Day 335: Ecclesiastes 10-12 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible Department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) Hey, Emily, welcome to day 335 here on the Bible Department. We are super excited to wrap up the book of Ecclesiastes today. We got Ecclesiastes chapters 10, 11, and 12. So sad to see you go Ecclesiastes. Actually, no, we're not. We're not sad to see you go. We're pretty happy. It's been a little sad book. It's been a little sad sombre book, but it's been good. It's been good. It's made our faces bright. If you were here yesterday, you know, if you know, you know. All right, so if you have not done the reading for the day, how about you stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done for everyone who has gotten the reading done. Honestly, today is gonna feel like a wrap up. I don't have any context clues for you today because we've covered as much context that I think is necessary to understand the book of Ecclesiastes. Then I kind of give you my favorite verse for today's reading.

And then we're just gonna kind of look at the overall theme of the book of Ecclesiastes as we close out this book and get ready for our next book of the Bible. All right, so what's my favorite verse? The verse that I think kind of helps us. Obviously, Ecclesiastes is making a lot of claims about life. Number one, good things happen to wicked people. Bad things happen to great people. Life is random. Life is full of chance. There are there's wicked people that exploit religion. There are all kinds of unfair and unjust things that happen here in this toilsome life of heaven under the sun, okay? So, you know, Ecclesiastes is punching this proverbial perspective right in the face that if you act wisely, good things will happen. And if you act wickedly, bad things will happen. Yeah, right. Ecclesiastes is straight up saying like, yeah, I just, I just know that's not true, okay? When you get down to the fact that life is random, life is full of chance. Things may not go the way that I thought they would go. Life throws curveballs on and on and on and on. That could cause a lot of people to like. So then what's the point? You know what I mean? There's no way to win at life.

And of course, the author comes in at chapter 11 and he's like, ship your grain across the seas. Like in case you thought that I was gonna say, yeah, just, you know, stick it in cruise control and just like, whatever happens happens, nah. Hey, homie, ship your grain across the sea. After many days, you may receive a return. May, I love that word. May, since life is full of chances, go ahead, take a chance, okay? Invest in seven ventures, yeah. In eight, you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. Say, hey, because we now know there's a world of chance and randomness, go into business, be an entrepreneur. Take your chances at winning since we live in a world of chance, okay? If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether it's tree falls to the south or to the north in the place where it falls, there it will lie, okay? Verse three is really confusing. But verse four, love verse four. Whoever watches the wind will not plant. Whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. It's like, you know, these people who are like, nah, it's not a good time. Nope, not the right time yet. Nope, not the right time. Okay, look, man, if you watch the wind, you'll never plant. And if you look at the clouds, you'll never reap.

You know, it's like, at some point, I just knew, like I can't keep waiting for the perfect time to plant a church. There is no perfect time, you know? I know churches that were planted during COVID. And guess what? They're amazing, they're growing, they're thriving. So my job is not to be a weatherman. My job is not to predict whether or not it's gonna rain or not. I can't, so I just gotta take the best shot that I can whenever I can take it, okay? Seize the day, the best time is now. You could think that a book that's been so negative is actually gonna lead to some climax of, all right. So be a doomsday prepper. Nah, the author's like, man, ship your brain across the sea. Invest in seven adventures, actually an eight. Is that a six, seven, seven, eight, seven, eight. That's what the author's pretty much say, seven, eight. Verse five, "As you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, okay? So you're not omniscient. You don't know those things. So you cannot understand the work of God that make of all things. Embrace the mystery, homie. Embrace the mystery. Actually, not only embrace the mystery, enjoy the mystery. There's a bunch of things you don't understand. So you're seated in the morning. In that evening, let your hands not be idle. For you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well. You have no idea. Seven ventures, one out eight. Hey, don't put your eggs in one basket. So knowing that life is full of chance and super random doesn't mean that you just start to give up. You should hear that news and then go, all right, time to invest. Let's go. Let's roll the dice, you know? Like, let's go. Like, there's this openness to life that I'm not trying to grasp life

