1.
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
UNPROMISING WORK
‘Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.’
Ecclesiastes 11:1
I. The text teaches the lesson of obedience to present duty and of patience as to the future result.—There is a sowing which is done by each one of us for himself: a sowing to the flesh or else a sowing to the Spirit; and according as our sowing is of the one kind or the other, so will our harvest be one of happiness or of misery.
II. One great part of this sowing to the Spirit consists in our conduct towards God, the other in our conduct towards one another.—(1) Suppose that one of you sets himself heartily to seek God. God never led you to expect that a few hours’ or a few days’ anxiety would set at rest for ever your prospect of salvation. He bids you seek Him, and He assures you that in due time He will be found of you. (2) Withhold not the word that aims at a brother’s good. It may well be spoken humbly, cautiously, reluctantly, gently; if not, it will lose its influence, and will be wrong in you.
Dean Vaughan.
Illustration
‘How imprudent, how absolutely reckless! Yet the very text itself affirms that we shall “find it after many days.” It is not lost; the seed has gone away from the granary that it may bring a hundredfold back with it; the little seed that went out as a handful will come back as a cart loaded with sheaves, so that you must enlarge the gateway to give the largest welcome.’
2.
Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
3.
If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
4.
He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
5.
As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.
6.
In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
7.
Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:
8.
But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.
9.
Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
10.
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.