Chasing Stars Under the Sun

Introduction

What do the things we spend our whole life chasing ultimately amount to? Asked differently, we might say, “What is the point?”

The implications of that question lead us into uncomfortable territory. We like to think that we do and what we chase really matters. But does it? At least part of us fears—or knows—it doesn’t.

Transition

Solomon wrestled with the same question. He wrestled with it through pretty extreme circumstances. While he details the darkness and despair, he also mentions victory. There is an answer and it is helpful.

Illumination

Setting up the question

Ecclesiastes 1:12–13 (NKJV)

12 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.

The “burdensome task” refers to “all that is done under heaven”

“all that is done under heaven” are tasks given by God either directly or innately. These tasks (aka work) are not a punishment. They are given by an active, creative God who created us in His image. Consider Adam’s assignments before sin entered the equation.

Genesis 2:8 (NKJV)

8 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

Genesis 2:15 (NKJV)

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

Genesis 2:19–20 (NKJV)

19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.

(returning to Ecclesiastes 1) God gives us tasks to “exercise” us

The word translated “exercise” means affliction, but that is not sense of the statement

God’s intention is not to afflict us but to occupy us, our connotation of that occupation is generally negative

This comes through in the way this verse is variously translated:

The New King James Version (Chapter 1)

this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised

The Holman Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 1)

God has given people this miserable task to keep them occupied.

The New International Version (Chapter 1)

What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!

New Living Translation (Chapter 1)

I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race.

English Standard Version (Chapter 1)

It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

Cleary we wrestle—often unhappily—with the tasks God has set for us.

Chasing Possible Answers

Being king afforded Solomon unique opportunities to pursue answers.

Education

Ecclesiastes 1:12–18 (NKJV)

12 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised. 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

15 What is crooked cannot be made straight,

And what is lacking cannot be numbered.

16 I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.

18 For in much wisdom is much grief,

And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Education certainly does not sound like the answer Solomon hoped it might be. It seems he learned something Malcom Muggeridge likewise stumbled upon.

Believer’s Bible Commentary (A. The Vanity of Intellectual Pursuits (1:12–18))

Education, the great mumbo-jumbo and fraud of the ages, purports to equip us to live, and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility. For the most part, it only serves to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity and put those subjected to it at the mercy of brainwashers with printing presses, radio and television at their disposal.

To be sure, there is a place for education, but it is not an end unto itself. Nor does it answer the question “What is the point?”

Believer’s Bible Commentary (A. The Vanity of Intellectual Pursuits (1:12–18))

If intellectualism is the key to meaning in life, then our college campuses would be Camelots of peace and contentment. But they are not. Rather they are cauldrons of ferment and unrest.

Pleasure

Ecclesiastes 2:1–3 (NKJV)

1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter—“Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” 3 I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.

Comedy

Wine

Building & Acquisition

Ecclesiastes 2:4–11 (NKJV)

4 I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. 5 I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. 7 I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds.

9 So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.

10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.

I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,

For my heart rejoiced in all my labor;

And this was my reward from all my labor.

11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done

And on the labor in which I had toiled;

And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.

There was no profit under the sun.

Failing at Every Turn

Clearly, none of Solomon’s pursuits satisfied. And with good reason.

One fate awaits us all

Ecclesiastes 2:12–16 (NKJV)

12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;

For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—

Only what he has already done.

13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly

As light excels darkness.

14 The wise man’s eyes are in his head,

But the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I myself perceived

That the same event happens to them all.

15 So I said in my heart,

“As it happens to the fool,

It also happens to me,

And why was I then more wise?”

Then I said in my heart,

“This also is vanity.”

16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,

Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.

And how does a wise man die?

As the fool!

Everything gets left behind

Ecclesiastes 2:17–23 (NKJV)

17 Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. 21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? 23 For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

Conclusion

None of his pursuits gave him a satisfactory answer to the question “What is the point?” But he did discover the answer.

Ecclesiastes 2:24 (NKJV)

24 Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.

And he stumbled upon a bonus answer as well.

Ecclesiastes 2:25–26 (NKJV)

25 For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? 26 For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

What is the point?

Enjoy what you do

and

Do what you enjoy

This is from the hand of God.

The corollary is important too:

Be good and be blessed

Application

Our lives and all of our pursuits won’t amount to much of anything, and that is ok. The point is to enjoy living, not to build a monument to ourselves that will outlive us. What do we do with that?

Learn to enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy.

For some of us, we really will need to learn that…sometimes the hard way. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of life—outside of rejecting Jesus—is to reach the end of life and find you didn’t enjoy it.

That may not sound “spiritual” but it is biblical advice from the hand of our Heavenly Father.