Meaninglessness and Wisdom - Ecclesiastes 1:1-18; 2:12-16

This week we’re beginning a journey through the book of Ecclesiastes. This book is part of the Wisdom books in the Old Testament, books that reflect on life and life well lived as followers of God. J.A Louder observes, “Wisdom is concerned with the correct ordering of live. Wise action is that which integrates people harmoniously into the order God has created. The rules of life that prescribe how human beings must integrate themselves into that order are the precept of wisdom.” Scripture describes wisdom as living well with God, others, creation, and with ourselves, living according to God’s will. Wisdom is living according to who God created us to be as images of him in his world. Ecclesiastes calls us back to an awareness of God.

Ecclesiastes is written with 2 voices, a narrator and the Teacher. The Teacher’s talking to people like himself who are caught up in the things and values of this world, looking for something to fill the hole in their heart. God’s distant, not part of their everyday awareness. The Teacher is calling us to an awareness of our God who is close and engaged in our world. The Teacher’s a son from the line of David, some believe this is Solomon, while others believe it’s a later king or leader in Judah. Even though the author’s not definitively known, the Jewish people and church recognizes the wisdom within the book and how it’s relevant to every time and age.

The Teacher begins, “Hevel, hevel, everything is hevel.” Hevel has often been translated as “meaninglessness,” in Hebrew the literal meaning is “vapour” or “breath” or “smoke.” These are things that look like they’re solid and have substance, and yet when you try to grab hold of them, they simply slip through your fingers. As we journey through Ecclesiastes, this thought will come up again and again, the things we often chase end up having little or no lasting meaning or importance, they end up simply vapour or smoke. Ecclesiastes is written from a “this world” perspective, “life under the sun,” showing that the things we strive for end up as vapour or smoke because we chase them without God in mind. The Teacher is aware of how our daily lives are mostly lived apart from an awareness of God.

When we look at life, we see much beauty, wonder, and good in the world. Yet it can all disappear in a moment of tragedy. It feels then as if everything has slipped through your fingers. There’s right and wrong and justice, so why are good people hurt so often? As much as we want to control our lives, life’s unpredictable and can feel as if we’re “chasing after the wind.” The big theme through Ecclesiastes is found in verse 3, “What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?” As we go through the book, we will encounter the word “gain” 8 more times, the word “toil” 22 times, and the phrase “under the sun” 29 times.

Over the next 12 chapters, the Teacher is going to challenge the tendency we have to invest so much of our time and energy, and even our emotions, into things that ultimately are not going to matter, things that are “hevel.” Verses 4,5,6,7 reflect on verse 3’s question about what do we gain through all our work. These verses are written in what is called poetic parallelism: 2 thoughts put together in order to compare or contrast, here in these verses, to emphasize the sameness found in the rhythms of the world; nothing ever changes, so why bother working so hard. Professor Lisa M. Wolfe writes, “Qoheleth uses hevel poetically…. Poetry as a genre often prompts its readers to thoughtfulness about the meaning of life.”

In verse 4, the Teacher talks about how people are born and die, but only world lasts forever. Our lives are so short compared to the existence of the world, so what can we really expect to accomplish? We can work our fingers to the bone yet what kind of lasting mark do we really leave on the world? He goes on in verse 5 about how the sun rises and falls, repeating over and over again the same each day. If you’ve seen one sunrise or sunset, you’ve basically seen them all, and if you’ve never seen one, there is always another one coming. In verse 6, he turns his attention to how the wind blows north and then south, always following the same pattern, over and over again. It may blow stronger or lighter, but ultimately it all just repeats itself. The fascinating example for me is how the streams all flow into the sea and the sea’s never full – like our efforts to make more, have more pleasure, gain more wealth, power, knowledge, whatever – it never really amounts to anything, even the wisest man in history Solomon died. Even with all his wisdom, he still ends up kneeling down before meaningless idols for the sake of his wives. It makes us think about what idols we have in our own lives that we bow down to, who do we raise up in the place of God, what do we let have power over us? How much smoke do we fill our hearts with?

Jesus warns us against placing too much value or weight into the things of this world. He tells his disciples a parable about a rich man in Luke 12:16–20, “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” You can work so hard to become so wealthy that you can take it easy for the rest of your life, but we really have no idea how long that might be. When we die, no matter how much we have, it all stays behind for someone else.

Jesus warns his disciples about what’s really important in Matthew 16:24–26, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” Jesus warns us that what we work hard for “under the sun” also demands our attention, and even our worship, Matthew 6:19–21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” It’s amazing where our heart’s desire will lead us, and if our desire’s not Jesus, but something “under the sun,” it won’t be towards what has weight and importance.

Verse 9 in Ecclesiastes 1 reminds us, “there is nothing new under the sun.” That’s the answer to verse 3’s question, “What do people gain from all their labours at which they toil under the sun?” Our pride tells us that we’re unique and wiser than all those who’ve come before, that our wisdom is greater, and yet it all slips away in the end if it’s all done only “under the sun,” rather than approaching life from the perspective of God. Living only “under the sun” brings no hope for now or the future. If nothing ever changes, why bother trying. Paul gets at this in Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Their thinking became futile, just vapour with no substance or weight or value. They know God but fail to glorify or give thanks to God, making themselves the center of their universe and importance, living only “under the sun.” Everything we chase that’s not Jesus is vapour.

In Ecclesiastes, the Teacher concedes that in the short run, it’s better to be wise than foolish, but the Teacher looks way down the road. In the short run, fools might suffer for their foolishness, but in the long run, it doesn’t make much difference; both the fool and the wise person die. Into a world more focused on living “under the sun” than living under God, Jesus comes to do something brand new. The one through whom all things were created comes into life’s rough, hard places and goes to the Place of the Skull to be crucified, taking on the world because he loves us so much. Jesus shows us that we don’t need to put our trust or find our identity in the things we’ve gathered for ourselves, but rather in him, the one who came to show us the path of humility and vulnerability. He calls us to trust and live under him alone, to find our hope in him. Our identity comes from Jesus who is over all things, who created everything “under the sun,” who calls us to care for all things “under the sun” for him, giving us purpose and belonging.