[Robert Dick] We could go on for hours and hours and hours, as friends, talking about the great memories that are a part of the years that we have been going to the Feast. We’re not unique. Sometimes, we’re so much a part of our world that we don’t realize that we’re not necessarily unique. Observant Jews have been keeping the Feast of Tabernacles much longer than we have. And for them, the Feast of Tabernacles – which they call, Sukkoth – has another name – The Time of Our Joy – or, some of them may call it, The Season of Our Rejoicing. And so, on their whole holy day calendar, the period that we look at as the Feast of Tabernacles – and it provides us with a phenomenal amount of wonderful memories – they even have tagged it with the additional name, The Time of Our Joy or The Season of Our Rejoicing. And they play off of the fact that the very first time that the word rejoice appears in the Bible is in the description of how to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23. And, if you were to look at the word rejoice, as it appears for the next half dozen times – which will primarily be in Deuteronomy – the majority of those either refer directly to the Feast of Tabernacles, or indirectly to it, when it refers to coming before the LORD, which requires pilgrimage. And when you arrive there, and you are before Him, you are to rejoice.

From the beginning, the Feast of Tabernacles has been a time – it seems sort of strange to say – of commanded rejoicing – first for ancient Israel, later after their captivity, for the Jews, and even later into the last two millennia, the Church of God. And this leads to another question. Exactly one month from today will be the start day of the Feast of Tabernacles. Do you know what Jewish assemblies will read in the synagogue each year during the Feast of Tabernacles – most of them, on the weekly Sabbath within the Feast of Tabernacles, some of them on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and yet for some others of them, on the Last Great Day. The majority would read it on the Sabbath day within the Feast of Tabernacles – they would read an entire book in the morning synagogue service. Do you know what they read? The book of Ecclesiastes.

Why would a book – with the reputation for pessimism – be read during the Feast of Tabernacles? Why would a book with pessimism be read during The Time of Our Joy or the Season of Our Rejoicing? It seems odd, doesn’t it?

I have two questions that I will answer for you today. Number one: Is the book of Ecclesiastes a pessimistic book?  And number two: Is it out of character with the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles? Now, you may have to fasten your seat belts, because I’ve got a lot of stuff, and I’ve got limited time, and I probably won’t take too many breaths.

Our instinct tells us this book is out of character with the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s instinctively where our minds would take us. But those instincts have been groomed. And they’ve been groomed by our perceptions. And the first of those perceptions comes from the opening of the book, which begins with the words, “Vanity of vanities,” says the preacher. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” In this verse, Jewish commentators say Solomon used the term vanity seven times: Vanity of vanities – that’s plural – Vanity of vanities, all is vanity – perfect number – complete number – almost symbolically a way of saying, “In the fullest sense of the word, all is vanity.”

You know, vanity isn’t a noble characteristic. I don’t know anyone that really likes to spend time around a person who is absolutely full of himself. My generation would be familiar with the song sung by Carly Simon, entitled, You’re So Vain. Vanity is not a noble characteristic. And it’s not one of those characteristics, as I said, that we enjoy being around. Out of politeness, we may stay around a person who is full of himself for a limited period of time, and then excuse ourselves and be glad that we have gone on.

The only problem is, Solomon didn’t use that word. Translators did. But, if Solomon were alive today, and was met with the English translation, he’d say, “That’s not what I said.” A person that could read the Hebrew – that the book was written in – would realize Solomon said, “Vapor of vapors. Vapor of vapors,” says the preacher, “all is a vapor.”

I looked at the weather forecast. We’re not too far away from some days that we’re going to be in the lower 40s. Go out on a crisp morning – not too many weeks away from now – stand on your front porch, open your mouth, and breathe out, and watch the water vapor visually move away from your mouth and, in a second or two, disappear, and you will understand what Solomon said. He said, “Vapor of vapors, vapor of vapors, all is a vapor.”

Solomon simply started his book by saying that life was as a vapor. That statement is quickly put into context, though, in the following verse. So, if you’ll turn to Ecclesiastes…it only took Solomon one verse to create the framework to put around that introductory phrase. In verse 3, he said:

Ecclesiastes 1:3 – What profit has a man from all his labors in which he toils under the sun?

