Ecclesiastes 1 - Life Under the Sun

Does it seem like you're chasing the wind? Then you need to read this!

Faithlife.com

Ecclesiastes 1 (NIV)

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 do people gain from all their labors

at which they toil 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 No one remembers the former generations,

and even those yet to come

will not be remembered

by those who follow them.

¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! ¹⁴ I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened;

what is lacking cannot be counted.

¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;

the more knowledge, the more grief.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 6

Q. Did God create people so wicked and perverse?

A. No.

God created them good and in his own image,

that is, in true righteousness and holiness,

so that they might

truly know God their creator,

love him with all their heart,

and live with him in eternal happiness

for his praise and glory.

Summary

In many ways, Ecclesiastes is the Bible's forgotten book of wisdom. Every Friday here in this space we read a Psalm (and many of our churches sing them often), and the book of Proverbs is well known for its sage advice even to those who aren't very familiar with the Bible as a whole. But this book of Ecclesiastes often flies under the radar escaping notice - yet it has so much to say to our society.

The name Ecclesiastes refers to the book's primary character: the preacher, or in the case of the NIV translation we'll be using this week, Teacher. It's unlikely that Solomon wrote this book, but there can be little doubt that this character was developed with him in mind. The Teacher says of himself, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me. We know from Biblical narratives that King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.

Ecclesiastes introduces one of the Bible's most awesome words: hěʹ·věl. This is one of those great words that looks different in every Bible translation because there's not really one English word that fully captures its meaning. I think the NIV did well using the word meaningless, but the words vanity and futility work well too.

Hěʹ·věl, most literally translated, refers to the fog that appears when you exhale on a cold day. It's there for an instant, but quickly disappears. It's real and substantial, but you can't feel it. You can see it hanging in the air almost motionless, but it instantly shifts the moment you try to grab it.

  Dig Deeper  

Everything, says the Teacher, is utterly meaningless. Everything in life that you see is hěʹ·věl - right in front of you one moment, gone the next. It's real and substantial, but you can't really ever fully experience it. Every time you think you can get a grip on on what you've been chasing after, it suddenly eludes you once again.

If this sounds anything like your experience in life, you have lots in common with King Solomon. That's the fascinating yet frustrating reality we live in - that although none of us have Solomon's wealth or power, our experience is so similar. Even though so many aspects of your life differ from Solomon's - language, culture, technology, family (I don't think any of our readers have hundreds of wives...), human nature has not changed one bit from what it was thousands of years ago when Solomon lived.

Generations come and generations go. The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows - round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. Yet for all of the labors at which we toil under the sun, people have been asking the same exact question from the moment Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden: What do we gain?

Ecclesiastes has a reputation for being dour and pessimistic, since it so clearly points out the seeming vanity, futility and meaninglessness of life. If all you had to hang on to was the hěʹ·věl of this world, life would indeed be the pessimistic mess that the Teacher unpacks for us.

But all week long, we're going to be reminded of a fundamental difference for those of us who belong to Christ. The Teacher's pessimism is aimed at life under the sun, but as Christians we are people who live on an entirely different plane: we have been raised with Christ, and so we can find life's elusive meaning and true fulfillment.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who's laid a heavy burden on mankind to study and explore all that is done under the heavens;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that having been raised with Christ, that you would set your mind on Him as you study and explore life under the sun;

  ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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