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
In the two final chapters of the book, the Preacher's higher wisdom comes right through and into the open. We said at the beginning of our studies that he was meeting man on his own ground, the man who says 'This life is all that there is to life and there is nothing more beyond it', and his reply to such a man is: 'Very well, I will meet you there on your own ground, and accept your premise. Let us see then what happens: all is vanity'. This has been the key to an understanding of all the gloom, cynicism, meaninglessness and despair that we have seen in past chapters, interspersed though they have been with glimpses and gleams of a higher wisdom from 'above the sun'. It is as if the Preacher had been saying, 'If that is what you make of life it is true that there is nothing but vanity for you. But now I show you a more excellent way: in view of all that we have said, and all that we have discovered, about the inscrutable mysteries of life and experience, let me now point you to an infinitely more hopeful alternative, an alternative to cynicism and despair on the one hand, and an empty and vain seeking of pleasure on the other.'
In what remains of the book, the Preacher says, in the main, three things (this follows the helpful and perceptive analysis given by Derek Kidner, as he underlines the positive and instructive reaction the Preacher advocates to the changes and chances that God has ordained for us, 'Redeeming the time, for the days are evil'): (i) Be venturesome (11:1-6): Don't think these things are final. Be active. Spend and be spent, instant in season, out of season. The situation is stimulating, not paralysing; (ii) be joyful (11:7-10) - but with a responsible joy, sobered by the thought of judgment; (iii) be godly (12:1-14). Because youth is so fleeting, opportunity to serve God is to be grasped, not missed. Beauty fades, strength ebbs, and life itself says to us, 'This is not your rest'.