Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

All right.

Um so we finished up the book of Jonah.

I I uh going through Jonah with me preaching um the last time, and it's always tough to pick where you're gonna go next.

I really like when someone just says, here's what you're gonna preach on.

And then I'm like, okay, at least I don't have to think about that.

And I'm thinking, like, where do I go next?

So I'm I'm thinking Jonah was kind of dark and kind of depressing.

And I'm thumbing through the Bible and I'm thinking, where am I gonna go?

Let's go somewhere a little bit lighter and maybe a little bit more upbeat.

And so I go to Genesis 1, I'm like, okay, Genesis 1.1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

I mean, that's that's neat.

That sounds fun.

Uh, but that's gonna take me, if I preach every five weeks, like 50 years to get through.

And I don't feel like I probably don't have 50 years left of just looking back at family history, it's just not gonna happen.

But so I go to Mark, and I'm like, okay, maybe maybe we go to Mark.

It starts out the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

That seems pretty uplifting.

Fun.

I like the Gospels, but then I remember Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verses 1 and 2.

Ecclesiastes 1:1

The words of the preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

So I said, let's just go to a book that's darker and more confusing than the book of Jonah.

So here we are in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Uh we're we're gonna trek through Ecclesiastes.

Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, if you don't know where that's at.

Uh I've been reading and listening to things on the book of Ecclesiastes to try to get a better understanding of it.

And I like to read and to listen to people that I trust that are trusted sources.

Uh, and with that said, someone I really trust with handling God's word is John Piper.

So I go to his like library of sermons.

He's preached for like 50 years, he's gotta have touched on Ecclesiastes, and there's nothing in his library on Ecclesiastes.

So I'm like, oh, this can't be good.

So I listened to a little clip on Ask Pastor John about the book of Ecclesiastes.

And his first line is uh Ecclesiastes may be the most confusing and hard to understand book in all of the Bible.

Fantastic.

Okay.

So with that, we're going to take the next several times that I preach and go through this confusing, misunderstood, dark book.

And I actually think that we'll enjoy it.

I really do.

I think it's very relatable to how we feel at times in our lives.

And as we dive in, I just want to, this is we're gonna cover uh verses 1 through 11 today, but it's also kind of an overview of the book because 1 through 11 is kind of how the author feels about the entirety of the book.

So as we dive in, one thing that helped me think through this book was this.

This is wisdom literature.

Ecclesiastes is wisdom literature, just like the book of Proverbs and just like the book of Job.

Proverbs is giving us general biblical principles.

So general things that can guide our lives.

Things like this Proverbs chapter 3, verses 1 through 2.

Proverbs 3:1–2

My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life, and peace they will add to you.

Or Proverbs 21:5.

Proverbs 21:5

The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.

These are gener these are general things about how God has set life up to work.

We should heed things in the book of Proverbs.

They do not always happen in front of our eyes, like they are worded in the book of Proverbs.

Uh these are not promises.

Proverbs are not promises, they are things that in general will happen.

Uh, like we know that on some hands, even though with the verses that we just read, that sometimes uh you plan diligently and you fail, and there's there's no abundance.

And we also know that sometimes people come into money hastily.

They win the lottery or they win a shady lawsuit and they're doing just fine.

There's no poverty, they they made it through life just fine.

Uh, we know that some people have not forgotten the teachings of God, they have not forsaken the teachings, but yet they have not had a long life.

They have died at a young age.

So Proverbs is not full of promises, it is full of general rules that should be aspired to to help lead us to a holier life.

Ecclesiastes is talking about the opposite of that.

Ecclesiastes stands on the other side of the room as kind of the critic to the book of Proverbs.

Uh, when the general rules don't hit just right, Ecclesiastes is there to say, see, this all happened for no good reason.

When the person wins the lottery and it's not fair, and it's like I've worked my whole life and I've tried to save and I've tried to take care of my family, and I'm broke, and Ecclesiastes is going, Yep, see, I told you, this is what life is like in a fallen world.

It's frustrating and it's broken.

And that's what the author is doing with verses 1 through 11.

