Ecclesiastes Part 1 The Meaning of Life

Ecclesiastes 1 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Reflections of a Royal Philosopher

1 The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,

    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

3 What do people gain from all the toil

    at which they toil under the sun?

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,

    but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun goes down,

    and hurries to the place where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south,

    and goes around to the north;

round and round goes the wind,

    and on its circuits the wind returns.

7 All streams run to the sea,

    but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

    there they continue to flow.

8 All things[c] are wearisome;

    more than one can express;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

    or the ear filled with hearing.

9 What has been is what will be,

    and what has been done is what will be done;

    there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there a thing of which it is said,

    “See, this is new”?

It has already been,

    in the ages before us.

11 The people of long ago are not remembered,

    nor will there be any remembrance

of people yet to come

    by those who come after them.

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What is this book?

What is Ecclesiastes? Well, it comes from a greek word ecclesia which is a translation of the hebrew word qohelet.  An ecclesia is a gathering of people so ecclesiastes is a person that stands up in front of a gathering and teaches them lessons about what is going on in life.  Much like we are doing right now.  The book of Ecclesiastes is read each year by the Jewish people at the Feast of Tabernacles and is therefore ingrained in the Jewish culture and heritage and is wisdom that is passed down from generation to generation.  Therefore, the book of Ecclesiastes provides us a backdrop for the words of Jesus in the New Testament.  All the Jewish people that he was speaking to knew this teaching of Ecclesiastes and held it with such esteem that they read it at the same time each year.  

Who wrote it? 

Chapter 1 vs 1, probably Solomon but the writer never identifies himself explicitly.  Most conservative scholars would say that Solomon wrote it but there is a place that says “there were a lot of kings before me” but there weren’t a lot of Israelite kings before Solomon, he was the second king after his father King David of David and Goliath fame.  However, there is a consensus that this was either written by Solomon himself or by a preacher speaking about Solomon at the end of his life sort of compiling all of Solomon’s wisdom.  Either way the book of Ecclesiastes is helping us understand the wisdom Solomon.  

So who was Solomon? 

Well, let’s start with his father David.  A quick synopsis.

[David…the great king but very flawed human being]  Most of you already know the story of David and Bath-sheeba, but I’ll quickly through it for you in case you have forgotten.  One day David was out on his porch and he looked out across the valley and he sees a naked woman taking a bath out on her rooftop [her name was Bath-Sheeba] and he abuses his kingly authority he summons her to come to his bedroom, he gets her pregnant that night, they end up having a child together, but before that he calls back Bath-Sheebas husband from the army, tries to get him to be with his wife that night, that doesn’t work so he sends him to the front of the army to basically have him murdered, 

and just so you know God isn’t ok with any of this.  

That was David and Bath-Sheeba and the baby that they conceived ends up dying but later on God gives David and Bath-Sheeba another child and this child they name Solomon [which means peace, a derivative of Shalom, peace, wholeness]  This is David’s son Solomon.  Just before David dies, he sets up Solomon to become King [there is a whole story about that] but David sets Solomon up as king and in 1 Kings chapter 2, he tells him a few things:

2 “I am going the way of all the earth. So be strong. Show yourself to be a man. 3 Do what the Lord your God tells you. Walk in His ways. Keep all His Laws and His Word, by what is written in the Law of Moses. Then you will do well in all that you do and in every place you go.

If Solomon had done those things for his whole life, it would have gone differently for him, however, he was very devout in his youth, God loved him so much and God comes to him and basically says to him, “I’ll give you anything you want.”  Like a genie???  What would you choose?  What a gift… money, power, fame?

Solomon asks… for wisdom…he wants to know how life works.

God says because you didn’t ask for riches, power, fame, good looks, your own lane of traffic, and asked for wisdom instead, I’m gonna give you all of it.  So Solomon gets all the riches, and fame, and power AND WISDOM.

So I bring all of this up to paint you a picture of Solomon who this book of Ecclesiastes is about.  He is probably the smartest, richest, most powerful, good-looking man on the face of the earth!  He wrote 1005 psalms, he wrote 3000 proverbs, he designed and engineered amazing buildings, he was a legendary politician, a legendary judge, a legendary thinker.  He was like Einstein and Rockefeller and Bill Gates and Elon Musk Ronald Reagan and Brad Pitt all rolled into one person also given the gift of Wisdom by God to be Judge and King.  Incredible!  That is Solomon!  That is who we are reading about in Ecclesiastes. So we are going to watch him try to make sense of life with all the money and power at his disposal.

He did a lot wrong just like we would do:

He thought that he could worship the right God in the wrong way.  He ends up offering sacrifices to a false God.  He married a woman that he never should have married to make a strategic alliance.  By the time Solomon dies he has 700 wives and 300 concubines.  He is rich and famous and good looking and has women all around him, he had it all, so what is he going to tell us?  

