Ecclesiastes 11:1-4 (ESV)
Cast your bread upon the waters,
for you will find it after many days.
Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.
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.
He who observes the wind will not sow,
and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
There is some ambiguity about the above text. There are different ways to take some of the meaning because the text has some alternate ways it is transcribed. In the above ESV version of the text we can see that the Preacher is trying to teach us about how we do business with our resources. Bread in the ancient far east was something that had to be made every other day or so. They had no refrigeration so each day they would make bread for sustenance (note Jesus’ prayer about asking God to give us our “daily” bread). The Preacher seems to be telling the reader to not just have bread (or, whatever resources you can claim) but to distribute it. This would be risky for a family. The phrase “cast it upon the waters” might mean put it out to the world. The word “water” in Scripture is often used to refer to the world, or nations or systems of the world. The Preacher is telling us to do something more than just consume the bread (or whatever resources we have), but also invest it. It will come back to us in ways more than when it left us.
The writer goes on to say that we should not put it all in one basket, however. We should distribute to many different resources (to seven, or even to eight). The number is not significant, but rather that we diversify the investment of our resources. He is telling us this because we don’t know what “disaster may happen on the earth.” He wants us to realize that the investment of resources is a risk (no matter how many different places we might choose to invest them). Rain will come and a tree, fallen, we lay where it fell. This an ancient version of our phrase, “it is what it is.” He wants us to beware of the risk that we have in the investing of our resources, even in multiple places. The rain will come and the tree will fall. Again, whatever happens, will happen. However, if you see the “clouds” and the “wind” and you think it is the wrong time to sow and reap (invest), you will never have bread to cast upon the waters. If the farmer thinks that it is too windy to sow seed, they will have no crops to harvest. If they think the rain will come and therefore they will not go to the field to reap, they will have no grain to make the bread. They will have nothing to cast upon the waters.
The cycle the Preacher is talking about is the cycle of work and investment. Those who see so much risk and do not invest or work, will not reap. Those who blindly invest and work must recognized that rain does come and trees do fall. The balance between optimism and pessimism is having the discernment of wisdom to walk between them. These verses teach us about the balance of life between the innocent archetype (that sees no or no danger in life) and the orphan archetype (that only sees danger in life). The Preacher of Ecclesiastes is teaching us to use both to navigate our lives.
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