They are so likewise in some places, especially Genesis 32:21 and 2 Samuel 15:18 in the signification of before, with respect to time. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if a tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there shall it be. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, etc." Not getting, but giving, is the way to wealth. Eminently beneficent. But by being brought into a school at the early age of two or three years, they are kept from all those temptations to which they would otherwise be exposed; and have their conduct watched over, their tempers corrected, their habits restrained, their principles improved, their whole deportment brought into subjection to good instruction and to well-ordered authority. We are but stewards after all, and must give account of our stewardship. If the husbandman would have increase he must sow again in faith, and commit himself to a watchful Providence. Non pereunt sed parturiunt pauperibus impensa, That which is given to the poor is not lost, but laid up. Ecclesiastes Chapter 11:1Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. One does not know when the ship will return, often large periods of time lapsed before the ship arrived at home port with goods in trade. Remember that at the beginning of the book he said that life is frustrating. II. There is a certain scattering that brings increase, and there is a withholding more than is meet that tends to poverty. Is it not so also in business? We are to sow our benefits broadcast, and be assured we shall have a harvest of reward. References: Ecclesiastes 11:1.—New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses, p. 271; Preacher's Monthly, vol. God’s word shall not return unto Him void. The methods of the mathematician are not applicable to Christian enterprise to any appreciable extent. You know what momentum is. Everything is meaningless.â. As with Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 [1] Cast your bread on the waters: for you shall find it after many days. Like the clouds in the spring of the year, which require no great effort to make them pour forth their waters, but tremble at the lightest breeze, and impart their living springs to the earth; so let Christian men be to the thirsty soils of this parched world. II. 1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. How important it is to do the work of the day in the day I to “cast our bread upon the waters”! It is a call to unpromising work to sow the seed upon the waters looks hopeless; little good seems likely to come of such toil and sacrifice. His every act has propagating power in it. We should aim to look to the right quarter for success. That the latent evil of the human heart is liable to explosion. With Ginsburg, we may in this way say that a proverb as to our dealings with those who are above us, is followed by a proverb regarding those who are below us; with those others a proverb regarding judicious courageous venturing, ranks itself with a proverb regarding a rashness which is to be discountenanced; and the following proverb does not say: Give a portion, distribute of that which is thine, to seven and also to eight: for it is well done that thou gainest for thee friends with the unrighteous mammon for a time when thou thyself mayest unexpectedly be in want; but it is a prudent rule which is here placed by the side of counsel to bold adventure: Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. I. What strong foundations they laid! We should aim to use the right rule for estimating success. 2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Give a portion to seven, yea, even unto eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. Give freely, though it may seem thrown away and lost. No matter which direction a tree falls, it will lie where it fell. The idea seems to be that our good deeds will eventually come back to us, what we sow we will eventually reap (Revelation 14:13). So spare even of thy bread-corn to east upon the waters; “for thou shalt find it after many days.” Yes I we shall find it. Seed cast upon the fertile soil flooded by the early rains would be returned to the sower in autumn with large increase. It is objected that the words “cast on the waters” are, literally, “send over the face of the waters,” the word “send” being nowhere else used in the sense of sowing. Work in faith through the power of God. Economy is an excellent habit, but a man may by penuriousness spoil his fortunes as much as if he were a spendthrift. upon those poor creatures upon whom, by reason of their unthankfulness or inability to make any returns to thee, it may seem to be as utterly lost as the seed which a man casts into the sea or river. And we call this the extreme supposition, because we believe that ordinarily where God has prompted to exertion and to sacrifice He crowns them with some measure of success, though He may not always allow that success to be known. 2. For thou shalt find it after many days.] What then? Only, mark what it means. Empty Life--1 1-3.docx Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 In this book, the Preacher (Solomon), the wisest, richest most influential king in Israelâs history. Watkinson.). American King James Version × this applies in business and in all areas of life. What an amount of sacrifice made and suffering borne and loving labour endured! Solomon here probably alludes to the manner of planting rice in the eastern countries; for, as Sir John Chardin observes in his note on Isaiah 32:20, “They sow it upon the water; and, before sowing, while the earth is covered with water, they cause the ground to be trodden by oxen, horses, and asses, which go mid-leg deep; and this is the way of preparing the ground for sowing. "The idea is that just as the ship returns to reward the one who sent it forth, so God will restore generously the one who demonstrates compassion upon others" (Kidwell p. 263). The right seed appears to be this alone: teaching in its history and its connections the fact that "Jesus Christ is the Saviour of sinners." One great part of this sowing to the Spirit consists in our conduct towards God, the other in our conduct towards one another. A great many of us make another mistake. The thousand little streams that go softly in the grass fill the earth with fruit and beauty. If one casts one's bread oil the water in the usual external sense, it may very easily itself become water should the ship perish; it is in fact but a mere experiment: but when we cast our bread on the water in the spiritual sense, a return is certain; that which we have staked is sure to come back again, even though after a long season. It is a conclusive denial of the hopelessness of earlier sayings in the book. But to the children themselves the benefits are incalculably great. Fancy a farmer aa he goes across the field sowing corn, taking it out grain by grain, and saying, “I wonder whether this grain will be eaten up by a bird, whether this will rot in the ground; I do not know, and therefore I will not sow it.” That would be about as silly as to be always calculating whether the penny you put into the plate is going to convert a heathen, or whether that Bible is going to convert a sinner, or whether going to that meeting will do any definite good. “If the tree fall toward the south,” etc. Franz Delitzsch noted, during