Chasing after the Wind

Introduction

Attention Getter

In a letter to his brother Theo, Vincent van Gogh said this

“I can do nothing about it if my paintings don’t sell. The day will come, though, when people will see that they’re worth more than the cost of paint and my subsistence, very meagre in fact, that we put into them.”

Vincent van Gogh is one of the world’s most famous artists. His work in impressionism captured the world in colors that we could never imagine. Throughout his brief nine years as an artist Van Gogh finished 860 oil paintings, 1,240 watercolors works, and 900 letters totaling 3,000 pieces of art. Other artists of his time Cezanne, completed the same amount of art in 40 years and, Monet, in 60.

In the first four years Van Gogh painted 21 canvases a year. In the last five, he painted 130 a year. That’s a canvas every 3 days for 5 years. In the last year of his life he completed 108 paintings. In the last three months of his life Vincent completed 90 of those paintings. A canvas every day. Add in the 2,140 other works of art and “you have a man held captive by an insatiable appetite to capture the world he wanted while being unable to connect with the world he had. It seemed to be killing him.” (Russ Ramsey) Vincent committed suicide in July of that year. Vincent is the quintessential striving man that is found in the book of Ecclesiastes. He sought self-worth in his work but ultimately was left with nothing more than chasing after the wind.

Historical information

The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books in the Bible and has had a profound impact on me. The biographical information of the book is hotly debated. The title comes from the Hebrew Word “Qoholeth” for Teacher in verse 1. It was written in the 7th century B.C., after the exile, by a wiseman using the identity of King Solomon to speak to the reader. Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba and was the last King of a united Israel. He was known as the builder of the temple, the wisest king ever to have lived, and had a large number of foreign wives and concubines. He was rich beyond measure and had everything a person could dream. So why at the end of his life would Solomon say “All is Vanity?”

The book centers on the theme that human effort amounts to nothing more than chasing after the wind because nature is fixed and many of the things we desire come only from God. Some see the theme as the unhappy consequence of a life of indulgence while others focus on the idea that a human centered life often is unsatisfactory, so life should start with God.

Our section

Our section for today, Ecclesiastes 2:17-26 is in the first part of the book focused on understanding our place in the world and grappling with that. The author is trying to prove his statement that all is vanity. It follows a section saying that wisdom is good but ultimately meaningless and is followed by poetry on the appointed seasons of life.

The point of our section is this: Joy and meaning come not from work but from a God filled life. We are not the things we posses but must seek joy in community with God and others through Jesus Christ. So lets start with the first piece of the text.

Point 1: Striving but never gaining (Ecclesiastes 2:17-19)

Death is the equalizer

Verse 17 describes how the author has come to have a disillusioned view of life because everything has become vain and a chasing after the wind. This phrase under the sun is only used in this book and is used by the author when describing a complete life. The term vanity is used a ton in Ecclesiastes and describes something having no value in itself. So for the author he has come to hate life. Why? Verse 17 is the end of the passage that says that the wise die just like the fools and will be forgotten in the same way. Wisdom brings no inherent meaning to life. The wisest king in Israel has looked on his great knowledge and found that he still has nothing. All he has done is chased after the wind.

Verse 18 shifts to describing how in the same way Solomon hates his wisdom, he now hates his work. Toiling is another major theme of Ecclesiastes. It often describes difficult labor. The author is seeing first hand what God said to Adam in the Garden. (Gen 3:17). But why does he hate his work? Because it is going to be left to the person who comes after him. He has accumulated all this wealth and power just to give it to the next person. A person, verse 19 says, who could be wise or foolish. They could do well with it or squander all of it. For Solomon his work was in vain because now someone is going to come after. Which we see in the story of Rehoboam, his son, who is such a poor king that Israel divides into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah and is never united again. In

Now the author is not saying we shouldn’t leave wealth to those who come after us. The first part of Proverbs 13:22 says that the good leave an inheritance for their grandchildren, but is that where the meaning of our lives are? The author seems not to think so. Statistics say that in 60 percent of cases, inherited wealth is completely gone by the end of the second generation. Our lives should not only be about the accumulation of wealth since it will not be ours to enjoy. We should gain and save wealth for those who come after us, but that is not the reason we exist.

