say we searched
• 25:07
  high and low, we mean we searched everywhere.
• 25:08
  Spot on. When Solomon says to sow in the
• 25:11
  morning and not rest in the evening, he basically means
• 25:13
  you've got this nonstop wall to wall opportunity.
• 25:16
  From dawn to dusk, throughout the entirety of your life, you
• 25:19
  were working right? Look at the reason he gives for
• 25:22
  this nonstop work ethic. The causal ground is stunning,
• 25:25
  he says. For you do not know which will
• 25:27
  prosper this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
• 25:30
  This completely annihilates the fatalism we discussed earlier.
• 25:33
  It does. Fatalism looks at God's
• 25:36
  sovereignty and says God is predestined everything.
• 25:39
  Therefore my choices do not matter.
• 25:41
  If God wants me to have a harvest, the harvest will just
• 25:44
  appear. But the theological analysis
• 25:46
  points out that the text utilizes A biblical
• 25:49
  compatibilist framework. Yes, let's define that for the
• 25:52
  listener. What is a compatibilist
• 25:55
  framework? Compatibilism is the belief that
• 25:57
  God's absolute sovereignty and human responsibility are
• 26:01
  mutually compatible. They are not contradictory.
• 26:04
  God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, but He ordains the means
• 26:08
  as well as the ends. So if God decrees that a farmer
• 26:12
  will have a massive harvest in October.
• 26:14
  God also decrees that the farmer will wake up in April, plow the
• 26:17
  hard dirt, and plant the seed. The human action is the
• 26:20
  necessary means to accomplish the divine decree.
• 26:23
  So because we lack access to God's secret decrees, because we
• 26:27
  have no idea which specific handful of seed God has chosen
• 26:30
  to bless with rain and which He will allow to wither, we must
• 26:34
  maximize every single opportunity.
• 26:36
  Our ignorance becomes the primary incentive for our
• 26:39
  action. You do not know which business
• 26:41
  venture will succeed. You do not know which job
• 26:44
  application will result in an offer.
• 26:46
  You do not know which conversation will lead to a
• 26:49
  breakthrough. Therefore, you apply for all the
• 26:51
  jobs, you pursue multiple ventures, and you have the
• 26:54
  conversations. You sew in the morning and you
• 26:57
  sew in the evening. This is the historical
• 26:59
  foundation of the Protestant work ethic.
• 27:02
  Yeah, the reformers. Really.
• 27:03
  He understood this text. They argued that digging A
• 27:06
  ditch, planting a vineyard, writing computer code or
• 27:10
  balancing a spreadsheet is not secular drudgery.
• 27:13
  It is a holy act of stewardship. You are taking the raw materials
• 27:17
  of God's creation, ordering them, subduing the earth as
• 27:20
  commanded in Genesis, and trusting Him with the yield.
• 27:24
  There is no divide between the sacred and the secular when you
• 27:27
  are working as unto the Lord. That is so good.
• 27:30
  We also must apply this directly to the Great Commission.
• 27:33
  Let's talk about that. The command given by Christ is
• 27:36
  to scatter the seed of the gospel indiscriminately across
• 27:39
  all nations. Right?
• 27:40
  From a Reformed perspective, we believe in unconditional
• 27:44
  election. We believe God has a specific
• 27:47
  people He will save. But we do not possess the secret
• 27:51
  decree of election. Right, God does not hand us a
• 27:54
  list of names. We don't know who the elect are.
• 27:56
  We have no idea which heart God is sovereignly prepared to
• 27:59
  receive the message and which heart will harden itself and
• 28:02
  reject it. Therefore, what do we do?
• 28:04
  Do we wait for a sign? No, we preach constantly.
• 28:09
  We share the gospel morning and evening, in season and out of
• 28:12
  season. We fund missions in hostile
• 28:14
  countries. We cast a spread of the word
• 28:16
  onto the chaotic waters of a hostile culture.
• 28:18
  The duty to sow the seed is entirely ours.
• 28:21
  The supernatural regeneration of the heart.
• 28:23
  The harvest is entirely the Lord's.
• 28:25
  Yeah, the doctrine of election doesn't kill evangelism.
• 28:28
  It is the only guarantee that evangelism will actually work.
• 28:32
  Man, I love how the mechanics of this passage apply universally,
• 28:36
  from agriculture to finance to global missions.
• 28:39
  It covers everything. But if we stop our analysis
• 28:41
  here, we just have a really robust system for managing risk,
• 28:45
  working hard and sharing our faith.
• 28:47
  All right, we have to transition the narrative to the New
• 28:49
  Testament. Because if this passage only
• 28:51
  yields a better budget or a better work ethic, it fails to
• 28:54
  reach the core of our hearts. Let's look beyond Solomon
• 28:57
  himself. Looking beyond Solomon is
• 28:59
  entirely necessary because Solomon's life is basically a
• 29:02
  tragedy. In the end, he possessed immense
• 29:04
  wisdom and he wrote these brilliant words under the
• 29:08
  inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but he struggled to live them
• 29:11
  out. His heart was divided.
• 29:13
  He accumulated massive amounts of gold, multiplying wealth and
• 29:17
  direct violation of the commands for kings in Deuteronomy 17.
• 29:21
  He multiplied foreign wives who led his heart into idolatry.