the 19th century, that, "Most interpreters regard this as an exhortation to charity";[2] and this writer is absolutely certain that the passage could not possibly mean anything else. This clause is added to prevent an objection, and quicken us to the duty enjoined. And, as they sow the rice in the water, they transplant it in the water.” But, though Solomon alludes to this, it is evident he means in these words to inculcate liberality to the poor. Ecclesiastes 11:1New King James Version (NKJV) The Value of Diligence 11 Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days. The impending ills that threaten us. From the very first it brought to them an immediate return in soul-satisfaction. But not one of Christ’s countless followers would have recalled one jot or tittle of it all--not in the midst of their toil and travail, not in their final hour, and not assuredly now when they stand around the throne. ". But I must say, that, if you cast your seed upon these waters, you shall find it again, in very abundant benefits conferred on all the poorer classes of society—. Cast thy bread upon the waters,.... As the wise man had often suggested that nothing was better for a man than to enjoy the good of his labour himself, he here advises to let others, the poor, have a share with him; and as he had directed in the preceding chapter how men should behave towards their superiors, he here instructs them what notice they should take of their inferiors; and as he had cautioned against luxury and intemperance, he here guards against tenacity and covetousness, and exhorts to beneficence and liberality: that which is to be given is "bread", which is put for all the necessaries of life, food and raiment; or money that answers all things, what may be a supply of wants, a support of persons in distress; what is useful, profitable, and beneficial; not stones or scorpions, or what will be useless or harmful: and it must be "thy" bread, a man's own; not independent of God who gives it him; but not another's, what he owes another, or has fraudulently obtained; but what he has got by his own labour, or he is through divine Providence in lawful possession of; hence alms in the Hebrew language is called "righteousness": and it must be such bread as is convenient and fit for a man himself, such as he himself and his family eat of, and this he must cast, it must be a man's own act, and a voluntary one; his bread must not be taken and forced from him; it must be given freely, and in such a manner as not to be expected again; and bountifully and plentifully, as a man casts seed into the earth; but here it is said to be "upon the waters"; bread is to be given to such as are in distress and affliction, that have waters of a full cup wrung out unto them, whose faces are watered with tears, and foul with weeping, from whom nothing is to be expected again, who can make no returns; so that what is given thorn seems to be cast away and lost, like what is thrown into a river, or into the midst of the sea; and even it is to be given to such who prove ungrateful and unthankful, and on whom no mark or impression of the kindness is made and left, no more than upon water; yea, it is to be given to strangers never seen before nor after, like gliding water; so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "passing waters": or else to such who may be compared to well watered ground, or "moist ground", as Mr. Broughton renders it; where the seed cast will grow up again, and bring forth fruit, and redound to the advantage of the sower, as what is given to the poor does; they are a good soil to sow upon, especially Christ's poor, who are partakers of his living water, grace; see Isaiah 32:20; though it may be the multitude of persons to whom alms is to be given are here intended, which are sometimes signified by waters, Revelation 17:15; as Ecclesiastes 11:2 seems to explain it. or who shall say, What benefit shall, in a course of years, arise to the whole community from such institutions as these, if they be generally established and well supported? This saying takes us to the banks of the Nile, where, every year, as the flood subsided, while the level lands were still all ooze and mud, the farmer went forth, and, without any ploughing, just cast the grain over the mud, and, simply trampling it in with his flocks of goats, knew that he should “find it after many days” in those fruitful harvests which made, Egypt the granary of the ancient world. 4. ‘How imprudent, how absolutely reckless! Ecclesiastes. God worketh all. [2] Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for you know not what evil shall be on the earth. The words פני על al peni, upon the faces, are often employed for לפני lipni, before the faces, to signify, in presence of, or over against; and the two phrases appear to be synonimous in that sense, by comparing Exodus 14:2 with Numbers 33:7. In this and the following chapter, we find the conclusion of the author, whom we believe to have been Solomon. It is often thus in families--the careless, undutiful children turning out the parents’ strength and joy. "Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days. But Christ declined the tempting publicity. It is all love’s labour lost, and it is pathetic to think of the waste of love connected with it. Why does “the law” stand in that noble emphasis at the beginning of the Hebrew religion? He looks, “not at the things that are temporal, but at those things that are eternal”: he “walks, not by sight, but by faith.”, II. III. Il est grand, il est beau de faire des ingrats . Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Effect), App-6, for the seed from which it is produced. Be kind in every way you can, even in most unlikely ways, because they may turn out unexpectedly to be profitable to yourself. (3) We should aim to look to the right quarter for success. The Bible makes it clear that God takes care of the generous (Psalm ; Proverbs 19:17 "He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed"; 11:25; Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you"; 2 Corinthians 9:6-8; Galatians 6:9). I wish to direct your attention to some of the important objects which the text places before us. Ver. It is a call to unobtrusive work. (1-6) An admonition to prepare for death, and to young persons to be religious. He is ruled by principles, not by results. He commanded us to, "Do good unto all men" (Galatians 6:10), and promised that if we "sow bountifully" we shall also reap "bountifully" (2 Corinthians 9:6). ].” Still more will he repay us in a way of spiritual prosperity; since, “if we draw out our soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, he will satisfy our souls in drought, and make fat our bones, and make us like a watered garden, or like a spring of water, whose waters fail not [Note: Isaiah 58:10-11. — — — Nay, so obvious is this duty, that the man who lives not in the practice of it must be an utter stranger to the love of God in his soul [Note: 1 John 3:17. Let us work in the spirit of a noble faith and consecration, knowing that what we give and suffer will be lightly esteemed among men, and knowing also that it will be accepted before God and become immortal in the life of the world. Ecclesiastes 11 1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. (W. L. 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