because I understand it's heavy. It's heavy. It's vapor. I'm just going to let the vapor do what the vapor does. I'm not, I'm not out here trying to control outcomes. I'm not taking life so seriously that I'm going to stress myself out. I've met people who it's like, I'm interacting with them and I'm like, you look like you're about to have an aneurysm, bro. Like, you're just thinking about life so hard. Like, dude, just relax. Just chill. Please. And then there are people who I'm like, you chill too much. So like, for the person who's like lazy and they chill too much, I'd send them to Proverbs. For the person who's just wound up so tight, they have no chill, I'm going to send them to Ecclesiastes, which really is a nature of wisdom, right? That wisdom is not one size fits all. There are some people, they don't need Ecclesiastes. And there are some people, they don't need Proverbs. And ain't it crazy how we always gravitate to the book, not that we actually need but the one that we like. So everyone is going to find all the lazy people are going to find all the issues in the world to continue to be lazy by reading Ecclesiastes. And then all of the workaholics are going to find a reason to continue to be workaholics by reading Proverbs. And that's the reason that we're on a journey, a 365 day journey, to encounter the full counsel of God. Because when you don't read the whole Bible, you just get the privilege of picking the passages that you really like, or that cater to your preferences. But when you read the entire Bible, a book that you would have skipped, because really you're bound up, you're wound up way too tight, now you can't skip. Now the full counsel of God is available to you. And you have to ask yourself a question, am I going to accept the message of Ecclesiastes even though what I really want is the message of Proverbs. So there's some people who are lazy and they need to hear a little rest, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding up the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a bandit. Right, like an arm man, some people need to hear that. But some people need to hear, dude, sometimes you just get unlucky. There's chance to life, there's randomness to life. It's not as easy. Life is not as predictable and as mathematical as you would think it is. And sometimes you can do all the right things and still not be winning, or, you know, winning the way that you think you should be winning. And guess what? If that's life for you, there are multiple passages of scripture that are going to help you from Ecclesiastes. Actually, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven. Is that seven? Yeah, that's seven. Seven passages of scripture that are honestly going to say the same thing,

and we're just going to read them in order. Okay. And that's going to be the way that we wrap up Ecclesiastes because repetition shows us what's important to the author. So we're going to see there's going to be repetition. This idea is going to get repeated seven times that I can count. So we're going to start in chapter two, verse 24. I'll read it from the NIV. A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. Eat and drink and find satisfaction. Eat and drink and find satisfaction in your own toil. This too, I see is from the hand of God for without him who can eat or find enjoyment. Okay. Can I ask you a question? Are you enjoying life? Life doesn't have to be enjoyable for you to enjoy it. You don't have to be on an island or like living the way that you want to live in order to enjoy life. Paul says this, I found the secret of being content. Whether I'm Well fed are hungry. Same mood, same mindset. Same mindset, whether I'm in the prison, whether I'm in prison or whether I'm free. Same mood, same mood, same mindset. I'm gonna be happy, I'm gonna be a happy person. You better believe, I'm gonna be positive, I'm gonna be happy. Negativity is like bad breath. The more you look at all my life stares, my life sucks, my life's hard. Oh god, people just gonna be backing up. And you're gonna be wondering why people backing up. 'Cause your breath's stank, there's negativity. Negativity, ain't nobody wanna hear no negativity. Okay, you gotta be positive. And life's fantastic. You sure, bro? I thought you just got cancer. Yeah man, life's great. Life's great. I've learned how to enjoy life, regardless of what's happening. My gosh, man, it doesn't look like there's much to enjoy.

