The Pattern of Life Under the Sun

Transcript

GR 2120
03/24/ 2019
The Pattern of Life under the Sun
Ecclesiastes 1:3-11
Gil Rugh


The song we just sang fits very well with the theme and emphasis that we have in the book of Ecclesiastes. Day by day, whatever comes, whatever day, we know the hand of God is on us and brings into our lives those things that will accomplish His purposes. That's basically what the book of Ecclesiastes is talking about, how we as God's people live with wisdom in a world that can be difficult, that's filled with pain and struggle, stress, discouragement. Yet we can face each day and live through the days of the week with enjoyment, with the satisfaction and confidence of knowing that our God is sovereign and in control. The sovereignty of God, His providential control of every detail of every day is what brings us confidence, enables us to live with wisdom. And that's what the book of Ecclesiastes is about.

If you haven't turned there, you can turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, just after those two large books, the Psalms, then Proverbs, then you come to the book of Ecclesiastes. We have begun our study of this book. It's the words of the Preacher, not a preacher formally as we are talking about, limited more to spiritual things, but it is one who gathered a group and he would address them. It could be for any context, but here it is a spiritual ministry. He's the son of David, he's the king in Jerusalem, it is Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. God gave him wisdom, not just in spiritual things as we might think of it, but in all areas. And we are told in the accounting of his life in the Old Testament, that he would lecture on things like nature—the trees, the plants. He had a wisdom and a knowledge that impressed the wisest men of his day. And now he has used it to write this book, and we have just looked at the opening verses here.

Our translation says vanity of vanities and we noted that probably that's not the best translation. I am convinced it is not. It came down basically from the Latin Vulgate and the word used there, banitos, that got to be the basis of subsequent translations and interpretations down through history to basically our day. I showed you a slide on the word hebel. In Hebrew, you pronounce the “b” more as a “v”, hevel, but it comes over and looks like our “b”. We'll just leave it with hebel. If someone corrects you and says the Hebrew should be hevel, say I know that, I know Hebrew. But I like hebel and I'll say hebel. At any rate this is the word we're talking about. Its basic meaning is a puff of air, a breath, a vapor. So, Ecclesiastes 1:2 is “’Breath of breath,’ says the Preacher; ‘Breath of breath! All is a breath.’” Another way to say that with this metaphor is all is temporary; the brevity of life, the transience of life. It comes and it goes. That's the theme, it's not the vanity that it is worthless, that it is of no value. Note the explanation there that I took from Farmer. “The essential quality to which hebel refers is a lack of permanence rather than a lack of worth or value. It is air-like, fleeting, transitory and elusive rather than meaningless.” Because if you read this word vanity you translate it all is meaningless, all is worthless. One of the very popular modern translations translates this, “All is worthless, worthless, worthless. All is worthless.” Then you go through the book of Ecclesiastes and it is somewhat discouraging and depressing. And people say it is Solomon writing in his old age as a discouraged old man who realized he wasted his life as he wandered off into false worship and so on. But that's not the force or focus of the book of Ecclesiastes.

You might put up the definition of vanity there, just for the contrast. The first definition comes from Webster. Vanity means something that is vain, empty or valueless. In English, vanity means hollow, empty, worthless, pointless, without any value, perhaps at best trivial. Coming from Fredrick's commentary. But that's not what we are talking about. Things that are temporary are brief, short-lived. We would say are not necessarily worthless. A person may have a short life. We have a baby that may only live a short time after birth. We don't say they were worthless, they didn't have value. Not at all. So, the word we are dealing with is a Hebrew word that means a breath.

In fact, in the book of Proverbs, the book just before Ecclesiastes, the next to the last verse in Proverbs, Proverbs 31:30, just look at that. He is describing the excellent wife and so he says in verse 30, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain.” There is our word hebel, same as we have down in “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” What he is really saying is charm is deceitful and beauty is temporary. You don't think so, just watch the commercials on television, everything telling you how you can retain your attractiveness, male and female. He is talking about women here. But if you read Song of Solomon, the description of the Shulamite is that she is beautiful, and the description of Solomon is he is handsome. We don't usually call men beautiful. But the point here is charm is deceitful, beauty is temporary. I don't think it is worthless. We say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and we are attracted to different people, all of us, we're glad for that. There is value in beauty and attractiveness. But it is temporary. That's what the theme of Ecclesiastes will be that's stated in the second verse here. As you conclude the main section of the book in Ecclesiastes 12:8 he'll repeat that statement. “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity,” or breath of breath, all is a breath.

