What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun
rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to
the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on
its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the
place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome,
more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill
of hearing. 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. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will
not be remembered by those who follow them. ~Ecclesiastes 1:3-11
I thought that it might be interesting, for the next few days, to explore more
about Solomon, the teacher, himself. I thought we could do this best through
his book of Ecclesiastes, since this book is more a series of his personal reflections
on how he has personally experienced life, more than all the proverbs that he
used to impart wisdom to others. You could say that the book of Ecclesiastes is
more like Solomon’s personal journal than his instruction manual.
You can tell pretty much, right away that Solomon is writing this as an elderly
gentleman. Song of Solomon and the Proverbs were all written while he was
younger, full of ambition and drive and possibilities. He thought he had the
world by the tale. He probably felt invincible. After all, God had practically
promised him that back at the beginning of his reign when he asked for wisdom
and God was so pleased with him that he offered to throw in wealth and power as
a bonus. He was unstoppable.
His massive building projects had worked out well. Everything he touched seemed
to be blessed. He was admired by all the nations for his wisdom. You could say
that he was pretty much the Midas of his day. He didn’t just have a silver
spoon in his mouth, his spoon was golden because silver would have been
considered too common for his day. (1 Kings 10:27)
Now, Solomon is old. He has accomplished everything that he set out to do. Now,
he is reflecting on all his busyness and he’s asking himself, “So what?” I’ve
talked before about those who get to the top of the ladder and suddenly
discover that the ladder was leaning up against the wrong wall. In many ways,
Solomon has suffered that fate. He is a major character in scripture who,
despite what he knew, got his priorities all wrong and now, he needs to reflect
on it.
As he writes, he invites us to look over his shoulder and read what he has to
say. I’ve heard it said that Ecclesiastes is the favorite book of the atheist. I
can see why many might think that. The way Solomon describes the life here, God
does not seem to be involved. It’s just nature; always was, always, is always
will be the same. But since this book is in the Bible, we can trust that there
is something deeper going on. Solomon really gets to the point after he has
belabored the atheist argument for 11 chapters! But even now, a believer can
see a lesson in this passage, that glorifies God when we take our eyes
off the seen world and lift them to the throne above.
In this first snippet, Solomon is reflecting on what is often called in our
modern age, “the circle of life.” There are even songs written about the circle
of life that is experienced in the seen world today. Life does seem to come in
cycles. There is the rotation of the four seasons. Solomon refers to the path
of the sun that rises, crosses the sky, disappears and does it again the next
day. There is birth, growing old, dying and being forgotten by those in the
next cycle. The way Solomon describes it can seem pretty depressing and futile.
Even this isn’t quite accurate, however. Think about it. Did you celebrate a
grandchild’s birthday this year? Well, for that child, and for all of us, we
will never experience a year of seasons at our present age again. Hopefully, as
the circles continue, we will build onto our lives and grow in knowledge so
that when November comes round again, we will be wiser, and maybe even better
at some skill, than we are right now.
The seen world may be a circle, but the personal one and the unseen world can
be a spiral as we build and grow on what has come before. Sadly, what is most
obvious, and what Solomon seems to forget is, the God factor. Solomon sees the
circle of life in the seen world, but he does not here mention the spiral of
life in the unseen one. He doesn’t seem to acknowledge how one generation
builds on another to add to the foundation that has been laid.
When we begin, we don’t start from scratch as a true circle would imply. We
start on the foundation laid by our parents and ancestors. And when we come
around, we get back to where we began, but we are a little more advanced than
where we were before. I think that Solomon was expecting that whatever he did
would be the completion of something. He was hoping to lay the corner and
capstone of what he created. But that only works for actual buildings. It’s not
a realistic view of life itself. So, Solomon spoke as if what he had done
accomplished nothing and therefore, his efforts were futile.
With God, however, life does not have to appear this way. As a perfect example,
consider the church itself. It began so tiny. There was Jesus, who left, and
the eleven surviving disciples. They added to their number until around 120
were in the upper room on that day when the Holy Spirit burst forth and empowered
them to spread the gospel to the known world. The spiral of life continued.
People were born, came to Christ, built on the work of the disciples, left the
seen world and others stepped into the spiral to continue the work. As they did
so, the Kingdom of God continued to grow in the seen world and the population
of the unseen world continued to grow as well with a growth that will always be
expanding because once there, you will be there forever!!
Only Jesus will be the corner and capstone of what He has created. Solomon wrote
as if he had hoped to do what only Jesus can be. We see acknowledgment of the
spiral in the other followers of God in the Old Testament. How many promises
did God make to those who believed even though they would not experience its
fulfillment? There is Abraham who never saw Canaan as his homeland and never
experienced his seed being as many as the stars in the sky. He was a corner
stone and trusted that the cap would come.
King David believed in Messiah, though he would never meet Him in the seen
world. Prophets prophesied to things they would never experience. Why? Because,
rather than be depressed at the circle of life, they understood that in God,
life is a spiral that is building and improving and growing throughout the
years, beyond what we will see in the seen world.
This is a lesson for the church. We need to always be thinking about the next
generation after us. We need to be building foundations and leaving resources
that they can build on into their future for those who will come after. We
don’t need to be forgotten as Solomon laments here. We can be appreciated for
the foundation that we have laid, at our place on the spiral so that as the spiral
of life continues, it will be improved and built upon for the generations to
come.
Prayer: Father, thank you for the deeper insight that turns a meaningless
circle of life into a developing spiral directed by Your sovereignty. Help me
to do my part in the body of Christ, to build more progress on the progress we
have made thus far. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Grace, mercy and peace,
Greg & Kathy
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