Many of us think if I only had this or that… if I only had more money, if I only had more power over some situation… if I was better looking…  if i had a different career… any of these things.  This is the wonderful thing about listening to Solomon, he had it all so what is he going to tell us about that… this is why God in His Grace and Sovereignty gave us the book of Ecclesiastes.

The one thing that everyone in this room will do for the most time of anything in your life is??? work.

Americans work an average of 8.5 hours per day.  Second in the world only to Japan.  Achievement is the alcohol of our time.  We are “workers.”  But, your job doesn’t satisfy.  Achievement doesn’t satisfy.  You feel like you are on a treadmill.  There is always the need for more.  We are achievement addicts.  If I could get more, if I could have that, if I could be in this place, if I could achieve that then I would be happy.

If you actually look at the history of Israel, before King David, there economy was mostly subsistence farming and through the reign of King David they began trading, they became the crossroads of civilization, the east-west route, and controlling trade a new economic day had dawned, Solomon was becoming King of an area were fortunes could be made and squandered overnight, just like America, and the people of God were scrambling to get rich.  I just want more!  Being an achievement addict was happening in Israel at the time and is happening again here and now.

So Solomon, who has everything, runs an experiment to find out the meaning of life.  So let’s go through this verse by verse and talk about everything he is teaching.

1 The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

This is not a story, he is here to teach us something.  God gave Solomon the ability to examine his life very carefully, very methodically.  Socrates has a famous quote “the unexamined life is not worth living.”  Solomon has lived life and now he looks back having so many regrets and now he wants to teach us about them.  

Imagine that you are going to learn to fly a plane and you get in the flight simulator but it isn’t for flying, it is for life!  It shows you everything NOT to do.  Everything that you would try if you had enough money or power or fame, he tried it all for you and shows you how it went.  What Solomon is trying to do is to teach us in a sort of simulation about all the things that come up in life and train us so that we don’t make a deadly mistake.

So, Solomon, what’s the first thing that you want us to know?

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,

    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Solomon uses this word vanity 38 times in the book so whatever this word means, he really means it.  This word is a nuanced word and it is important to really understand what it means.  It’s most common meaning is “vapor” or “breath.”  So, on a cold night when you watch your breath and you see it for a moment and then it is gone.  That is this word vanity.  It is what is left over after a bubble pops.  It’s nothing, its gone.  Life is like that, it is here one moment and it is gone the next.  The older you get, the faster life goes.  Life flies by!  It is a word that doesn’t just mean vapor it also means meaningless.  So it is not just that life is brief and then it is over.  He is saying that everything is MEANINGLESS! Nothing has meaning.  Marriage… meaningless, career… meaningless, wealth… meaningless, power… meaningless.  Now Solomon, slow down, we’re only on verse 2 and you need a hug. 

But, there is more to this word vanity, put the two first parts together, take breath and try to catch it.  It is elusive.  You can’t make sense of life, the clothes that you just bought will end up at GoodWill and some day they will just be vaporized.  The car you drive will be at the scrap yard and eventually be dust.  The house you live in will be torn down… eventually everything will.  Why is life like that?

3 What do people gain from all the toil

    at which they toil under the sun?

What does he want us to answer that with?  nothing.  What do we gain? some translations say profit.  So you have worked your fingers to the bone and what do you have to show for it?  Solomon would say nothing.  But, why does he see it that way.

It is all in this phrase “under the sun!”  This phrase is used 29 times in the book.  This is looking at life through a lens of a Godless world.  It is a worldly view completely without God.  What is left over if I have lived life apart from God.  NOTHING.  Matthew 16:26   What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul?

If you decide that this life is under the sun, without reference to God, then all the years that you put in at work, you leave nothing to show for it.  Listen to how Solomon is going to prove his point.  Solomon looks around at nature:

4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,

    but the earth remains forever.

 interestingly we usually say that things come and go, he is saying goes and comes, looking at the cyclic nature of it, a generation goes leaving a hole where it once was and another comes in and fills that hole were they were and it happens over and over…

5 The sun rises and the sun goes down,

    and hurries to the place where it rises.

this word hurries literally means that the sun is panting, every single day I’ve got to go through the motions of what I have to do! rise, set, rise, set, rise, set…

6 The wind blows to the south,

    and goes around to the north;

round and round goes the wind,

    and on its circuits the wind returns.

even the wind is in a rut, we think of the wind as free spirited but even the wind is sick of going around and around.  all this motion and what does it profit, it is right back were it started.

7 All streams run to the sea,

    but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

    there they continue to flow.

have you ever thought about that!  I mean we know that there is evaporation and the water cycle, and that water just goes around and around and back to where it began.  This is crazy!  Do you hear the futility of all this work that nature is going through, we are in this silly cycle, where is the progress, the sun has been doing this for how many years? where are you going?  Life is a hamster wheel!  I feel like no matter what I do, things never get done.