The casual reader may pass over those three words without considering that they are not casual. The frame the entirety of the book. Solomon is one of the best writers in the Bible when it comes – if I could use the Spokesman Club experience – to putting his SPS at the beginning of his book and doing so precisely. He has said that life is a vapor and now he frames his context. 29 times – this is only a 12-chapter book – 29 times sends a clear signal of significance and importance. 29 times, in the book of Ecclesiastes, the term under the sun appears – and not by chance. It appears by design. And it appears in verse 3 by design, because it frames the phrase, vapor of vapors, all is a vapor.

Numerous – I didn’t even bother to try to be complete – and yet, even in a more casual look, I found eight different commentators who clearly understood what Solomon was saying, why he was saying it, and how he founded his argument. Jamieson, Fawcett and Brown – all of these are commenting on the 3-word phrase, under the sun, which appears, as I said, 29 times in this book. Jamieson, Fawcett and Brown says, “…that is, in this life, as opposed to the future life.” Keil and Delitzch say, “It is the designation of the earth, peculiar to this book – the world of men.” Wesley, Poole, Benson, Dunnigan and Bullinger – all say, “That in all worldly matters, which are usually transacted in the daytime – or by the light of the sun – by this restriction, he implies that the happiness, which in vain is sought for in this lower world, is really to be found in heavenly places and things.” Matthew Henry says, “There is a constant fatigue in worldly business. It is labor under the sun. That is a phrase peculiar to this book, where we meet with it 29 times. There is a world above the sun – a world which needs not the sun, for the glory of God is its light.” Finally, from the Geneva Bible notes on Ecclesiastes 1:3, it comments, “Solomon does not condemn man’s labor or diligence, but shows that there is no full contentment in anything under the heavens, nor in any creature, as all things are transitory.”

What, then, is Solomon saying he is doing in the introduction of the book of Ecclesiastes? He’s telling the reader that, “in this human life, in this time period, in this under the sun world – the framework of my analysis and the framework of my study – all the things that you can observe and see and ponder and discuss and think about are but a vapor.”

Two weeks ago, Mr. Loucks was talking about people who had won lotteries and how quickly it disappeared. You used the term, Ken, for that kind of wealth – and I’ve been thinking during the week – as a category – inheritances, lotteries – do you remember what the term was? Windfall. I read, in fact – I don’t know…time goes by quickly enough – two or three years ago, I cited to you, in a sermon, that the average professional athlete’s wealth – these are men whose contracts are in the millions – where the poorest of them make half a million dollars a year – and the average ones’ wealth lasts six years after retirement. And yet, during those six years, he may have put away fifteen, twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred million dollars. When you look at the Alex Rodriquezes – and I’m out of date there – there are football players since Alex, in baseball, got his giant contract – that have contracts for one, two, or even up to three hundred million dollars? Yep, okay. Even some of them are contracts of up to three hundred million dollars. Solomon says, “It’s a vapor.”

He’s observing the very transitory nature of man’s efforts on this earth, and he’s doing so – and I think this is something most people who read this book don’t stop to appreciate – he’s doing so as a scientist. Have you ever looked at Solomon for what he is? Solomon was a scientist. He was a scientist before the word scientist existed. To anyone who is familiar with scientific observation, Ecclesiastes is a book written by a scientist using scientific observation. Google sometimes – when you go home – google, “What is a scientist?” Do you know what you’re going to find? You’re going to find comments like this: “The scientist’s job is to figure out how the world works.” “To torture nature to reveal her secrets,” as the 17th-century philosopher, Frances Bacon, described it. You will find statements like this: “Two vital ingredients seem to be necessary to make a scientist – the curiosity to seek out mysteries and the creativity to solve them.” A quotation from the European Research Council: “Scientists exhibit a heightened level of curiosity. They go further and deeper into basic questions, showing a passion for knowledge for its own sake.” And another site said, “Here are the ingredients necessary to make a good scientist: raw brain power….” Well, Solomon got an A+ on that one. When God said, “You didn’t ask for all the goodies that most men ask for, so I will give you wisdom above anyone else in the world, plus I’ll give you the goodies.” “…dedication to finish the long-term projects….” How many times did Solomon say, “I studied botany, so I built gardens. I studied horticulture, so I studied the nature of plants. I was interested in animals. I studied zoology. “…communication skills as a writer and a speaker, curiosity and attention to detail.”

