Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
1 Cast your bread upon the waters,
for you will find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth,
and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
4 He who observes the wind will not sow,
and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
Before we jump into the text for today I would like to ask a couple questions. First off, kids, as Pastor Dave has been preaching through Ecclesiastes what have your thoughts been? Prior to hearing this book preached through, what had your engagement been with Ecclesiastes? Had you read it much before or not?
Adults, I would pose those same questions to you, was it confusing to you or were you able to easily grasp the proverbs and teaching in the book? As a kid, I’ll be honest Ecclesiastes was not a book that I easily understood. I am someone who learns best by seeing things done or having a very good picture illustration given to me so that I can grasp what I am being taught. It’s ironic that I’m preaching in this passage as I when I was a kid this passage seemed quite confusing to me. Verse 1 cast your bread upon the waters? Really?? In my head all I could picture was going down to the lake and tossing in a loaf of white bread, only to watch it quickly disintegrate and melt away. What good did that do?
I failed to grasp who the audience that the preacher was speaking to was. They were farmers, merchants, fishermen, their food did not come from the local Aldi or Costco that we get our food from. They lived in a totally different context than us and for us to fully understand the illustrations that the preacher is using in this passage we must be able to put ourselves in their shoes to fully grasp the proverbs being given to them. We must remove our American hats that are used to having all of our daily needs met quite easily and put on the hat of the Israelite of this day who lived totally relying on the weather of that growing season providing adequate harvest in order for there to be food on their plates and whether they would have enough seed to plant the following year.
Alright kids, adults too, so if you can, picture your home being very small, your mattress is maybe some straw with a blanket thrown over it, each morning you’re sent by your mom to go fetch water so she can begin cooking breakfast, you need to go make sure the goats and sheep have water and their needs are attended to as well before you get to eat your breakfast. This is the audience that the preacher is speaking to, I hope picturing this will make it easier for you to grasp the proverbs being given. Ok now that we have our Israelite hats on let’s dig into the text.
Intro
The big idea of the sermon is this: God’s word is the guide for life. The preacher follows up the proverbs from chapter 10 with a few more to begin chapter 11. These proverbs highlight the systems God created for us to function in and his sovereignty over them. God encourages us to act, to plant seed, but we also must recognize his sovereignty over what will come of our sowing seed. The phrase “Do your best and let God do the rest” comes to my mind as I read and study these verses.
Bread cast upon the waters, planting must happen (Verse 1 and 4)
Verse 1 says “Cast your bead upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Verse 4 says “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
The command in verse one seems simple enough, cast your bread upon the waters but the image seems difficult to define. What is actually happening here? As a child the image I thought of was like I said earlier: a loaf of white bread just floating in the waves, melting and disintegrating away. Even if you were fortunate enough for that loaf to somehow return to you, how in the world is that going to be edible? I had to chuckle as one of the commentators I read stated that as a child this was the image that came to his mind as well. I wasn’t alone in the way I imagined this and maybe you picture something similar in your mind.
Ok, so what do we do with this? How do we make sense of this verse? Let’s make sure we’re listening to this through the ears of the original audience. That will hopefully help us make sense of the instruction being given. All the commentators I read view this illustration as either speaking of a farmer or of a merchantman. Either way the principle given would remain the same. So if we’re going to look at it as how this applies to a farmer, here’s some background on seeding practices. Often farmers would sow their crops in a floodplain and as the rains came the floodplain would be irrigated and their grain would be watered providing germination, and then sustenance for the crops to grow. The reason the term bread is being used is because instead of making bread out of all of your prior years grain you had to set some of it aside as an investment into next year’s crop so that you may eat the following year. So in casting your seed upon the waters you were casting bread you technically could have eaten out on the waters of the floodplain, and you had to rely on the Lord to provide the rain so that you may eat that year.
If we’re to view this from the perspective of a merchantman the principle remains the same. You would go to a sea captain and send your grain out for international trade. You would then wait for the ships to return with fine goods from foreign lands. To “find it after many days” is to receive the reward for your patience in waiting and for your wise investment to begin with. The principle is the same in either illustration, the farmer or merchantman had to act and plant their grain or send their grain out to sea and then trust that God would give the appropriate weather for bountiful harvest or pleasant winds for a safe and prosperous voyage.