Why don't you put up the words in Ecclesiastes. I just selected some of the words and the amount of times. Commentaries usually list these. The word good appears 52 times in Ecclesiastes. I mean, it's not a book just about bad things or discouraging things or worthless things. Good appears 52 times in Ecclesiastes. The word wisdom or wise appears 52 times. So, we're talking about wisdom and wise. We saw that at the end of the book, chapter 12. He has spoken words of truth, words of wisdom. The word God, and this is crucial, we'll be talking about this this morning, appears 40 times in Ecclesiastes. He's not talking about life without God, he's talking about how God enables us to have enjoyment in the ups and downs, the good times and the bad times of normal life on this earth.

And it is for God's people, because as we have talked about, we don't escape the problems, the trials, the stress of living everyday life. It's not when you come to trust Christ, now life becomes the proverbial bed of roses. It's just a good life. No, we as those humans living on this earth face the things that come. We get sick, some believers die young, some die old, some have good health, some struggle with finances. Life has its pressures. Solomon is writing with his wisdom. He knew what pressure was. We'll talk about that in a moment. But God is involved in it all. If you have the wisdom that brings the fear of God to your life, it puts every day of life in proper perspective.

The word heart appears 40 times. Vanity, which we are translating breath, appears 38 times. I was reading a commentary by a good man. I didn't have my glasses on, and there was some confusion. He says the word vanity, appears 33 times and it is the most used word in the book. But as you can see, that is not so, so it is good to read more than one commentary, just to be sure. It's not like a preacher who sometimes misspeaks. The last word, time, 37 times. And I just stopped there because it fits well on the slide. But you can go down and use other words. The word time is important because the book of Ecclesiastes is talking about our time. Because time becomes important to us, the counting of our days because we have limited time. In contrast as we are going to see in our study this morning about some of the things that are in existence before us and will be in existence after we are gone.

When we pick up with verse 3 it almost sounds like a discouraging note. “What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?” We'll say something about “under the sun” again in a moment. But “What advantage does man have in all his work…” and the word work there carries the idea of our toil, that grinding it out. This is the pattern of human life as a result of the fall. Come back to Genesis 3, and this is the account where Adam and Eve join in their rebellion against what God has commanded them. And God is meting out the judgment for their disobedience. And you are familiar with the account, one tries to blame the other. The woman says the serpent did it, deceived me, so God starts with the serpent and the judgment on the serpent in verse 14. Then He is going to talk about the woman down in verse 16. And you'll note here, everyone says that it was someone else who influenced them or moved them to sin. God doesn't deny that that person may have been a factor, but it doesn't excuse the person for his own sin. So, it's true the serpent did deceive and lure Eve, but that did not excuse Eve from the responsibility of making the decision to sin. Someone else never causes you to sin, is never an excuse for your sin. That's the pattern.

So now the judgment on the woman. She was going to bear children, that was God's original plan. He told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. But now there would be pain in what God created her for, there would be pain in childbirth. Her life would be characterized by difficulty and suffering. In verse 17, “Then to Adam” which is what is before us, particularly in Ecclesiastes, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife…” God doesn't deny that Eve did play a part in luring him to sin. No excuse for Adam's sin. You have listened. He should have closed it off. “…and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it.’” Now why would you listen to your wife over Me? Why would you listen to Satan over God?

We are without excuse. This is important because in Ecclesiastes it ends with reminding us at the end of chapter 12, that we are going to give an account before God, our own account to the living God. So here, what is Adam's judgment? “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil,” or sorrow, “you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground…” Because I created you out of the dust, and you are going to die, you are going back to the dust. The book of Ecclesiastes is talking about this, the work, the toil, the stress, the pressure of living life day by day, as a result of the fall. Adam would have been busy; he was before sin. He was put in the Garden to care for it, but it wasn't work as we think of work. It wasn't toil, it wasn't hardship. It was something he could enjoy. It wasn't fighting against him, so to speak, the thorns and thistles here as he was dealing with planting things. The things that make life difficult. We talk about going to work. We ask each other, how is work going? All right, it was a difficult week. Things like that. It is no matter what you do, it brings its own pressure and stress.