Do you know what these sites describe? They describe Solomon. All of these that are written today to tell you, what qualifications would a scientist need, are doing nothing more than telling you the qualifications that Solomon had. I want you to understand how Solomon used scientific observation as he looked at all man’s efforts under the sun.
Go back to Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, as he is beginning this chapter, and as he’s beginning his research, and Solomon says, in Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, and in verse 13 – in verse 12, he said:

Ecclesiastes 1:12 – I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven.

Kiel and Delitzch – probably the most thorough and respected of all Old Testament commentaries – said, “The synonyms to seek and to search out, which also means to hold, survey over, do not represent a lower and a higher degree of search” – in other words, these are not vertical – one isn’t a lower level and one a higher level – “but two kinds of searching.” So, when Solomon said, “I set my heart to seek and to search out wisdom,” what he was saying is, “I have used two methodologies for my research.” Kiel and Delitzch goes on to say, “…two kinds of searching – one, penetrating, in-depth; the other, going out in extent. For the former of the verbs signifies to investigate an object which one already has in hand – to penetrate into it – to search it out thoroughly. And the latter verb signifies to hold a survey – look around in order to bring that which is unknown, or not comprehensively known within the sphere of knowledge.”

So Solomon was saying, “I will investigate the nature of life and its value in this period where man is under the sun, and I will do so by both methods of research.”

In chapter 2, he continues on, in verse 3. And he said:

Ecclesiastes 2:3 – I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges made this comment about “I searched in my heart:” “The words point to the next stage in the progress for the pleasure-seeker. Pleasure, as such, in its graceful, lighter forms, soon palls, and he seeks the lower, fiercer stimulation of the wine cup. But he did this, he carefully states, not as most men do, drifting along the current of lower pleasures, but deliberately – ‘yet guiding my heart with wisdom.’” Cambridge goes on to say, “This also was an experiment, and he retained or tried to retain his self-analyzing introspection, even in the midst of revelry. All paths must be tried – seeming folly, as well as seeming wisdom – to see if they gave an adequate standard by which the sons of men might guide their conduct – any pathway to the chief good, which was the object of the seekers’ quest.”

Kiel and Delitzch said of the same statement – “I searched in my heart” – that he said, ‘I essayed in my heart,’ which means to spy out. Kiel and Delitzch said, “This is frequently used in the book of Ecclesiastes – of mental searching and discovery. The book of Ecclesiastes is the survey of a scientist studying human behavior to discover the elements that make up human happiness and those that produce lasting value.”

You know, when you look at Solomon, you have to grin a bit. If you look at him, and you look at him in the context of modern scientists, this scientist – Solomon – would be the envy of every scientist in the modern age for two reasons. First of all, he was brilliant. You know, every once in a while, when somebody wants to put somebody else down, their put-down would be, “Well, you’re no Einstein.” Well, when Einstein comes up in the resurrection, along with Solomon, somebody will probably say to Einstein, “Well, you’re no Solomon.” Solomon was the Einstein of his age. And I tried to find a comparable on the other end, and there is no comparable. So, I’ll give you the best that we have to offer. Solomon was the Einstein of his age, and at the same time, he was the Bill Gates of his age. The only problem is, he could buy and sell Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and whomever comes in third place multiple times over. Solomon, in his day and time, with the wealth that he amassed, could buy and sell Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. So here was a scientist who never had to look around and say, “Who’s going to fund my research?” He was the wisest man alive and he had the deepest pockets of anybody that he knew. How more capable of doing meaningful research can you be?

You know, every scientific study moves toward a point – and that is, the publishing of the result. Every scientific study moves along a track toward the place where, eventually, you have to publish and you have to report your findings. Solomon reported his findings incrementally. At every stage within his experiment, he stopped and he reported his findings, and then went on to the next level of his experiment, only to report his findings once again. As a result, Solomon reports his findings after each of his studies.

Now, as to not bog down at this particular point in my movement through the question of why Jewish synagogues use Ecclesiastes during the Feast, and is this a profitable thing to do, and is the book – as people are want to believe – a pessimistic book, I will simply say to you, “I will give you the places in Ecclesiastes where he reports his findings on everything that preceded that point. Any good commentary – in fact – if you have study Bibles, even – many of your study Bibles will have enough headers that they will tell you what he examined within that space. So you can look at a space and see whether he was examining wealth, whether he was examining popularity, whether he was examining the simple fact that there are cycles in life and that they never end – people die, people live, people are born, people laugh, people cry, people are hungry, people are filled – all these cycles he will show you.

