Ecclesiastes 1:1-18

Introduction to Ecclesiastes

The last time I was here we looked at two churches that were addressed by Jesus in Revelation.  Today we will go back to the Old Testament at a book that is near and dear to my own heart.  If you haven’t known by now by what you have read earlier, it is the book of Ecclesiastes. Today we will only focus on the first chapter of the book as it serves as an introduction to the rest of the content of the book.  My hope is that after today, everyone here will have the inclination or even a curiosity to read the rest of the book and study it on your own or with a group.

The word Ecclesiastes is taken from the Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “qohelet”, which means preacher, or the speaker of the assembly.

For now, let us read Ecclesiastes 1:1,

¹The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

King Solomon Part 1

The opening verse presents the speaker as a member of king David’s family, but his name is not mentioned.  Scholars have debated if this Preacher is Solomon, the son of David or a collection of other authors.  There are several reasons that indicate he could be the author.  First, he was the only son of David who became king of Jerusalem and over all of Israel.  Second, Ecclesiastes 1:12 upholds Solomon’s reputation for wisdom.  We know that out of everything else God could grant him; he asked God for wisdom as we read in 1 Kings 3:9-12,  

⁹ Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹ And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹² behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Ki 3:9–12.

If we read even further into the text, God did not just give Solomon wisdom, but He also gave him riches and honor on top of that.  Take note that the blessing that God gifted Solomon is everything that the world aspires to own.

In our current age we often highly regard our contemporaries who have achieved wealth, honor, and wisdom.  A Korean American by the name of Jonny Kim at one point in his life was a member of the Navy Seals, which is an elite special force of the American Navy that only a select few can be a part of.  Once he was bored of being a Navy Seal, he went to Harvard and became a doctor, and then when he ultimately became bored of that, he then became an astronaut.  For us this man has reached the pinnacle of human achievement, and I would really hate to be his older brother because there is no way in a country mile that I could ever compete with him.  Regardless, Solomon was the “Jonny Kim” of his time but with more prestige and wisdom.  Solomon is an example of the peak of human achievement. However, we then see in Ecclesiastes 1:2 that despite his wisdom, riches, and honor, he states,

² Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

The preacher states the term “vanities of vanities”.  In the Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, “The Hebrew literary form X of X indicates the superlative and adds to the intensity of the statement (King of Kings; Song of songs; holy of holies) – not only vanity but absolute vanity.  The phrase emphasizes not only intensity, but also comprehensiveness – all is vanity.”

The literal translation of the Hebrew word “hebel” is vapor.  The Preacher uses the word vapor figuratively to be understood as “vanity,” “meaninglessness,” “insubstantial,” or “futile.” It is like breath, a puff of wind, or an airy nothingness.  The NIV and NLT better illustrates the phrase to be “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless.”

Starting in verse 3 and then throughout Ecclesiastes, Solomon would repeat the phrase “under the sun.”  Before we determine what he means by this phrase, let us first recall in Genesis 3:17-19,

¹⁷ And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,  ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;  ¹⁸   thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. ¹⁹   By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,  till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 3:17–19.

At the time when Adam and Eve sinned against God, the whole world was subjected to a curse. The effects of God cursing creation in Genesis has made everything “under the sun” meaningless.  Before the fall, work was pleasant and it guaranteed fulfillment of a good yield.  After the fall, any output man exerts does not necessarily guarantee an equal result.  Ultimately, any work we have accomplished in life will always be negated by death. In Ecclesiastes 1:3 it says,

            ³ What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

When I first received my first permanent job, it was an exciting time as I felt that I could achieve almost anything my heart desired; I can now afford going to places that I want, purchase almost all the material things I longed for compared to when I was broke, and now I can achieve anything money can buy.  It was not long after this “honeymoon” stage at work that I find out that, I could not go to places I wanted because I had to physically be at work; I could not afford everything I wanted; and I could not focus on the pleasures of life because I am again stuck at work for 8-10 hours a day.  Furthermore, I reflected upon this cycle of going to work every day for thirty to forty years until I retire, provided that God willing, I would still be alive at that time.  At retirement, I would already be too old to physically accomplish what I only dreamt of doing when I was in my twenties.  It seems now the more we get older, the more that time seems to go faster.

I ultimately asked myself the question, is this what life is all about, being in a rat race?  Are we all working in the present just to prepare for death?  An old Chinese proverb says,

“The emperor is rich, but he cannot buy one extra year.”  We can work for the rest of our lives and accumulate riches, but in the end it will not matter.

When we look at the phrase “under the sun”, it is not considered to mean in our contemporary sense as anything during summer or at the beach.  It is a Hebrew phrase that signifies a perspective limited to earthly life under the horizon, or basically a life apart from God.  “Under the sun” is not only limited to atheistic thinking but it can also apply to religious people as well.

To better explain it, we can understand verse 3 as “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils ‘apart from God?’” or without God?

I was doom scrolling through social media and ironically came across an inspiring story about an impoverished widowed Hmong farmer in Thailand who sacrificed almost all he had in order to financially support his son’s college education.