As the saying goes “you never see a hearse hauling a trailer.” Death is the great equalizer for the wise and foolish, rich and poor.

Point 2: What is the point?(Ecclesiastes 2:20-23)

Don’t get to see the achievement in your lifetime

In verse 20, the author is faced with despair. He turned his heart towards it. In Ecclesiastes 2:10 it shows that in his younger days Solomon gave his heart everything he desired. But now his heart only has despair. In Hebrew this word is the same used to describe land that is useless but also hopelessness. Solomon is trying to figure out what the point is to being alive.

In verse 21, he reiterates what we just talked about. This time, however, he says this is vanity and great evil. Evil not as a behavior. But evil like an event of affliction. It’s something that is happening to him.

In verse twenty two, he asks a rhetorical question. Based on the way it is constructed in the Hebrew, it expects a negative answer of nothing. This question comes up other times in the text Ecclesiastes 1:3, 3:9. There is a phrase that is missing from many English translations of this question. In the Hebrew it is What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? The heart in ancient Israel is the equivalent to the way we think of our mind and soul. For them this all comes from the heart. If our hearts are driven to mostly by our work then we are oriented toward the wrong thing. From the beginning of the book Solomon is saying that people gain no ultimate advantage or profit from all their labor in life. So this can’t be where the meaning of our lives should be found.

In verse 23, Solomon describes the state of mind for a person whose life is monopolized by their work. The people who only find meaning in their achievements and salary. The english says mind here but the word in Hebrew is that heart word again. Americans are highly prone to this kind of life. As one commentator put it,

Failure at work or the loss of a job is a hard blow to many, but what is worse than the loss of livelihood is the embarrassment and shame we feel. Envy… and the longing for recognition are the driving forces for so much restless working. But all we really do is plow water. The moment the plow passes, the water fills back in, and there is no evidence we did anything… You are never “off” or “home” from work. Your mind is constantly taken up with it. You clock out and come home, and you check your e-mails on your phone all night. You toss and turn while sleep evades you because you stress about the next work project. What futility! Solomon exposes us to the failure of all his experiments to show us that what he missed in all his efforts was the simple joys God held out to him.

Everyone knows this kind of person. I can be that way sometimes. What the author is asking us to do is to reject the mindset of a workaholic and seek meaning and joy somewhere else. Soren Keirkegaard sums it up “Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.”

Illustration

I wanna go back to Vincent for a second. He hated the idea of selling his pantings but he knew he had both in order to survive but also to receive validation. In his lifetime he only ever sold one painting and that was to a friend. He lived his life’s calling and never felt a moment of recognition from the outside. Tragically, when Vincent completed his suicide, he was a few years away from his work being displayed in galleries all over Europe. For Vincent though, the more canvasses he painted the larger his failure became and the more he thought he failed the harder he tried. Until it all became too much.

Point 3: Nothing better (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26)

Finding enjoyment outside of achievement

So what do we have to do now? We should be wise but wisdom does not give our lives joy or meaning. We should work and save money but that also does not give us joy or meaning. So what is the answer?

In verse 24, the author, under the pseudonym of the wise king, says “There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil.” Okay… so what does that mean? Should we use some old hopeless Epicureanism philosophy that says eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die? That’s from 1 Corinthians. Certainly seems to be what it says. But that seems a bit hopeless to me. I think the answer for this author is in the last part of the statement. Finding enjoyment in their toil. Well you just told us for the last few verses that is not possible. This finding word is used as seeking and revealing something. It is a state of living. Its living life in a way that seeks enjoyment even in things that do not inherently provide joy. This does not mean just pretending to be happy but instead is about enjoying the blessings that are given to us. Food, drink, community and family, and yes work.