But I want you to look at his conclusions. I want you to look at the conclusions to a man who says, “I am looking only at the world that is under the sun.” And I’ve already defined for you – from eight different commentators – that that’s simply refers to this physical life. It has nothing to do with the hereafter. It has nothing to do with the afterlife.

Ecclesiastes 2, verse 24 through 26, contain his first summary point. Now, if you have headers in your Bible, you will see that, at this particular point in time, he had examined what value comes from striving for wisdom and what lasting happiness – what lasting joy – comes from Epicureanism – seeking pleasure for pleasure’s own sake. He examines how much significance and lasting value comes from great accomplishments. And then he provides a summary.

I’m amused – anecdotally before I start – I’m amused by great accomplishments. Great accomplishments come and go so fast that people who have done great accomplishments are forgotten, oftentimes before they’ve even died and gone to the grave. Because great accomplishments are constantly being bettered by greater accomplishments. And, as a result, those accomplishments become very meaningless very quickly. And the people who achieve them are forgotten. In fact, they are so forgotten they are never known. My high school principal is in the Almanac as setting the national record at the college level in the steeplechase. You’d have to look hard even to find the record, and he’s been dead long enough, no one would know him even if they did find the record. My tennis coach – somewhere in the 1920s – was the national clay court doubles champion. If I mentioned his name, there would only be a handful of you, who may have been in Pasadena, who would even recognize the name. And you’d have to search, again, for the record.

So, as he talked about wisdom for wisdom’s sake, pleasure as the be-all, end-all, and great accomplishments – to place your name forever before mankind – he says, “Here’s my summation.” Verse 24 through 26, chapter 2:

Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 – There is nothing better for a man than he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw was from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment more than I? He said, “If we want to do a scientific experiment, who can indulge in fine food and drink more than I can?”

My wife and I were reading a book – this was audiobook – on our way to Colorado this summer, called The Aviators. And it was biographical material on Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh and Jimmy Doolittle. And what I found interesting – that I didn’t realize – was that these men also were scientists at a time when they neither had doctoral degrees or were recognized as scientists, and they used themselves as their own guinea pigs to perfect or to improve the aeronautical ability of the planes of the day. If they weren’t sure if something worked, they got into the plane, and, in Rickenbacker’s case, before they had parachutes, and said, “I’ll find out if it works or if it doesn’t. And if it does work, I’ll come back to tell you, and if it doesn’t, you’ll know it.” Now that was science. Charles Lindbergh ended up in the South Pacific, in the Solomon Islands, as a non-military consultant to Air Force pilots fighting the Japanese. And, as he was flying with them in combat, studying the aircraft they were flying, and by time he had taken half a dozen missions, he had so studied the aircraft that he was able to show the pilots how to increase their range by 300 miles. The capacity to hit targets and return – that they were completely incapable of – targets that the Japanese knew were just outside the range and therefore safe, now became vulnerable and destroyable.

Solomon said, “Who can learn more about whether pleasure comes from food and drink more than I, because I have more than anyone else?” If you look at what he said here, as the conclusion to the first part of his experiment, it is best to read in reverse. And so I’ll give you the points in reverse because his conclusion was: This is what God gives to mankind. This is a gift from God. And what is that gift that has more durability, and big bankrolls, names on plaques, records, etcetera, etcetera, and nauseum? That a man or a woman should enjoy the work that they do, and, subsequently, that they should enjoy what is produced – what we refer to simply as the fruit of that labor. And even further subsequent, when you enjoy what you do and you enjoy what it produces, to sit down at the end of the day and to enjoy the food and drink that it produces.

The older members in the congregation will remember John Paul Getty. He was the Bill Gates before there was a Bill Gates. Getty had an ulcer that was so bad he said, “I’m the richest man in the world and all I can eat is bread and milk.” Did he say, “I’m the richest man in the world. Envy me!”? No, he said, “I’m the richest man in the world. Pity me – because the things that really count, I can’t have. So you don’t have my money and I don’t have your joy.”

Ecclesiastes 3, verses 9 through 13 – he said:

Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 – What profit has the worker in that in which in labors? I’ve seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He’s made everything beautiful in its time, and He has put eternity in their heart, except that no one can find out the works that God does from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labors. It is a gift of God.

