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Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey. Family. Welcome to day 333 here on the Bible department. We are looking at Ecclesiastes chapters 4, 5 and 6 today here on the podcast. If you have already done the reading, then you've got all the context you need to follow along this episode. Now, if you haven't done the reading today, gonna challenge you. Stop this video, pause the audio, go get the reading done. I personally thoroughly enjoyed the reading today. Tons of one liners, tons of mic drop moments. I'll highlight a couple of those today in the episode. But I think the reading took me 10 minutes if that. And I really, really enjoyed it. I actually listened to it a couple times. And so like every day I am here to give you context clues and then we're gonna get into some nerdy nuggets. I'm gonna try to give you as many as time allows. And then we're gonna the timeless truth. And I'm really, really excited about our timeless truth today. All right, so I'm going to give you some, some context. And our context today isn't necessarily like historical or cultural context. It's more like, like where does Ecclesiastes fit in the entire framework of scripture context? And so big, big, big, big, big idea. Okay, I got two big ideas to give you for Ecclesiastes as a whole and for interpreting. And the first is that there is a six part structure that's kind of hidden right here in the beginning of Ecclesiastes. So by tomorrow we'll be at a turning point in the book of Ecclesiastes. Okay, so chapter one, okay, verse 12 all the way to chapter six, verse nine kind of is one big section of Ecclesiastes. And then chapter six, verse 10, all the way to really 12, eight is what we would say like the second half of Ecclesiastes. So a big dramatic change. And in this first part of Ecclesiastes, which starts out at chapter one, verse 12 and goes all the way to chapter six, verse nine, we are going to get a refrain, a repeated phrase over and over and over again. You could probably guess what that is. Refrain is. Before I tell you what the refrain is, I'll give you all the verses. Okay? Ecclesiastes, we're going to get it six times. We're going to get this exact same phrase in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 17. 2, verse 11. 2 verse 17. 2 verse 26. 4, verse 6 and 6, verse 9. I'll say those again. We're going to get the exact same refrain in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 17. 2, verse 11. 2 verse 17. 2 verse 26. 4 verse 6 and 6, verse 9. I'm going to read those verses for you. Ecclesiastes chapter 1k, verse 17 says this. Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom and also of madness and folly. But I learned that this too is a chasing after the wind. Okay, a chasing after the wind. Let's read chapter 2, verse 11 says this. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was heavil. Hevel. That Hebrew word is heavil. Meaningless is a really bad translation of that word. But the Hebrew word is heavil doesn't mean meaningless. It means vapor. It means smoke. Everything is vapor. Everything is smoke. A chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun. That phrase under the sun gonna be very, very important. Chapter two ver says this. So I hated life because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is heavil. A chasing after the wind. Okay, chapter two, verse 26 says these words. To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness. But to the sinner, he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is heavil. Meaningless. Translated. But that's not a good translation. This too is heavily chasing after the wind. Realize if you're noticing a pattern. Okay, Chapter four, verse six says this. Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. And then finally, Ecclesiastes 6, verse 9. What is it going to say? I wonder if it's going to mention chasing after the wind. Well, ding, ding, ding. It is gonna say chasing after the wind. Chapter 6, verse 9 of Ecclesiastes reads as follows. Better what the eye see than the roving of the appetite. This too is a chasing after the wind. So six times in this opening section of the book, we're gonna get the repeated phrase chasing after the wind. That everything is heavil. This too is hevel. Hevel. Hevel, Hevel. Now, if you weren't here yesterday, let me just kind of catch you up to speed that the translation meaningless for the Hebrew word hevel is actually a pretty poor translation choice. One of the interpretive keys that unlocks the book of Ecclesiastes for us is when you begin to realize that the author isn't saying that life is meaningless. The author's saying that life is heavy. I don't know if you've ever tried to grab smoke or to grab vapor. You can't. You can't grab it, you can't manipulate it, you can't control it. And if the big idea for the book of Job is that Yahweh can't be controlled, then guess what? The big idea for the book of Ecclesiastes is that life can't be controlled. That there is a randomness to life. There is a chance aspect to life that life cannot be controlled. I want you to think about Ecclesiastes and Proverbs in tension with each other. Essentially. Proverbs is