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Ecclesiastes: Message #2 Shooting Straight on Realities of Life
Ecclesiastes 1:3-11
If you would please, take out your Bibles now and turn in them to the middle of your Bible to the book of Ecclesiastes and Chapter 1, just to the right of the book of Psalms.
Recently I heard the story of one of those local television talk shows and at this particular talk show they had three guests: a nationally known artist; a nationally known musician and composer; and a local cowboy. The talk show host said, “It would be interesting to ask one of those ‘deep’ questions like, some day you are going to be in a casket. As you are lying there, what would you like people to say about you as they walk by?’”
Up first was the nationally known artist. He said, “I would like them to say, ‘He was a good man’ and ‘His art is going to live forever’.” Up next was the musician and composer who said, “I would like them to say that I was a person of character and that my songs would live forever’.” The host then turned to the cowboy and asked, “What would you like people to say about you as they walk by your casket? The cowboy thought for just a moment and said, “I’d like them to say, ‘Look! He’s moving!’.” Sometimes just the simple way is the more profound way.
The interesting thing about death is we are all destined to go there. We have a tendency to prefer to joke about it rather than really think about it. Try as we may to ignore it, and try to run from it, death casts its long shadow over our life. We must say to a person whose hope is focused solely on the here and now—the best advice you could give them is—get ready for disappointment!
Listen to this assessment of life by Jose Martinez, a taxi driver. He said, “We are here to die, just live and die. I do some fishing, take my girl out, pay taxes, do a little reading, then get ready to drop dead. Life is a big fake…You’re rich or you’re poor. You’re here, you’re gone. You are like the wind. After you’re gone, other people will come. The only cure for this world’s illness is nuclear war—wipe everything out and start over.”
Let me ask a question. Has anyone ever shot straight about the realities of life? The answer is yes, a guy by the name of Solomon. What does the Bible say about the realities of life? Plenty…in the Book of Ecclesiastes. A couple of weeks ago we launched a study of the Book of Ecclesiastes, and we said this book would get the most votes for the most puzzling book of the Bible. Some have called it “the black sheep of the Bible.” It is not only the most puzzling book, I believe it is the most avoided book in the Bible. And yet, it is the thinking man’s book of the Bible.
In this book, it recognizes that life often doesn’t make sense. In fact, life is full of unfair things. Life has its full share of inconsistencies, uncertainties, and perplexities. In this book, Solomon addresses the issue that too many of us live in a superficial world of unreality. Ecclesiastes is really the confessional autobiography of a man who knew God; a man who drifted from God; and a man who lived much of his life seeking fulfillment apart from God. He writes this book saying, “Don’t come this way.”
This book, I really believe, is a divine warning for those who are attempting to find lasting fulfillment apart from God. It is a candid exploration of the backwater regions of life. He does not flinch at the difficult and deep questions of life. If you were with us when we launched our study, we said the focus of this book is what I like to call “Life Down Under”. The focus of the book is on the flatlands of earth. The focus of the book is on one-dimensional living. The focus of the book is on the human plane where we look at life as we see it, touch it, hear it, and experience it.
If you look in Chapter 1, verse 2, we have his basic assessment of life. It says, “Vanity of vanities says the preacher, all is vanity.” We stated that this word that is translated “vanity” in the New American Standard is basically the Hebrew word “hebel”. This word means “empty and hollow,” but it can mean, when multiple things. If something is empty and hollow, it is also ”meaningless,” it is also “bewildering,” and when you are looking for answers, it is also “futile.” So, sometimes you see this term repeated in the book translated as “vanity,” sometimes as “emptiness,” sometimes as “meaningless,” and sometimes as “futility.”
The strategy of this book, I believe, is that Solomon is out to counter some common assumptions that people operate with. One assumption is this, “If I could just Do “blank” (fill in the blank). “If I could just Get “blank” (fill in the blank). “If I could just Experience “blank” (fill in the blank), then I will know lasting fulfillment. That is a wrong assumption.
Another assumption I believe that he is attempting to counter in this book is that life should be reasonably easy, innately fair, and readily understandable. And he is going to say, “No, that is not true,” and it is because of the sinfulness of the world in which we life that it is not true. Life is not going to be reasonably easy, innately fair, and readily understandable.
I believe there is a third assumption that he attempts to counter that people often operate by. That is the assumption that “I don’t really need God.” Solomon says, “Oh no. That is not true.” Far from it.
One of the most interesting things about the book of Ecclesiastes is that its target audience is everyone, but especially the target audience is young people. We learn that from chapter 11 verse 9 and chapter 12 and verse 1. So those of us who are younger need to listen up to what Solomon has to say.