And so he says again, with slight amendment…he said, “Rejoice.” He adds, “Do good to men, eat and drink, and enjoy the good of your labor.”

Ecclesiastes 5, verses 18 through 20 – he said:

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 – Here’s what I’ve seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him, for it is his heritage. Enjoy the food you have, drink you have. Enjoy the good of your labor. And then he reminds everyone. This is a gift from God. This is a gift.

You know, it’s a funny thing. As a I said, Mr. Loucks – two weeks ago – talked about wealth – it comes and goes quickly. When somebody goes into life saying, “My goal in life is to make money,” you’ll find men of wisdom, who will look at somebody and they will say, “Let me redirect your thinking process. Find something that you truly love to do. Find something that you love to do and you can do with a passion, and the money will follow.”

I have a friend who worked in a machine shop, who sat with me one day on the main street of the city that we lived in, and said, “I’d like to talk to you. I think I’d like to leave my job and do what I love.” And I said, “Well, let’s talk.” I said, “You’ve got a union job, and you’ve got several years into it. You’ll be walking away from all you’ve invested in a pension and the security that will come eventually when you reach the end of your working. Are you comfortable with that?” He said, “Yes, I can live with that.” We talked about other things, and I said – basically I served as a sounding board – I just simply said, “Okay, I know what you’re going to do. Can you live with that?” And his answer to each of those was, “Yes.” And so he went into the basement of his house and began his little business with a couple of machine in the basement of his house. Today he has plaques on his wall about being the businessman of the region, of the state, in his chosen profession. His accomplishments are phenomenal. I’ve never asked him – nor would I – what he’s worth, but I know that he’s worth a considerable amount of money. And he never set out to do what he for what it would make him. He walked away from security, because he said, “You know what? This is what I really enjoy.” And so I’ve watched a man that I’ve known since his thirties – who is now in his seventies – and he’s had a life that he has enjoyed all that time. And, as I said, earlier, the money simply followed.

Ecclesiastes 8:17 is the next summary. And in Ecclesiastes 8:17, rather than to itemize it, the easiest thing to do is to read the summary. And I’m going to read it to you from the International Standard Version. There would be several modern translations that would make this verse clear, but the ISV does a very good job. So, Ecclesiastes 8:17 – this was his fourth summary after scientific investigation. He said:

Ecclesiastes 8:17 -  So then, I recommended enjoyment of life, because it is better on earth for a man to eat, drink and to be happy since this will stay with him throughout his struggle all the days of his life which God grants him on earth.

The King James is a very poor translation. You know, we’ve got the old saying, “Eat, drink and be merry….” People use that in a fatalistic sense. In other words, “I’m going to be like the moth to the flame, Icarus to the sun. I’m going to flame out – that, “while I’m at it, I’m just going to eat, drink and be merry.” That’s not what he was saying. That’s why I used a different translation. He said, “This is how I recommend you enjoy life because it’s better on earth for a man to eat, drink, and to be happy, since this will stay with him throughout his struggle all the days of his life, which God grants him on earth.”

I would imagine everyone in this room can remember certain times where they have had a meal that was just exquisite. One my earliest that I can remember…. For people who are looking for fine dining, it would be a laugh. For people who understand the substance of eat, drink and be content, they would understand. As a college sophomore, heading into my junior year, I remember sitting on a summer’s day along a roadside in the Black Forest of Germany, with a loaf of black German bread, some cheese, and a bottle of Riesling wine, looking out over an absolutely beautiful forested area – sunny, late-summer weather – enjoying very simple food, and all of us feeling, “It just can’t get any better.”

Ecclesiastes 9, verses 7 through 10 – this was his next summary. See, he gave about five different summaries – actually six – this is his fifth summary in Ecclesiastes 9:7-10. He said:

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 – God eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, and let your head lack no oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vaporous life – your temporary life – which He has given you under the sun – all the days…the word vanity is there again – of course, as I said to you, “Vanity is not the word in any of these cases” – for that is your portion in life and in the labor which you perform under the sun.

