Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 - The Failure of Science to Bring True Happiness

Intro:

I have often heard it said that “the Bible is not a science text book — it’s much more than that — but when the Bible does make scientific statements, it’s always accurate.”

Not only that, but also there is quite a bit of scientific fore-knowledge in the Bible as well! (We’ll notice some of that here).

(Things the inspired Bible writers knew long before modern scientists figured them out!)

(Let’s start by reading verses 1-11 in its entirety).

Text:

V. 1 — We covered this verse last week in the introduction.

(If you missed the introduction which was given on Facebook last Wednesday, go back and check that out).

I mentioned in that video that I’m breaking down our study of Ecclesiastes based on the chapter divisions in the 1994 MSOP Lectureship book, so I’ll try to bring that back up from time to time.

V. 2 — This is the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes.

This, paired with 12:13-14.

Solomon is basically saying, “Look, NOTHING else matters beyond fearing God and keeping His commandments, in view of the fact that we will stand in judgment before the throne of God for everything that we have done.”

Everything in our lives ought to contribute toward the overall goal of being judged as follows — “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Lord.”

Everything else? All is vanity! (Emptiness/void-ness)

V. 3 — Let’s pick out a few key words in this verse:

“Profit” — You can do a word study on this word, but the basic meaning is “benefit,” right?

What benefit is it really, at the end of the day, all of man’s labors under the sun?

The verse that I immediately think of to go along with this is Mark 8:36 — “ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”

“Labor”/“Toils” — This, of course, has to do with hard work.

And man has always had to work.

Even before sin entered the picture, man had to tend and take care of the garden of Eden — (Gen. 2:15).

But after sin entered the picture, it became much more difficult!

Gen. 3:17-19 - “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.”

That’s really a summation of a lot of the subject matter of Ecclesiastes, incidentally.

“Under the Sun” — This is an expression that is used 29 times in the Bible, exclusively in the book of Ecclesiastes, and it is in reference to man’s activities “DOWN HERE,” on earth.

Man’s work, man’s pursuits, etc.

Everything that man does in this life.

V. 4 — Is Solomon speaking literally there?

“But the earth abides forever.”

Well, we know that the Bible teaches that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it (“under the sun,” we might say) will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet. 3:10-12).

So clearly Solomon is not speaking literally here — He’s using “the earth abides forever” as an expression that really means “as long as time remains, the earth abides forever” (on THIS side of eternity).

But the overall point Solomon is making is that “the more things change, the more they stay the same!”

No matter what generation is on the earth at any given time, the earth just keeps on “doing its thing!”

In Gen. 8:22, we read — “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”

What’s that say about radical environmentalism, then, incidentally?

V. 5 — The sun rises and comes back down, and hurries back to the same place that it arose.

Why does it do that, faithfully, every day?

(By the way, we realize that “sunrise” and “sunset” are figures of speech because it’s actually the rotation of the earth that makes this happen).

But the reason this happens, faithfully, every day without fail is because GOD is the One Who ordained it that way!

V. 6 — Have you ever thought about what would happen if there was no wind?

I looked it up and found an interesting video called the What if Show, “What if there were no wind?”

It says: “Mild temperatures, pollination, long awaited rain in dry regions — you can thank the wind for these things. A clear day in a polluted city? Yep, also the wind. It also helps create our weather patterns and diverse ecosystems. Without it, earth would be an other-worldly alien planet.” (In other words, not conducive to life).

Link: https://whatifshow.com/what-if-there-were-no-wind/

The wind is extremely important!

Without it, everything would stagnate and eventually die!

God knew that we needed wind!

And I find it interesting the scientific knowledge that Solomon has here about the “circuits of the wind.”

Sailors have long been aware of the “trade winds” that they reliably use to their advantage in sailing.

We are familiar with the jet stream and things like “El Nino” and “La Nina,” which greatly affect our weather patterns.

And Solomon knew about this phenomena, and wrote about them here in Ecclesiastes!

V. 7 — This is a great description of the water cycle!

Definitely some scientific fore-knowledge here.

Of course, today we understand that water evaporates, then condenses in clouds, then falls in the form of precipitation.

Thus, the oceans never get full, and the rivers (generally speaking) keep running!

But Solomon’s understanding was definitely ahead of his time!

See also Job 36:27-28; 38:33-34, 37.

(By the way, without wind [v. 6], the water cycle wouldn’t function, so these verses go hand in hand!)

V. 8 — I think the point that Solomon is making here is that EVERYTHING in the world has its way of working.

People have to work. “If a man will not work, neither should he eat.”

Nature “works” in a sense according to the principles that God set up according to natural law.

And the point that Solomon has been making is that all of this reality of “working” (on the part of both man and nature) has continued basically the same way since the beginning of time.

Especially when it comes to all the inner workings of nature, man will never figure it all out (try as he may through science to do so!)

We have to remember, at the end of the day, that there are some things that man is just not meant to know.

Deut. 29:29 - “The secret things belong to the Lord!”

“The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”

Two ways you could take this part I suppose:

1) The scientist is never satisfied with his intellectual pursuits of things he can discover with his seeing and hearing (scientific method) — This would fall in line with the overall context of the book.

2) The eyes and the ears (Generally speaking) keep on keeping on - They don’t just up and decide one day - “You know, I think I’ve seen/heard enough. Think I’ll stop seeing/hearing.” No, they keep on doing their thing — This would fall in line with the immediate context of the preceding verses and the verses following.

V. 9 — Another way of saying this — “History repeats itself.” Or “Same old story, different verse.”

People (generally speaking) tend to make the same mistakes over and over again.

That’s why it’s so important to study history. (And the Bible, by the way, has a lot of historical narrative in it).

V. 10 — Generally speaking, there’s not!

We tend to think of Solomon as pretty ancient, right?

Yet, in SOLOMON’S time he was talking about people who were ancient to him!

And things progressed the same as they always had!

(We need to understand the same for today as well — a lot of the stuff we are seeing today [sinful things going on] — a lot of it has taken place in times past to varying degrees!)

V. 11 — You can see Solomon’s viewpoint of time.

For Solomon, looking to the year A.D. 1000, let’s say, was ages ahead into the future!

And yet, for us, that’s ages ago in the past.

And if the Lord tarries and let’s the earth remain long enough, A.D. 3000 is ages ahead into the future for US, but would be ages ago in the PAST for people living in A.D. 4000.

But you can see it’s all about perspective … and yet, Solomon acknowledges that the overall perspective remains the same!

How many people who have ever lived left their mark in such a way that they are still remembered today?

I don’t know what the percentage is … but it has to be incredibly low!

.0000001 percent???

The fact of the matter is that history remembers very few, but GOD remembers us all, and circling back to the theme of the entire book of Ecclesiastes …

All that will really matter in the end is whether or not we feared Him and kept His commandments.

Everything else is vanity of vanities, all is vanity!

Conclusion:

That’s the first part of chapter 1!

Again, “The Failure of Science to Bring True Happiness.”

I like the way Steve Ellis sums up this section in his lecture from the 1994 MSOP Lectures:

“We truly hope that the conclusion of Ecclesiastes is an indication that Solomon made his life right with God before he died. We are thankful to God for His having inspired Solomon to write tis book, which can help all of us to understand the utter folly of materialism and to realize that happiness does not come from attempting to be gods to ourselves but from total, reverential, and obedient surrender to the true and living God who made us. Finally, we are thankful that God did not leave us to grope in the dark, relying solely on our own severely limited powers of observation and investigation, in a futile effort to acquire happiness by our own devices, but instead revealed Himself and His purpose for our lives in the Bible.”