The basic conclusion of the book involves two things. Number one, Enjoy life as a gift. This is going to be repeated in the book. And Number two, Remember God. That is his conclusion, that is where we are headed. Enjoy life as a gift and Remember God.
We do want to encourage you to pick up an outline of the book, there are some out in the Welcome Center. So, if you haven’t pick up one of the outlines so as we work our way through the book you will have an outline. Get one of those. It will be helpful to you as maybe you even read ahead as we study our way through this particular book.
Today we are going to be looking at Chapter 1, verses 3-11. I would like to read those verses and invite you to follow along in your bible as I read them. This is what he writes:
What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; and hasting to it’s place it rises there again. Blowing toward the south then turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns. All the rivers flow into the sea, and yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again. All things are wearisome; man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, “See this, it is new”? Already it has existed for ages which were before us. There is no remembrance of earlier things; and also of the later things which will occur. There will be for them no remembrance among those who will come later still.
Now let me give you an outline of these verses. This is our plan for today. This is what we are going to see as Solomon shoots straight with us about the realities of life.
Number 1, he is going to talk about how Life Rolls On and On. We see that in verses 3-7. Life Rolls On and On.
Secondly, we are going to see that Life Often Appears Pointless in verses 8-11. It is almost as if he is saying to us, “If you have your hope totally focused on this life, get ready for disappointment!”
He launches his candid look at life as he begins to examine the idea that Life Rolls On and On. Let’s look again at verse 3. He says what advantage does man have, what profit or gain does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? Remember, he is talking about living ‘down under.’ His focus is on the human plane. What you can see; what you can feel; what you can experience; he says, “What is the gain of it all? What profit do we really have?”
Then he begins to talk about four revolving cycles in life that he observes. The first one is the Death Cycle. We see that in verse 4. A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. He says, “You know what I have noticed? You are born, you live, and you die and yet life just rolls on and on.” I’ll want you to know, I personally have experienced that emotion. I have shared that emotion with other people many a time. I can remember many a time we have been at the funeral home, and we are grieving over someone’s death, and you take the drive out to the cemetery, and as you are coming back I have heard people say this: “Bruce, it is just so weird. I look out the windows of the car and life is just going on as normal. Here, an important person in my life has died and it seems like nobody cares. Life just rolls on.” That is part of what Solomon is saying. Yes, it is true!
It is almost like if you have ever been to the beach. I grew up in the New Jersey area and went to the beach a lot. You walk along the beach on the sand and you leave your footprints there, or you can build a little sand castle there, but you know it is just a matter of time until the waves wash over all of that and they wash away any memory that anyone ever walked on that sand. It is interesting to reflect as you are walking on the sand on the beach about how many thousands of people did it before you, and yet there is no sign they were ever there. That is the essence of what he is wanting to say. Life just rolls on and on. You can see it in the Death Cycle.
By the way, there is some startling wording that he has here. He says, “A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” He says, “The earth, the dirt, remains.” You see how incongruous that is? It just doesn’t add up in our minds. We were originally made in the image of God; we were as men and women the pinnacle of creation. God created us to rule and subdue the earth and yet the dirt outlasts us! When they were working on the parking lot here at the church, I was thinking about that. Here is all that dirt. It has outlasted everybody that has lived for the last two hundred years in this area. If we are here 200 years from now, if the Lord doesn’t come back, it is going to outlast all of us. You know, you say, “that doesn’t add up. It doesn’t seem right that life just rolls on and on.” It is kind of like ants scurrying over the top of a rock. They scurry over the rock, but they leave no trace of having been there. He says, “That seems to me to be empty; that seems to me to be futile. That is bewildering to me.”
Life Rolls On and On. You see it not only in the Death Cycle. You see that in the Solar Cycle in verse 5. The sun rises, the sun sets and hastens to its place, and then it rises again. It is interesting wording in the Hebrew when it says “hastening,” Literally, it is the word for “panting.” It is like the sun has a schedule to keep and it is moving out and it hurries its way along. It is panting on its way to go from rising to setting and then guess what? It turns around and does it all over again! You just see this cycle going on and on.
The amazing truth is the sun kept this cycle before you were born, and the sun is going to keep its cycle after you are gone. Part of what he is saying is, “This doesn’t add up in my brain. The sun continues on and our life here can’t?”