Well, I've found a secret to life, and it's enjoying it. But I don't have unrealistic expectations about life, therefore I can enjoy it. Here we go, chapter two, verse 24. A person can do nothing better than eat and drink, and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see is from the hand of God, for without him who can eat or find enjoyment. To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness. But to the center, he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to one who pleases God. This too is heaven chasing after the wind. Okay, chapter two, verse 24. Then we're going to get to chapter three, verse 12. Chapter three, verse 12. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. Be happy and do good. You want to know what life's all about? Be happy and do good. But I want to own my own business, and I want to be happy and do good. But I want to be happy and do good. Just be happy. Be happy and do good. But what if that leaked me broke? Be happy. Excuse me, happy and do good. Do you just obey the Bible?

Just be happy. You're happy. Do good. Verse 13. "That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil." This is the gift of God. What's the gift of God? To find satisfaction. I told myself years ago, I'm not going to be happy once the garden is a mega church. I'll be happy with 20 people on a launch team. I'll be happy with 15 people. I'll be happy with-- God, if you send me people, I'll be happy. Do I have godly ambition and aspiration to build an amazing thing for the Lord? Yeah. Do I want to lead a movement? Yeah. Do I want to lead an army of men who know how to pray? Yeah. Those are all good things. But I can't control whether or not that happens. I can influence whether or not that happens, but I can't control it. Can't control it. I can't control it. And God doesn't owe me that. You know what I mean?

But what am I going to do? You've got to believe I'm going to find satisfaction in all my toil. Because my goal-- I'm not going to find satisfaction in the end result. I'm going to find satisfaction in the work that it takes to get to the end result. I enjoy the work more than I enjoy the result, okay? I don't know if you ever watch this show Home Improvement. They're always working on this hot rod. And they never drove it. There's not an episode where they're driving it. They're always working on it. Man, I want to be like the guys in Home Improvement working on the hot rod. I don't care if I have a drive it. Just let me work on it. Because the satisfaction is in the work. And that's what it really means to not be lazy. That you find satisfaction in the work. Not in the paycheck. In the work. I find satisfaction in the work. Because why-- the work is just an excuse to work on me. Every episode, I get better. Every episode of this podcast, we've done 335 episodes. I don't even look at the views. The team can-- I don't know the-- I don't know how many subscribers. I don't know the views.

Why? Because I didn't do this podcast to get to a certain result. I did this podcast because I love the work. I enjoy the work. I found satisfaction in the work. If no one watched it, I still do it. Why? Because I find satisfaction in the work. Because the work isn't just for work's sake. It's working on me. I'm working on me. Working on Manny. And I think Manny Orangos, the best project I've ever worked on. Sambley, the weight is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now. And available everywhere books are sold. Literally, today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble, or you can go to a Books a Million or Amazon or anywhere. Books are sold in Grab a Copy. If you enjoy reading-- 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. Okay, next chapter three verse 22. We're doing a flyover for the whole book. So we've covered chapter two verse 24. Then we covered chapter three verse 12 and 13. Now we're at chapter three verse 22. What does it say? So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work. Ecclesiastes is like, do you understand? Do you understand?

Do you understand? Do you understand? Do you understand? This is going to beat this horse till it's dead. And it's going to keep on beating it. Give it you better for a person than to enjoy their work because that is their lot for who can bring them to see what will happen after them. Nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work. Not enjoy the result of their work, but to enjoy the work. Enjoy the work. Enjoy their work. Enjoy their work. Enjoy their work. If you work at five guys, you better enjoy your work. If you work as a lawyer, enjoy your work. If you work as an overnight nurse, you know, you do the graveyard ship. Enjoy your work. Enjoy your work. Enjoy your work. Whatever you do, enjoy your work. You edit videos. Enjoy your work. Find joy in it. Enjoy the work. Next, we got chapter five verse 18. This is what I've observed to be good, that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink, and to find satisfaction in their toll on some labor. If you ain't got it, you're going to get it today, man, under the sun during the few days of life God has given them. For this is their lot more over when God gives someone wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil. This is the gift of God. They seldom reflect on the days of their life because God keeps them occupied with the gladness of heart. Man, the words satisfaction in their toil some labor. Find satisfaction in your toil some labor, okay? Self-explanatory at this point. What else? We've done chapter two, verse 24. We've done chapter three, verse 12. We've done chapter three, verse 22. That was chapter five, verse 18. Now we've got chapter eight, verse 15, okay? Chapter eight, verse 15. You could probably already guess what it's going to say. So I commend the enjoyment of life because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun. I hope you're getting it, guys. I hope you're getting it. I commend the enjoyment of life. There's nothing better for a person under the sun. Eat, drink, be glad. Man, go, go, go, go, go eat, go eat, go eat a burger, go drink some Coke Zero, go enjoy life, man. God gave you taste buds, be satisfied. Chapter nine, verse nine, enjoy life with your wife, whom you love all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun. All your meaningless days for this is your lot in life and your toil of some labor under the sun. Verse 10, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might for in the realm of the dead where you are going, there is neither working, nor planning, nor knowledge, nor wisdom. Hey, enjoy life with your wife. I know some guys, they're so miserable. They've made their wives lives miserable. They're so miserable.