Alright, what’s verse 4 have to do with this? If the farmer was someone who was constantly waiting for that just oh so perfect weather before he planted he would never plant, and if you never plant you’ll never reap and if you don’t reap well you don’t eat. Grace, what’s the answer for this farmer? Trust in the sovereignty of God! Trust that God is sovereign over the weather, trust that He will give bountifully what is good for His children. I’m not advocating here that we should willy nilly do things. No act upon the wisdom that God has given and then decisively obey. We can’t control the germination of seed, but we can do our best and put the seed in the ground at the right time and then trust God to do the rest. Another way to say this may be that a wise man makes plans and then allows the Lord to direct his steps. It is good to act upon wisdom that God has given but don’t allow this knowledge and wisdom you’ve been given keep you from trusting in almighty God and allowing Him to direct your actions. One of my favorite passages of scripture is Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your paths. That is all He asks of us Grace is obedience and trust that He will do what is best for us and our families.
Diversity of investment, diversity of work (Verse 2 and 6)
Verse 2, Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.
Verse 6, In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
In verse 2, instruction is given for investment. The phrase don’t put all your eggs in one basket comes to mind. Kids, who here has chickens or ducks? Your mom sends you out to pick up the eggs. Why would it be wise not to put all your eggs in one basket as you carry them back to the house? Have you ever tripped and fallen carrying the eggs? If you’re carrying them all in at one time and you trip and fall it’s one of those ruh roh moments in life. Man, I just made scrambled eggs in the driveway. This proverb is giving instruction for wisdom in business. That we should be diverse in our investments. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket because if that basket takes a tumble you may be left with nothing. We do not know what disaster may come, be it war, pestilence, famine or financial collapse, rather than simply taking our chances. Godly wisdom tells us to plan for an uncertain and possibly an unfortunate future. A wise investor is someone who invests widely, if one investment does poorly it will hopefully be counterbalanced by another source that is doing somewhat better.
If we look at this from another area in life we can take a look at cities and their habits in planting trees. In history monostands, which means only one variety, have been planted along boulevards or in parks. What’s the issue with this? Well say a pest comes along that there is no cure for and is introduced into that monostand, what happens? All the trees eventually die, this happened in the US starting around 1928 Dutch Elm Disease was introduced into the eastern US and it had devastating effects on these majestic Elm trees that lined our city blocks and parks. It took until about the 1970’s for it to fully reach Minnesota and then we too lost all of our Elm trees. What was the response to this? Did cities learn their lesson? Not really, all these Elm trees that died were replaced with Green Ash trees, obviously a different species so they were not susceptible to Dutch Elm Disease but again a monostand had been planted. In the early 2000’s along came the Emerald Ash Borer, this time not a disease but an insect that devours and destroys Ash trees. Again it has slowly made its way across the US. I remember learning about the devastation that the Borer had wreaked on the state of Ohio when I was in college and taking woody plants class and our professor telling us that it was coming for Minnesota and the same thing would happen here. It is here now and wiping out Ash trees in our state as well. The answer to combat this is to plant diverse stands of trees, that way if one is attacked you will still have some left over, but planting multiple varieties will also make the spread of a pest harder as the susceptible host will not be as close to the infection site making it difficult for the pest to infect another host.
Grace, God’s word is practical for everyday life. If we had no other books from which to read but we had the Bible we would be fine. God’s Word truly is our guide for life. Don’t forget this Grace, be faithful to studying God’s Word. Kids, when you run into something you don’t understand, keep reading, ask your parents to help you understand, but I will also share with you that some of the things you read will just make more sense the more you mature and grow as a Christian. So don’t let your lack of understanding keep you from continuing to pursue studying God’s Word. You are forming a base of knowledge for the Lord to use in your future.
Let’s look at verse 6, the command is to sow our seed in the morning and at evening withhold not your hand. We’ve already touched on sowing seed earlier and that the audience wouldn’t be eating if they didn’t do that so is this just a reiteration of that concept or is something being added here? Sowing seed was usually a one time act done at the beginning of the growing season, but was the farmer then supposed to just sit back and relax on his porch and just watch the grain grow? No I think not, the command to at evening not withhold your hand implies that there’s more work to be done. Crops need to be tended to, weeds need to be pulled, some spreading of compost for fertilization of the crops needs to be done. All these things are tasks that the wise farmer has been given insight into and in obeying the Lord he should be diligent and faithful in them. Obviously we also know that no matter how talented a farmer is it is God who gives the bountiful harvest or does not and both we must trust are for our good. In that trusting in God’s sovereignty though we cannot cease from doing the tasks that we know can assist in the bountifulness of the harvest. Whether we eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. Pull weeds to God’s glory, fertilize for God’s glory and then wait on Him to do a mighty work.
