11 "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.
7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgement.
10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity."
Ecclesiastes 11:1-10
The second theme (7-10) is, 'Be joyful'. But the joy referred to is surely a responsible joy, sobered by the thought of judgment. As they stand, these verses could be taken in two different ways, particularly 9, which seems to have a sting in its tail. This could be interpreted as the word of a sour old man who is 'down' on the youth, as if putting up his hands in horror, he were exclaiming, 'What a terrible way young folk live nowadays, in my young day it was all different. All right, live like that, but God will call you to judgment'. But this is a rather cynical interpretation. It is true that some older people do speak like that. But not this man, for there is no trace of cynicism in his heart. This is the kind of man who would look at long-haired 'weirdoes' with a very real measure of tolerance and recognise, in spite of their appearance, that they were human and had many sterling qualities under their improbable exterior. He is genuinely advocating a life of rejoicing - not advocating profligacy or driving everyone into the hippy camp, but simply advocating that they live life to the full, yet for all that, live in the light of the fact that at the end there is a day of reckoning. After all, enjoyment of the present is all that is given to man. The future is in God's hands. Tomorrow belongs to Him. It is this that conditions the joy and carefree laughter. Life, in all its joys, must be responsibly lived in the here and now. It is not wrong to feel that it is great to be alive when we are young, but the Preacher's realism is very evident when he adds, 'Remember the days of darkness'. Life is to be accounted for. Hence the fine balance in 10, 'Remove sorrow from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh'. Surely the Preacher is on to something vital here: it is possible to be good without being 'goody-goody', and be sober and responsible without being a 'sober-sides'.