1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.
at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.
This is a depressing passage! Solomon is telling us that life is one meaningless circle and we're stuck in the same rut, doing the same thing that everyone else in human history has ever done and nothing is getting better and nothing is new.
Every day the sun rises and sets. The wind blows in it's circular course, over and over. The water continues it's cycle over and over. Nature is in a rut, just like us. We eat, only to get hungry again. We clean, only for things to get messed up again. We pay our bills, only for another one to arrive in the mail. It's an endless, meaningless cycle.
Mark Driscoll says this (emphasis mine)....
Adam and Eve, decided that they would make choices not in accordance with God’s will and God’s Word. In a sense, they became very proud and very arrogant and they thought there was wisdom and life apart from God. In do doing, they sinned. In sinning, they set themselves up as enemies of God and as enemies of his good creation. At that moment, the tether that connected all life on the earth and all life under creation to God was severed and creation collapsed in on itself. Life became crooked. Death entered the equation. Frustration set in. And everything was tangled into a crooked mess and that explains the condition of the world that we live in presently.
In the middle of that, God then laid out a series of curses upon the man and the woman that are still binding upon us today. Very simply this; we were to steward and rule over creation and God was to steward and rule over us. As we became unruly and rebellious toward God, God then had creation that was under us become equally unruly and rebellious toward us. Now, we find ourselves in the position of being as frustrated with our life as God is with us. ...
God did that, not because he hates us, but because he loves us. God wanted us to see that the wage for sin is death, that the consequence of sin is great....so that we would become so frustrated that we would cry out to him and ask what the problem is. And he would tell us that we have severed the tether that connects us in our lives to him. And in so doing, we have collapsed in upon ourselves, separated from him. And then, hopefully, that would lead us back toward him and back toward his goodness and his provision.....And God makes a promise in Genesis 3, right after our first parents’ sin, that, indeed, Jesus will one day come to accomplish that; to reconnect us to God; to redeem all that was lost...
what he says is this – “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.” Every generation rises up. We’re gonna fix the world. We’re gonna change everything. We’re gonna make it a better place. Every generation before us, they were all dumb. We’re finally here. Evolution has hit its peak...
And every single generation thinks that they are so significant and so important. And literally, what he’s saying is this – “The earth is an exercise bike. Generations come out of the womb, jump on the bike and pedal like mad ‘til, eventually, they die and fall off. And then, the next generation gets on.” And they say, “Well, you didn’t get anywhere, but we’ll pedal harder.” And Solomon’s saying, “Give it a good run. We’ve done this before. I promise you, it’s not a vacation. You’re not getting anywhere. You’re not getting anywhere. There is no progress.” He just completely undercuts any myth or progress and evolution and human inquiry that moves us forward....
You gotta know why you’re here and then organize your life toward that purpose. And there’s really only two options. The goal is us or the goal is God. And Jesus says, “If you lose your life, that’s how you find it.” That the whole point of life is God and I’ll tell you the beauty of this. As soon as you worship God, as soon as you know God, as soon as you’re connected to God, you have diminished expectations for life. Life doesn’t need to be perfect. Jesus hasn’t completed, finishing all of his reclamation project of redemption. We will have resurrected new bodies. We will walk into his kingdom. Things will be made new. All things will be made perfect in the meantime. We can eat and drink and work and laugh and play and die, and not take ourselves so seriously. And that’s the point of Ecclesiastes. You can be rich. You can be horny. You can be smart. But, you’ll never be satisfied until you meet him. And then, your life has a measure of joy because it has being reconnected to the God who gave it.
You know, and the beauty of it all is this, really. We don’t need to be significant. We don’t need to be successful. We don’t need to be rich. We don’t need to be smart. We just need to be repentant and we need to be loved. That’s what we need. That’s all that we need. And we take our cue from Solomon. This is a book of profound repentance. And it is a dire warning to us all. “Take my word. There’s nothing here. Stop running from God. Go back to him.” And we’re loved. God loves us. God has come for us. God has redeemed us. God is resurrected for us. God is coming again for us. You know, I don’t need 1,000 women. I just need Jesus and then he gives me eyes for my wife. I don’t need a billion dollars. I just need Jesus and he gives me my daily bread. And it’s an issue of satisfaction and there’s a difference between stuff and satisfaction. Stuff, you can get on your own. Satisfaction comes from God. And you don’t get that until you’re reconnected to him through your mediator, Jesus, who came and died for your sins as your great God and rose to give you the gift of life.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
2 comments:
GREAT post. Thank you! I love that last portion where he says "I just need Jesus and then he gives me eyes for my wife. I don’t need a billion dollars. I just need Jesus and he gives me my daily bread."
I liked that part too! I've really been enjoying his sermon series on Ecclesiastes.
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