I mow the lawn… vanity! It just grows back!

I shovel the snow… vanity! 

I do the laundry… vanity!

I finish work on Friday only to come back on Monday.

I get a haircut… it just grows back!

Nothing ever changes!

This is how Solomon sees the world “under the sun.”

You would think that with all the activity that the world is engaged in, there would be progress.  There is all this striving but there is no arriving.  If all the elements of the world are going nowhere then what does that say about one little isolated human like me?

The alarm goes off at 5, you hit the snooze 7 times, imagine your day, all the same things happen that normally happen, you go to bed… and the alarm goes off at 5… you’re on a treadmill.  and you say what is the point?  Have you ever felt this way?  In a grind?  What am I doing?

verse 8 says:

8 All things are wearisome;

    more than one can express;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

    or the ear filled with hearing.

If I tried to expound on all of the vanity that I see in the Universe, I could never stop, my eye never stops seeing it, my ears never stop hearing it and it is never done, it wears me out!

9 What has been is what will be,

    and what has been done is what will be done;

    there is nothing new under the sun.

We think that we’re so smart… we think things are new!  Oh, a new iPhone, it’s not new, it’s just a new color, it does the same things as before.

10 Is there a thing of which it is said,

    “See, this is new”?

It has already been,

    in the ages before us.

You don’t have any new ideas.  Just like in nature.  They are just old ideas happening over again.  It is just history repeating itself over and over.  We call fashion vintage, which is just recycled old stuff.  This phone takes pictures, well yeah, cameras did that.  We have the internet, well we used to just use encyclopedias and actually talk to people.

11 The people of long ago are not remembered,

    nor will there be any remembrance

of people yet to come

    by those who come after them.

How many of you can name me your great great great grandfather?  Someday you will retire, maybe have a party, go home, start collecting retirement, and in a few months no one remembers you.  Maybe it takes 100 months or a million months.  It doesn’t matter how special you are, how interesting, how loved, you will be forgotten at some point.  Imagine the President, an important person!  Who can name me the 10th president of the United States? John Tyler  How about 21? Chester Arthur.  A hundred years later we don't remember.  

You might say to me “well we remember all sorts of things.” but that is because they were recent or they were close by.  Is 911 going to be remembered in a thousand years?  Is America?  Really…

Glad that you came to church today?

Some people are saying best sermon ever!  You're going home and saying no honey Im not mowing the lawn! vanity!

But, remember, this is life under the sun.

What did Solomon’s father David say about the sun? 

Psalm 19 “the sun is like a bridegroom that bursts from its chamber and runs” a young verile man with purpose.  What a difference, Solomon sees the sun panting in a cycle, and David sees it very differently.  David describes life beyond the sun and Solomon describes llife under the sun.  So when Solomon says there is nothing new under the sun that is the view of a natural man… apart from Jesus.

When Jesus steps on the scene, everything is new.  Keep reading scripture, don’t stop at Ecclesiastes, please, dear God, don’t stop at Ecclesiastes… keep reading.  

Solomon says there is nothing new and the New Testament says WHAT?  keep reading!  

God became  man, that’s new, Jesus says 

John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.”  

2 Cor 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away, behold the new has come.”

Solomon says that you can work your fingers to the bone and it is all for nothing, Paul says 

1 Cor. 15:58 “In Christ, your labor is not in vain.”

Phillipians “ To live is Christ and to Die is Gain!”  

If i don't live life under the sun and I see Jesus than even death is gain!

In other words, what imbues life with meaning isn’t your career, your workplace, the clothes you wear, the car you drive.  Those are vanity under the sun.  It is Jesus.  

Solomon, the wisest man to have ever lived says, if you can only see life under the sun then all life is futile.  All life is meaningless.  It will be profitless if you are being honest.  

But Solomon doesn’t have the final word.  Jesus does.  We need someone greater than Solomon.  We need the better son of David.  And his name is Jesus.  

Matthew 12:42 “Now one who is greater than Solomon is here!”  

Solomon new the problem and didn’t have the answer.  He is going to look at work and at pleasure and not have the answer.  The answer is Jesus.  Everyone in the world knows that there is something wrong with the world.  Is it diet, is it exercise, is it money? Everyone is searching.  We know that Jesus is the answer.  He is the answer to every frustration that Solomon experimented in.  Jesus came not just to inform us but to transform us not to just share our grief but to conquer our sin… so he died in our place and rose again so that we might become the righteousness of God so that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation and one day we will hear him say revelelations behold, I am making everything new.  

Solomon only had the bad news of vanity… all is meaningless.  

Jesus has the good news: When your life is filled with Him, you are no longer under the sun everything that was meaningless is now filled with meaning!

Our going to work with Jesus is not in vain.  Open our eyes.