The Failure of Earthly Things
Ecclesiastes 1: 1-11
The failure of worldly things DIG: What does the word Qoheleth mean? Is discipleship a destination or a journey for you? Why do you think so? What does the phrase “under the sun” mean? What is the difference between looking “under the sun” and “above the sun?”
REFLECT: How do you try to escape life’s monotony and futility? When you come to the end of your life, or even to the end of this year, what will you have to show for all your hard work? How can you put ADONAI in the middle of the mundane things in your life?
One way to gain a divine perspective on life is to take all the things that make life so wearisome and see what a difference it makes when we bring God back into the picture.
The words of Qoheleth the son of David, king in Jerusalem (1:1).
Our guide on this journey in Ecclesiastes is called Qoheleth, or as we know him in English, the Teacher. Before we go any further it is important to clarify this man’s identity. The Hebrew root of the word qoheleth literally means to gather or assemble. Some take this as a reference to the way the author collected wise sayings. But in the TaNaKh the verbal form of this word typically refers to gathering a community of people, especially for the worship of God. Think of Qoheleth as a teacher speaking wisdom to the people of God.237
The predominant opinion of the past has always been that in Ecclesiastes, an old and repentant Solomon looks back over his life, particularly the period after his apostasy from ADONAI (to see link click Bx –Solomon’s Wives). A surface reading of the text supports this identification. These words seem most naturally to point to Solomon, the biological son of King David, who was a king living in Jerusalem, and who ruled the kingdom after his father.
Pointless (see Ah – The Message of Ecclesiastes)! Pointless! – says the Teacher – everything is pointless (1:1-2)! Taken literally the word pointless (Hebrew: hevel) refers to a wisp of a vapor, a puff of wind, a mere breath – nothing you could get your hands on. The nearest thing to zero. That is the pointlessness that this book is all about.238 Life is like that: elusive, fleeting, pointless. It disappears as suddenly as it comes. We are here today and gone tomorrow. Thus, the Bible compares our mortal existence to a mere breath (Psalm 39:5), or to a mist that appears for a little while then disappears (James 4:14). The Teacher found that looking for the meaning of life was like chasing the wind. That frustrating image helps us understand Ecclesiastes. It is not that kind of book that we keep reading until we reach the end and get the answer, like a mystery. Instead, it is a book in which we keep struggling with the problems of life, as as we struggle, we learn to trust ADONAI with the questions even when we don’t have all the answers. This is how the life of a believer works: it is not just about what we get at the end, but also about the people we become along the way. Discipleship is a journey, not just a destination.
Notice the vast scope of the Teacher’s claim: everything is pointless under the sun, cutting God out of the picture. Not one single aspect of our existence under the sun is free from frustration and being pointless. To prove his point, the Teacher takes things that people ordinarily give meaning to or to find satisfaction and then shows how empty and pointless they really are. He speaks from experience, because he had tried it all: money, pleasure, knowledge, and power – all the things that we try (or are tempted to try) in order to bring satisfaction into our lives.
Some people try to find meaning in what they know, but Ecclesiastes says that in much wisdom is grief; the more knowledge, the more suffering (1:18). Some people try to find satisfaction in all the pleasure that money can buy. The Teacher was rich enough to build or buy anything he wanted, but at the end of his life he concluded that there was nothing to be gained under the sun (2:11). So, he threw himself into his work, trying to accomplish something significant, but even that satisfaction was pointless.
Not even his great wisdom could save his desperate heart. Later in his book he will give us the testimony of a frustrated philosopher: When I applied myself to gain wisdom and to observe how people occupy themselves on earth, that people’s eyes don’t see sleep either by day or by night, then, on looking over all of God’s work, I realized that it is impossible to grasp all the activity taking place under the sun; because even if a person works hard at searching it out, he won’t grasp it; and even if a wise person thinks he knows it, he still won’t be able to grasp it (8:16-17). If we doubt the truth of this statement, all we need to do is ask the nearest professor and he or she will tell us the truth: Pointless! Pointless! – says the Teacher – everything is pointless (1:1-2)!239
Same old, same old: We begin to get a good sense of Ecclesiastes and its attitude about life from the question posed at the beginning of the book and the words that are offered by way of an answer: Here is the question: What does a person gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun (1:3)? Then comes the answer. The Teacher is making the case for the weary emptiness of our pointless, fleeting existence, and wondering why he should even bother.
In verses 4 through 7 he looks at the elementary things of nature – earth, air, fire and water – and sees no real change anywhere. Generations come, generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun sets; then it speeds to its place and rises there. The wind blows south, then it turns north; the wind blows all around and keeps returning to its rounds. All the rivers flow to the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers flow, there they keep on flowing. The generations come and go, but the earth does not move. With weary monotony the sun rises and sets, rises and sets, rises and sets. The wind goes around and around in circles. The water flows forever into the sea. It is all the same as it ever was. The Teacher is tired of thinking about all of this. It’s as if he was saying, “All of life is far more boing than words could ever say.”
So why bother? That is the question. Why keep running on the treadmill of our existence? In verses 8 through 11, the Teacher moves from the natural world to human experience and sees the same thing that he saw with nature: things are done over and over again without any real profit or genuine progress. Everything is wearisome, more than one can express; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, the ear not filled up with hearing. What has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there something of which it is said: See, this is new? It already existed in the ages before us. No one remembers the people of long ago; and those to come will not be remembered by those who come after them. If the sun, the wind, and the mighty rivers have nothing to show for their constant motion, then what hope do we have of ever accomplishing anything in life?