They're so angry. They're so sad. They're so depressed about what they don't have. They're now ruining what they do have. Their wives look sad. Their wives look depressed because now their wife has become the bearer, the recipient of all the bad news. This isn't working. That's not working. It doesn't work. It's like, oh my gosh, man. I had to finally get to a place in my life where I realized I didn't marry a gold digger. So there's certain things that used to bother me like, man, I wish my wife would put more pressure on me to succeed more. But it's like my wife was happy in the 800 square foot apartment we had. She was happy. I was the one that was unhappy. I was like, why are you so happy? We don't own a home yet. And I wish I could go back to my 28 year old self and be like, you idiot, why are you robbing this woman of joy? She's happy. And you want to know why And you want her to find joy and stuff. But she finds joy in you. And can I say to all the men out there, you don't want a woman to find value in the things you provide for her. You want a woman to find value in just you. And there are lots of men. You're turning your wife into a gold digger. But you somehow successfully avoided gold diggers while you were dating. And now you have a wife who's like so happy to just be with you. And you have turned her life into, she's your punching bag, not physically but verbally. You just keep telling her about how much life sucks and how you're not happy and how depressed you are and how miserable you are. And it's bringing her down. It's weighing her down. My gosh, listen, this is wisdom.

99 Ecclesiastic 99, enjoy life with your wife, going to walk, hold hands. If everything else in life sucks, at least you got a wife. At least you have a wife, isn't that dope? Praise God, you found a wife. That's like the best thing you could get in life. They're awesome. Wives are fantastic. Unless you're married to Job's wife, then that sucks. But like enjoy, enjoy, here we go. And then last one, this is the seventh one, chapter 11 verse eight. However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. Enjoy them all. However many years anyone may live, let them enjoy them all. But let them remember the days of darkness, for there will be many. Everything to come is heavy. That doesn't mean that all the days are good. The days don't have to be good for you to enjoy them. I need to say that again. The days don't have to be good in order for you to enjoy them. It could be the worst day of your life. Still enjoy it. Enjoy it. What's my timeless truth? To do all the stuff that I'm saying. Here's what I got written out of my notes. Be positive.

Choose faith. Live for eternity. Have unwavering joy. Disappointment exists in the gap between our expectations and our experiences. So begin to close that gap. And you can either close that gap with your experiences or with your expectations. But stop living disappointed. This life of heaven is too short for you to walk around disappointed. 'Cause disappointment leads to dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction leads to discontentment. And discontentment leads to fear and fear leads to anger. And if your life is full of dissatisfaction, discontentment, disappointment, fear and anger, then you're gonna be a miserable person to be around. These five elements are never gonna be the recipe to make life better. But guess what? We'll make life better. Joy, positivity, faith. Living for eternity and having a sense of your life that's full of satisfaction, no matter what's happening. That's my timeless truth. Tomorrow, we got a brand new book of the Bible, y'all. We got Queen Esther in the house tomorrow. We gotta dive into Esther chapters one, two, and three for day 336 of the Bible Department podcast. I'll be right here.

I'll see you tomorrow. Love you. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.