He is venting about the frustrations of this world.

Now, some people think that the author of this book is Solomon, King Solomon, and others say that it is someone after Solomon, and I don't know, and you don't know, and the people that say that they know don't really know for sure.

So it's okay.

We're gonna go through the book, uh, not knowing 100% sure who the author is, but we're gonna at times assume that it is Solomon.

It does sound an awful like Solomon, that it should be Solomon, but we don't know 100% sure, and that's okay.

So the first the first two verses there say, Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

And that word vanity is really uh a key word in our uh in this book as we go through this word vanity.

And the problem is it can be translated in like three or three hundred different ways.

So, one translation, we're gonna focus on three main translations of that word vanity, and then we're gonna try to hunker down on one of them.

One way that you can translate the word vanity is meaningless, and one way that you can translate the word vanity is perplexing, and then yet another way that the word vanity could be translated is vapor or smoke.

So is the author saying uh meaninglessness of meaninglessness all is meaningless?

Or is he saying perplexing of perplexingness, all is perplexing?

Or is he saying this is all like vapor?

And I think yes, I feel like yes, he's saying all of that.

And again, we're not a hundred percent sure, but as we read through the text here, especially this morning, we're gonna translate vanity more toward meaningless or perplexing.

I see vapor every time I'm like, okay, it definitely means vapor.

Then I switch over and I'm like, nope, this this seems like it means uh vanity, this seems like it means meaningless, and this seems like it means perplexing.

And I it really makes sense all three ways.

But we're gonna we're gonna focus on meaningless today because at times life, as described here in verses one through eleven, feels meaningless, it feels perplexing.

And I think the the tone that the author is using here today in the first 11 verses really feels like everything that we're doing is meaningless.

So I'm gonna read verses three through eleven.

I've already read one and two.

I'm gonna read three through eleven in Ecclesiastes chapter one.

Says this What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises.

The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north, around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.

To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.

All things are full of weariness, a man cannot utter it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear fill filled with hearing.

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said?

See, this is new.

It has already it has been already in the ages before us.

There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of latter things, yet to be among those who come after.

I'm super weary and very perplexed just reading those verses there.

The the perplexingness and the meaninglessness of life at times has us saying, Lord, what like what in the world?

This feels like that.

Like everything's just going on and on and the same thing.

Rick mentioned a couple weeks ago uh about doing the dishes and cleaning the house and tending to the lawn and blah blah blah.

Vanity.

It feels meaningless.

I remember uh after Lenae and I had Briggs, he was our second child.

Cy was about a year and a half old at the time.

I was 26 years old.

I had been married about six and a half years, had two babies, a year and a half old and a baby, had a house, had a job, and I just I started thinking about this, like this van, like what is this?

Is this it?

I mean, I feel like the rest of my entire life is mapped out.

I've had a kid, I got a job, I'm gonna have another kid, I gotta go to work, gotta come home, got a vacuum, yay, it's Friday, oh, it's back to Monday, and it just seemed pointless.

Everything just seems meaningless and it perplexes you.

And you're thinking, what am I supposed to do?

I mean, here we have Solomon.

Solomon, if Solomon doesn't have hope, let's assume this is Solomon writing this.

If he's the wisest and wealthiest person to ever live, if he's bored, what hope do I have?

There's nothing that he couldn't afford to do, and he had plenty of time to do it.

It's not like he's punching a clock and he has to go be somewhere at a certain time.

He had plenty, we'll see later on in Ecclesiastes how wealthy the guy planted forest and then put in ponds to water the forest.

If he's bored, I don't have a chance, and yet the monotony of the day-to-day, the nothingness of life, the vapor of life is driving Solomon or the author here mad.

Look at what he says in those verses that we just read.

A generation comes and goes, the sun rises and sets over and over and over again.

Sometimes I think about that too.

I'm like, I'm gonna go to bed.

This is stupid, I know, but I'm gonna go to bed every day for the rest of my life.

That is boring.

Like sometimes it, and then the order I get, I'm like, yay, I'm going to bed, and I'm excited about it.

It's like, this is stupid.