Back to Ecclesiastes 1:3, “What advantage does man have in all his work...” If I'm just a breath, I'm here for a short time, what's the purpose of my spending that short time grinding it out, dealing with the stress day after day only to end up in the dust? That's a good question. It's a valid question. It's a question he is going to deal with through the book. There are advantages in work. It is part of what God intended, but work has to be faced properly. Where we as Christians get into trouble is we don't listen to what Ecclesiastes is going to tell us. There are advantages in work, God intends us to work. God brings into our lives, trials and troubles and stress while we work “…under the sun.” “Under the sun” as we talked about briefly is just a poetic, picturesque way of talking about life on the earth. That expression under the sun is used 29 times in Ecclesiastes, and it is the only place in the entire Old Testament where that expression is used. So, it is a favorite of Solomon to express the normal pattern of everyday life, life under the sun.

What advantage do we gain? We aren't going to survive, and our life is brief when you compare it to other things. And that is what he is going to do. So, beginning with verse 4 and following he is going to address that and draw the comparison of just how brief and temporary our life is when compared to the world in which we live, the elements that make up the world in which we live, the earth, the sun, the wind, the water. They all were here before we came on the scene and they'll be here after we are gone. We are just a breath. That's what Ecclesiastes is saying. He'll be answering the question on the place of work and how we face it and the stress and the toil as we move along.

Now Solomon's perspective here, under the sun, is not limited as though we exclude God because He is above the sun, He is in heaven. This is just, as has been popular to say, this is just man's condition and view of life without God. It's a monotonous, worthless, hopeless grind serving no real purpose. Many commentators on Ecclesiastes have taken that view, but that's not what Ecclesiastes is about because it's about God. It's about wisdom. And the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. He is going to show how we can live life and experience the enjoyment that God intends and provides if we fear God and live with that fear of God, honoring Him, respecting Him, submitting to Him.

We don't escape what other people endure. I've shared that my dad lived to a ripe old age. Two of my brothers-in-law died of cancer around 60, both believers. One a pastor, pastoring thousands of people, teaching the Word, writing books. Why would some godless people be living to long ages and he dies at a comparatively young age? We're going to have to look at that. That's what Ecclesiastes does, it helps us as Christians live not trying to escape the problems that come in life, not to have the joy of our life sapped out of us because it is worthless, this world. No, not at all. Because God does what we cannot do ourselves.

We're going to talk about the fear of God. Turn over to Ecclesiastes 3:14. We're not going to look at all the uses of fear of God in Ecclesiastes, we'll pick them up as we come to them. But I want to look at two. Look at Ecclesiastes 3:14, “I know that everything God does will remain forever.” You see here there is a contrast. We're talking about God, we're talking about forever, we're talking about us, we're talking about breath. I realize we have a forever, but we're talking about living our life under the sun, and that's not forever. That's temporary. That's so obvious. There is not a person sitting here who hasn't been impacted by the death of someone close to them, someone they knew, someone they work with, and so on. It's just life. But here we have “…everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it.” That's going to come up shortly when we go back to Ecclesiastes 1. “There is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.” So that's what is going on here, all this that is going on in this world has a purpose.

That's why James could write in James 1, count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various kinds of trials. Doesn't matter what the trial is, multi-faceted, multi-colored trials, because we all have them. Brethren, fellow believers, count it joy. That's what Ecclesiastes is going to tell us, how we have joy in our trials. James goes on to write of course, because we recognize God's hand in it, His purpose being worked. He is the sovereign God. We talk about the providence of God, where every detail is being worked out according to His will, His plan. How often, even we as believers, I can't see any good that comes out of this. We sort of throw our hands up in despair and disgust. Wait a minute. Has God stepped off the throne today? Something got away from Him? No. Some of my problems, so many of mine, come just dealing with every day as God intends it.

Come over to Ecclesiastes 12, just one more reference on the fear of God. The book ends, and there is the end of the main portion of the book in verse 8, “’Breath of breath,’ says the Preacher, ‘all is but a breath!’” All is temporary. So, verse 13, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is fear God and keep His commandments.” Because if you truly fear Him, you bow in obedience to Him, you recognize He is God. And you'll note, “…this applies to every person.” That's another word that gets used often, related words—all, every. Or the negative—no one. What he is saying here applies to us all. This applies to everyone, this is the conclusion of what I have been writing about. It is not a life of worthlessness, monotony, hopelessness. I'm telling you how you can have a life that has meaning. It's temporary, you are going to be gone before you know it. Maybe I have waited until I'm old to do Ecclesiastes. I look back and say where did the time go? Where did all the time of ministry go? It comes, and it goes. The picture of our lives.

