We are living in
sobering days. The Covid- virus is making
deep impressions upon the soul of our world. The
Covid-19 toll stands at 391,136 (yesterday
06/05/2020) [1]. But
far more people die from other causes than Covid -19. The
World Death clock[2]
estimates at
this time
that 56 million people
die per year; 4.7 million per month; 153
thousand per day,6300 per hour ; 107 per minute and 2 per second.
But, apart from the sobering mortality figures there is another
terrible virus that has plagued
the earth since the beginning of time. It is called the sin virus, and it is showing itself at this time in terms of a deep
dissatisfaction among the peoples of our world. We see it most graphically in
the social media. This dissatisfaction plays itself out mainly in the
battle between races, ethnicities, economic
classes, genders and the like. This sort
of thing leaves many depressed and discouraged. Many are asking, “where is this all leading to?” We need perspective. Ecclesiastes is a helpful book to that end. It
is a an honest assessment of our life under the sun.
Thank God that we
are not left in the hands of conspiracy, and of wicked rulers and people (though they do real damage). We are ultimately in God’s hand. Peter Leithart says that, “… within
this world under the sun, there is a Word from the world beyond the world under the sun, and
that Word stands forever.” [3]
“The
words of the Preacher, the Son of David, king in Jerusalem.” Solomon,
the son of David is the inspired preacher,
and king in Jerusalem. He is now speaking to us by the Holy Spirit. Incidentally,
all three of Solomon’s titles can be applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
Preacher par excellence; He is the
greater Son of David, and He is the King who came weeping over this
earthly Jerusalem. He also shall reign forever in the New Jerusalem!
Solomon will help us
to make a sober assessment of the word in which we live. He will cure us of many unhelpful attachments to the things under the sun. He will show us the
fleetingness, the emptiness and the
meaninglessness of fixing our hearts on
created things, rather than on the Creator who is forever to be praised (Rom. 1:25).
If ever there was a man in history who had the means and the resources to explore life under the sun, and to give
himself to the pursuit of every conceivable pleasure under the sun, and to experience
the results of the pursuit of
these things – it was Solomon.
You can see this in Ecclesiastes chapter 2.
This man has seen and done it all. But I am afraid to say that this pursuit has
not left him without deep spiritual scars! He did not die as a happy, God
fearing man, even though he knew the truth. His epitaph in 1 Kings 11:1-9 is a very
sad one! No wonder that his testimony
leaves many sincere believers confused and uncertain about his destiny. It is
possible to know the truth and yet live in contradiction to it.
Solomon knew the inspired
truth about this world! And he knew and understood that nothing material, nothing created under the sun can ultimately satisfy the
longing of the human soul! This
thought is expressed in v.2, “Vanity
of vanities, says the Preacher! Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” This
statement becomes the envelope for the
whole sermon. Vanity of vanities!
All is vanity. This is the truth!
It is perhaps not what we want to hear,
but it is what we need to hear. It will drive to ask ultimate questions like, “ … if not under the sun and on this earth …
then where shall we find real meaningfulness and
escape this vanity?“ He will
explain how he has come to this
conclusion from v.
3 onwards.
Now there is a real danger in all this,
because far too many people
have seen what Solomon has seen as they
were looking at life under the
sun, and they have simply ended
with this thought, “All is
vanity!” , and so they have pulled
the trigger, or they have taken an
overdose of pills, or drugs, seeking to escape this meaningless
life.
In 1844 a boy was
born near Leipzig in Germany. His name was Friedrich
Nietzsche! He became a noted philosopher[4]. His
philosophical views greatly influenced Adolf Hitler. He became very disillusioned with
the God of the Judaeo -
Christian faith. Nietzsche’s most famous phrase is, “God is dead!”. He is the father of modern atheism. He also expounded the philosophy of ‘nihilism’ (from the Latin – nihil – nothing). The philosophy of nihilism basically says that
life is
without ultimate meaning or purpose. That, you can imagine, is a
soul destroying conclusion! Guess how he
died? He became insane and died at the age of 55. That is what I mean about the danger of
stopping short at saying, “Vanity! All is
vanity!” It is true, of course that all is vanity! But this is not the final truth. The good news is that Solomon actually does not stop here. He will take us to
God, the Father of real truth! Solomon
will force us to look to the world
beyond this world – time and again!
We shall discover that
our ultimate happiness, fulfillment and meaning is not found by attaching our
hearts to the things and thoughts of
this life. If you hold only on to this life, if you live your life by what the
social media says, you will die a disappointed, disillusioned man or woman. So, we need another platform, another source of hope to cling to.
We need a greater means of satisfaction. Solomon will lead us there, and you
note that the book’s final counsel leads us to this conclusion (12:13,14).God is
the conclusion of the book. He ALONE can
be our soul’s anchor.
You won’t see that
here yet in the passage that we are considering. But we are in the hands of the
Preacher, who speaks for God. He keeps
the ultimate perspective for us
in view.
Now let us pursue
Solomon’s primary observation, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
When you want to emphasize something in Hebrew thought, you repeat it.
Jesus did this when He said, "truly, truly" (lit. amen,amen).
By saying, "vanity of vanities", Solomon makes his point emphatically.
