Utterly Meaningless

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.