Come back to Ecclesiastes 1. In all this we must fear God, recognize His hand is in it and in every day. What he is going to do in Ecclesiastes 1:4-8 is contrast our brevity with the world's permanence, put it that way. We are a breath. The world is permanent in the contrast as we will see as we go along. And he'll talk about the earth, he'll talk about the sun, he'll talk about the wind, he'll talk about the water. When all is said and done we can't exhaust it because we are only here a short time and it just gets to be a matter of repeating and remembering. But you'll note verse 4, “A generation goes and a generation comes.” We usually say we come, and we go. But you'll note what he has done, he puts the goes first, “a generation goes, a generation comes.” Because what is he emphasizing? We are but a breath.

So, let's pick up with that point. A generation goes, means they die; a generation comes. The way he even words it here you see his wisdom and how God directs him in the writing. Let's pick up with where it ends, because you are but a breath. “A generation goes…” I'm moving off, I'm a grandfather, I'm a great-grandfather. You know you are a father, you're a grandfather, you are a great-grandfather. Do you know what? You are getting near the end of the line here, and we all know that. We are getting older. A generation goes, a generation comes. That's not to be discouraging, disheartening, it's just a fact of life, it's reality. What are you going to do? Sit and put a bag over your head and cry every day because you know some day you are going to die? We have to go on, so let's start.

“What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes.” You're not doing anything, enduring as far as life under the sun. The differences we make, again we are talking about under the sun. I realize there are spiritual results. We lead someone to Christ, that has eternal value, but we're talking about the everyday life we face.

Come back to Psalm 90, we looked at this in a previous study. Go to Psalm 90, we looked at verses that remind us, as Ecclesiastes does, that we are here but for a short time. This is consistent with the emphasis of Scripture, Old and New Testament. It is not meant to discourage us, it just reminds us. Look at Psalm 90:10, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years.” And we'll talk about what differences and changes man makes. But think about it. David wrote this about 3000 years ago. You would think by now with all the things we've learned and the discoveries of science and medicine, we'd be saying in that day they only lived 70-80 years, but now we can look forward to living 300-350 years. What's the average lifespan? We haven't really moved it along. The last I read, and some of you will jump on the internet, but 77; something like that for a man. I'm really getting close.

Three thousand years ago he was saying 70 years, maybe 80, but if you live to 80 you will have more difficulty and pain. And here we are. He is going to say more about that in Ecclesiastes 1. “Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow.” That's what he said. What advantage does man have in his wearisome work? What happens? The best we have is labor and sorrow. We keep grinding it out, we have kids and they cause us problems. Then they have kids that are our grandkids and we have more things to be concerned about and stressed about, especially if you are the mother or grandmother. And then what? Then it is all over. “Soon it is gone and we fly away.” It's saying the same thing Solomon said, doesn't it? We have a short life and it's basically filled with labor and sorrow and then we are gone. Well, that's depressing, I thought Ecclesiastes was going to be encouraging.

But what puts it in perspective? Verse 12, “So teach us to number our days.” I love the way he puts it, number our days. Every day counts because every day that goes by is a day gone in our brief life. We don't want to waste the days of our life because wasted days become wasted weeks, become wasted years, becomes a wasted life. “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” Where did we end up in Ecclesiastes that we just read at the end of chapter 12? Same thing, we are going to appear before God to be judged. We want to number our days, not to be discouraged with them, not to count them as worthless or monotonous, but to make them count. This is a day for which I will give an account, some day to the living God. Yes, but this is a day that has a lot of problems in it. This is a day I will give an account. For what? Living wisely this day, facing the problems this day with wisdom, which begins with the fear of the Lord. And so, I can have joy in it because I count it all joy when I fall into various trials, trials of all kinds. Because I see the hand of God. So, you see it is not talking about the trials and difficulties of life as though they are worthless, meaningless, and make life empty. It's so we can live with wisdom. Because none of us are going to escape the toil, the sorrow, the pressure.

Just come to one verse in the New Testament, James 4. We are going to see this is a consistent emphasis. Ecclesiastes isn't unique in that it is a discouraging focus. It is just a more detailed focus of what is brought up repeatedly in Scripture. Our lives here on this earth are temporary, short, and they are to be lived with wisdom. And that includes recognizing God and His sovereignty. James 4:13, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow, we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’” Well, there is nothing wrong with planning, but there is something wrong with planning that doesn't take God into consideration. “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor,” an atmis, “that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.” Some commentators think James here is drawing on Ecclesiastes. You are a breath, you are a vapor, you are here for a little while and you are gone away. A generation goes, a generation comes.

