DEVOTION
ECCLESIASTES
UTTERLY MEANINGLESS
Eccl 1:1-11
1:1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 "Meaningless! 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.
NIV
The son of David, who is Solomon is supposed to have been the wisest
man to ever live and he declares everything is utterly meaningless. Of course
we know life in Christ, or for Solomon, life within God is not meaningless.
What this wisest, richest and most influential king in Israel’s history is doing,
is taking a look at life apart from God, from a humanistic perspective. The key
to remember as we search through this writing is the vanity of the man who says
he does not need God. The first question gives us this clue. Just what is
gained by any man for all his labor which he toils under the sun? What good it
is to work, work and work for whatever reason if there is no God? Death is the
only reward waiting and then of what good was all that labor. We know many of
the parables Jesus taught about the desire for wealth and how hard it is for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. If all we do is for the gaining of wealth
and we are not rich toward God, that is use our wealth for the kingdom of God,
not store it up for our selfish needs, then of what value is it when we die.
This is the whole idea of all these phrases in this introduction of his
writing. He sees that generations come and they go, or die, but the earth
remains. No matter how many people try to do whatever they think is going to
sustain the earth or environment, they just die, and the earth remains the same
as God created it. Nothing changes. The sun rises and sets and rises again and
sets again over and over again. The wind blows whatever way God established it
to blow and man has nothing to do with it. All streams and rivers flow into the
sea, or ocean, yet they are never full. Man cannot cause the sea to become
fuller, not matter what they do. It will never be any fuller then it is, because
the sea returns to the sky and it falls back on the origin of the streams and
rivers to return once again to the sea, and the cycle goes on and on with our
within man. Solomon says it is a wearisome thing. From a human view, man just
wears himself out trying to make sense of how he can do something, or effect a
change on the earth, and in reality he can do nothing. Generations come and
they go and everything on the earth remains the same. The humanists never has
enough to see, always wanting to find something new. But there is nothing new
under the sun. What has been, will be again and what has been done will be done
again. That is really rather futile to think we find something new. Yet we have
a far greater understanding in some fields of study in the sciences. Some advancements
in the cure of illnesses. But also we should consider how advanced certain
cultures of the past were and the great cities, roads, and water management
devices they built, to name a few, and now are but rubble. If God does not put
an end in our timeframe, what will our cultures advancements look like several thousands
of years from now? We saw how fast the twin towers were toppled. How long will buildings
like what was once called “Sears tower” or the Standard Oil building in
Chicago stand? Will the San Francisco Bridge still stand a thousand years from now? What
about those great towers in Dubai? We see the futility in thinking man has found
something new under the sun. Even when it comes to sin, modern man has nothing
new on the men of the past. But we are back to the idea that without God,
without eternal life, man lives and he dies and is remembered no more, just
gone, dead, and new life comes to birth and lives and dies and are gone. The
cycle of birth, life and death are repeated over and over again. Solomon sees
life as worthless from the human perspective. Without the Lord we are simple
humans living and dying. Thanks to the Lord, we have far more than just seeing
as a human, living as a human and dying as a human. Life in Christ is good,
filled with hope, promise and a life to come for all eternity. But for the man
without God, life is utterly meaningless.
