The Monotony of life under the sun

Text Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 Time 22/05/2005 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church

I would like us to begin this evening some studies in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Those of you who have attended for some years may remember that we tackled the book in the past but many years ago now.

It is a fascinating book, one many people are drawn to. It has several famous passages.
For example

1:2 Vanity! Vanity! says the Preacher. All is vanity.

3:1ff There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, etc.

It is also difficult and controversial so we need to take care not to misunderstand several of its statements. It is part of God’s Word and is there to help us. We can gain a lot from it if we seek God’s help.

Among the more common approaches are those that take it as a sort of pre-evangelistic tract, a piece of apologetic helping unbelievers to see how empty and useless life without God is. Older commentators understood it as something Solomon wrote in his old age after his backsliding and restoration as a warning to backsliders and the unconverted. Others see it as a deeply sceptical, even cynical or nihilistic book or one advocating asceticism and abstinence from life’s pleasures. Some feel that the theology is so pessimistic that without the important epilogue it wouldn’t even be in Scripture. It is there chiefly as a foil to the rest of Scripture. This is surely wrong.

The book can certainly be applied in this way but it is better to see Ecclesiastes firstly, like Job, as a wisdom book that warns against taking the very positive wisdom of Proverbs in a superficial and simplistic way and failing to see how complex and difficult life can be. Here is life in the raw, life as it is. The writer is not looking at life without God in the strict sense but at life as it is even though there is a God – something much more demanding and profound. The book is firstly for the people of God, to help them in their daily toils and struggles. It is not only hard-nosed but uses words of encouragement, calls on us to fear God and frequently draws attention to the coming judgement. Having said that the fact that it does not mention the Law (although there is a call to keep the commandments) or facts from Israel’s history and refers to God without using the covenant name (LORD) argues for a wide audience being in view. Solomon had a large empire and many international contacts. No doubt he had them in mind too.

One important mistake to avoid reading Ecclesiastes is to concentrate only on certain parts of it. Eg One can get the impression that it is rather gloomy – 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart etc. however, this is the book the Jews read at the Feast of Tabernacles (Shavuot), a very joyful feast.

Whenever we turn to Scripture we should expect to see Christ there. That is what the Bible is about. Here, I would suggest to you the writer causes us to get real and to see life as it is. This is in turn should make us long for a better world, the world to come, the world of the resurrection. That resurrection has begun , of course, with Jesus Christ. If we trust in him – the one who has known all the frustrations and difficulties of life and death in this fallen world and yet has triumphed over them by rising and ascending to the glory – then we too can share in is glory and even now we can understand why life is so often difficult and frustrating. We can get Paul’s perspective, as given in Rom 8:18-23

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration (Abel), not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

What I want to do then today is to look at the opening verses and make some introductory comments.

1. Consider the introduction to this book and what it says

1. Consider who wrote the book

Our first problem with this book regards who wrote it. The first verse of the book introduces the writer but some are not sure that it means quite what it appears to say. The verse says The words of the Teacher, son of David, king of Jerusalem. Cf 1:12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. He has two descriptions then

1 The Teacher. This title occurs here in the beginning and at the end. It is also in 7:27. The word really means ‘one who assembles’ (hence Ecclesiastes). The title is one very much associated with Solomon when he brought the ark into the newly built temple and spoke to the people, praying for them and blessing them at that great assembly. More generally the assembly (or church) is the people of God and so the Teacher is their leader ‘the assembler of God’s people’.

2 Son of David, king of Jerusalem. This title speaks even more clearly of Solomon, as do several other phrases in the book. Some are rather afraid of saying that Solomon was the author but there is nor reason to seriously doubt it. Arguments are made against it – such as the lateness of the Hebrew but other scholars are willing to vouch for Solomon, saying that the apparently late Hebrew is in fact Hebrew influenced by the Phoenician dialect, no surprise for a man who knew the Phoenician king Hiram so well.

However, here is a work by a man of unrivalled wisdom, great wealth, a builder and a compiler and arranger of proverbs. Who could this be but Solomon? I see no reason for not accepting the ancient view that he wrote it near the end of his life falling his fall into idolatry. This would clearly show that eh did come back to the Lord. As one modern writer puts it ‘There is in the book an air of repentance and humility’.

