All is Vanity

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Sunday, June 6, 2021

All is Vanity

Intro

Being a country boy from Soddy-Daisy, TN, I grew up listening to country music. There is one song in particular that came to mind this week, The Secret of Life by Faith Hill. Two guys are sitting, thinking, trying to figure out the secret of life.

The final chorus of the song goes like this:

The secret of life is a good cup of coffee

The secret of life is keep your eye on the ball

The secret of life is the right woman

The secret of life is nothing at all

Have you ever thought about the things we pursue to find the secret of life and happiness? How often do we think that if we have these types of things, then we have achieved success in life or will find true happiness? And yet, the sad reality is that even in achieving these things, we find ourselves wanting more and more. We remain unsatisfied.

When we look at life wrongly and have the wrong end goal, then we are going to miss the aim of life. And that is where I want to begin to take us this morning as we open up to the book of Ecclesiastes.

The book of Ecclesiastes

The book of Ecclesiastes, like that of Proverbs, Psalms, the Songs of Solomon, and Job is part of the wisdom literature of the Bible. Each of these books aims to give us wisdom on how to live in this world. Each of them gives us a better understanding of who God is.

Ecclesiastes gives a brief introduction and a short conclusion to the message being proclaimed. We see in verse 1 that these are the words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

With many oddities and morbid nature, the book of Ecclessiastes is a very beautiful book of the Bible. It will help shape us to what is the point of life.

Reading of the Word (Ecclesiastes 1:1-11)

Main Point: There is no gain in our striving for purpose under the sun, for in the end we all die. Therefore, let us behold our God and enjoy him forever, for this is the meaning of life.

Points:

All is vanity

Life is repetitive

Living in light of the end

4 Points of Application

All is vanity

The Preacher

Ecclesiastes starts with the short introduction in verse 1 with it stating the word of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Now, in this greeting, most walk away from this saying that Solomon is the author of this. For it was Solomon who was the son of David and king following David. However, there are those who make the case that this doesn’t sound like Solomon and that the Hebrew used here is much later than Solomon’s day and time.

But, I think there is a stronger case for it being Solomon. Mostly because in Ecclesiastes 12:9 says: Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. While others could fit the role of the son of David, as even Joseph does in Matthew 1:20, there is not much of a case for another King on David’s throne who was wise like Solomon or who had great riches. Following the reign of Solomon, there was much conflict among the kingdoms of Israel.

However, regardless of who was the author, we see the use of the word Preacher used. The preacher-king therefore is giving wisdom and instruction to the people of Israel. Aiming at their hearts to shepherd and guide them in their lives.

Vanity

But as the Preacher starts in verse 2, it starts rather oddly in the approach to shepherd the people. For in verse 2 it says (READ).

All is vanity is the message of the preacher. This phrase vanity has been translated as meaningless by some. However, it is more fitting and accurate to understand the word vanity to mean breathe, vapor or fleeting. For as we have already read, we see in the following verses, a generation goes and a generation comes. It also says, there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things. Life comes and goes. Life flies by like the crazy driver who comes flying past you on the road, zipping and zooming between cars to get down the road as fast as he can and quickly disappears out of sight. This is how life is. It goes by quickly. It is like a midst or vapor that is seen one minute and gone the next. And it is for this reason the preacher says all is vanity. It is vanity because of the brevity of it all.

What is vanity? All is vanity. For as we will see in the coming weeks, the expected and unexpected is included as vanity. This ranges from that of wisdom to self-indulgence to living wisely to toil. All of this is vanity. Which is why we have the question at hand in verse 3, which says (READ).

Is there anything to be gained by all the toil that we put out in striving after things under the sun? Consider the things that we strive and toil after. We toil after success, fame, victory. We toil after pleasure, purpose, and knowledge. We toil after all of these things and even if we achieve these, the reality is we are still left unsatisfied, unfulfilled. In all of these things we put forth our effort, time, energy, finances in chasing after. And yet the question at hand, is there any gain to these things? Is there any gain to chasing after the things under the sun?

Verses 4-11 begin to answer this question, as does the rest of the book of Ecclesiastes. But as we will see, the answer is no, there is nothing gained by toiling after the things under the sun. The toil may seem good and right in the moment, but in the end that toil is deceitful. For as we toil all our lives in pursuit after these things, it proves vanity. It is vanity because all our toil has pursued things that fade. All our toil will soon be forgotten by the next generation. The impact we thought we were going to make is not even remembered as the earth continues on. All is vanity in our toil under the sun.