It feels like nothing is happening here.

It says the wind blows on its circuit, the waters flow to the sea, and the sea isn't full.

There is a predictability to life that can drive you insane, it can drive you nuts.

Some people love predictability.

God has wired them in a way where they love to know what's going to happen and to be ready for it.

That might be you.

You might be one of those people.

We need those people.

These are the people that fill their gas tank up before it even gets down below a half a tank.

That's nice.

Mine generally says seven miles till empty.

Uh, they like these people change the furnace filter and they like have food rations in their basement in case something happens.

That's awesome.

Uh, you people help prepare us.

I appreciate that.

Uh, we should feel secure, actually.

This these this text here paints a pretty good picture of God.

We should feel very secure having a God that has set up a world in this way, uh, where the sun is staying put.

It's it's rising and setting, and and it's staying put.

It's not coming too close one day and burning everybody up, and then the next day backing off and then freezing everybody out.

It it should comfort us that we serve a God of order.

This text shows us that we have a God of order.

But then there's man, there's us, there's scattered, discontent man.

And sometimes, I don't know about you, uh the the predictability, it leaves me and it leaves the author here feeling very weary.

Even if you're like the maintenance freak, you gotta be thinking, like, how long can I keep this this going?

I mean, eventually I'm gonna miss the oil change, it's gonna be like 3,010 miles, and like all of it can just drive you insane.

Uh, we we we tend to just be driven mad by just the predictability and the the monotony of life.

Uh the people that are that enjoy predictability a little bit less than others spend their life chasing things, chasing experiences, chasing pleasures to fill them.

And yet, look what verse 8 says uh the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

We can't grasp it, we can't grasp the fulfillment.

There is no fulfillment, we can't get our hands on the satisfaction.

Even the Rolling Stones knew that we could not get no satisfaction.

Listen to what the Rolling Stone says.

When I'm driving in my car, when a man comes on the radio, he's telling me more and more about some useless information supposed to fire my imagination.

I can't get no, oh, no, no, no.

Hey, hey, hey.

That's what I say.

I can't get no satisfaction because I try and I try and I try and I try.

He was really trying.

He's really trying to get some satisfaction.

He said it four times.

The preacher in this text, probably Solomon, the Rolling Stones, they have everything the world has to offer at their fingertips, and yet the cry is vanity, meaningless, perplexing, empty, nothing.

There's nothing here.

I've done everything there is to do, and there is no new thing to do.

And the same thing is gonna happen tomorrow that happened yesterday, and the same thing's gonna happen next week.

It's gonna be full of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays.

The same stinking thing is gonna happen every day for the rest of my life, and then I'm gonna die.

I told you this is worse than Jonah.

Like, this is this is drives us mad.

What are we supposed to do with this?

I mean, we I say in the past, like we we should look for God, we should look for Christ in every text.

When you read the text, look for God in this.

But you read this, and you're where is God?

Like, this looks void of hope.

There's nothing here.

Vanity.

Sometimes you have to read past and and farther than 11 verses to find God in things.

And sometimes in life, you've got to get past some monotony to see God in some things.

Have you ever got on a treadmill and you're jogging or walking along and you look down and it says that you've gone three miles.

Actually, if you've ever been on a treadmill, you probably look down like what?

Every 10 seconds.

You're like, I I know by now I've got to that mile mark.

But you look down and you're like, okay, it says three miles.

And you're standing in the same exact spot.

You're looking out a window at traffic going by, and you haven't gone anywhere, but it says that you've gone three miles.

That's what life is like sometimes.

We're on a treadmill.

We're going and about, but we're not really getting anywhere.

And what are you gonna do to fill that?

Go out to eat?

I mean, come on.

Buy a new car, get a new phone, a new boyfriend, a new job.

Anything that you think that you're going to do to bring some amount of fulfillment, Solomon has already done it.

And he's sitting here saying everything is vanity.

How do we how do we hold on to this as truth?

How do we grasp Ecclesiastes as God's truth?

Because we believe that God has ordered everything, and that there is nothing outside of his plan, and that everything, everything, happens for a reason.