I’d like to share from my past work experience in relation to this. The farmer makes wise choices but still God is in control of the harvest. The farmer can do everything right and still devastation can come. I used to be a golf course superintendent working for the PGA Tour. I think for the most part I was a fairly smart superintendent who had experienced a lot of different weather events be it hard winters, hot humid summers etc. These experiences had given me some wisdom and insight into what kind’ve decisions should be made to ensure the health of the plants in a given situation. However, God is still the one who provides optimum growing conditions and no matter my skill I still rest in the hands of God and what He wills. The first summer I was superintendent I had taken over at the end of June, God sent a devastating hail storm that wiped out over 240 trees and did quite a bit of damage to the greens. This was quite discouraging to have happen right after taking over, God granted favor though and we had perfect weather over the month going into the Champions Tour event we hosted and we had a successful event and I was given some kudos for being a young guy and handling a hard situation well and producing results. The thing is Grace it wasn’t me who produced those results, it was God granting perfect weather allowing for rapid recovery from all the scars from the hail storm. I could’ve done the same exact things leading up to the event but if the weather had been super hot the plants may not have had the ability to heal as they did. God in His sovereignty granted favor for recovery, just as in His sovereignty He sent the storm in the first place.
God is in control of all things (Verse 3 and 5)
Verse 3, If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
Verse 5, As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
The phrase “it is what it is” comes to mind when I read verse 3. It is such a simple truth, when the clouds are filled with the right amount of moisture they will spit it out back on this earth. It’s part of the rules of nature that God created. The farmer has no control over when rain will come on his crops, again he must simply act upon the knowledge and wisdom he has gained to tend his crops in the right way and then prepare for God to do a mighty work in granting a bountiful harvest to him. The second part of the verse is again such a simple thing. Do you sit around and contemplate why a tree fell to the north or to the south? I would guess probably not, at least not when it falls in the woods. Maybe if it falls south and misses our house we say thank you Lord! There’s some contemplation there or at least thankfulness but honestly if the tree falls north and drills our house our heart should have the same thankfulness because we know in God’s sovereignty nothing happens to us that is not in some way for our good. We may not understand it at the time and it may take years to see why it was but we can be assured it was indeed for our good. That hail storm I experienced at the golf course was miserable to go through but through having to replace all those trees I met the gentleman who I now work for. Through a couple months of, at the time, work hardship I have been given a job that has been a real blessing for my family. God is in control of all Grace, even the minutia in our lives that we don’t think about. I don’t consciously tell my diaphragm to move to inflate and deflate my lungs, it’s involuntary muscle control that God created that governs that. I don’t have to consciously think about digesting my food, again its involuntary muscle control that God governs and keeps my body moving along.
Verse 5 I think really is the crux of this passage showing us how little knowledge we have compared to God. I can’t comprehend how an egg cell and a sperm cell come together to form new life, and how that life is knitted together in the womb of the mother. Grace we know more about the conception of life than the preacher did. We’ve seen ultrasounds, we understand cells and more about biology than they did in the time of the preacher but I would say this greater knowledge should put in us an even greater awareness and wonder at the God who created all, and now sovereignly controls and sustains all. The more aware we become of the world that our God created the more humbled and compelled to worship we should become.
Application for us
- Kids we talked about being diverse in your investments, be diverse in the skills you are learning. Strive to learn as many different skills as you can. You never know when those different skills may come in handy for you. Young men learn a trade, even if you become an accountant or a doctor someday learn a trade. It will help you in home ownership and it will always be something to fall back on to provide for your family.
- Make plans, Grace. God has given us wisdom in His Word to assist us with making decisions in our lives. He has given us the gift of prayer and the Holy Spirit to guide us. Make plans but be quick to allow God to lead you in a different direction. If you are diligent in seeking God’s direction it will not be challenging for you to see His hand leading and guiding you. Be faithful to reading and studying God’s Word that you may draw closer to Him.
- Sow seed in people’s lives around you. Be faithful to sharing the Gospel with those you come in contact with. Be bold in your witness, just as the farmer was commanded to be decisive in his obedience and get that seed in the ground and not worry about waiting for the absolutely perfect day to do it, so too be bold in your witnessing. There often won’t seem to be the perfect moment to witness to someone. We are commanded to sow seed though and we are also promised that it is God who grants the harvest of that seed not something you or I have control over. We are simply commanded to sow seed.
- Job 5:9 who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number. That’s who our God is Grace, just as the farmer needs to be submitted to the sovereign control of God over his crops so too we must live lives that are fully submitted to the sovereign work of God around us. Surrender all control to Him Grace for He already controls all.