1. Talking About Life
Hymns: 326 Like a River Glorious, 309 Thank You, Lord, 307 Amazing Grace
Study of the Book of Ecclesiastes
(Remember Now Thy Creator)
Talking About Life
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? 4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. 5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. 7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. 8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
OUTLINE
(1) Introduction (v1-3)
(2) Nothing New Under the Sun (v4-7)
(3) Life is a Great Weariness Under the Sun (v8-11)
INTRODUCTION
The book of Ecclesiastes is a description of the life of a backslider who came to his senses. The prodigal son who saw the folly, futility and fruitlessness of his ways and came back to his father’s house and speak with the hindsight of a wasted life and yet it was not in vain that he lived his life. More than a biography it is a sermon to show us the vanity of life of the natural man that will not satisfy – “collecting apes and peacocks“.
21 For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. (2 Chronicles 9:21 cf. 9:13-23)
We see the deep repentance in the heart of the writer of a living that wasted life. It was an example for posterity to the futility of pursuing a life in the flesh, a life without God in the equation. A carnal life that does not satisfies. A life that is regretful.
The writer of Ecclesiastes calls himself the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. We are speaking here of King Solomon, the man who came out of the loins of David and his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba not by his choice, but by divine writ. And this book is written in Solomon’s old age when he took a serious review of his past life – the honour, pleasure, wealth, and wisdom that he so abundantly enjoyed and the errors and miscarriages he had fallen into.[1]
His name Solomon was given to him at his birth, means “Beloved of the Lord” (2 Sam. 12:24-25), was surely the seal and pledge of unchangeable love that God has for this wayward child of his.[2]
And so he begins his review of life with these shocking words – 2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. 3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
He called his life a vanity. And all of it! The word “vanity” literally means “a vapour” or “a breath” describing life in its emptiness and meaninglessness – “a chasing of the wind”, vexation of spirit. You grasp nothing, grab hold of nothing truly tangible.
The word “vanity” means that which soon vanishes, nothingness. It is used for the first time by Eve when she had her second son, whom she called “Abel.” So the great king, the wisest of men in his discourse in which he seeks and searches out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven, and in all his searching independent of God’s revelation, he discovers that all is vanity and vexation of spirit (Gaebelein).
Used 75 times in the Old Testament and 35 times alone in the Book of Ecclesiastes. This is a description of a way of life and a way of living that is unprofitable – He described it as “all of man’s labour which he taketh under the sun“. Under the sun is used 29 times to describe life of the natural man without God. Above the sun in contrast refers to heavenly things. Things man does apart from God under the sun that earthly is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Solomon takes the place of the guilty, reasons as a natural man who knows nothing about God and he takes his experience as if he does not know God. His conclusion to such a life is that he finds in it no satisfaction.
He used the phrase “I commune with my own heart” (7 times) how he chided himself in self-reflection of a futile life. It is interesting to note, the word “LORD” does not appear in this book. But God (Creator) is used in this book. He shows who the natural man is with his fleeting vanity to convince him to seek that which is better, that which is above the sun. All is vanity and vexation of spirit – the efforts in possessing the earth comes to nothing, disappointment.
He was the richest man who has ever lived on the face of the earth. He was the wisest man that has ever lived on the earth. He is the man with a message to share with us to fill us in on the futility of worldly ambition – vanity in all things. He lived his life in this vexation of spirit. All that man does, connect with is unsatisfying and full of perplexity. There is nothing satisfying if you live in a world that does not apply the wisdom of God’s revelation in the Proverbs – Ecclesiastes is the book of the natural man apart from God.
He wants to make a point in what consist the true happiness of man and he tells us what it is not as he reviews his life of backsliding and comes to terms with his folly. It takes courage to admit we are wrong. To admit our shortcoming, and to write a thesis of confession of our folly took great soul-searching and honest courage! He hopes that we will live wiser by his confession. What is that? There is no true happiness outside of God. He tested this thesis by his entire life and wanted to prove it to us in this book. He begins by this confessing that there is nothing new under the sun (v4-9).
What Solomon does is not to allure men to the pleasures of the world, but rather to deter them from such pleasures and exhorts them with a Divine eloquence to despise the world. After having disputed through the whole book against those who desire to satisfy themselves with such good, he at the close teaches them that happiness consists not in things of this kind, but in true piety and thus concludes, Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole of man.[3]
As the Apostle Paul observed, 2 Corinthians 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
At his last period of life the Preacher laboured with unwearied devotedness, to repair the dishonour to God from his evil example. “He still taught the people knowledge, and sought to find out acceptable words.” (Eccl. 12:9-10) Perhaps this office, as with restored Peter in after days, was the seal of his restoration. “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Feed my sheep.” (Luke 22:32; John 21: 15-17)[4]
The Preacher’s parentage also added weight to his instructions – the Son of David! How much did he owe to his godly and affectionate counsel! Indeed he stands out as a bright illustration of his own confidence, that the “trained child” though for a while – perhaps a long while – he may be a wanderer from the path, yet, when he is old – in his last days – he shall not depart from it. ” (Prov. 22:6.)