So how do we reconcile a book in the Bible that is saying that it seems like a bunch of stuff is happening and just it feels meaningless?

And there's this little phrase that I'm I want to want us to catch.

There's a little phrase that occurs a couple times in this passage.

Uh listen to verse 3.

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

And then in verse 9, what has been is what will be done, is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

You see that little phrase there, under the sun?

The author at this point in his life is viewing everything under the sun and is miserable.

When we only look at life under the sun, it feels absolutely hopeless.

It feels mundane, it feels, and if you're not there yet, just wait till you turn 20 and you'll get there.

Uh when we fix our eyes on what the world has to offer as the ultimate hope for everything, then everything feels like vanity.

Nothing has meaning.

And I want to encourage us, like the author has not done in the first 11 verses here.

I want to encourage us to look past the sun.

What you're doing is valuable because God is working something eternal in you and in others through you.

You can't see it.

You may never see it on this side of glory, but there is no wasted time.

There is nothing without purpose or meaning.

Everything is doing something, it's shaping us, it's molding us in a very uh on purpose, peculiar way so that we can share God's image that He has shaped us very uniquely in to share that image with other people.

God is doing something very intentional with you so that you can share a piece of his character with other people.

Listen to how well 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 16 through 18 answers some of this groaning in our soul.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

Our soul is crying out that everything is meaningless and nothing has purpose because what has been done is going to be done, and what's going to happen is going to happen, and it's all nothing.

2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18.

So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

When we look to the things that are under the sun, the things that we can see and we fixate on them, when we look at our job and our house and our budget and our kids, it leaves us feeling very unsatisfied.

We are not designed to find satisfaction in those things.

It's a frustrating endeavor that Solomon has taken on to find satisfaction under the sun, and it literally never works.

I know we use the word literally very loosely in our culture, but it literally never works to find satisfaction or fulfillment in the things of this earth, and that is on purpose.

That frustration that you feel should drive you to the only one that can satisfy.

We must look past the sun to the things that have not yet been seen by us.

We trust that God is doing something eternal in us that we don't have the capacity to understand right now.

Job loss, health loss, life loss, God is doing things that are beyond what we can even see.

We have to trust that.

We're Christians.

That's all we have.

All we have is Christ.

And we're when we're tempted to say, why what is what is happening?

Why is it the same stuff every day?

What is what value is there in this?

There's nothing new going on.

We look to the promises of God, not the promises of this earth.

First Corinthians 2 9 says, That I hasn't seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of man what God has prepared for those that love him.

Look to that.

Be reminded of that.

When we look past the sun and try to see things from an eternal perspective, it allows us to see some of these trivial things in our lives, some of these things that feel meaningless, some of these terribly difficult things, it allows us to see those as meaningful.

We don't know why, but we trust that they're meaningful.

Romans chapter 5, Rob just read this.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 5, verses 3 through 5.

Romans 5:3–5

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

There's meaning in all of it.

And I don't I'm not, I don't have like three application points to say, do this, this, and this to find meaning, because it's not in the text.

And I don't want to interject that into the text.

The text leaves us with a lot of questions.

And that's okay.

Take those questions to God.

But there is, we are called throughout all of Scripture to trust in the one that has the answers.

There's meaning in all of it.

Usually we don't get to see what it is.

We we like to hear these stories, you know, of like, well, uh, I was going through a huge and I didn't know why, and then 10 years later or 10 months later, I found out that it all led to something really amazing.

And that's nice, but the reality is that doesn't normally happen.

Uh, we're gonna go through the day-to-dayness, we're gonna go through brutal trials, a glimpse of face things that seem completely unfair, and we're not gonna have the answer.

And we may get a glimpse of it, but it's still very limited.

But we are called to trust God when we cannot see, when the death of a loved one seems meaningless, when raising kids for the next years, people seems too mundane to handle.

Uh when when walking with someone that keeps making the same stupid mistakes over and over again seems hopeless.

We look to the unseen.

We can't working things, look past the son to a loving father that's working things that you can't see and trust him.

Let's pray.