Life is repetitive

Because of what we see in our second point this morning, life is repetitive. In verse 4 we come across the statement: a generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The earth is stated to remain forever. And yet, as the earth remains forever, we see that it is very repetitive in how it goes around and around. For in verse 5 we see that the sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. In this, we are pointed to the reality that each day as we see the sun rise, it rises until the point in which it begins to fall and set. And then at night it rushes to the place in which it will rise again. This takes place day after day, again and again. And it will do so as long as the earth remains.

Following the illustration of the sun rising and setting, there in verse 6 we are given another example of how the earth continues in a repeating manner. This time it is the wind that is used. And the wind is described as going south, then north, then around and around. But then the wind returns. The last few weeks around here should echo this reality for us. Those windy days that we had just a week or two ago and how they brought the coolness of air even as summer is meant to be knocking at the door. And they faded away this week, but will return again.

But not only do we see the examples of the sun and the wind, we have added in verse 7 that of the streams and the sea. It says there in verse 7: All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. Most of the rivers we know in our context flow to that of the gulf or other parts of the oceans. So sometimes it is hard for us to fully grasp this. However, in the Middle East you have the Jordan River which flows into the Dead Sea. In the Dead Sea there are no outlets of water flowing to other places. Therefore you have the Jordan River which flows continually into the Dead Sea. And yet, the Dead Sea is not full, it does not run over the banks unable to handle more water. The streams of the Jordan River over and over again pour into the Dead Sea.

As the earth remains forever, the earth continues to repeat itself in the cycles of how it flows. There is nothing new in how it functions and flows. The earth continues to spin around the sun over and over again. And it will continue doing so. Even as we further explore the earth and the stars, while we may learn more about it, we will never be able to fully grasp all of creation and how it works. We will never come to the point of having control over the earth. Sure, we have put a man on the moon and have used robots to explore other planets. And even if we are able to explore more, we will still have no more of a grasp of controlling things or predicting the future.

Just think about as far as technology has come, and yet our meteorologists can’t even get the weather right for the next 2 days. Doctors have so many skills and tools at hand for medicine today. And yet they cannot predict death. My late aunt was given 9 months to live and she defied the odds and lived 9 years. The more we try to grab hold and control the world, the more we are going to realize just how vain our toil and struggle is. The more we chase after a greater hold of the world, the more weary we are going to become. And that is where verse 8 takes us. It says: All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

Our chasing and toiling after the things under the sun will merely leave us full of weariness. The more we see, the more we are left unsatisfied with. The more we hear, the more we are unsatisfied with. The constant toil for more and more leaves us dissatisfied and uncontent. The more we toil and labor for the things under the sun, the more our hearts stray from being content in what we have.

The great advances of the 20th century and that of social media have only accelerated this discontentment that we have. Endless news cycles, constant noise, feeds full of showing our best sides of life with social media. Think how many of us use something like Facebook to only show the best side of our lives, never the warts though. It gives a false sense of who we truly are. And yet, this good side is what others see as they compare their lives to ours. Leaving a desire to have a life more like ours. If they only knew the full reality, they might rethink that though.

Yet, we still continue to toil under the sun in our dissatisfaction. We continue to toil and strive after the things we still don’t have, the things we think will satisfy us. The single person will toil and strive thinking that marriage will help fulfill them. The newly weds will be satisfied and think that children will grant them all their desires. Then the couple will desire to be empty nesters and think that will fulfill all their goals of being free again from running children to and from. But then as they are empty nesters more dissatisfaction sets in. Then it is retirement, then even then more dissatisfaction sets in because even retirement wasn’t all that it seemed from afar. Take these for what they are, examples, but the reality is when we think the next good thing will be what fulfills us and gives us satisfaction, then we are sorely going to be mistaken. The Preacher makes it clear that we will be unsatisfied in all our weary toil for these things.

No matter what we think we gain in our toil, it leaves us unsatisfied. Do you realize that there are more celebrities who have all the fame, money, have fulfilled their dreams that are still fighting depression and consider suicide? Why is this? Because we chase after that which is under the sun. For some reason as we toil and strive after these things, we think that in them we will find the meaning of life. And yet, all the toil in chasing after them proves futile. For all under the sun is vanity. It is here today and gone tomorrow. Truly what is there to gain by toiling after things under the sun? There is nothing to gain in all our toil under the sun. All the gain we may think we have stored up will prove worthless in the end. All our toil under the sun is vanity.

This same pattern of life and chasing after the sun has always been. And it is this reality that we must grasp. Instead of trying to deny it, we must understand the pattern in order to live in spite of it. Because until we can grasp the reality of the cycles of toil, we will continue to toil after these things and fail to actually live. In the end, that is what Ecclesiastes is trying to show us, how to live life in light of the end that is coming.

