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Introduction
Why study the book of Ecclesiastes? For a very simple
reason, the author confronts us with a fundamental
question, “What is the purpose of life?” No question is
more basic than that! The preacher or teacher- and
that is what the word ‘Ecclesiastes’ means - challenges
secular thought throughout the ages. His aim is to
show that life which is not lived in relation to God is
empty and pointless what a Russian writer describes
as, “a country in which there are no signposts because
there is nowhere to go.” Life without a spiritual
dimension constitutes a desert wasteland, a futile,
meaningless, existence.
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Life Is Not A Magic Roundabout
The phrase that the preacher uses to
describe secular life or, life lived without
relation to God, is “life under the sun” v3. It
appears 31 times and provides the key to
understanding the book constantly
reminding us that the author is addressing
the secular thinker who has left God out of
his philosophy of life. Such people’s lives
are marked by monotonous circularity.
Their treadmill existence is marked by such
phrases as, “I'm going round in circles and
getting nowhere”. Generations come and
goes, the sun rises and sets, and streams
constantly flow into the sea.
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Life Is Not A Magic Roundabout
Now, they say, “Our lives are just like that, they have no goal, no purpose,
no existence, its just one monotonous cycle”. The secular historian H.A.L.
Fisher wrote, ‘I am unable to find any meaning in history’. He believed that
history is going nowhere, there is no destiny and no great purpose being
worked out.
Many people expect no more from history than from
watching their automatic washing machine going
round in a monotonous cycle. A view summed up
in the words of one of Simon Garfunkle’s songs,
"I'm going round in circles in the windmill of my mind".
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Life Is Not A Magic Roundabout
When such people become aware of the
monotonous merry-go-round of life they are
often tempted to shout;
“Stop the world I want to get off".
They want to break free. But escape for them is,
in practice, often no more than an attempt to
break free from an unbearable reality; they may
drown themselves in alcohol, embrace the drug
scene, or pursue transcendental meditation - all
are escapes into a hallucinatory oblivion.
When God is evacuated from life it becomes a
pointless and a wearisome thing.
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The Boredom Of Life
The secularist not only sees life as a monotonous cycle
of existence, he also finds it constantly boring cf v810. In response, he may engage in a frenzy of activity
which finds him running from one new diversion to
another, while becoming completely exhausted in the
process.
The man who is unable to break free from the
monotony of life may conclude with Samuel Butler
that, “Life is one long process of getting tired”.
Boredom has certainly sapped the vigour of life out of
much of today's society.
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The Boredom Of Life
We constantly hear the words, “I'm bored”
particularly in the company of young people.
There is no sadder form of self-criticism. Its not
that people have nothing to do, but rather
nothing they do brings a deep satisfaction.
This restlessness and lack of contentment in
society should not surprise us. The Bible links
contentment with a person’s experience of God,
‘But godliness with contentment is great gain’ 1
Tim. 6v6 . The man who lives his life in relation
to God can never be bored. Why? Because his
life is full of meaning. It has purpose and
direction. He views earth as God's workshop
which is preparing him for glory.
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The Boredom Of Life
The man who is ‘bored’ becomes preoccupied with
the trivial. Os Guiness in his analyses of our modern
obsession with trivial pursuits writes;
Human life has traditionally been lived in a house
with windows on other worlds. These windows may
sometimes have been dirty, broken or boarded up,
but they were always there. Only in the modern
world have we achieved what is called a world
without windows. Shut off from transcendence
[God], modern people are shut into triviality.
Isn't that penetrating? We are producing a
generation obsessed with trivia because it has shut
God out.
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The Boredom Of Life
Is the Christian church awake to the tremendous opportunity that this gives
us to proclaim a gospel. We have a message that can restores meaning and
purpose to life. Are we also in danger of shutting God out? Have we too
become obsessed with the trivial? Parents, what do your children see when
they look at you? Young folk what do your friends
see when they look at you? Do they see a life
marked by boredom and restlessness or,
a life marked by poise and contentment
which is the product of Christian faith?
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The Nothingness Of Life
Secular man is not only aware of going round and
circles and being bored with life, he also fears that
his life has no meaning. cf Shakespeare exposes
this fear of meaninglessness in the word’s that
he puts into Hamlet’s mouth;
“All the worlds a stage and all the men and
women merely players. They have their
exits and their entrances”
And again he writes these now
familiar words;
“Life's a tale told by an idiot full of
sound and fury signifying nothing.”