He adds another element, doesn’t he? “Eat your bread, drink your wine. Enjoy it with a happy heart.” You know, locally – we do a pilgrimage to the Feast – but locally, I don’t know anytime that epitomizes what I’m reading – as his summations of where are things that have some durability in life? I don’t know anywhere locally that his observations apply, and more, than when you and I sit down with friends and family on the Night To Be Much Remembered and spend an entire evening with people we love, food that is beautiful, conversation. It’s all the elements wrapped up in one evening – that we expand out to eight days when we arrive at the fall festival.

There are those who argue that the final summary that he gives was written at by somebody else. There’s no reason to believe that, but really, it’s immaterial. For those who would argue that Ecclesiastes 12, verses 13 and 14 – where it says:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 – Let us hear the conclusion on of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

It’s really academic whether he wrote it or he didn’t write it. For anyone who has read Proverbs, there is nothing inconsistent. How many time in Proverbs does Solomon say, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” and “great understanding have they who keep His commandments?” If you’re asking, “Is verse 12 in character with what Solomon says? You know, he’s repeated that multiple times in Proverbs. But, if someone would push at this one, I would simply say, “It’s immaterial. He’s already stated what has durability in life.”

I know we’re all built a little differently. I was very competitive from about the fifth grade onward, through the middle of my adult life. I think I put most of my competitiveness on the shelf when my wife and I moved to Elkhart, Indiana. And that’s a story in itself. I went from a very competitive church area, that played city church softball and played tournaments, to an area where little boys and little girls and grandpas and grandmas all got out on the ball diamond, and they played together. And I put my uniform away, and I put my spikes away, and I said, “I have entered a different culture and there’s no need for this culture to try to conform to where I’ve been. I need to conform to it.”

Over the years, I look at ribbons, or trophies, or plaques, and one, by one, by one, I’ve thrown them away. I’ve thrown most of the ribbons away. I’ve thrown the plaques away. I think I have one trophy left because of the symbolism that goes with it. But there’s nothing important. There’s nothing significant. It was an achievement in that day and time. That day is gone. It has no lasting value. It’s a vapor.

So what is the grand summary? And oh, by the way, the preacher, who identified himself as the king, wanted you to know, at the end of the book, that all of his scientific observation and study had not changed his conclusions one iota, because the very same thing he said in Ecclesiastes 1, and verse 2, he says again, in chapter 12, and verse 8:

Ecclesiastes 12:8 – “Vanity of vanities,” says the preacher, “all is vanity.”

Now the question: Is Ecclesiastes a pessimistic book? As I read to you all of his conclusions, did you hear pessimism? I didn’t. The author defined his field of research – this material human life – the under the sun period. He said, “This is my subject. This is what I’ve researched. I’ve researched the normal human man or woman, as they live their lives.” And he tells the individual, “You know what? Find something you love to do and do it. And when it produces something, sit down and savor what it produced. And what generally happens, if you love what you do, it will produce sufficiently that you will be able to afford the food and the wine that you enjoy. Enjoy it.” He said, “There’s nothing, really, that has any more durability than these things.”

My wife and I went to New Zealand for the Feast in both 2000 and 2005. And I think, in 2005, we were in their equivalent of the Hood River Valley. It was their stone fruit capital and they also had a budding wine industry. And it was the spring of the year because it was New Zealand. And we sat out on a half-log – that had been split in half – and then had little braces under it, had a big thick table underneath an arbor outside of this winery, enjoying a lunch together – the air was beautiful, a fine glass of wine, a simple plate of food – and we looked at each other and just smiled that smile that said, “You know what? We could find the biggest, finest restaurant in this whole area, but it wouldn’t be any more enjoyable than the beauty of the surroundings, the feel of the air, the wife that I love, good food within the Feast of Tabernacles.”

How does this fit into Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles – Sukkot for the Jew, Feast of Tabernacles for us? Our second question. I think, if you’ve listened to what I have said to you, you can’t come up with any other conclusion – that Ecclesiastes is not a pessimistic book. The Jews simply have a better understanding of that, and as a result, it sits parked right in the middle of the time of their joy and the period of their rejoicing, which leads us to the second question: How does this fit into the Feast of Tabernacles? Is Ecclesiastes out of character for the Feast of Tabernacles? And the answer is, “No.” And I’ll give you two reasons why.