How do we do this? Well it comes from God. Verse 25 it says that no one can have enjoyment. Paul when he writes that verse in 1 Corinthians says the resurrection is what gives him hope. So we have, as Christians have hope. But to have joy in the face of a difficult world where death comes for everyone that comes from God found in Jesus.

Who is the one who pleases God

Verse 26 is a bit tricky and hotly debated. Who is the sinner that stores up his wealth only to be given to the pleaser. Who is the one that pleases God? The sinner is “Anyone so preoccupied with amassing wealth that he ignores the natural enjoyment of life.” The word sinner here is used not so much in a moral sense as in a pragmatic sense; one who has failed to benefit of the gifts of God because of his concentration on accumulating material wealth. Such is a chasing after wind.

Who is the one who pleases God? Some say Jesus. That if we give ourselves to him he will use us. And that is true. But for humans, the one who pleases God is the person who serves only one master. (Matthew 6:24). It is the one whose life is not possessed by our possessions (Luke 12.15) and who is content with the things they have (1 Timothy 6:8). I don’t want you to hear me say not to work hard or earn money. I don’t think that is what Jesus meant in those parables, nor is it what the author of Ecclesiastes means. Instead, our relationship to work and wealth has to come second to the relationship we have to God. This will help us to find joy in the life we are living while finding beauty and hope in the world.

Application

So how do we apply these lesson to our everyday life. How can we be better joy seekers who do not find life’s meaning in toiling under the sun. I think there is a few things we can do. First we should build a new relationship to our work and seek joy in the way we see the world. Second we should allow our hearts to find rest and peace in the blessings God has given us. Third, don’t allow possession to dominate your life. Find freedom in the in Christ from the demands of our culture and expectations around work and money.

Head

Some of you may be thinking, that’s all a lot easier said than done. And it is. Especially if you are someone who struggles with mental health. I want to make sure to validate that seeking joy may look totally different for you. But I do want us to believe and know that God does seek our enjoyment. God is not always the killjoy who says we cannot do the fun things in life.

Additionally you should seek beauty and joy in your life. Think about ways to bring more joy into your life. I do not want to offer some cheap choose joy wall art, but a real tangible thing that you can call out to and ask God to give. Seek God in the ordinary everyday beauty of life. Find a new positive attitude and ask God to help in this.

Hands

Secondly, don’t hold so tight to money and possessions. Not saying not to have them but do not let them have the deciding factors of your life. Be willing to give and share. Do the things you love to do with the ones you love to do it with. Life is short and if we don’t seize the time we have then everyone will wake up one day feeling like they chased the wind. No one lies on their death bed asking for more time in the office.

Heart

Lastly, Allow your hearts to rest. The email or the work can wait another day. Instead find time to seek rest and joy. Don’t love work because of the money or what it gives to you, but love your work for the joy it gives. Love your life because it is short and should be used to the maximum. Love those around you because of who they are not what they can give you. Choose to love others and yourself even when your work may not.

Conclusion

Whenever I think of this passage from now on. I will think of Vincent van Gogh. The man who chased the wind with his paintings and was never validated in the way he viewed himself because his idea of a full life. Vincent left his work for those after him to enjoy. He saw the beauty in the world even though he could not find it for himself. Vincent showed us there is a glory in this world that points to the next one. He pointed towards the glory of God by the beauty he gave to us. The world we wait in while difficult can have joy and beauty in it. I hope he finally found the validation he sought in his eternal unity with God through Christ.

Christ offers a new path to beauty and joy in ways we would not expect. He calls us to the same things this teacher does. To discard the tyranny of wealth and prestige in favor of a life of joyful community with God. All that we need to achieve this is to find it. In him we find hope for a new life after this one. But in Christ we find a life that is more joy filled than we could ever find alone. Amen.