So, like showing us the vanity of toil in the repetitive nature of creation under the sun, and our weariness in searching for new things, we are given the following in verses 9 and 10. It says (READ).

There is nothing new under the sun. There is nothing new in regards to things we will find the answers to, there is no new sin, there is no new pattern to life. Again, sure there are technological advances. There are new finds about creation and the earth. And yet, in general life continues to circle back around despite these. Even with all the advances we have made, one thing remains true, people are still fallen and broken. People remain insecure about themselves. The same struggles of society that were there after the fall are still present today. Even when we think there is sin worse than before, we should be reminded that there is nothing new under the sun.

The hot button sins that we worry about today have existed before in society. Let’s go back to Genesis in the days of Abraham with that of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Genesis 18 and 19 we see Abraham interceding for Sodom as God promises to destroy it. And then we see angels going to rescue Lot and his family as they are the only ones found righteous within the whole city. In the angels coming, the city of Sodom pressed against the house of Lot and demanded that the men be brought out so that they may know them. This knowing here is that of sexual immorality, that of homosexuality, that of violent rape. And this was back in the days of Abraham.

Noah was found drunk in the days following the flood, so there is nothing new under the sun with the struggle to abstain from drunkenness. David had an affair with Bathsheba when he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. There was the offering of children and babies to foreign gods that the prophets warned against. Sin and evil have been throughout history since the fall.

There is nothing new under the sun that is more evil than we have seen before. The only thing in reality that changes is how sin manifests itself given the time and place people are. But the sin is rooted in the same heart issues that have always been. Envy, greed, jealousy, strife, bitterness, resentment, sexual immorality, homosexuality, murder, and idolatry have existed and been taking place in the world long before any of us were born. To quote one Bible commentator, “The more things change, the more they stay the saem. And if it ever seems like there really is something new under the sun, it is only because we have forgotten what happened before.” The earth goes around and around and continues to repeat itself constantly. As Winston Churchhill says, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

A temptation in life is to think that we are at some unique place in history. And yet, the reality is that life continues to repeat itself through each generation. For there is truly nothing new under the sun. Generations before us have struggled with the same issues, as will the generations after us will continue to struggle with these same things. For as one generation goes, another generation comes, which we saw back up in verse 4. For as the earth remains forever, the reality is for us all that a new generation will come following in the same patterns as our generation will be the one to go. All is vanity under the sun. And the end for us all is death. For as another old saying is that two things in life are certain, death and taxes. And it comes quicker than we would like.

But not only is death the end for us all, we must then deal with what comes in verse 11. It says: There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. Our very lives will soon be forgotten. The former things will no longer be remembered or the things to come. And while this continues to seem very morbid, we must remember why the preacher continues to point this out, to show how toiling after the sun is vanity. That there is no gain to our toils.

And to help drive this home, think about how even within our church that we have families with 5 generations currently alive. But I doubt any of us can remember back 4 or 5 generations behind us in names and history. And that is just within our own immediate families, let alone that of others. Most of our lives will soon be forgotten after we die. Therefore, all the things in which we toiled for, strived for, what gain have they proved as we chased after the sun? The only thing that might be still remaining is that of a last name. Even that is not a guarantee. A generation comes and a generation goes. And there is no remembrance of former things. This is the end of the matter. The end that awaits us all. And while this all feels very morbid, very depressing, it is this reality though that should be more of what shapes our lives than it does.

Living in light of the end

Therefore, as we see that all is vanity and that our end is death, we must see the need to live life backwards with the end in sight. And that is where we turn in our final point this morning, living in light of the end. Instead of living for this life, we need to live our lives with the end in sight, seeing that death is our end. And this is true for both those who are in Christ and those who are not. Physical death is the reality for us all.

To be human is to be finite. We have a beginning and an end in our physical life. We must stop acting as if this is not the reality. We play games in trying to toil after the end of the earth as if somehow we are going to have a hold on the earth in order to change the pattern of life. But as we do so, we never learn to live. But, if our eyes are set on the end, and we begin living as the finite creatures we are, then we can truly learn to live life.

We must see that when things continue to seem to cycle around and around this is the reality of living this life under the sun. But instead of being discouraged by it, embracing it as we know the end for us all. For instead of chasing after the things under the sun, we must come to see that the hope to be had is in the one who is infinite. Our hope comes not in toiling and chasing things here, but in the one who created us, the one who pursued us despite our warts and ongoing patterns of sin. We live as we see the purpose of our lives are not about the things under the sun, but under the son, SON.