At the time the photo was taken, the son had successfully graduated college and he said his father was his biggest pride.  Looking at the photograph, words do not need to convey the extent of the father’s sacrifice. But if we look at verse 3 of Ecclesiastes chapter 1, the fact remains that apart from God, what the poor farmer did for his son, and what the son will eventually achieve, will ultimately be meaningless. We will see why as we continue on in chapter 1.  It is a depressing reflection when we see life confined “under the sun”.

In Ecclesiastes 1:4 it says,

⁴A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

In the 1940s the world witnessed atrocities in concentration camps in Europe by Nazi Germany.  We thought that as a civilization, we would not repeat the same mistakes of treating our fellow human beings this way.

Not long after in 1975, the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia conducted one of the most heinous genocides against its own people by systematically rounding up mostly educated citizens and anyone else they hated, and sending them off to the Killing Fields to be massacred. The Khmer Rouge would document all their victims by taking their photographs.

You may ask why I am showing these photos, and the reason is that this is the result of life “under the sun” – without God.  Generations have come and gone throughout the ages.  We think that with the generations that will follow, humanity would progress for the better however, the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same, as history tends to repeat itself.  It only took 30 years in between for the above examples of genocide to occur again in human history.

Let us read Ecclesiastes 1:5-6.

⁵ The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. ⁶The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

History repeating itself is much like the sun rising and going down, and the wind blowing from south to north.  These passages illustrate the futility and brevity of life.  The world is shown as a continuing cycle and that the individual’s life has little effect on the world.  Solomon is basically saying, if the world is under a continuous cycle of repetition “under the sun”, then what is the point of life when there will ultimately be no progress? Several religions like Buddhism have tried to break away from this cycle “under the sun”.

Buddhism- Samsara cycle  

The point of Buddhism is to break the cycle of rebirth and suffering (Samsara) by disassociating oneself from things “under the sun”.  Buddhist and Hindus believe that people are subjected to reincarnation in that they are in a constant perpetual cycle of birth and death.  This philosophy from these religions mirrors the meaninglessness that Solomon states in these verses.  The ultimate liberation from this cycle of birth and death and ultimately suffering is what Buddhists call Nirvana.  However, Nirvana requires the individual to completely eradicate any self-interests, desire for personal gain, attachments, cravings, and personal dislikes.  I believe that no one has ever attained Nirvana, even Buddha himself, for the simple fact that Nirvana will require us to be ultimately free from our innate sinful nature.  It is impossible to disassociate ourselves from our sinful nature in this side of life.

Let us continue on with Ecclesiastes 1:7-8.

⁷All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. ⁸ll things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

In addition to showing that life involves cycles, verse 7 and verse 8 uses the example of the sea never being full, the eye not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing to show the unsatisfying nature of life.  Jim Carrey, a famous actor at one point said,

“I hope everybody could get rich and famous and will have everything they ever dreamed of, so they will know that is not the answer.”  There is definitely one person who will agree with him, and that is Solomon.  Just as the sea is never full, people struggle to be filled or find satisfaction in life “under the sun.”

Let us read Ecclesiastes 1:9-10.

⁹ 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. ¹⁰Is there a thing of which it is said,  “See, this is new”?  It has been already in the ages before us.

A quote from the Manners & Customs of the Bible reads, “The author of Ecclesiastes complains frequently in the book about the monotony of life. His phrase “nothing new under the sun” has come down through the centuries to express that sense of sameness in all that happens.”

James M. Freeman and Harold J. Chadwick, Manners & Customs of the Bible (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 337–338.

I am currently holding a phone which was considered new 3 years ago.  Now it has been replaced with a newer and more powerful model which has the ability to capture better cinematic videos as compared to my current phone.  Any new novelties in life such as newer phones and gadgets will never satisfy our soul.  Every new thing we gain will ultimately leave us unsatisfied.  Like a drug we will always pursue new novelties in an attempt to cure our lack of satisfaction.

In Ecclesiastes 1:11 it says,

¹¹ There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

In generations to come our memories will continually fade.  People’s legacies will be forgotten in future generations as only a handful of people will be remembered.  If you ask me who my great grandfathers are from either my mother or father’s side, I would not be able to tell you what their names were, much less what they have done in their lives.  My grandfather knows my great grandfather well based on his experiences with him as his son.  My dad would have some knowledge of my great grandfather based on his experience with him as his grandson.  For me, I never had the opportunity to meet him face to face or even catch a glimpse of him on a photograph.  In my generation, my great grandfather is nothing more than a complete stranger to me.  As subsequent generations come, your memory as person who lived in history will continue to grow dim.

King Solomon Part 2

Starting in verse 12 Solomon shifts his attention in addressing the meaninglessness of wisdom itself.  Does this mean that what we read in Proverbs is meaningless?  We need to remember that the meaninglessness described in Ecclesiastes is within the context of a life without an external perspective – a life without God.  It is through this lens that we see in the following verses how wisdom is meaningless for Solomon.

