Ecclesiastes 1:1,2

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Ecclesiastes 1:1

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

Sounds impressive. A communicator of the Word (QO-HE-LET)

Refers to the one who brings the assembly together; which the communicator does. It is a fem. participle which looks at the actions being a response, in this case to God's leading.

In the Hiphil stem it means to assemble and I think we can apply that to the work that will follow. The communicator assembles information and comes to a conclusion.

He is the son of David, and king in Jerusalem:

With those credentials you might expect to hear a glowing testimony of a man's walk with God, but then there is verse two.

Ecclesiastes 1:2

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

The word VANITY is the Hebrew HE-BEL and in its simplest form looks at breath, wind, that which is empty and worthless. It is used three ways in the O.T.

1. For the false gods worshiped by the people. They were nothing, empty.

2. For the vain labor of man, working hard, ending up with nothing

3. As with its 36 uses in Ecclesiasties it views the shortness of life and those things that man so earnestly seeks after, yet are like trying to catch the wind.

This verse is blunt, it is intended to shock the reader out of complacency. It is designed to rock the boat, shake the tree, and it pull the chain. To stir us up in our often secular humanistic view point of the value of life.

And it does just that . . .

Now what has caused Solomon, the wealthiest most powerful ruler of his time and the times of others to come to such a miserable conclusion of life.

I READ THESE WORDS AND ALMOST get a picture of a middle aged man sitting on a bar stool, crying in his beer, and uttering over and over again . . . emptiness, emptiness, all is emptiness.

Now considering who said this and considering who he was and that he is just about 40 years old, we have to ask what has brought Solomon to this point:

PRINCIPLES:

1. Solomon lived life doing things his own way

2. He knew what God wanted but thought he had better and more realistic ideas

3. He failed to deal with his disobedience and sin

4. Yet during the first 20 years of his reign God was gracious, full of mercy, and patient

5. But then, as mid life approached, something happened that became a catalyst that would bring Solomon to the edge of revisionism and despair.

6. This perhaps was the first time he could not do what he wanted to do, he could not have what he wanted to have, he could not, by wealth or force or position, have his hearts desires . . . for the first time, he failed.

7. And the one thing he wanted that he could not have is the subject of the Song of Solomon . . . the Shulimite woman. Who chose her shepherd over the king.

Listen to the shepherd's words to his beloved:

SOS 1:15 How beautiful you are, my darling, How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves.

And her words to him:

SOS 1:16 How handsome you are, my beloved, And so pleasant! Indeed, our couch is luxuriant! The beams of our houses are cedars, Our rafters, cypresses.

Then listen to Solomon's dismal conclusion:

SOS 8:6-7 For love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as severe as Sheol . . . Many waters cannot quench love, Nor will rivers overflow it; If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly despised.

He would have given all his wealth for her, but she said no. And that was the catalyst, that was what pushed him over the edge and finds him siting in despair writing Emptiness of emptiness, all is emptiness.

PRINCIPLES:

1. God loves us and wants us to see the value of dependence upon Him and Him alone

2. God is longsuffering and patient with us. His mercy is great in that at times it holds back even the discipline we deserve.

3. God will allow us to fail, allow us to lose, allow us to not get what we want in order to being us to Him.

4. Often our drive and determination, our youthful ambition, our ability and self resolve will allow us to obtain even what is not in God's best interests or our best interests.

5. But then comes a time in God's mercy and love and grace, where He says NO. And we fail.

6. If a man's significance in life is built around his ability and achievements, this failure will result in a crisis.

7. And this is where Solomon is, at mid life, 40 years old, having faced failure, and instead of turning to God he turns to a pursuit of significance in the secular.

But now, at the end of his life he looks back on that pursuit for significance and proclaims, emptiness . . . all is emptiness.

AS SOLOMON EXAMINES WISDOM HE DOES SO ON both the track of the secular and the track of the Spiritual:

Solomon takes a look at life around him, at his own life a part from fellowship with God, and sees three elements at work. These elements of life intrude upon man's secular wisdom. These three elements assume that God is irrelevant, that God is out of picture. And with that secular approach to life these three things will encompass man:

1. The first is death: Death is a rather serious problem for the human race. The person who puts all his eggs in life's earthly basket will soon discover that life is going to end. In our youth we may think we will live forever but then, maybe around 40 or so, we recognize that are days are numbered.

Ecc 2:16 For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as it also is with the fool, inasmuch as in the coming days all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool alike die!

2. The second intrusion upon secular wisdom is evil: Evil is present in the world. It can be found anywhere. We see injustice where we should see justice, we oppression when we see compassion, we observe greed and exploitation rather than benevolence. Social systems that are intended to help, end up hurting.

Ecc 9:3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

3. The third element is chance: Solomon explodes the myth that man can master their own welfare much less their own fate. Time and chance will eventually get to everyone. A part from God every decision is a roll of the dice which will at times make the player the loser.

Ecc 9:12 Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net, and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.

Too many other forces, greater than man's resolve and determination, are at work in the world for man to not experience the intrusion of chance, what some might call just plain bad luck, into his secular wisdom.

So Solomon meets man on man's level. He assumes God is not in the picture and from his wisdom, but perhaps more from his experience, he sees that life even at its best is open to the intrusions of death, evil, and chance.

It is no wonder that he proclaims even at the end of the story: Vanity or vanities, emptiness of emptiness, all is vanity, all is empty.

Ecc 1:2 and Ecc 12:8 is the somber declaration of the meaningless of life. These are the bookends of despair.

BUT THAT IS NOT ALL THERE IS. Solomon also explores the track of divine or spiritual wisdom and in that he declares that life has meaning, it is worth living, and can be lived with Joy. In his faith filled perspective, Solomon is going to see life in light of five attributes of God:

1. God is the creator and there is meaning to His creative power:

Ecc 11:5 Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

God creates, we cannot change it, but we can enjoy it.

2. God is the Sovereign: He is in charge, not us. He is the one who determines what we shall both endure and enjoy. And His determination is perfect.

Ecc 2:26 For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good in God's sight. This too is vanity and striving after wind.

God is in charge and so He can also protect those who love Him:

Ecc 9:1 For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God.

3. God is Wisdom: He is unsearchable by man.

Ecc 3:11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

The wisest person in the world (and that was Solomon) will not be able to understand the works and wisdom of God:

Ecc 8:17 I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, I know, he cannot discover.

4. God is the righteous One: And his righteousness means that He will judge the wicked.

Ecc 3:17 I said to myself, God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man, for a time for every matter and for every deed is there.

We are to live knowing that there is an absolute standard of righteousness and that standard is God himself. If we want to be righteous we must be rightly related to Him:

Ecc 9:1 For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God.

5. And God is Love: And because He is perfect love he can be perfectly trusted.

Solomon explains the love of God like no one else in the Bible. He looks at life, its suffering, its hardships, its evil, its death, all the things we see in life that would make us think God is not a God of love but then he makes the point. That in spite of what we see we have amore sure promise, a more sure fact, and that is that God loves us, that is just the kind of God He is. And His love is greater than all the hate and hurt we face in the world.

The conclusion is these two tracks of wisdom is a question: How do you want to live? Do you want to live separated from God and His power, might, wisdom, and love and in doing so live at the hands of death, evil, and chance? Or do you want to live in God's plan:

Ecc 12:13-14 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this {applies to} every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.

That is where this book will bring us but not before it pulls out from under us all the props we might use to seek security and significance in the world and through secular wisdom.

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