Here is an encouragement. We have here a book written by a wise man, the wisest whoever lived. More than that it is the considered opinion of a man who knows what it is to fall and fail. We can be sure not only of his wisdom but also of his sympathy.

2. Consider his initial text or heading

I say ‘initial’ because although the book begins with one text, a text repeated right near the end at 12:8, it actually ends with another - Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man (12:13). But he begins (2) Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. Here we come to our second problem with this book – how to translate the Hebrew word translated meaningless in the NIV. The word occurs some 36 times in the book altogether and is one of its key words. We need to get it right then. It is the Hebrew word Abel (cf Adam and Eve’s son) and means something like ‘breath’ or ‘vapour’. The old translations use the word vanity. The NIV has meaningless, the GNB useless. The word is used not so much to describe meaninglessness as what is fleeting, ephemeral, elusive. Here is a fallen, cursed world in all its stark reality and yet not missing the beauty and the grandeur and recognising that God is in control. One writer translates the text, very helpfully, Subject to the Fall! Subject to the Fall! says the Teacher. Everything is subject to the Fall. The truth is that the word has a wide semantic range and so a number of words really need to be used to translate it.

Further, when the writer says that everything is meaningless or vain/empty/transitory we must not absolutise that everything. It obviously does not include God or heaven or a whole lot of other things. He clearly has in mind only what is fallen. He is echoing the curse of Gen 3 where mankind is told how God will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. … and … through painful toil you will eat of the ground all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you,… By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.

We are loathe to do it sometimes but we must confront this brute fact – the essential fallenness of this world, its emptiness and vanity. Remember James words to those over-confident businessmen bragging abut how they are going to do this and that next year? Why, he says you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14). The Bible reminds us of this fact in many places.

Eg Isaiah 40:6-8 A voice says, Cry out. And I said, What shall I cry? All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands for ever.

3. Consider his searching question

Verse 3 What does man gain from all his labour at which he toils under the sun? Having stated his text the Preacher asks a question. What a question it is. How searching. It is a little like Mark 8:36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? It includes what is another significant phrase in the book under the sun. It appears some 30 times and clearly refers to what goes on in this world and excludes God and heaven. It refers explicitly to life in this fallen, sinful world. 

Part of wisdom is to see how empty and frustrating life in this fallen world is. Suffering and pain and death taint everything. The wise person sees that and faces up to it. Without something above the heavens what point is there in anything?

2. Consider the monotony of life under the sun

The whole book can probably be divided into some four parts. The first of these parts goes from 1:4-2:26. The closing verses of this section read (2:24-26) A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I mention that as it is useful to see where the writer is heading. He wants us to see that enjoyment is something God-given. It isn’t something we have the power to conjure up by ourselves. To get to this point we need to hear what he has to say in 1:4-23. Firstly, in 1:4-11 we need to consider the painful fact of the monotony of life under the sun.

1. Consider the dreary passing of generation to generation

4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains for ever. We tend to think of our own generation as full of significance and somehow permanent. I was born at the end of the fifties and so I’m part of that generation that grew up in the sixties, who were teenagers in the seventies and began to make their mark in the eighties. I am very aware of our strengths and weaknesses and could talk at length on it. The truth is we are just another generation that will soon be gone, like other generations before – my grandfathers and great grandfathers’ generations, etc. Generations come and generations go meanwhile the earth remains. Back home, from my old bedroom I can see a mountain Mynydd Maen. It was there before I was born. It will be there when I’m long dead and buried. When in Aberystwyth I like to look out to sea. On a clear day you can see Bardsey Island and the Lleyn Peninsula. I first saw them when a student. I’m sure Elizabeth who is a student there now has looked out and seen them. Students will still look out to sea when another generation arises. I was in Northern Ireland recently and went to see the Giant’s Causeway, an ancient geological feature caused many generations before. In the eighteenth century Dr Samuel Johnson went to see it. He said it was worth seeing but not worth going to see. No doubt subsequent generations will go to the Giant’s Causeway and someone will quote the same statement. Think of people walking up Childs Hill towards the Heath today. Have you seen pictures of Cricklewood and Hermitage Lane from the thirties and forties. There used to be trams on Cricklewood Lane. Some can remember. There’s a blue plaque near the junction with Finchley Road saying there was a toll gate there. Imagine people walking past that. You can read in the records of highwaymen and footpads waiting at the top of the hill to rob the unwary. Picture it. Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains for ever.