Reason number one: Rejoice. While we don’t call the Feast of Tabernacles the Time of Our Joy or the Season of Our Rejoicing, it is still the greatest time of rejoicing in the entire year for the Church of God. Most years we remind ourselves of a reality. And when I said, “Does it fit within the Feast of Tabernacles?” remember every one of the conclusions that I just cited to you. If you need to, when you get home, go back and read those conclusions all over again. But you and I are a very odd group of people by the standards of the society in which we live. We will take 10% of our entire year’s income and stick it in our hand, and we will go someplace and will spend it in a week. Do the math. It’s a tenth of your total year. You spend it in one week. And there are 52 weeks in a year. So, basically, you’ve got five times as much to spend per day as you would normally. So, you have if you have $3 a pound hamburger, you can enjoy a $15 a pound something else – every day. And you simply do the math and add…. If you enjoy sitting down on a Friday night, and all you can afford is a $6, $7, $8, $9 bottle of wine, then at the Feast, you could sit down at that same meal and have a $50 bottle of wine. Now that was by design. That wasn’t an accident. That wasn’t happenstance. That was by design. God said, “You take the bounty of your fruit of your labor, and you take it to the Feast – and if you can’t, you turn it into cash – and there you go, and what does He say? “Bestow it on whatever your heart desires – food and beverage – and rejoice before Me. You come before Me, and I want to see you smiling from here to here. And I’ve designed it so you don’t have any excuse not to. If you followed what I told you to do, you’ve got the biggest wad of money for a week you’ll have at any time in your entire year, and I’m saying, ‘Spend it. Enjoy it.’” And by the way, He said, “Share it. Share it with those who have less than you do. Remember those who are not capable of coming to the Feast, so that even though they can’t physically be with you, they can rejoice even though the must stay home.” We tell ourselves that every year – “10% of your income, bind it in your hand, go to the place I’ve commanded, bestow it on whatever your heart desires.”

Now, do you understand one of the reasons why, on the Sabbath, within the Feast of Tabernacles, the Jews have no problem reading the book of Ecclesiastes? It says, “What’s the sum of the whole thing?” “Enjoy your food, enjoy your drink, be merry, be joyful, for this is what God has given you. Rejoice!” They have no problem at all. The read it from the first verse to the last verse in their morning service – on the Sabbath within the Feast of Tabernacles. Is there any other time in the year when you’re better able to experience Solomon’s conclusions? As I said, “We get a little snippet.” I thoroughly enjoy the Night To Be Much Observed, but that’s one evening – not eight days – one evening – one-third of one of the eight days.

So, when the observant Jews read Ecclesiastes within the Feast of Tabernacles, they have no issue with where Solomon was going. If you ask them, “Is this book pessimistic?” their answer would be the answer that I have already given you.

But there is a second lesson and second point. Solomon began by saying, “‘Vapor of vapors,’ says the preacher, ‘vapor of vapors, all is a vapor.’” You and I are the countdown right now to a block of holy days, beginning with Trumpets, followed by Atonement, by Tabernacles and the Last Great Day, that point out to us in capital headlines on the figurative newspaper that the human world and its societies have no lasting value. We are told by Christ to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” because this one doesn’t cut it.

 The Feast of Tabernacles is our transition point out of this world and into the world tomorrow. This fall season marks the beginning of the time when things do last and when things have eternal worth. All the prophets, apostles and saints looked to this time – the time pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles when the temporariness of man’s world will be replaced by the eternal Kingdom of God. From the beginning to the end, brethren, all of them were motivated in the same way. It doesn’t matter whether you look at an Isaiah or a Jeremiah, whether you look at Jesus Christ our Lord, whether you look at the apostle Paul, whether you look at John, the apostle, they all saw this world in the same way that Solomon did.

Read with me those places that resonate with all of us when we walk away from that book and we simply talk about life. Hebrews, chapter 11 – the record of the Pantheon of saints – the Abels the Enochs, the Noahs, the Abraham and Sarahs, the Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and onward. And it says of these individuals – Hebrews 11:13:

Hebrews 11:13 – These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say, such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better – that is, a heavenly – country. They are looking for something above the sun, not beneath it. They’re looking for, as scripture says, the day that comes when it says there will no longer be the need for the sun or the moon, for God will be the light of the New Jerusalem.

Mark, chapter 8 – the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, looking at mankind and all of his pursuits of this and that and other things, said – verse 36 of Mark 8:

Mark 8:36 – For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? What did you accomplish if you could say, “I cornered the world’s economy!?” – a not a national economy. “I own the banks of the world!” Christ said, “You know what? If you were able to corner all the wealth of the world, what would it profit you if your life didn’t extend beyond the period under the sun.” He said, “What a fool’s errand! What absolute foolishness! What vapor!”