So, what do we do? I mean, I can't change the fact that I am temporary, I have a life that is brief. “Instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills we will live and also do that. But as it is you boast in your arrogance and all such boasting is evil.” You try to plan your life and live your life apart from the will of God, you have a worthless life. That's not what Ecclesiastes is about, it is instructing us how to live meaningful, purposeful lives. Of course, we plan, but everything I do is in the context of the sovereign God that I serve, that I want to honor. And that's why if He brings trials into my life I accept that because He causes all things to work together for my good and His glory, Romans 8 tells me. So, what am I fighting against? What am I so stressed about? I'm not making light of trials and pressures, that's why we have this book to help us, but the reality of it is, I don't have to despair. Sometimes, I have to stop and collect my thoughts, as we say, and say wait a minute Lord, I have to calm down here. You are still on the throne; your will is still being done. I don't understand all that is happening. I don't have to know the purpose because I serve you. I just have to serve you today as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount—don't worry about tomorrow, each day has enough trouble of its own. Doesn't mean I can't plan for tomorrow, but I don't have to worry about it. Believers need to be instructed to live their lives in agreement with their theology. We claim to believe that God is sovereign, we claim to say I serve Him, I submit to Him, I believe He is in control, until my life veers off and then . . . Then what? Count it all joy, my brethren. That's what Ecclesiastes is about, how we can have enjoyment in the days of our life that will include, as we call it, the ups and downs and so on.

Come back to Ecclesiastes, Chapter 1. Notice he is driving home this whole issue of our transience, our brevity. He says in verse 4, “A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” And he is going to bring in the things that are connected with this earth and this world. The earth goes on forever, the sun repeats its cycle, the wind continues its patterns, the water continues to flow through the rivers to the sea. But I am here and gone. “But the earth remains forever,” and he is talking about that in the contrast here. “A generation goes and a generation comes.” How many generations have we had in a thousand years of this earth's existence. Or if you are an evolutionist, the billion years? Which isn't true, but you can live in your world if you want. The earth is still here, the earth is still here. It was here when you came, it will be here when you go. That's not discouraging, there is a comfort in this. We'll see this in a moment as we read the rest of this. God has created an order, a stability, a consistency in this creation, in the world in which we live. And so that is good.

Let's read it. “The earth remains forever,” verse 5, “Also, the sun rises and the sun sets; and hastening to its place it rises there again. Blowing toward the south,” that's the sun, now the wind. “Blowing toward the south, turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along; and on its circular courses the wind returns.” So, the wind continues its pattern that is established. Water. “All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.” You see this is not to say the world, the creation, life is just monotonous, meaningless. No, it is the contrast with us—I am temporary, but the world in which I live is permanent. I mean, the earth is still here, it was here long before I got here. The sun still gets up in the morning, the wind still blows on its course, the rivers still flow. I realize all that is going to change because of climate change and soon the world will come to an end. I think we have 12 years. That person is smart, not wise but smart, because at least they put it 12 years out so by the time it doesn't happen everybody will have forgotten, and you go on. Like the scientist who worked on climate issues said in 1998, I give the world ten years. Well, that was over 20 years ago, but it doesn't matter, that was back then.

But the fact of the matter is, there is a consistency in the world. We have studied the book of Revelation. These patterns are going to get disrupted by God. And there are mini disruptions now, (mini, somewhat). The wind gets off course, we can have tornadoes or whatever that cause great destruction, but that's not the normal pattern everywhere in the world all the time, or we couldn't have life. There is a consistency. The sun rises, the sun sets. And we use the expression, it has been a difficult day but I'm going to bed, the sun will get up in the morning. There is just a pattern, we recognize that. That's good, I'm glad the sun comes up. There is a consistency, a pattern, but we are temporary.

The rivers, climate change is going to raise the oceans. Is the whole world going to be flooded? Well, all the “natural disasters” that will come in the tribulation are caused by the sovereign God, so they are not natural in the sense that nature causes them. They are natural in the sense that God in His providence uses nature for the accomplishing of His purposes. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and we see the hand of God in it. That's why we handle it differently.

