(Ecc.11:1-6) NIV
1 “Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.
2 Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
3 If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
6 Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
In the King James Version verses one and two are spoken as follows:
(Ecc.11:1-2) KJV
1 “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.â€
I’ve heard the statement “cast your bread upon the waters” for many years in various sermons that I’ve sat through, but it’s one of those statements spoken in the KJV that caused the verse’s meaning to evade my understanding for a long time. When I read it in the NIV recently it seemed to make more sense, and God really began to speak to me about this passage from that particular version for whatever reason. “Cast your bread upon the waters” is a word of wisdom which applies to all people for all seasons, even the season we presently find ourselves in.
INVEST IN 7-8 VENTURES
Another statement that I’ve heard for years in the world is, “millionaires have at least seven different streams of income”. I’ve read Ecclesiastes a few times over the course of my life, but it wasn’t until I read it recently that it dawned on me that this statement doesn’t originate from the world. God is the author of this statement. It was God’s idea for us to have multiple streams of income, not the world. But isn’t it interesting how the world does many biblically wise things better than the church?! It ought not be saints.
There is both the warning of danger and the element of surprise found in the word of the Lord when He says “you do not know when disaster may come upon the land”. There’s an element of surprise and mystery since we don’t know when disaster will come, but there’s also a warning of imminent danger because according to the word of God disaster is certain to come once again during this present evil just as winter is sure to follow spring, summer, & fall.
(Ecc.3:1,8)
1 “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.â€
Disaster is coming and when it comes it usually appears as a surprise for most, but thanks be to God that he has given us grace to prepare. God has given us the prognostication of prophetic gifting in the church, and He’s also given us wisdom. Our key verse for this article found in (Ecc.11) is a wisdom key. There is a wisdom solution found here to not only prepare in advance to survive the disastrous times, but also to thrive when they come. One of those wisdom solutions is to cast your bread upon the waters and to invest in 7-8 ventures ahead of time.
DIVERSIFIED INVESTING IS KINGDOM 101
(Matt.13:12)
“For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
The way of the kingdom is not to bury your talent in fear of what may come, but to invest it, even across seven-eight different ventures, across seven-eight different money-making streams of income. This is not only for the purpose of prospering now but also to walk in wisdom and prepare for what is sure to come. A prudent person sees evil and hides himself, but the naive proceed and pay the penalty, as the scripture tells us (Prov.22:3). Let us rise up in this hour and answer the call to throw off foolishness and walk in the wisdom and prudence of the sons of Gods. It is not God’s will for you to be herded with the masses and thrown into whatever economic disaster this world and it’s leaders have in store for it’s working class. It is God’s purpose for you to prosper, to have financial independence, and to not miss one beat with engaging your kingdom purposes and assignments when the disasters come. For those who have prudently prepared, times of disaster are times of opportunity. Everything goes on sale during times of turmoil for those who have prepared for these imminent times in history as they come. Those who are prepared are happy to cease the day and take things to the next level, instead losing everything and falling prey to the lowest common economic denominator.
In the parable of the talents the servant who buried his talent was “afraid” of what was to come. He was afraid of the Master’s assumed reaction when He returned (Matt.25:14-30). As a consequence for the unfaithful servant who buried his talent (money) the Master took what He had and gave it to them who invested their talents and got a return, because as the scripture tells us, “to him who has, even more will be given, and to him who has not even what he has will be taken from him” (Matt.13:12). The Master told him that He should have put the talent in the bank and earned interest at the very least. In other words, despite the fear of what may or may not come He was still instructed to invest. He would have done well to invest in 7-8 ventures, just like Ecclesiastes tells us. He would have done well to not pay attention to the wind or the clouds when planting and just plant (Ecc.11:4).
IGNORE THE WIND AND THE CLOUDS WHEN PLANTING
Let’s look at this portion of (Ecc.11) again:
(Ecc.11:3-6)
3 “If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
6 Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.â€
What is the Lord telling us when He says, “if the clouds are full of water the rain will come”, or “whether the tree falls to the south or to the north there it will lie, in the place where it falls”? The Lord is telling us to not worry about the things outside of our control. Just as you can’t fully understand the path of the wind or the formation of a child inside the womb, so will you never be able to completely figure out the perfect patterns of life in this creative world, and if your requirement is “perfect understanding” of the world around you and the conditions of it’s commerce then you will never sow. And if you never sow you will never reap.