2. Consider the unvarying cycles that characterise the natural world

The earth remains for ever but even that is in a state of flux. He gives three examples.

1 The rising and setting of the sun. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. Now we know that the earth goes round the sun but from our point of view the sun rises and sets. There is a certain predictability about it. Your diary may tell you just when it will set tonight and rise tomorrow. The sun has a cycle it goes through. It is night-time, then the sun rises on a new day until the sun sets and it is night again until the sun rises on another new day. The pattern has been going on almost unbroken for centuries, for millennia.

2 The wind system. Think of the wind. The winds are fascinating – gentle breezes, powerful storms. Do you like to listen to the shipping forecast? They use the Beaufort Scale which gives you a name for winds of different speeds – eg light breeze, gentle breeze, moderate, fresh, strong, near gale, gale, strong gale, storm, violent storm, hurricane. There are names for certain winds too. We tend to think of the wind as dynamic and free – ‘free as the wind’ we say. But in fact (6) The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. Even the winds are locked into a cycle.

3 The water cycle. It is the same with water - 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. You learn this in geography – all about condensation and evaporation and precipitation and so on. When you see the rain fall or clouds forming think about the circularity of it all, the monotony. It’s no good shutting your eyes to it. We thank God when he sends the rain, I’m sure, but if we look to these things for meaning and purpose we won’t get very far.

3. Consider the wearisome nature of human desire

It is not just in nature. 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. ‘(I can’t get no) satisfaction’ Mick Jagger famously sang, summing up the frustrations and dissatisfactions of a generation. In another song from the same period John Lennon once sang of how even his rock’n’roll sometimes left him cold. It doesn’t matter what it is in this life we can easily get bored with it. Whatever we like to look at – scenery, paintings, films we never get to the point where we can say we have seen enough now although sometimes we get bored with looking. It is the same with hearing – music, the spoken voice – we are never sated although we can often become bored. Or think of the efforts men have made down the ages to perfect painting and the other visual arts or music of various styles. It still goes on – no-one thinks we have arrived. Seeking the best picture or the best tune is a fruitless task in the end – you never find it. Isn’t it true in every sphere – the best sermon, the best book, the best poem, the best meal, the best piece of needlework, the perfect day. I like that film Groundhog Day where the man lives the same day over and over again until it is a perfect day. Being a Hollywood day one day he eventually does it. But the truth is that were we to live a thousand years we would never do it. Life rather wearies us. It never ultimately satisfies.

4. Consider the endless repetition that characterises life under the sun

In verses 9 and 10 he says What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 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. You understand what he means. In any area of life you care to look you will never find anything truly new. When I think of this verse I think first of fashion. I remember dressing as a young man in oxford bags and brogues only to find my dad had been doing it 20 years before. That’s how fashions go – round and round again. Technology changes , of course, but it is the same basic patterns that get repeated again and again. My grandparents bought sheet music and my parents and I bought vinyl. I have lived to see cassette tapes, etc, come and go. Now it’s CDs and Mp3s and who knows what next but the music itself is remarkably unchanged in fact. The same could be said of other arts. Certainly the basic interests are the same. Philip Larkin famously claimed that sex was invented in 1963 but if your read your Bible you’ll know it wasn’t. Indeed if you read your Bible you will see that the bulk of it was all there long ago.

5. Consider the thoughtless lack of appreciation of generation to generation

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 verse often makes me think of Piccadilly Circus. Not many people know that the statue of Eros should be pointing to Shaftesbury Street. Both commemorate the work of Lord Shaftesbury, a Christian and a great social refpormer. C S Lewis once wrote of chronological snobbery. There’s a lot of it about.

3. Consider the need to look for satisfaction in something higher than the sun

Perhaps we can finish by quoting Revelation 21:4 and 22:3 which take us above the sun and to a better day to come when God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. ... No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.