Let us read Ecclesiastes 1:12-14.

¹² I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹⁴ I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Solomon who was gifted wisdom still pursued wisdom from the world and found it like chasing after the wind, which is impossible to grasp.

Let us continue and read Ecclesiastes 1:15.

¹⁵What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

As quoted from the Faithlife Study Bible, “This phrase can be understood in a moral sense as a reference to injustice; it can also be understood as a reference to the limitations of human intellect.”

John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Ec 1:15.

We have all faced injustices in life to certain degrees and it is ultimately the cause of our sin.  That is the unfortunate consequence God has subjected us all to experience, as it says in Ecclesiastes 7:13,

      ¹³Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?

In Ecclesiastes 1:16-17 it says,

¹⁶ I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

The world today contains a significant number of self-help books, books about philosophy, and scientific journals in an attempt to understand the purpose of life and how it can be meaningful.  So far, no one has ever arrived at the solution “under the sun”.  No matter how much knowledge we gain in university and college, we will always come up short.  Even when we cover all of our walls with degrees, on our deathbeds those degrees will be worthless.  It reminds me of a couple who used to come to this church.  The woman from this couple was distinguished with various degrees in the sciences with a PhD in Biology.  She however, suffered with depression and the sheer knowledge and wisdom she received with those degrees, did not help her assuage her depression.  Eventually, she took her own life one day and left her husband alone in the world.  I remember that despite losing his wife, that even in a state of his heart-sunken grief, he thanked the members of the church for their continuous prayers regarding her battle with depression. Instead of giving us freedom, the more we pursue wisdom “under the sun”, the more it gets us closer to a dead end.

In Ecclesiastes 1:18 it says,

     ¹⁸For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Instead of wisdom resolving Solomon’s problem, it only compounds it.  Profound thought results in sorrow and grief. Greater knowledge results in greater pain.

Ignorance is bliss

The phrase “Ignorance is bliss” is a phrase created by the English poet Thomas Gray in his poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.”  The phrase basically means that in certain circumstances, it is better not to know all the facts about a situation.  Has anyone of you ever wondered where the lithium batteries for your electronics come from?  Have you ever purchased a replacement lithium battery from Amazon or Temu?

There was an article from AP News about child labors in Nigeria’s illegal lithium mines.  These children as young as 5 years old were forced to work from early morning to late evening to “sort and bag up to 10 25-kilogram bags of lithium-rich rock a day.”  Due to abject poverty, a 6-year-old girl was pulled out of school by her family, who felt they couldn’t afford to send two children to school that they prioritized sending only her 11-year-old brother.  The lithium ores would then be sold to various Chinese companies through the black market.  The Chinese companies would then manufacture lithium batteries or distribute them to actual manufacturers. These batteries would then be sold into the world market and consumers like us would be none the wiser.  This is a case where we come to realize a certain evil in the world exists that we are ultimately complicit in, but have no power as individuals to stop it.  Brothers and sisters, evil itself is a product of our sinful nature – a life apart from God.  The more we come to know of the evils in this world, the more it increases our sorrow.

If the Lord had blessed Solomon with wisdom and he was in fellowship with God, why is it that he still expressed that everything is meaningless “under the sun?”  It is told in 1 Kings 11 that Solomon acquired for himself 700 wives and 300 concubines for pleasure and also for political treaties. Unfortunately, this act caused him to become unfaithful to the Lord and worship the gods that his wives introduced to him.  Among these gods is Molech who is associated with child sacrifice.  It was not explicitly stated if he personally participated in child sacrificial practices but he did allow the people in his kingdom to practice it as we see in 1 Kings 11:7-8,

⁷ Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. ⁸ And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

Instead of Solomon maintaining his trust in the Lord, he trusted in his own wisdom – the one God gave him, and everything else outside of God – “under the sun”.  He trusted more on the gift rather than the giver.  Solomon’s folly caused his kingdom to be divided during his son’s reign.

Conclusion

The Bible did not explicitly state that Solomon repented however, I would like to believe that near the end of his life, he did.  That his repentance included him writing Ecclesiastes as a case study and a warning to others that without God, life is truly meaningless, and it is only in God that life is meaningful.  It states in Ecclesiastes 12:11-14,

¹¹ The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. ¹² My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

¹³ The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. ¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

To fear God is not only having reverence for Him, it also involves us to have faith in Him just as Abraham, Moses, King David, and King Solomon (at the beginning of his reign as king), did. The outcome of this faith is obedience towards Him in keeping His commandments. In the end of Ecclesiastes, this was the conclusion that the preacher Solomon concluded regarding life.

The point Ecclesiastes is providing to us is that a life confined to the horizons of this world will never find satisfaction.  As we learned in last week’s sermon, Jesus is the living water and the only source of our satisfaction.  From the first chapter of Ecclesiastes that we have read so far, does any of it relate to you?  Do you find that you are trapped in a life under the sun?  If so, then we need to have a change in perspective.

We should not focus on life “under the sun” to give us meaning but life “in the Son”.

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