Philippians, chapter 3 – the apostle Paul says, in verse 8:

Philippians 3:8 – But indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellency of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I main gain Christ. You know, the New King James has euphemized what Paul said beyond understanding. He didn’t say, “…rubbish.” He said, in the old King James, “…dung.” And you take that, and you can change it into some words that we don’t repeat in public, but the apostle Paul wanted you to know that this life – this period of time – is worth nothing more than a pile of droppings compared to what was ahead.

One of the most beautiful chapters in the New Testament is 1 Corinthians 15 – the resurrection chapter. And as Paul is talking about the glories of immortality, the changing in a twinkling of an eye from mortal to immortal, from perishable to imperishable, in the midst of all of that, the apostle Paul stops to make an observation. And he says in 1 Corinthians 15:19:

1 Corinthians 15:19 – If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. He said, “If all you’ve got – with what you know, with what you understand, with the Kingdom of God ahead of you – if all your hope is in this period under the sun, you are to be pitied more than any human being. That pity that comes our way, brethren, is because most in life go through ignorant of what’s ahead. In fact, you understand what’s ahead so far beyond what they can imagine that even those who do imagine can’t imagine what you imagine. And proportionately, in our world, fewer and fewer are even bothering to imagine.

Romans, chapter 8, verse 18. Paul said:

Romans 8:18 – I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility – just another way of saying, “It’s a vapor” – it was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

You know, Paul said, in this particular place, the same thing without putting it in the same words, “There’s nothing here that’s durable. There’s nothing here that lasts.” When you follow after everything you think is going to give you happiness, and you’ve done all your time and all your searching....” I find it fascinating, once in a while, with somebody who seeks celebrity…and I forget who it was – somebody recently, reading in the newspaper – was one of those who sought celebrity, and they said, “I didn’t know what I was getting into. I’ve lost my private life. I’ve lost the ability to go out in public and be a human being. I have to hide from everyone. I have to hide in my own house. I have to hide in my backyard. I have to wonder who’s hanging of what with a camera, taking pictures where. I have no life! Oh, I’m on the front of every magazine. And I’m on every 6 or 7 o’clock personality program on television. And I’ve lost all the good things that I had before I got my celebrity.” Vanity of vanities – in this case – is a correct way to say it. “Vanity of vanities, it’s all vanity.” “I’ve got my name plastered on everything and I am more miserable than I have ever been.”

Have you noticed how many celebrities go through drug addiction and alcohol abuse and multiple marriages before they say of themselves, “I finally got my head on straight.” “I pursued the great white way and I got ahold of it, and when I got ahold of it, I didn’t know what I got ahold of, and I couldn’t let loose, and it messed up my entire life.”

Ecclesiastes is an excellent reminder that this world and its things are very empty compared to what God has ahead for us. I remember when the United Church of God began, one of the leading newspapers on the west coast made a comment about the Good News magazine and called it the Bad News magazine. And I fully understood why. I look around at an absolute roomful of pessimists because I look at a roomful of people that believe that unless Christ returns, there will be no flesh saved alive. And ironically, I’m looking at a room of the most optimistic people in the world, because I’m looking at a group of people who believe that not one single, solitary human being who has died since Adam and Eve, and not had a chance for salvation, will lose salvation simply because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

You know, people can call you a pessimist for the same reason that they called Solomon one because none of us see this world as the place of answers, a place of durability, the place of permanency, and the place of lasting happiness. Solomon said, “If this world is all there is, and this is what you want to survey, I’ll tell you the conclusion. You can survey and go anywhere you want, but at the end of the day, to sit down at the end of the day with a plate of food that you say, ‘I can taste it. I can smell it. And I can enjoy it,’ and lift a glass and say, ‘This is delightful,’ and look across at friends, a wife, or companion, or friends in the church,” he said, “you know what? It has more durability than all the other things you can pursue.”

Is Ecclesiastes in character with the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles? I think it’s very clear. As we move into the final weeks before the fall holy days, ponder the message of the book of Ecclesiastes. And in so doing, it may deepen your appreciation for the upcoming Feast of Tabernacles.