If this is the case and those things aren't discouraging, we live in a world of reliability. I don't know what is going to face me personally tomorrow, but the sun will come up, it will come up even if the clouds are hiding it. I mean, it goes on. So, verse 8 says, “All things are wearisome; man is not able to tell it.” Now again we have a translation thing here. One of the very good commentators on the book of Ecclesiastes is Walter Kiser. There are several good commentaries, but his is one. It's a paperback. If you like to read a commentary along the way as we go through a study, that would be a good one. It is relatively inexpensive, it's a paperback, not overly detailed but he is a person who has taught Hebrew and written Old Testament books. He translates this, “All words are labor” because that word translated “things” is a word that often means words. And “wearisome” is a word that is used for labor because labor is wearisome, it is toilsome. So, he would say it is probably better here to say all words are wearisome or labor. Why? “Man is not able to tell it.” And he is going to go on to explain that. We can't grasp the things that are going on in the world, we don't have enough time.

“The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor 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.” In verse 8 you can't take it all in, we use the expression “Too soon old, too late smart.” What we're saying is you grow, you learn things, you get understanding, but by that time you are checking out. Or your body is so worn down you can't use it. And we sometimes joke, all that strength, all that energy wasted on youth. It's just a fact of life. We had a scientist here talking about creation. We are finding galaxies with billions of stars in it we didn't even know were there. And the world goes on. The most powerful people have come and gone, or as Ecclesiastes says, they have gone and others have come. The earth continues. The sun gets up just as God created it in Genesis 1 to rule the day. There it is. The rivers are still flowing into the sea. Well, we're going to run out of water coming down into the rivers or else the sea will overflow. No, because to the place where the rivers flow, they flow again. We know something more now, we haven't found something new, it's just something of how it works. And we sometimes call our water-based world.

Everything is wearisome in the sense we can't explain it all, we can't take it all in. Life is too short. We'll see as we go through Ecclesiastes, that we'll never exhaust the knowledge of God. But the contrast we are having here is the brevity of our life. Even when we are living in the eternal kingdom in the presence of God forever, we won't have exhausted everything that can be known about the living God. But here on this earth that is what he's talking about, how we are living now under the sun with this physical life, in the days of this life. We just can't get a handle on it all, we can't get our arms around it, we're struggling to learn.

“That which has been,” verse 9, “is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done.” The pattern set out in verses 5-7 here that we just looked through, is the pattern that will continue. This is the pattern of life, there is nothing new under the sun. Here is what one commentator said, William Barrack, in his commentary, another one about the same size as the one I just mentioned. He says that the vast majority of events are merely repetitions in a slightly different costume. And there is that element, we have found something new. Well, the earth is still the earth, the sun is still the sun, it still comes up every day, the wind still blows, the waters still flow. “And that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun.” Barrack in his commentary even gives examples of what we think we discovered that people didn't know. For example, we discovered a way to tell how a woman was pregnant, and I'm not going into the details because it doesn't need to be. But we found this. Then in some discoveries they've found that they were doing that some 1500 years earlier. That had just been lost. We thought that scientific discovery had been made, but we just rediscovered what had been. And examples like that. But the point is there is nothing new under the sun.

Now we have variations. But think about it. We still get up. Solomon didn't have a lot of what we have, he didn't have running water in his house. But you turn the faucet on and you get hot or cold or mix them and get just the right temperature. He didn't have flush toilets, he didn't have a car that had air conditioning, he didn't have some of the medical advances we have. He still lived to be 70. But we go on in these . . . But really, we are still doing the same thing. We have different gadgets, different things, but we're still getting up, going to work. The sun gets up and the day starts. We get out, we still go labor, try to make some money to buy places to live, buy food, get back and forth to work. We have improved it, but we still come home filled with stress. We still come home weary and worn out. I need a break. We have the commercial, you need a break today. I don't even remember what it is about so if it is about beer, forget it. But you need a break today. It tells about our life.

If you could have told Solomon you can have machinery to build this, you can have air conditioning in your place, you can have an air conditioned and heated vehicle to take you places, with all this he would say, life would be a breeze, there would be nothing but enjoyment. He's dealing with a life that is wearisome, that's toilsome. But with all our inventions, the toil isn’t out of it. We have more people taking anti-depressants. What is wrong? Life is tough, it's discouraging, it's disappointing. It goes on, there is nothing new under the sun. We are temporary, and we grapple with that. We try to squeeze more life in shorter, so we talk about getting retirement and retiring early. There is nothing wrong, in fact Ecclesiastes is going to tell us to enjoy your life. You don't have to think you have to grind it out 7 days a week, 15 hours a day. As we would say, take time to smell the roses. That's part of God's provision for you, it's part of God's gift for you. But don't try to hide from reality, there is nothing new under the sun.