He says life just rolls on and on. You see it in the Death Cycle. You see it in the Solar Cycle. You see it also in the Wind Cycle. We see that in verse 6. Blowing toward the south, and turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns. I think probably the picture here is of the jet streams that today with our modern technology you can track. The whole point he is making is that life comes to an end for us “down under,” but the wind just keeps on blowing. It ends for me, and it ends for you, but the wind cycle continues on.
Life Rolls On and On. You also see it in the Hydrology Cycle. Verse seven talks about that. He says, “All the rivers, they flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.” He says, “I watch this, the water keeps pouring the rivers into the sea, but the sea never fills up. The water is evaporated back into the clouds, the clouds spit it back out,” and you have this ongoing, mindless march to the sea. That keeps rolling on and on but our lives don’t.
You remember the song, “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.” That is virtually what he is saying. It is like row, row, row your boat, life goes on and on. Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, life goes rolling on. He says, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense. It seems awfully empty and awfully bewildering. You know, we sense that on the inside, don’t we? We sense on the interior that we ought to be permanent, but life is what rolls on and on. And it will roll on and on without us.
The first point he is making in chapter 1 is that Life Rolls On and On as he is shooting straight about the realities of life. The second point he wants to make is that Life Often Appears Pointless. I am so grateful that someone looks at this honestly. Life often appears pointless. We see that in verses 8-11. Notice verse 8 he says, “All things are wearisome; man is not able to tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing.”
He says when you just look at life under the sun, ‘down under,’ on the human plane, life can wear you out. Life can be exhausting. Some of you are here today and you are feeling that. “Life is wearing me out,” you are saying. It is exhausting. Life is a drag sometimes. You notice it says in the New American Standard, “man is not able to tell it.” I think the idea is that despite man’s intelligence, life is an enigma. You really can’t explain a lot of what goes on.
He then goes on to say, “The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing.” You know what that is like. The eye is not satisfied with seeing. At our house, we have basic cable television, we have got 63 channels. Do you know how many times we are flicking through 63 channels and we turn to each other and say, “There is nothing on.” There are 63 channels of stuff but the eye is not really satisfied with what it sees, and the ear is not satisfied with what it hears. We considered, since we had nothing to watch on 63 channels, we talked about the idea of getting digital cable. Then I talked to my wife after I analyzed the whole deal, and, of course, we decided not to do that for several different reasons. Partly because of some of what is on digital cable. Ultimately, I said we are just going to end up with 100+ channels and we’ll have nothing on. That doesn’t do us any good to pay more money for that. I don’t need 40 more channels and there is nothing on. But it is amazing how that works. “The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing.”
Those of you who know me well, know that I really enjoy the oldies [pop music from the 1960’s]. I personally think the best music ever churned out was the oldies of that era. I love the oldies. I have a massive collection of oldies. I like the oldies because they are upbeat. Basically, the oldies are happy music and I enjoy that. There are many times I think, “I have to listen to the oldies. I enjoy listening to the oldies.” But you know what happens every time I listen to the oldies? I listen for a while and after so long, I am tired of listening to the oldies. I don’t want to listen to the oldies anymore.
There is just something built into us, you see, where the eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing. It just seems you can’t get there. I like the way Chuck Swindoll put it. He says this: “Have you noticed? A man never earns enough. A woman is never beautiful enough. Clothes are never fashionable enough. Cars are never nice enough. Gadgets are never modern enough. Houses are never furnished enough. Food is never fancy enough. Relationships are never romantic enough. Life is never full enough.” Really what Solomon is saying there in verse 8 is, you just never arrive, living the life down under, where you say, “I am satisfied in every dimension.” We just don’t ever get there.
Life Often Appears Pointless. Notice what he says in verses 9 and 10. “That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, ‘See this, it is new.’ Already it has existed for ages which were before us.”
I remember a number of years ago one of our relatives laughed at me. In fact, I had quoted this passage. “You know, Solomon says there is nothing new under the sun,” and he laughed at me. He said, “That is the stupidest thing I ever heard anyone say.” He made fun of me for quite a while. He said, “What do you mean nothing is new under the sun? What about microwaves? What about computers? What about cell phones? What about space travel? What about heart pacemakers? What about laser eye surgery? Nothing is new under the sun???” Of course, this person wasn’t exactly in a teachable moment, so I made a really short statement, but I couldn’t really explain to him at the time that Solomon is not talking about inventions here. He is talking about the basic issues of life. He says there is nothing really new under the sun.
We have a saying that goes something like this: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Anyone ever heard that one? We are saying the same thing. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I grew up in the 60’s. We had a generation who thought, “We are going to come up with new answers. We see the problems. We are going to solve the problems!” Well, the children of the 60’s are in charge today. Have we solved the problems? No.
