Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Life Under The Sun

I.                    Life under the sun is only meaningful through life in the Son, because all of life under the sun is fleeting (Vv. 1-7)

a.       God made King Solomon one of the wisest, wealthiest, and most powerful people who ever lived. But he was eventually consumed by his power, turned away from God, and divided his heart among other nations to seek their favor and maintain his power. Now, late in life, Solomon reflects back on his existence. He sums his conclusion up with his opening statement as he declares all of life a “vanity of vanities”, or a fleeting vapor of no value, substance, permanence, or significance. He rhetorically asks what the “advantage” is to all of humanity’s work and effort “under the sun”. His question calls us to view all of life from the human viewpoint in the absence of God, and see that when all our activity is surveyed for “what’s in it for us”, the answer is that nothing truly results from all our blood, sweat, and tears, because none of it is truly lasting or meaningful. He then illustrates this reality through four examples from nature. Generation after generation of people come into the world, work feverishly, expend all their efforts to carve out an existence, and them and even their greatest accomplishments are gone, but the earth just keeps on going. We live, work, and die, but the sun rises and sets, running back to repeat its pattern day after day, unchanging, and oblivious to all the things we wear ourselves out over. Our efforts produce fleeting results and have to be repeated like the wind that keeps blowing day after day in its circular path, only returning to where it began to go where it has already been. All our futile and fleeting efforts and existence never seeming to accomplish a lasting purpose, just like the rivers who continually flow into the sea but never fill it. Solomon’s words confront us with the feelings that no matter what we do or who we think we are, life was cycling on indifferent to us before we got here, will be cycling on after we’re gone, and that our existence and efforts ultimately yield nothing. That everything is trapped in a frustrating, monotonous, fleeting, and repeating cycle, constantly moving but never actually getting anywhere. God is forcing us up from the minutia, to follow our thoughts, decisions, and efforts through to their ultimate conclusion in the absence of Him to grasp the fleetingness and meaninglessness of life through the purely human context. (Vv. 1-7; Gen. 3:16-19; 1 Kgs. 3:1-28; Ps. 39:5-11; 90:3-6; 144:4; Prov. 14:12; 31:30; Rom. 8:19-21; Eph. 4:17-19; Jas. 4:13-14)

II.                 Life under the sun is only meaningful through life in the Son, because all of life under the sun is disappointing (Vv. 8-11)

a.       The reality is that when we live for the cycle, never rising above it to consider it in the broader context, not only does our trip through the cycle end up fleeting and futile, but as Solomon concludes through three examples from life, everything just wears us out, disappoints us along the way, and is ultimately forgotten. We can’t say enough things, see enough things, or hear enough things to ever satisfy ourselves. No experience in life fully fulfills, it only stokes the fires of our hungry human hearts to desire more. We labor away, expending all our energy to fill our lives with the next thing which the world tells us will satisfy us, but it never does, and we’re constantly called to the next big thing that’s going to do it for sure this time. In the end we discover that there’s nothing new under the sun, and no matter what we do in human terms, or how grand it seems for the greater good of humanity, it won’t satisfy us or others, and it’s memory will be tainted or fade away. By now you’re probably feeling pretty empty and bummed out, or maybe you’ve protested everything being meaningless and dissatisfying, but that’s because when we refuse to broaden our scope widely enough, we often mistake movement for progress. God empties us so we’ll see that walking in the way of the world is sinful, futile, and never satisfying as it attempts to distract us from God by enticing us to expend all our efforts on the cycle of vain minutia. But God calls us to zoom out on Him and see the little things through the lens of who He is. We can have new life, new meaning, new purpose, satisfaction, and lasting value and impact to all we do now and eternally, but that only comes through trusting faithfully in Christ, and being made new in Him. Only then, by His grace, and continually walking in His will, will all the same things which wear us out, and the satisfaction which slips continually away now, result in meaning, purpose, contentment, hope, joy, and blessing. (Vv. 8-11; Job 28:12-28; Ps. 90:1-2, 7-12; 103:15-17; Prov. 3:1-8; Eccl. 12:13-14; Isa. 40:6-11; 64:4; 65:17-25; Jer. 29:11-13; 31;31-34; Matt. 6:19-34; 11:27-30; Mark 8:36; Luke 9:23-25; John 3:16; 10:10; Rom. 1:17-25; 6:4; 11:33-12:2; 1 Cor. 15:10, 54-58; 2 Cor. 5:17, 21; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:1-10; 4:15-17;  Phil. 1:6, 21; Col. 3:1-4; Heb. 12:1-3; 1 John 2:15-17; 1 Pet. 1:17-25; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1-7)