• 29:26
  He wrote about the danger of hoarding, but his own life ended
• 29:29
  in a spectacular failure of stewardship.
• 29:31
  Which points us directly to the greater Solomon.
• 29:34
  Christ fulfills this text completely where Solomon failed.
• 29:37
  Jesus is the true wise man. Look at the life of Jesus.
• 29:41
  He never hoarded earthly goods and unbelief.
• 29:43
  He said foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but
• 29:47
  the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
• 29:50
  He never delayed his obedience, waiting for perfect cultural
• 29:54
  weather. Wow, yeah.
• 29:55
  He perfectly stewarded his earthly life, obeying the Father
• 29:59
  through poverty, through the rejection of the religious
• 30:02
  elite, and eventually through the gathering storm clouds of
• 30:04
  the Cross. The imagery of casting bread on
• 30:07
  the waters takes on an incredible, almost overwhelming
• 30:10
  weight when we look at the New Testament.
• 30:12
  It really does. In John 6, Jesus declares that
• 30:16
  He is the true bread of life. Yeah, He did not just cast his
• 30:19
  physical resources, He allowed his very body to be broken.
• 30:24
  He is the ultimate fulfillment of verse.
• 30:26
  One, he allowed himself to be cast into the chaotic, surging
• 30:29
  waters of God's wrath. On the cross, Jesus was
• 30:31
  submerged under the judgement that we deserved.
• 30:34
  He was thrown into the abyss of death.
• 30:36
  From a human perspective, watching the crucifixion on
• 30:39
  Friday afternoon, it looked like the ultimate bad investment.
• 30:42
  It looked like the ultimate waste of a perfect.
• 30:44
  Life, the bread was gone, dissolved in the waters of
• 30:47
  death. But the promise of verse one
• 30:48
  remains, for you will find it after many days.
• 30:52
  Three days later, the return on that investment was realized in
• 30:56
  the resurrection. Jesus was raised from the dead,
• 30:58
  securing an eternal return for his people.
• 31:00
  He cast his life away, and he took it up again, bringing in
• 31:04
  with him a multitude of redeemed sinners.
• 31:06
  This Christological connection secures the final guarantee for
• 31:09
  us. It does the unpredictability of
• 31:12
  life under the sun. The market crashes, the failed
• 31:15
  crops, the unreturned generosity is answered by the absolute
• 31:20
  certainty of the resurrection. This is the anchor for the
• 31:23
  Christians finances, right? Many generous acts on Earth seem
• 31:26
  buried and lost forever. A quiet act of charity to
• 31:30
  someone who never says thank you.
• 31:31
  Or a massive financial gift to a missionary building a hospital
• 31:35
  in a hostile nation that later gets burned down by insurgents.
• 31:38
  From a worldly perspective, these things seem to vanish like
• 31:42
  bread thrown into the ocean currents.
• 31:43
  It looks like a total loss. But the resurrection secures the
• 31:47
  deepest return. If Christ is raised, then
• 31:50
  reality is not confined to what we see under the sun.
• 31:52
  Labor in the Lord is never in vain.
• 31:55
  The financial sacrifices you make for the Kingdom of God are
• 31:58
  recorded in heaven. The resurrection guarantees that
• 32:01
  the new heavens and the new earth will operate on an economy
• 32:04
  where nothing given in faith is ever truly lost.
• 32:07
  Absolutely. So we need to synthesize this
• 32:09
  deep dive and bring it home for you.
• 32:11
  Listening. Yeah.
• 32:11
  Let's make it practical. We have covered ancient maritime
• 32:14
  trade, the myth of the sea God Yam, the dangers of the
• 32:18
  prosperity gospel, the fixed laws of clouds and trees, and
• 32:23
  the fulfillment in Christ. It has been a lot.
• 32:26
  Let's run a specific, practical diagnostic check on your life
• 32:29
  right now, OK? Look at your bank statements
• 32:32
  from the last three months. Pull up the app on your phone.
• 32:35
  What story do those transactions tell about your theology?
• 32:39
  Ouch. Do your spending habits reflect
• 32:41
  uncalculating generosity and trust in a sovereign God?
• 32:44
  Do they reflect prudent diversification?
• 32:46
  Or do they reflect anxious hoarding, a desire to build an
• 32:50
  impenetrable earthly fortress, and a belief that you are the
• 32:53
  sole master of your fate? I urge you to evaluate your
• 32:55
  heart today. Repent of financial idolatry.
• 32:59
  Money is a terrible, cruel master, but it is a highly
• 33:03
  useful servant when placed in the hands of a faithful.
• 33:06
  Practice deliberate, cheerful generosity, even when it feels
• 33:09
  like casting bread on terrifying waters.
• 33:12
  Diversify your resources wisely to protect your household,
• 33:15
  acknowledging the brokenness of the world.
• 33:17
  And stop waiting for perfect economic conditions to obey God.
• 33:21
  Do not let the wind and the clouds paralyze you.
• 33:24
  Plant the seed, do the work. We spend so much frantic energy
• 33:29
  trying to secure our brief earthly future with wealth that
• 33:32
  can vanish overnight due to a single medical diagnosis or a
• 33:36
  sudden market crap it. Can be gone in an instant.
• 33:39
  But if the only wealth that actually survives the grave is
• 33:41
  what we give away in faith, how does that change the way you
• 33:44
  look at the balance in your checking account right now?