A new generation comes along and says we are going to come up with new answers to the basic problems and the basic issues of life and what Solomon says is “Forget it!” You think you are going to come up with a fresh, novel approach to finding happiness? You think you are going to come up with a fresh, novel approach to solving the problem of selfishness in the human heart?
He says, whatever you propose has already been tried somewhere before. In fact, we have in life a number of paths, and people all around you—maybe even some of you—are running down these paths because you think at the end of the path you will truly find happiness. The trouble with those paths is that they are really all dead ends. The paths that people pursue to find happiness – it doesn’t matter if you go back 700 years or 1500 years. It doesn’t matter if you are going to project into the future. It is the same issue; it is the same stuff that is out there. The struggles of life are the same, they haven’t changed. The relationship problems that people have: husbands and wives with one another, parents and children with one another, people with other people. Those problems haven’t changed. They are the same…at the core they are. Wars continue to be wars because there is nothing new, and the way to solve the conflicts that lead to war has never really changed, and so there is really nothing new under the sun.
When Paul went to the city of Athens in the Book of Acts chapter number 17, it says the people in Athens—the real “intelligencia”—used to spend all their time telling and hearing something new; at least thinking they were going to hear something new, but really there is nothing new. We are really into wanting to hear something new, so that is why we have gossip newspapers and magazines and websites. Why we have our TV and movie industry?…because we want to find something new. We want to experience something new. That is why we have those reality shows on TV.
We are mesmerized with wanting to hearing something new, but basically what Solomon says is, when you come down to the fundamental issues of life, there is nothing new ‘down under.’ There is nothing new ‘down under.’ He says Life Often Appears to be Pointless.
You will notice verse 11, he says, “There is no remembrance of earlier things; and also of the later things which will occur, there will be for them no remembrance among those who will come later still.” They won’t remember. I like the way the New Living Translation translates verse 11. It says, “We don’t remember what happened in those former times and in future generations no one will remember what we are doing now.” There is a lot of truth to that. We don’t remember what happened in those former times.
All you have to do is watch Jay-Walking on TV [a comedy bit on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno] and you learn that. Ever notice that? Jay Leno is going around asking those questions; a lot of them are history questions. It just blows my mind how people today have no clue what went on before. When was World War II? “I don’t know, wasn’t it like in the early 60’s?” That is the kind of answers you get out of people because people don’t really remember what happened in those former times. I love the saying “History teaches us that man learns nothing from history.” It is true. You can go back and you can study cultures and you can study their downfall, and guess what? They all tend to happen the same way. History teaches us that we learn nothing from history. Really what Solomon is saying is we are doomed to repeat the folly.
You have cultures disintegrating and people don’t learn anything from that. We don’t learn anything from the past. You can see it just in the individual case—and I am not trying to step on people’s toes—but it just blows my mind that people who smoke today haven’t learned anything from the people who have gone before. Nothing! My father smoked all his life. I remember the people I grew up around who smoked all their lives. I got to see what they were like in their 60’s, when their lung capacity gave them emphysema and they could no longer breathe. They found it exhausting to go from the edge of this stage to that first row of seats. Panting. And yet you walk around this town and there are young people everywhere puffing on the little cigarette. And you say, “Don’t you learn anything from history? I mean, come on.” And, basically, he is saying we don’t.
As human beings we do not learn from what came before us. We don’t remember what happened in the past. Let me illustrate that for you a couple of ways. Kenneth Gangel in his book on Ecclesiastes mentions how in early 1978, John D. MacArthur who, at the time, was one of only two billionaires in America, died in Florida. During the period immediately following his death, there was a lot of information in the newspapers and stories on television about him. There were frequent discussions about his possessions, what was going to happen to his estate, and Gangel writes this: “Now Qoheleth [which is really the name of the teacher Solomon] would say, ‘Okay. While his passing excites everyone’s attention at the time and he makes front page news, people will soon forget’.” So, if someone said to you, “Do you remember when Mr. MacArthur died? [kind of a jay-walking thing] – you might go, “Wasn’t there a general named MacArthur?” Or “John MacArthur. Isn’t he a pastor in California? Isn’t he still alive?” How many people know John D. MacArthur, who was one of only two billionaires in America, who died in 1978? You see, we don’t remember what happened in the past.