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The Nothingness Of Life
The lament of v11 expresses the soul’s fear
of nothingness... The idea that life is for
nothing and worth nothing is not easy to
accept as is the thought that generations to
come will not give any heed to your fleeting
existence. Nothing haunts the secular mind
like the fear of nothingness.
Nietzsche the German philosopher tried to
make ‘nothingness’ a way of life. He
couldn't stand the idea of a God watching
over him and loving him even in his evil and
so he taught that there was no God.
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The Nothingness Of Life
Nietzsche counselled men to laugh in the face
of the emptiness of the universe and so rise
above it. But he himself found little comfort
from his philosophy. His mind snapped under
the strain and was insane when he died.
What of others who have tried to erect
significant towers of meaning, which make no
reference to God and seek to displace him
from his universe? We will see something of
the way in which the author of this book
systematically dismantles such towers.
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The Meaninglessness Of Wisdom
The first tower tackled is that of ‘earthly wisdom’. Some think that the
pursuit human wisdom can answer all of life's questions. God has certainly
placed in man an inner urge to discover the truth [incidentally,
this is one of the many distinctives that distinguishes man
from animals]. The writer describes this search as
‘a heavy burden’ v13. But human wisdom, has
throughout history proved itself unequal to the task.
We learn in v15 not only of wisdom's inability to
straighten out many of life's problems but its
failure to do so compounds man’s vexation with
life. How so? By raising more questions than it
answers! It merely provides deeper insights into
what is dissatisfying with life.
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The Meaninglessness Of Wisdom
In the O.T. Job asks the question, "Can a man by
searching find out God?" Job 11v7. He recognised the
inadequacy of human wisdom to answer life’s most
basic questions and the advice given by his four ‘wise’
comforters must have reinforced that view. In the N.T.
Paul draws attention to the inadequacy of the wisdom
of the philosophers of his day;
“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its
wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through
the foolishness of what was preached to save those
who believe.” 1Cor. 1v21
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The Meaninglessness Of Wisdom
Paul’s point is simple. Man, without God's help, can
neither discover what God is like nor, grasp the
meaning of his existence. Modern man takes great
pride in his intellect and is strongly inclined to
engage in an ‘independent search for truth’. By so
doing he fails to recognise his need of God's help.
He thinks that he can solve all his problems and
attain all necessary knowledge by the process of
rational thinking.
Unaided and unenlightened reason will always fail
to discover what life is all about. Why? Because as
one writer puts it ‘unenlightened human reason has
a hole in the centre of its thinking’.
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The Meaninglessness Of Wisdom
On T.V. programmes which discuss the meaning of life, those contributors,
who have this gaping hole in the centre of their thinking, have nothing to
say to help those who are baffled by life. It is all very unsatisfactory and
inconclusive or, to use the Preachers expression in v17, it is “chasing after
the wind”. Those who place their trust in human wisdom to try to provide
the answer to life’s meaning are left to agree with Tennessee Williams
that, "Life is an unanswered question".
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Conclusion
Ecclesiastes does not allow us hide behind
unsatisfactory substitutes for God. These
so-called substitutes are revealed to be
crumbling towers! I spoke with a
despairing man some time ago - he told
me of the years of his life that he had
devoted to research into the meaning of
life. And because human wisdom has a
gaping hole at its centre it not only failed
to satisfy his deepest need it irritated his
quest for meaning. His research had
brought him no heart contentment, he
too had been chasing the wind.
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Conclusion
Where does recognition of this reality lead
us? If God tears down the flimsy towers that
men have chosen to take refuge in, it is in
order to point them to a more substantial
structure, a place of genuine safety. And that
‘structure’ is none other than the person of
Jesus Christ. Jesus said;
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be
thirsty again but whoever drinks of the water
I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I
give him will become in him a spring of water
welling up to eternal life.” Jn.4.13ff.
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Conclusion
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God is the key
to life's meaning. He is the wisdom of God and
as such fills the gaping hole that makes the jigsaw of our lives complete. ‘Life under the sun’,
or life without any personal relationship to a
Creator may appear attractive to many, but its
long term effects are more destructive than a
raging cancer. Fullness of life cannot be
experienced without a relationship with God.
Jesus said,
‘I have come that you might have life and that
more abundant’ Jn.10.10.
Make Jesus your strong tower, the one who
fills the God shaped blank in your life!
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