Verse 10, “Is there anything of which one might say, ‘See this, it is new’? Already it has existed for ages, which was before us.” I know they didn't have computers then, so we really have made an advance. But they communicated then, they communicated with words, with symbols. They had to do things. So there have been adjustments, but in the major things that keep life going, we are still living our 70-80 years and we're still stressed by the pressures and the struggles that come with life. Nobody here says it is any different. So there really is nothing new in any significant way, and we are really, just discovering what God had already built into the creation. We don't create anything new in that sense; what we create, we create from something that is there already.

Now he is going to bring it to a conclusion. Where did he start? We are a breath, a generation goes, a generation comes, but everything around us in this world continues on. He says in verse 11, “There is no remembrance of earlier things; and also of the later things which will occur.” Remember James says you don't know what is coming tomorrow. Jesus said that in the Sermon on the Mount. And we forget what went before. And so, it doesn't matter. “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.” Do you know what? Later generations forget just like the earlier generations do. We forgot, now they forget. What do we say? We see it going on in our political world with all that goes on out there, and we see young people coming up, they have all these ideas. People say, they never faced or lived in the depression, they didn't have to face a world war, they didn't have to do this. What are we saying? There is a generation that comes up that has no memory, no remembrance of the former things. So, we go through the cycles. And do you know what? All the things they do, they think they have come up with something permanent and lasting.

Marilyn and I bought a TV. We've had a TV, but we bought a big screen TV years ago. It was a 40-inch, largest screen you could buy. It was huge, it was heavy, and my kids were debating who got the TV when we went. They start early, these kids. But who gets the TV. When it came time, we wanted to get rid of that thing. I couldn't give it away. I had to pay two men to come and take it. Where were those kids when I needed them? They had no remembrance of former things. I should have had those two men deliver it to one of their houses, “Here is your inheritance.”

But the cycle goes on, there is no remembrance. And don't think we're doing it better. Well, that's discouraging! No, that's reality. So, with wisdom I want to make a difference. As the psalmist wrote, that we read in Psalm 90, number your days. Whatever God brings into your days, as we will see in Ecclesiastes, we accept as from the hand of God. As Job said in another book of wisdom, shall we accept good things from the Lord and not bad things? That's reality. Living life with wisdom and getting the most out of life is what Ecclesiastes is about.

God still intends for us to enjoy life. And we do, and we look forward to things and we enjoy things. We enjoy times with our family, we enjoy the things that we have. And God hasn't called us to the monastic life. That was a creation of man trying to make himself spiritual. But God's message to us is we are to enjoy life. We didn't go through all those passages on enjoyment that I mentioned, but we'll wait and pick them up as we go. He'll end these sections by reminding us we are to enjoy life, enjoy what God has given, and even recognize that the pressures, the stress, the trials, the suffering, the pain, that's part of what He has brought. And so, I face it that way, and that keeps me from getting parked in a puddle that just takes any joy out of my life. That's not the way God wants me to live my life. I belong to Him. That doesn't mean, the other side, therefore He doesn't want me to have any suffering. He knows what is best for me, He knows what is best for us.

But you cannot get meaning, joy, and all that God intends out of life if you don't know Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Jeremiah in Jeremiah 8 said they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what kind of wisdom do they have? Rhetorical question. They have none. Wisdom begins with recognizing who God is, what He requires, bowing in faith before Him, believing what He has said, and the provision of His Son for our salvation, so we can come into a relationship with Him, so we can come under His care. And so, we can live a life that has all that He intends for us.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your word. Thank you, Lord, for the provision you have made for our lives. Lord, the reality is life here can be difficult, it can be filled with pressure, with pain and sorrow, what we would not have chosen for ourselves. But Lord, in the wisdom that we have because of our relationship with you and that you have made known to us, we understand that your hand is doing what is best. And every day we have the joy of knowing that you are in control, that you are watching over us, you are guiding our steps, and we can rejoice and enjoy life, knowing that's what you intend for us as we honor you. We pray in Christ's name, amen.