If we know the end is death, then we should see our need in rescue from that death in Christ Jesus. For it is Christ who came to lay down his life in order to rescue us from our sins. It is Christ who defeated death by rising from the grave on the third day. It is Christ who will come again and bring the final blow to death. While death is the reality for all of us in this world, it is only so because of the fall of man. And since that fall, all of us have been guilty of sin in breaking God’s law. And yet, even as we are deserving of the curse of death, God has poured out his mercy on us in Jesus.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we should know this truth. And it is in light of this truth that is to be what sets us up in how to live. Living in the hope of Christ. And as we live with the hope of Christ, we can even begin to grasp that death is gain as Paul writes in Philippians 1:21. Death is gain, as we see that chasing after this world is vanity, there is no gain. It is gain as we leave this ever circling world and depart to be with Christ for all eternity. It is gain as we leave a world in which brokenness remains to be with our glorious king in all his glory. Therefore, with death as gain, we can live out our lives on earth with our eyes set on the glory of God and enjoying him forever. Just as we find in the first question of the Westminster shorter catechism which asks what is the chief end of man? We see that: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

But this isn’t only for those of us who are already in Christ. This hope, this gain is also extended even now to all who would turn from their sin and come and rest in Jesus. See that Christ came and died in our place in order to rescue us from our sin. And being laid in the grave, on the third day he rose again defeating death itself. Therefore, if you believe in this good news, you too will be saved by the blood of Jesus. You can have this eternal hope of gain in departing from this world. Will you not believe this news today? Death is coming for you and for me. Don’t let it come apart from turning to the Son, the SON. For all our toil under the sun, the sun is vanity.

David Gibson in his book, Living Life Backward says, “Ecclesiastes invites us to let the end sculpt our priorities and goals, our greatest ambitions and our strongest desires.” Therefore, as we continue to study the book of Ecclesiastes, seeing how all indeed is vanity, let our lives begin to be shaped by the end.

Four Points of Living in light of the end

To help us begin living in light of the end here are four things that can help us as we start:

Living in light of the end starts with us seeing that our chief end as man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. To glorify God we are to live our lives in a way that brings him honor and glory. Christian brothers and sisters, our lives are to be a living sacrifice to the one who created us and now has redeemed us in Christ. But not only that we are to glorify God, we are called to enjoy God. Living in light of the end should help us to enjoy God in all that we do, rather than toiling after the things of this life and thinking we are going to find joy and fulfillment in them. How this looks will be a subject over the next few weeks on how to enjoy God. But for now, let us see that we are called to enjoy God as we live in light of the end.

Secondly, we need to see the reality that death is gain for us who are in Christ. We live our lives out as long as the Lord would have us here on this earth, but when death comes we embrace it as an old friend. For in our earthly death we depart from being finite to be with the one who is forever. The one who created us. Death is gain as we get to be in his glory forever and ever. We need to learn to see this as gain, not loss.

Thirdly, we can live in light of the end by holding things loosely in this world. We want to be wise stewards, care for what the Lord has given us. And yet knowing that as the earth goes around and around, these earthly things will fade. Our greatest toil cannot be for that of possessions that will rust and fade away.

Fourthly, we live in light of the end by toiling towards a legacy greater than that of ourselves. As we have seen, there is no remembrance of former things. But, we can live in light of the end as we pour out our lives by pointing others to Jesus. By investing in their souls, so that they can come into that sweet communion with our Father who is in heaven. If we truly believe that death is the end for us all, we cannot sit idly by as people are dying and heading to an eternity of hell. We cannot sit by and wait for the lost to approach the church doors. We must then go to them, we are obligated to go to them. What we have in the gospel is powerful enough to save them. Jesus alone is worthy of their praise. Therefore let our lives be poured out as we make disciples of King Jesus. For this toil is not vanity, it is focused on what is eternal.

Conclusion

As we chase the secret of life, it will not be found in toiling after the things under the sun. For there is no remembrance of these toils. However, the meaning of life is found as we see our end as finite creatures. Death will come for us all. And while this seems morbid, the reality is knowing this will help us live in light of that end. We can only really begin to live once we know our end is death. For in knowing our end is death, we begin to live as finite creatures dependent on the one who is infinite and who holds all things in place. In knowing the end is death and that we will soon be forgotten, we can live in a way that stops focusing on a reputation and a name for ourselves and focus on the one we were meant to live for and glorify. We can learn to live enjoying the life we have, instead of pursuing the life we don’t have. Friends, instead of death causing us anxiety and fear, let us embrace it. For as we embrace death as our end, we can actually enjoy life more and actually live life how we were intended.

Let’s pray…

Benediction from Revelation 21:5 - And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”