Part 2 of 3
In the previous article, we noted that one of the keys to interpreting the book of Ecclesiastes is to recognize that Solomon speaks about life from two viewpoints. The first is what we may describe as the godless perspective while the second is the godly viewpoint.
In his prologue to the book, which is found in the first eleven verses, Solomon speaks from the first viewpoint, which is restricted to what is seen and what is temporal.
He tells us at least five things which he observes about life and the world around from such a perspective. The first is that labour or work is futile.
Observation 1: Labour is futile (v. 3)
Verse 3, “What profit hath a man of all his labours which he taketh under the sun?”
Now this is meant to be a rhetorical question. No answer is expected. None is needed because the answer is so obvious.
There is no profit or gain or benefit to all of man’s labours! How can there be when all is futile and everything is meaningless, as verse 2 says.
In chapter 2 verse 11, the preacher makes this point again, this time in the form of a clear statement, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”
After a life of hard labour and toil, a man has nothing that is of lasting worth and value. Everything he has accomplished and gained is like vapour or wind.
Just imagine standing in front of a fan or standing at the window when the wind is blowing and trying to catch or lay hold upon the wind? What futility and foolishness, and yet that is precisely what a man is doing when he labours and toils in this world without the thought of God and of eternity.
Well, the preacher goes on in verses 4-7 to make another observation, namely, life is an endless cycle. So not only is all labour futile but life itself is an endless cycle.
Observation 2: Life is an endless cycle (vv. 4-7)
The preacher describes for us the cycles of nature.
First, there is the cycle of the generations. Verse 4 tells us that one generation comes and goes and another generation replaces it, and another and another. Each generation lives but for a short time and then is gone. There is no permanence to human generations.
In fact, the preacher contrasts the temporal nature of human existence with the seeming permanence and immutability of the earth. “One generation passes away, and another generation comes, but the earth abides for ever.”
The earth is like a stage. Different actors come on stage to perform for a while and then they leave, and are replaced by another set of actors. The one thing that doesn’t change is the stage. It remains and abides long after the actors have come and gone and even passed away.
But here’s the irony. In the beginning, God created the earth for the sake of man. Man was to have dominion over the earth. But because of man’s sin, death came upon him so that the lord of the earth now dissolves into the dust of the earth. He passes away whereas the earth remains.
Next, in verses 5-7, the preacher turns to the world of nature and describes its activity in terms of an endless cycle.
We read, “The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.”
In short, there is never any real progress. There is constant activity but it never gets anywhere. Everything goes on as it always has done and there is no advance.
The sun rises and the sun goes down and returns to the place where it arose. The wind blows and blows, only to come back to where it started. The rivers run into the sea but never fill the sea because of what we have come to know as the water cycle – evaporation, condensation, precipitation and so on. This is the way of nature. The activity never ends, but it never seems to get anywhere.
The point that the preacher is making is the monotony and the futility of the cycles of nature. Life is one endless and even boring and meaningless cycle. No destination, no forward movement, no progress, just the same thing over and over again.
What’s the point of it all? What is accomplished by all this activity? Nothing. Nothing at all. And hence the refrain of verse 2 – vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
So labour is futile and nature is an endless and meaningless cycle.
The preacher goes on to make a third observation in verse 8, which we may summarize in the words, “Life is wearisome and without satisfaction.”
Observation 3: Life is wearisome and without satisfaction (v. 8)
Verse 8, “All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”
The phrase “all things are full of labour” can be translated “all things are wearisome” or “all things are full of weariness or tiredness.” There is no relief, no rest from it. The phrase “man cannot utter it” literally means “beyond words.”
What the preacher is saying is that the wearisomeness and the futility of life is so profound and deep that it cannot even be put into words. The weariness of all things is so mind-boggling that it exceeds human ability to describe it.
When I read this verse, the picture of Atlas comes to my mind. Some of you would have seen pictures of this poor fellow by the name of Atlas carrying the world upon his shoulders. According to Greek Mythology, Atlas was a lesser god who was punished by Zeus, the king of the gods, for a crime he committed, and his punishment was to hold up the world and to bear its immense weight upon his shoulders forever. What misery and what weariness that must be!
But Solomon tells us that life under the sun is like that. All things are wearisome, so wearisome that words cannot describe it adequately.
He goes on in verse 8 to say, “the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” The key word is satisfaction. There is no lasting satisfaction under the sun. Nothing can satisfy the senses. The eye sees and sees, and the ear hears and hears but neither knows what true satisfaction is.
Men are never satisfied with the things that they have or the things that they have experienced. They want more and they want newer things…
… to be continued
—Ps Linus Chua