THE
BIBLE JESUS READ—ECCLESIASTES: TWO VIEWS OF THE WORLD
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
The book of Ecclesiastes is certainly one of
the most unsettling reads in all of the Scriptures. And though this
troubling book dates from the time of
Solomon, it finds a home in our era better perhaps than at any other time since
its origin. It is a devastating exposure of the inadequacies of Post Modern
Existentialism. Solomon went in his day where few before our day could
go—profound excess as a way of life! When all a man sees is excess, he is his
then most blind to God.
MEANINGLESS,
MEANINGLESS!
1. The
more familiar “vanity,” used 35 times in Ecclesiastes, has a basic meaning of
“futility,” or “meaningless” (1:2).
2. The
word strongly suggests absurdity.
3. Life
is unfair; nothing makes sense; the whole world is twisted; what’s the use!
4. Far
from the praise of righteousness and wisdom in the preceding book
of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes actually makes fun of them both (8:14; 1:18; 2:13-14;
6:8,12).
5. All
is absurd!
6. All
is vanity!
THE CURSE OF GETTING
WHAT YOU WANT
1. Solomon
was in a rare circumstance of being able to live a life of excessive
self-indulgence (1:1, 12, 16; 2:4-9; 7:26-29; 12:9-10).
2. Wealth,
pleasure, power, intelligence, and wisdom were available to him in great
measure.
3. With
self-indulgence goes a sense of meaninglessness.
4. Those
who struggle to survive may become defiant, grim, passionate for justice, and
develop a stronger faith, but the kind of vanity experienced by Solomon is
reserved almost exclusively for those who live with a focus on excess.
5. Job
had a deep despair, but it is quite different from that of Solomon.
6. Consider
Solomon’s particular anguish (1:13, 17-18 2:1-11; 7:15-17).
THE BURDEN
1. Solomon
and all humans have a burden from God (1:13; 3:10).
2. Its
improper satisfaction was first attempted in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:4-5).
3. Man
is not God and he cannot be happy trying to be God.
4. The more technologically advanced a society
becomes the more it is marked by family breakdown, drug addiction, abortion,
violent crime, and suicide, and meaninglessness.
5. Whatever
humans touch they impair.
6. Modern
excesses have led to an unprecedented sense of despair.
ETERNITY IN OUR
HEARTS
1. While
we are not gods, God has made us in His image.
2. We
thus have longings that we cannot satisfy on our own (3:1-11).
3. We
are prone toward religion, we see beauty, we contemplate pleasure, we desire
happiness. Why? How can such things find true satisfaction?
4. God
has made us to be unfulfilled apart from Him.
5. “Our
souls are restless until they find rest in Thee.” Augustine
6. The
world and the universe are too big for us (11:5).
7. Ecclesiastes
is a much needed reminder for our culture that there are profound limitations
to being human.
8. Even
Solomon could not bear the burden alone of an eternity in his heart wanting to
be filled.
THE END OF THE MATTER
1. Ecclesiastes
12:13-14.
2. “Under
the sun,” a phrase used thirty-two times in Ecclesiastes, is where there can be
no real meaning (cf. Col.3:1-2).
3. Excessively
self-indulgent as our modern world is, their excesses only compound the problem
by taking them into self-reliance instead of into God.
4. “To
believe in God means to see that the facts of the world are not the end of the
matter.” Ludwig Wittgenstein
5. Cold,
under the sun logic, can only produce: vanity, emptiness, futility,
meaninglessness, and absurdity.
6. Jesus
put it best, “What is a man profited if he gains the whole world, but loses his
own soul” (Matt. 16:26)?
7. We
must not be deceived by the vanity of getting what we want.
8. Only
God can fill the empty space He has put in our heart (Matt. 11:28-30).
Edwin
9/17/00
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