a saying, hey, if you do this, this is what's going to happen. And the author of Ecclesiastes is going, yeah, I did that. It didn't work. Like, no, life's not that simple. Life is complicated and life is heavy. Every time you go to grasp it to control slips through your fingers. Because life cannot be controlled. Life's not meant to be controlled. It's meant to be lived. Life's not meant to be controlled. It's meant to be enjoyed. Life's not to be meant to be controlled. It's meant to be accepted. And there's a difference between living life, enjoying life and accepting life versus trying to steer life and control life. Life is not a steering wheel. It's smoke. And there's no handles on it. It's heavy. Okay, so then it says, so this too is heavil A chasing after the wind. Now, every time we get a. Chasing after the wind is actually the end of a poem or a section, which means that this opening movement of Ecclesiastes is split into six parts. Six parts. Now this is fascinating because Ecclesiastes is going to give a commentary or a response to Genesis. Now remember, Genesis is following a seven part creation narrative, okay? God does everything in seven days, okay? But man is created on day six. So by creating a six part poem here at the beginning of Ecclesiastes, there's this underlying phrase called under the sun. Under the sun, everything is heavel. Under the sun, everything is heavel here on earth. Like when you take heaven out of the equation, everything is toilsome and laborsome. When you take God out of the mix, actually, Jesus is going to say a lot of the same ideas as Ecclesiastes. Guess what? Jesus is going to say. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moss and rust can destroy and where thieves can break in and steal, but rather store up for yourselves treasures where not under the sun, but beyond the sun. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy, where thieves cannot break in and steal. And so this repeated phrase under the sun, under the sun, under the sun is supposed to get you as the reader, to go, now wait a second. Are we stuck here under the sun? And the answer to that is no. Because of the shed blood of Jesus, we have the promise of eternal life. And we are not. We're living here under the sun, but we're not living for under the sun. We're living for a life beyond the sun. And when you take eternity out of you, then, yeah, everything here is simply heavy. Heavy. It's vapor, it's vanity, it's dare I say, meaningless. And so all of our toil has no real point if heaven's not a reality. Okay, so six sections in this opening movement, because the author is really trying to show us we are one short of God's ideal. Okay? God's ideal is seven. We're at six, six, seven. Not just joking. God's ideal is seven. Okay? And we are stuck at six. That. That's honestly what's going on here. Okay, so if you read Ecclesiastes and you're just kind of like, this can't be true. Well, it is true. It. It is a purely human perspective on life. And the goal is to say, man, I've got to add God to my life. I've got to add a seventh element to kind of perfect and complete what's happening. So six is the number of man, seven is a number of completion. And numbers have biblical importance. And so what's happening in this opening movement of Ecclesiastes is the author wants you to compare what they're saying to the ideal that we have in Genesis. Here's the next thing. And all of our nerdy nuggets are really going to focus on work and toil. We're supposed to be comparing Ecclesiastes to an Edenic ideal where Adam and Eve are two workers in a garden. Two workers, two people who are given work to do. And the reality of the situation is that since the fall, since Genesis 3, we still have work to do, but we have work to do in the context of imperfection, not perfection. And so Ecclesiastes is going to offer tons of wisdom on our toil. Our toil, our laborsome toil, our work, our jobs. Okay? And so with that context, let's dive into our nerdy nuggets family. The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Ecclesiastes, chapter 4, verses 1 through 3 are all about oppression. And then we get to Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verses 4 through 16. That's we're going to spend the most of our time today. It's going to give a commentary on four different kinds of work. So let's go to Ecclesiastes chapter four and we're going to start reading at verse four says this. And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person's envy of another. This too is hevel chasing after the wind. So what is he saying? He's saying there's an ideal that God set in place for Adam and Eve for how they were supposed to work. And it did not include envy or selfish ambition. And so the moment that we allow work based on envy and empty ambition to drive us, to motivate us. Man, you're building a life on. You're trying to grasp smoke. This is not wise. Okay? God's ideal was that you was never that you were trying to build your business because you were envious of another person's business. Or you're trying to build, you know, your marriage because you're envious of another person's marriage. And how much of our striving, of our competing of our toil is really based on envy and empty ambition. So that's the first thing that the author wants to challenge. Hey, this whole toilsome you know, part of life, the nine to five, the grind. Like, how much of it is built on envy? Like, I'm not content with the house I have. I need a bigger house. Therefore, I need to work more hours and I need to become a workaholic. And now I don't spend time with my family. Why? Because it was all kind of fueled by envy and empty ambition. Okay, second, Ecclesiastes, chapter four, verse five. Okay? If the author's gonna say that envy and empty ambition are, you know, are a chasing after the wind, but then in verse five, he's gonna add another dynamic. Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves. Wow. Okay, that's laziness. Remember? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Poverty will come on you like a. Like a bandit. All right? That's what Proverbs says. So the moment you see fold. Fold their fools, fold their hands, it's going to say, man, hey. In the same way that envy and empty ambition are going to lead to an empty life, guess what? Laziness is also an issue, okay? Laziness and the avoidance of work is a bad posture to have in life. Unwise posture. Third. Okay, so the. The. The author here has an issue with work that's based on envy and empty ambition. The avoidance of work, totally. And laziness. Okay, that. That's also meaningless. That's heavily. But then verse six. Okay? Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind. So what is the author saying? That being a workaholic is also not the goal for which Adam and Eve were placed in the garden. They weren't designed for envy, empty ambition. They weren't designed for laziness. They weren't designed for workaholism. You see how the Bible is trying to steer us away from any extremes? Okay, and then fourth, what's the fourth issue that the author has with toil or work or our occupations? Okay, verse seven and eight says this again. I saw something meaningless. Where under the sun. This is not how this supposed to work in heaven, but this is how it works here under the sun when heaven's removed from the situation. This is how men do life. This is how men and women do life when God's not involved. There was a man all alone. He had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. For whom am I toiling, he asked. And why am I depriving myself of enjoyment? This too is meaningless. A miserable business. So what does the author have an issue with? The work of the lonely is the worst of all. If relationships are abandoned for the sake of riches. And this is an issue now, Historically, this has been an issue of the industrial age. Okay? In an agrarian society, fathers worked long hours, but they spent more time with their children. Because guess what? When you're working on the farm or you're working in an agricultural setting, your kids do the work with you. So your kids help you milk the cows and your kids help you harvest the corn, and your kids are helping you. So it's the industrial age that forced men into factories in the moment that men had to leave the home or leave the farm to go work in the factories. It's the moment that men are now isolated from their families, doing work and having to choose between family and work, where God's original design is integrated. Okay, God didn't build a factory, he built a garden. God's garden was designed for Adam and Eve to work it, to till it, but to do it with one another. And so I was watching this documentary on the Dallas Cowboys, and Jerry Jones was saying that he bought the Dallas Cowboys so that he could work with his children. Said, I bought this team so I could work with my kids. And so when he bought the team, he called his son, called his daughter, said, quit your jobs. You're going to come work for the Dallas Cowboys. And, man, I looked at Jerry Jones and I said, this man, just guilt free, told everybody, I bought this team so that I could be a better father. So that I could be a better, like, family man. And, you know, I've met so many pastors who get called all kinds of foul names because they hire their kids. That's nepotism, that's favoritism. That's this, that's that. You better believe it, buddy. Yeah, like Ecclesiastes is saying, the person who has to look, listen to verse eight. There was a man all alone. He had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, okay? Yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. He's having to sacrifice the relationship with his son and his brother in order to work. Who am I toiling? He asked. And why am I depriving myself of enjoyment? This too, it's meaningless. It's a miserable business. Then we get into the most famous lines, or some of the most famous lines, okay? And this gets applied to marriage all the time. But it's not really about marriage. It's about work. Now, marriage is work, but you get What? I mean, like actual employment. Okay. This gets applied to marriage, but in its original context, it's just a better vision for how to work. And what does it say, two are better than one? The office now saying, hey, don't work alone. Don't work in a way that's isolated. Don't work and not be there for your kids or not be there for your brother. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their toil or their labor. We're still talking about work. That's still what the author's talking about. He's not talking about marriage, talking about work. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. How can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can't defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. What Ecclesiastes is saying is that isolated work is actually not the best work. This idea of like, well, let me just leave me alone, let me work by myself. That's actually not the way that God designed us to work. God designed us to work in teams. If I can move into our Thomas truth, I'll say it this way. This is. I've had to learn this the hard way. If you want to go fast, go by yourself, but if you want to go far, go with a team. I have had to slow down so that I could go with a team. I have had to not work the way that I would naturally work so that I could go with a team. Elijah gave me these stats before the episode that the first three years of Arma, man, I was a hothead. I had so many goals. I was trying to toil and achieve. I was trying to attain and accomplish. And. And we went through, I think, 15 different employees in that three month, in that three year period, high turnover. And I just kept blaming everybody. Nobody can keep up with me, nobody can keep up with me. Nobody can perform at my standard. And then I decided, you know what? The turnover is terrible for the culture. And so I decided as a leader, it's time for me to slow down. Let's toil less, let's achieve less, let's do less. You know what's funny? We've had no turnover in the last two years or significantly less turnover. Cam, who's in the studio with me, has been on staff with us for years now. Sarah just celebrated a year. Elijah's been with us for five years. Way less turnover. And you know what's funny? In those first three years, while I was so frustrated, just trying to do it my way, if the team would just listen to me and just do it my way, we would be okay. If everyone would just have my capacity or work at my pace, we could do this. We got to maybe a thousand subscribers. And then I switched the way that I worked. I decided, you know what? I can't be the superstar who. Who tries to score all the points by myself. I got to submit to some kind of a triangle offense. I gotta submit to a system where my skills are actually best highlighted in the context of a team. And, man, we went to 5,000 subscribers because the thing that I was trying to achieve, we would never accomplish it. Trying to do it the way that I was trying to do it. And you know what I began to realize? The reason that two is better than one is because if one person accomplishes everything on their own is really just for their ego and for their pride. But when you begin to accomplish things as a team, oh, man, you begin to realize, yeah, two really are better than one. And it's not my intelligence that wins the day. It's my ability to submit to the group, surrender my ideas to the group, to compromise, that actually makes us strong. It's funny. I was on staff at a church one time, and literally the production director, the lighting guy, posted this on Instagram. He said, you know, the lights, when they let me do them by myself, and, you know, it was beautiful. It was incredible. And then he posted another one that said, the lights, when they make me involve volunteers, and it was just crappy and shabby. And I thought to myself, well, this guy needs Ecclesiastes bad, man, because two is better than one, two is better than one. Of course it's not as good. But the reality of church is that church is a group project. And if you hate group projects and you're going to hate life, a group project always frustrates people who either want to, you know, put the. Put the weight on everybody else or take the weight from everybody else. But at some point, you got to realize two are better than one. And the way that we should be working is a lot like Jerry Jones. I bought the Dallas Cowboys so that I could work with my kids. And we should be the kind of leaders who relentlessly say, shamelessly say, nah, man, what. What good is it if I built this company, if. If I did all this stuff, but, like, I didn't do it with my kids, I didn't do it with my wife. I didn't do it with a team. I didn't do it with a group of people that I can share the wins with. And that's not just true for Solomon and the book of Ecclesiastes. That's true for you. That's true for me. I hope the context, the nerdy nuggets and the timeless truth help today and added value tomorrow. We've got day three, 34. We're going to be looking at Ecclesiastes chapters seven, eight and nine. I hope that Ecclesiastes is adding value. I hope that I'm hopefully. I hope that I'm helping it to make more sense and not be depressing. Because it's not a depressing book. It's a book full of hope if you interpret it correctly. I'll see you tomorrow. I love you. I'm so proud of you. Till next time. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department Podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses at the Bible Department. We'll see you back here tomorrow.