Another way I could illustrate that for you is to ask you the question, “Can you name the first names of your great grandparents? Now just think about that for a second. Can you name the first names of your great grandparents? Your parent’s grandparents? Can you name their first names? By the way, there are 8 of them. Can you rattle them off? Now I knew some of mine. I had to look them up. I only have four of them. I don’t even know what the other four of them are. I had Wade and LaOphia, and John Henry and Molissa. I only have four. I don’t even know the other four, the first names of my great-grandparents. You see, in the future no one is even going to remember what we are doing now. Not only do we not remember what happened in the past, we can’t even name the first names of our great-grandparents. But no one is really going to remember us now.
I talked to my son about this this past week. We were sitting there at dinner and I said, “Do you know what? Your kid’s kids are going to know nothing about me. Your kid’s kids are not even going to know my name because, you see, I am the great-grandparent to his kid’s kids. That is kind of a shocking thing to think about when you are trying to find significance in the ‘life down under.’ I said, “Do you know, son, for your kid’s kids, it is going to be like I never existed on the planet?” It is going to be like I was never even here because most people cannot even name the first names of their great-grandparents. I said, the reality is, men and women, we fade from the scene fast. That is reality.
Listen to what Tommy Nelson says. He says, “Do you know what is going to happen?” He says, “You are going to die and there are people who love you, who are going to miss you, but,” he says, “Do you know what is going to happen after the funeral?” He says, “They are going to catch lunch and then have a great old time together. Then they will hurry back to work because someone was covering for them while they went to your memorial service. That night they will all go home to their families, watch a sitcom rerun, and forget all about your memorial by morning.” And he asks the question, “Are you ready for that?” He says, “You will lose everything you owned to the next generation. Your children will rent out your house, purge your possessions, and spend your inheritance. Some of the things that really matter to you are going to be sold for a dollar at a garage sale. All of your possessions that nobody wants are going to end up in a garbage bag and ultimately,” he says, “you will be a distant memory at a thanksgiving meal like you never existed.” Now let me ask you, is that not shooting straight on the realities of life?
You see, life under the sun—and on the human plane, this human dimension—is limited. We we can see it and hear it and taste it. But It just marches on and on. Around and around she goes. You get up in the morning, you eat, you go to work, you go to school, you come home, you eat, you go to bed. You get up, you eat, you go to work, you come home, you eat, you go to bed. You repeat it over-and-over again. You live, and then you die.
And truly what Solomon is trying to make a point with, is that God intended us to tap into another dimension; not being stuck with life down under. Life Often Appears Pointless, it is soon going to disappear and you will be forgotten, and I will be forgotten, and what it really means is that we have got to reach from ‘down under the sun’ to beyond the sun.
I want you to listen to the words of Ray Pritchard. He says this: “If you want to be remembered long after you are gone, follow the one who lives forever.” I love that. If you want to be remembered long after you are gone, follow the one who lives forever.
Now you know, as we spend time in the Word, we like to draw some life lessons together, just kind of drawing together everything we have looked at. I am going to suggest two Life Lessons for us…for you and for me, no matter what your age may be.
The first Life Lesson is that I believe we need to Face Life Honestly. Don’t fall for the common assumptions that are out there. You know, “If I could just do “blank;” If I could just get “blank;” If I could just experience “blank;” then I will know lasting fulfillment.” Don’t fall for a common assumption like, “I don’t really need God.” You operate that way in life and someday there is going to be a real revolting realization that you are going to come to. We need to Face Life Honestly.
We need to understand honestly that the life ‘down under’ is not satisfying until we break beyond the sun, which is the second Life Lesson I think we have, and that is that we need to Look Beyond the Sun. We need to look beyond the sun. That is where we are going to find some satisfaction. “If you want to be remembered long after you are gone, follow the one who lives forever.” You see the one who lives forever, the person of Jesus Christ is the one who is able—as it says in the book of Romans—to allow us to walk in newness of life. He can allow you to experience in the life down under, newness of life (Romans 6:4). He is the one, if you follow him, who will lead you to a new heaven and a new earth. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be there. You see, ‘down here’ my kid’s kids are likely to not even know who I am, but my Savior is going to know my name and He knows the very number of the hairs on my head at any given moment. Let’s bow in prayer together.
Father, we want to thank you for the realistic view of life that Solomon gives us. And Lord, I believe that some of us who walked into this building today, we probably have been pursuing paths that are dead ends, that people have been pursing for generations, and you simply want them to be alerted to that today; to maybe wake up before it is too late; to investigate the person of Jesus Christ who can bring newness of life. Touch hearts, we pray, this very moment. And Lord, for those of us who know you, we can get caught up in the current of the world. May we realize that what we need to look to for satisfaction is beyond the sun, to the Son. Do a work in our life. Help us to see reality for what it is. And help us to really pursue life with you. And we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.