A large part of our world, the economy, and the future of nations is truly unpredictable (outside of direct prophetic revelation from the Lord) because it’s almost impossible to predict the ebbs and flows and human emotion. It’s what investors call “the volatility of the markets”. The markets are impossible to predict perfectly because they are too tied to this human emotion. Elon Musk makes a joke on SNL and the price of bitcoin plummets overnight. No one foresaw such a dramatic shift except God himself. What’s the point? God wants you to be more concerned with sowing than sowing perfectly. God wants you to be more concerned with taking action and participating in the harvest by faith then doing everything perfectly. As Volataire once said, “the best is the enemy of the good”. Be careful that you are not holding out for the best and missing out on the good that God has for you today.
Do as the scripture says and sow in the morning, and when evening comes don’t let your hands be idle (Ecc.11:6). The morning represents new life, the freshness of a new day, new hope, and new possibilities. It’s not hard to sow when it’s morning, but many let their hands go idle in the evening which represents when things are beginning to get dark. You get tired as the day goes on, the sun begins to set, you get hungry and begin to feel depleted of that fresh vigor that you felt several hours earlier when you first aroused from your rejuvenating sleep. This represents people’s tendency to withhold their seed when things get hard. People become paralyzed in their participation in the harvest when they see storms gathering in the nations. But the Lord says don’t stop sowing, don’t let your hands become idle, for you do not know which will succeed, the seed sowed in the morning or in the evening, the seed sowed in good times or bad.
The Lord is getting at the heart of what causes us to freeze up and quit making progress. It’s fear. For fear of what may come today or what is sure to come eventually, we quit sowing or we quit laboring with God’s desired faith and intensity, but the Lord tells us to sow and to labor no matter what the world is doing around us. This is wisdom. We need to respond to this wisdom from the Lord.
So what if there’s no rain in the clouds today. Keep sowing. Eventually there will be rain that comes and you will have a greater harvest than the one who foolishly withheld the seed until they felt moisture in the air. So what if the wind isn’t blowing your way, so what if things are going your way. Keep sowing, keep working, keep investing in 7-8 ventures. Eventually the wind will turn your way because the bible promises it will. The plans of the diligent will lead to profit (Prov.21:5). He who excels in his work will stand before kings and not before unknown men (Prov.22:29). It is a surety for those who walk with God and keep going.
CONCLUSION
The Lord would say to his people at this time and in this hour, yes, it’s a risk to cast your bread upon the waters. Yes, it’s a risk to send your grain over the sea. But just as you give unto the Lord in faith so invest unto the Lord in this season by faith, trusting that as you heed his wisdom to invest your talents across 7-8 ventures that God will cause your bread to return to you after many days (Ecc.11:1). God will cause you to reap as you have moved forward and invested in faith!
The Lord tells us, “you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well” (Ecc.11:6). This scripture, combined with (Ecc.11:2) tells gives us the wisdom key of having “diversified investments”. Do you see it? Once again, here we have a wise investment strategy which originates from the bible which hardly anyone gives credit to God for!
I’ll tell you right now, it is the enemy’s desire for all people to stay under a certain mindset that makes them think they are bound to only live by one source of income, namely a job and a paycheck, but that’s not what the bible says. Your labor, your expertise, your skill, your knowledge,.. these are all resources that you’ve been gifted with by Almighty God to manage at your discretion according to wisdom. Yes, you can use a job as seed for the other ventures that God’s calling you to invest in, but do not stand idly by and accept the uncertainty and foolishness of one venture for the rest of your life, as Satan’s has deceived the masses into accepting. Disaster is coming, and when it does, if you have 7-8 ventures being nurtured, some will fail yes, but others will boom! This is the wisdom of having diversified investing and diversified income streams, a wisdom which comes from the Lord, which comes from the bible! The Lord invented wise investing. So why is the church the last to the party in these regards? It ought not be saints. Rise up, take up your kindly mantle in this hour, and walk with wisdom moving forward. Invest, cast your bread upon that water, sow and work as unto the Lord no matter what the weather is doing, no matter how full the clouds are with water, and God promises to reward you according to the riches of wisdom and prudence despite what is surely to come. And with that I will leave you with this last scripture! God bless!
(Is.33:6)
“Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; The fear of the LORD is His treasure.”
In His Service,
Stephen Powell