This strong statement becomes the envelope for the whole book. From this
observation he pursues his argument:
Verse
3:
“ What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
Having made the summary
statement in v.2 , the Preacher
now asks the question. What does man gain from anything he does in this life? What
is the value and meaning of our work under the sun ? Here is the key to the Preacher’s current
perspective. This is life under the sun.
This is life at face value, as it is observed by any human being, without taking ‘life
above the sun’ (God) into
consideration.
Life only viewed
from an earthly perspective can make you terribly cynical. Is this monotonous existence all that there
is to life? You are born in hospital, and you die in hospital, and in between
you try to stay out of hospital!
Life at face value
can be a terrible disillusion. What do we ultimately work for? Money helps,
but it brings no ultimate satisfaction (5:10). In Eccl. 6:7 we see a man who works to eat – but he finds that
this does not really satisfy
him. In Eccl.6:2 there is a man who
has wealth, possessions and honour- and yet ultimately somebody else takes it from him and enjoys
what he has worked for. If life is only viewed from this perspective, then there isn't much to live for!
In
Verse 4,
Solomon observes the monotonous routine of life: “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains
forever.”
We start life by
thinking that we are the generation that is going to change the world.
And the world is obsessed with the dynamism of youth for that reason. But then midlife
crisis comes because we have finally seen the meaningless of the pursuit
of things. And it leaves us feeling empty and burnt out. The history of the fashionable and the new
teaches us that today's novelty is the
material of tomorrow's garbage heap. There is a dreary sameness to each
generation and it goes on endlessly – or so it seems. No wonder the cynics have said that the only
thing that we learn from past generations is that we learn nothing from
them! I speak of course from Solomon’s present viewpoint , and not
from his ultimate viewpoint.
The monotony of life
is now illustrated in the way
we observe the endless cycles of the well- known elements :
[5] The sun rises, and the sun goes
down, and hastens to the place where it rises.
[6] The wind blows to the south and
goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits
the wind returns. There are regular weather patterns which are
repeated again and again. They remind us of the continuing "sameness"
of life.
[7] All streams run to the sea, but
the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow
again.
Water runs endlessly from river to ocean. In the ocean it evaporates,
condenses and rains on the earth and
flows back into the rivers into the ocean where repeats its monotonous cycle.
Solomon looks at this unending, ever repeating,
monotonous cycle and applies it to our daily experience.
[8] All
things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not
satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.[9] What
has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and
there is nothing new under the sun.
Three common human activities
are mentioned here: uttering (saying) ; seeing
and hearing.
Our restless hearts
cannot cope with the sameness of things. We always want more to be said.
We always want to see more and to hear more. An entire industry is built
around this culture of dissatisfaction. After
you have been told of , seen and heard of
one thing, you want the next. Your
children are the most eloquent exponents of this frustration, “ I’m bored !” They want more!
So there always is this lack of satisfaction. Life
under the sun leaves us feeling empty. There must be more. Little do we realize
that our hearts contentment is not found in chasing novelty. Solomon says, [10] Is there a thing of which it is
said, “See, this is new”? It has been already
in the ages before us.
We live in an age of
novelty. We have seen things in our day of which our ancestors did not even
dream about. Only two hundred years ago it
took at least a
three month journey from Cape
Town to Windhoek, by ox wagon, by the early
missionaries. It now take less than
a 24 hour day to cover that distance on
a tar road. We fly men to the moon and
space-probes to Mars and Venus. We have computers with storage capacities that
make the head dizzy! But modern kids
area already bored with space-probes on
Mars and the amazing 1 Megabyte computer of 1996 is laughed at. We are so easily bored with the advance of
technology. The new quickly becomes
old. And yet, with regard to human
nature, nothing has really changed. We
still struggle with the same monotony –
because we still struggle with the same soul emptiness of a life under the sun
apart from God!
And
then there is the lack of remembrance. Solomon says: [11] There is no remembrance of former
things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those
who come after. The sad thing is that even when you accomplish something
significant under the sun, it is eventually forgotten. Everything you have and everything you are
will one day be forgotten. I do not know my grandfather’s history, and I made
sure that before my own father died, that he wrote down everything he
remembered. But apart from that we will forget!
That is life "under the sun." That is the assessment of the Preacher,
and at face value this portrays a rather
depressing picture. BUT REMEMBER! It is
depressing because life without God at the center is always depressing.
The
good news
is that God has not left us alone "under the sun." For Christians,
life is not simply lived "under the
sun", but rather “under the Son!” Everything under
the sun is vanity apart from God. Everything in this world is incapable
of satisfying the deepest longing of our
soul. But if you see everything through the eyes of God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you can
really see, hear and talk ! You will learn the secret of contentment, as the
apostle Paul did. (Phil. 4:11-13) You
can see with new eyes and hear with
new ears
the message that the sun and the
wind and the rivers and the ocean
shout at you - “I am
your God, and I am He who faithfully sustains you each day with faithfulness”! And your mouth can sing and tell: From the rising of the sun to the going down
of the same , the LORD’S name is to be
praised !
Amen
[2] ibid
[4] Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond
philosophy, notably in existentialism, nihilism and postmodernism ( Wikipedia)
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