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Let God be honoured in the practical exercise of faith. And His promise will be made good in His own most fitting time – “I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee.”[5]
(1) Nothing New Under the Sun (v4-7)
4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. S The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. 7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
That the time of our enjoyment of these things is very short, and only while we accomplish … We continue in the world but for one generation, which is continually passing away to make room for another, and we are passing with it.
This shows that a man can have no profit of all his labour under the sun, because of his short continuance; as soon almost as he has got anything by his labour, he must leave it: not only particular persons, but families, nations, and kingdoms; even all the inhabitants of the world, that are contemporaries, live together in the same age, in a certain period of time; these gradually go off by death, till the whole generation is consumed, as the generation of the Israelites in the wilderness were. Death is meant by passing away; it is a going out of time into eternity; a departure out of this world to another; a quitting of the earthly … (Gill)
What Solomon is saying here is that we, too, are living in a day when the people of God have been enslaved, and the structures and foundations that at one time provided a framework in which we could walk in righteousness have been broken. Christians today are not building altars of stone and burning incense to foreign gods or worshiping images of alien idolatries are more subtle than that.
Cults of hedonism (lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God) and materialism have taken captive multitudes flocked to churches each Sunday morning. We give a mental ascent to theological insights and sing of out dedication to the heavenly kingdom. At the same time, however, the devotion of many who fill our churches belonged to the gods which they have exalted above all: the pluralistic gods of self-development and technology which transcend the Creator in our hearts. For so many who claim the name of Christ, our hope is no longer in a God who alone can save us. We can now save ourselves.[6]
Solomon is telling us this path to self-destruction and there is no profit in it. Please get out. Look beyond this temporal sphere.
What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world; and lose his own soul? (Matt. 14:26.)
“The earth is a stage – persons passing and vanishing before our eyes.” It is continually shifting its inhabitants. One generation passeth away to make room for another. Fathers are going; children are coming after. None stayeth. The house abideth, but the tenants are continually changing. Could they remain to enjoy it, there might be some solid, because some permanent, profit. But eternity and unchangeableness are the necessary grounds of happiness. The ultimate destiny of the earth is, that it, “and the works that are therein, shall be burned up.” (2 Pet. 3:10-11)[7]
(2) Life is a Great Weariness Under the Sun (v8-11)
8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Swindoll said well, “In my opinion, nothing is worthwhile; everything is futile. For what does a man get for all his hard work? Generations come and go but it makes no difference. The sun rises and sets and hurries to rise again. The wind blows south and north, here and there, twisting back and forth, getting nowhere. The rivers run into the sea but the sea is never full, and the waters returns again to the rivers, and flows again to the sea…everything is unutterably weary and tiresome. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied; no matter how much we hear, we are not content. History merely repeats itself… And I applied myself to search for understanding about everything…I discovered that the lot of man, which God has dealt to him, is not a happy one.”[8]
Never surely, can there be satisfaction to the eye, till it be solely fixed upon the one object, till it listens to those ‘breathings of love which welcome the “heavyladen labourer” to the only true rest in our Creator God (Matt. 9:28.) Every step of advance shews more clearly the “weary land.” Labour, not rest, is our portion. (Chap. ii. 11, 22.) “Man riseth up early, and late taketh rest, and eateth the bread of carefulness.“[9]
10 ls there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
Look again at man in all his pleasures, pursuits, and changes of life. His intellect may be gratified, and his appetite for novelty supplied, in the multiplied new openings of science. But no new springs of vital happiness are opened to him. He is as far as ever from true rest. Our disappointed forefathers in bygone days never found it . We shall find the world as they did. And so we shall leave it to our children a world of vexation, a shadow and a bubble.[10]
CONCLUSION
Solomon will innumerate for us and tell us the experience, of the natural man that there is just no satisfaction.
[1] Quote from Bishop Reynolds by Charles Bridges on his commentary on Ecclesiastes.
[2] Charles Bridges, Ecclesiastes, Puritan Hard-drive, 2 Samuel 12:24-25 “And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the LORD loved him. 25 And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.“
[3] Charles Bridges, Ecclesiastes, Puritan Hard Drive.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid
[6] Bill Mills, Shoulder to Shoulder – How God Builds Spiritual Men, Leadership Resources, 2012, 17.
[7] Charles Bridges, Ecclesiastes, Puritan Hard Drive, 11.
[8] Charles R. Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge, W Publishing Group, 2004, 11.
[9] Charles Bridges, Ecclesiastes, Puritan Hard Drive, 11.
[10] Ibid.