Some people try to escape life’s monotony and futility by filling their senses with what they see and hear. Today, we see an endless procession of visual images (YouTube, Instagram, Netflix) and listen to an endless stream of sounds (Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music), but we are never satisfied. There is always one more show to watch, one more game to play, one more song to listen to. What Ecclesiastes says is still true: The eye is not satisfied with seeing, the ear not filled up with hearing (1:8). We’re insatiable in appetite. Even if we have seen before, we want to see more. But what do we really gain? What progress do we make in life, spiritually or otherwise?
We experience the same thing on the larger scale of human events: What has been is what will be, what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun (1:9). How is that for a philosophy of history – humanity on a hamster wheel? Future generations will suffer the same plight.
The Teacher makes such sweeping claims about future futility that we are tempted to try and think of a counter-example. Surely there must be at least one thing that is new under the sun. For a moment, the writer considers that possibility and asks: Is there something of which it is said: See, this is new? But just as quickly, he denies it. Whatever seems new has already existed in the ages before us (1:10).
The more things change, the more they stay the same. And if it ever seems like there really is something new under the sun, it is only because we have forgotten what happened before – the way people forget about us one day, when there is nothing left of us except a faded picture in a discarded scrapbook, or perhaps a digital image in a forgotten corner of cyberspace.240
All things new: Pointless! Pointless! – says the Teacher – everything is pointless! So why bother? This is the question that Ecclesiastes throws in our faces. We need to be careful because we could come to the conclusion that because everything in life is so pointless, so frustrating, that nothing really matters. Here today, gone tomorrow. We could conclude that it’s the only honest view of life. And that would be true if we only look at life under the sun. This phrase occurs dozens of times in Ecclesiastes, and is one of the key phrases to understanding the book. Under the sun expresses the extent of the problem. Where do we experience life’s futility and frustration? Everywhere the sun shines!
Yet, this phrase also opens up the possibility of a different perspective. To see things under the sun is to look at them from the ground level, taking a worldly viewpoint and leaving ADONAI out of the picture? If that is all we do, then we are bound to reach the conclusion that everything in life is so pointless, so frustrating, that nothing really matters. But, of course, that isn’t the right way to look at things. Why? Because there is a God who rules over the sun. So we are not limited to the terrestrial; we can also get outside our own solar system and see things from a celestial perspective.
Ecclesiastes begs us to do that. It shows us the weariness of our existence so that we will not expect to find meaning and satisfaction from earthly things, but only in God above. Money, sex, power, achievement – none of these things satisfy – only ADONAI does. This does not mean, of course, that as believers we stop feeling the frustrations of life under the sun. We do feel it. But Ecclesiastes shows our need for an “above the sun” perspective that brings joy and meaning to life. One way to gain this divine perspective is to take all of the things that make life so wearisome and see what a difference it makes when we bring God back into the picture. Ecclesiastes looks at earthly things and fails to see any progress. But the psalmist looks at the same old sun and says it comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy (Psalm 19:5). Whether the sun makes progress or not, it bears witness to the joy and strength of its Creator. Therefore, from sunrise until sunset ADONAI’s name is to be praised (Psalm 113:3).
Looking above the sun also gives us a different perspective on human experience. Is anything new? Maybe not under the sun, but the God who rules over the sun is always doing something new, especially in Yeshua. YHVH has made a New Covenant for us in the blood of Messiah (Luke 22:20). So if we ask the question, “Why bother?” the answer is that we have a Savior who looked at all the futility and frustration we suffer in this fallen world and chose to suffer it with us and for us so that He could actually do something about it.
Then there was a new life that came up from the empty tomb when Yeshua arose from the dead with the power of eternal salvation. There is the new heart that God gives to everyone who believes in the Savior (Ezeki’el 36:26). There is the new creation that comes when the Ruach Ha’Kodesh enters our minds and hearts (Second Corinthians 5:17). Once we give our lives to Yeshua Messiah it is never the same old, same old ever again. The living God sits on the throne of the universe and says: Look! I am making everything new. And one day, this great God will make a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1 and 5). In one of the earliest commentaries written on Ecclesiastes, Didymus the Blind wrote these enlightening words: A person who is enlightened by the “sun of righteousness” is not “under” it but “in” it. Thus, it is said in the Gospels, “The righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father, not under the sun.”
Almost every verse in Ecclesiastes shows how much we need a Savior to make everything new. So we need to remember this whenever we get frustrated, sad, angry or disappointed with everything in life that is getting broken, falling apart, and going wrong. Remember this when you feel overwhelmed and are tempted to wonder why you should even bother – with your work, with a relationship, with your faith. You were made for a new and better world. The very fact that you are weary of this life is pointing you to Yeshua as the only One who can satisfy your soul.241
Dear Heavenly Father, You are eternal – no beginning and no ending. But ADONAI-Elohim is truth. He is the living God and eternal King. At His wrath the earth quakes and the nations cannot endure His indignation (Jeremiah 10:10). How important it is to focus our energy and our eyes on living for You and realize that only what’s done in Messiah will last!
May we be wiser than Solomon in that we focus our hearts on You dear Father, and live for pleasing You for all eternity. Knowing that the One who raised the Lord Yeshua will raise us also with Yeshua, and will bring us with you into His presence. . . For our trouble, light and momentary, is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, as we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal (Second Corinthians 4:14, 16-17). I love You God and will fix my heart on living for You now, as I focus on pleasing You for all eternity! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
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