“Cast your bread upon the waters.” – Ecc. 11:1
Bread is the substance by which we live. It is our livelihood. It is our future. It is the stuff on which we survive. Generally, we would hold onto it, put it back, and protect it as provision for ourselves and our families. However, here we are told, “Cast your bread upon the water.”
Here we are told to throw it away, send it away, toss it away from us onto the waters which would carry it further and further away from us, to who knows where? Its destination is left to the waves and the wind, which carry it to places unknown. It appears careless and wasteful to toss something so precious and valuable away in such a manner.
It reminds me of the story of Mary pouring out her precious, expensive perfume onto the feet of Jesus. “What a waste!” The disciple cried. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor! There were so many better ways that it could have been used than to have been poured out on Jesus’s feet. (John 12:3) So both the world and our own flesh continue to cry whenever we pour out our precious lives at the feet of Jesus; what a waste! Would God have you cast away your life in such a careless manner? We must respond, “Yes”.
Anything done for the glory of God is not wasted at all. The world and our flesh cry out because they would have our precious bread and ointment, our life poured out upon them. They would have our resources tossed away in their direction, for their disposal and use, not God’s.
It takes faith to cast our bread upon the waters, to pour out our life at Jesus’ feet for God’s disposal. This is the point of casting our bread on the waters, our life, our resources, our prayers, our capital, our efforts, our message is now in God’s hands and no longer in our own. We don’t get to know where it goes, where it ends up. If it has any significant impact on anyone’s lives… If it is received…If it is appreciated…If it is seen. It could drift to a far corner of an island and dissolve, and what good is that? The fish and birds could devour it. Everything in us says, “What a waste! There must be a better place to cast our bread than on these waters.” And we set off looking for results instead of looking simply to obey God, despite the results.
Casting our bread upon the water does appear as waste unless we intend to feed the birds or the fish. However, sometimes God calls us to cast our bread, capital, and efforts into places that seem to yield little to no results. These places may seem unreceptive to our reasoning and take years of toil before we reap. Blogging post after post when it seems it has no impact, praying for years the same petitions over and over, sharing the precious words of the Gospel, God’s truth with the same person, again and again, the same group of people, can feel like a waste when we see no outward response or change. We have cast our prayers, message, love, and mercy upon these waters many times before without any effect. It has done no good. We can think of better places to share our message, better ways to invest our charity where it will be received and appreciated, better things to do then spend time in prayer that does not immediately avail much. This is only reasonable, right?
Beware of your own reasoning and self-talk when it goes against God’s word. Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and our ways are not God’s ways. It is often through the doorway of our own reasoning that Satan would hinder our obedience to God when our reasoning goes against God’s word and promises. Satan would cause us to doubt and question God’s ways, laws and judgment and find them to be unreasonable. He would have us make our reasoning superior. Our conclusions make more human sense, appear more loving, more just in our own eyes and pleases our own sense of understanding.
Casting our bread upon the waters goes against our reasoning. In a very real sense, it is casting our life away, our labor away, in such a manner that it seems pointless in the eyes of the flesh. We don’t know where it is going, and it seems to have no effect, no benefits that we can see. We like to cast our bread upon charities where we can see growth, where we can see appreciation for labor, we see lives changed. We see environments change. We don’t like to do works where we see no change over a long period of time. We are tempted to feel that our labor is a waste. We are having no effect on the kingdom of God. We would look someplace else to cast our bread out, but we know this is the place that God has called us to personally serve him. It is our daily lives, our daily work, among our families, among our friends, among our neighbors, among our coworkers, among our church, among our city, among our nation, among the mundane that we are often called to live for Christ and to cast our bread away day after day after day in areas that by the world’s standards would appear a waste…
But this is the promise: “For you will find it after many days.”
The Lord, in His grace, will one day open our eyes to see the fruit of our wasted labors. His word does not return to Him void but will accomplish the purpose he sent it for. His word is eternal; it will not dissolve and just disappear unseen and wasted.
After many, many days, you will see the salvation you have been praying for. After many years you will see a life change that you almost deemed impossible and gave up on. One day in God’s perfect timing, the words of life He spoke to them through you, the deeds of love and mercy He called you to show that seemed to be wasted at the time, will grow and come to life inside their hearts. One day you will hear the stories of how God worked in the darkness of a loved one’s heart over the years using the actions or words you sowed that somehow found lodging there which could not be loosed and over time could not be snatched away by the enemy. One day we will hear the stories of how God used our wasted bread.
Some of us intentionally plant God’s word and resources under the best conditions, tend to it with the best patience, and see very little growth. Some cast God’s word out in the hard streets, among the rocks, and see little effect, but they keep returning, casting their bread away in remote places. Others cast their bread as they live among the daily thorns at work, at home, at school, at a soccer game, among the daily distractions. They are not the best environments for God’s word to be sowed. It is difficult for the word of God to find good soil, but it does. What we toss to the wind often falls in the way of the Spirit. It falls just so in that unseen crack in the sidewalk; sometimes, it later gets kicked there or shoved to the side path into a small patch of soil and finds its lodging. No matter how it came there, it has been received, even at times unconsciously, and is now protected and begins to take root. One day it will begin to grow, and breakthrough all the excuses, all the false reasoning’s of the person’s heart that would stifle and smother it and bring about new life.
We do not know the way of the Spirit who acts as the wind of God. “For the wind blows wherever it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where comes from or where it comes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. As you do not know the way of the wind, so you do not know the way of the Spirit.” – John 3:8-9 “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. In the morning sow your seed and at the evening withhold not your hand, for your do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.” Ecc. 5-6
In the morning, when you have the day’s light and dew to work with, it is the most opportune time to sow your seed. In the evening, when the light is fading to work by, and the ground is hard and dry, it is the least opportune time to sow your seed. However, do not say your work is done. Your work is never done. We are to sow, sow, sow for God’s causes both the opportune and the inopportune times to prosper.
“Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.” Ecc. 11:7
It is nice and sweet for our eyes to see God’s work, and it is good for our soul and brings us pleasure and encouragement. However…
“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.” – Ecc. 11:8
Our days of darkness are many. There will be months, decades at a time, when we will not get to see any results of our efforts of our prayers. It may seem like we are wasting our lives during this time, and our work is not having any eternal impact. We should expect this. We should not expect to always see, to always understand the ways of God. Otherwise, we will face despair, disappointment, and depression. We are simply called to trust and obey him at all times.
But this truth is God’s light to us, for he makes even our darkness light. Psa. 112:4 Psa. 139:12 This truth enables us to rejoice even in these many days of darkness, knowing that this is part of the process and expected. The seeds are buried, hidden away as the life in the womb is hidden away, and yet it beats. So the seed begins to unfold itself in the many days of darkness appointed to it as God does his work in places we cannot see. We can still rejoice in this “light” in this knowledge and find peace and assurance in knowing that even darkness serves God’s purposes as the waves of the water that carry our bread to faraway places and as the wind also serves God’s purposes by going wherever He directs through his Spirit.
