The Cycle Under the Sun

Ecclesiastes 1:3 KJV 1900

3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?

The reason this book seems to clash with the rest of the Word of God is that it presents merely human reasoning “under the sun.”

This phrase, under the sun, forms the most important single key to understanding Ecclesiastes. The fact that it occurs twenty-nine times indicates the general perspective of the author.

His search is confined to this earth. He ransacks the world to solve the riddle of life.

And his whole quest is carried on by his own mind, unaided by God.

If this key—under the sun—is not kept constantly in mind, then the book will present mountainous difficulties. It will seem to contradict the rest of Scripture, to set forth strange doctrines, and to advocate a morality that is questionable, to say the least.

It was H. L. Mencken who said:

The basic fact about human experience is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in any sense.

The net gain for a lifetime of hard labor on earth is zero[1]

When you live life on this horizontal Plane what do you get?

What is to expected?

When we live for the here and now ---- what is to be expected?

Colossians 3:2 KJV 1900

2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Solomon is saying we are to look at life under the son

It will disspoint us continually

Something encouraging here

There is more to life than

Money, security and pleasure

Solomon had all of this

look at what Solomon concluded...

Ecclesiastes 2:10–11 KJV 1900

10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

nothing changes

nothing provides excitement

nothing brings contentment

Nothing new under the sun

explain the cycle ....

I The Sameness Cycle

Ecclesiastes 1:4–7 KJV 1900

4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. 5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. 6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. 7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

It continues whether I am her or not ..

It does not matter ...

The world just goes on like I was never here ...

Generation succeeds generation with irresistible momentum. This is life under the sun.

Each one dreams that he will be enduring,

How soon that one becomes the missing face!

—Will H. Houghton

Apart from revelation, we might think that the present earth will last forever.

That is what Solomon concludes.

Israel 2013

Gettysburg Little Round Top

1:5 Nature moves in a continuous, inexorable cycle.

For instance, the sun … rises in the east, swings through the heavens to set in the west, then hastens around the other side of the world to rise in the east again. This seemingly endless pattern, age after age, makes man realize that he is nothing but a passing shadow.

1:6 Solomon continues the thought into verse 6. The wind patterns change with the same regularity as the seasons of the year. In the winter, the north winds sweep down over Israel to the Negev, the desert in the south.

Then when summer comes, the south winds carry warmth on their northward flights. With almost dreary sameness, they follow this circuit, and then, with callous disregard for the world of men, pass off the scene.

1:7 Not only the earth, the sun, and the wind, but the water follows its same monotonous routine throughout the centuries.

All the rivers run into the sea but never to the point where the ocean overflows, because the sun evaporates enormous quantities of water. Then as air cools, the vapor condenses and forms clouds. The clouds in turn scud across the skies and drop the water over the land areas in the form of rain, snow, or hail.

And as the rivers are fed with the surplus, they bear the water back to the ocean. The ceaseless activity of nature reminds man of his own unending labor. Perhaps Kristofferson had this verse in mind when he wrote, “I’m just a river that rolled forever and never got to the sea.”[1]

If everything is endlessly cyclical, how can man break out of the temporal circle into a state that leads somewhere? We may also ask, What is the true meaning to be found in nature—if there is a meaning, is it found in the beauty of spring or in the violence of the storm and the earthquake?

Illustration of everything being the same.....

Coming back to a small town 30 years later

Nothing has changed

Solomon says

The winds do not change

The rivers do not change

The earth does not change

I have no affects......

what a pessimistic view of life

Is there not more

helping and assisting

servicing

impacting peoples lives

making a difference

or

nothing will change

illustation - alone

II The Unsatisfiedness Cycle

Ecclesiastes 1:8 KJV 1900

8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

we work like a dog but are never satisfied

Thus the life that is confined to this earth is full of weariness. Human language is inadequate to describe the monotony, boredom, and futility of it all.

Man is never satisfied. No matter how much he sees, he still wants more.

More more more .... how much is enough ?

1 Timothy 6:10–11 KJV 1900

10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

And his ears never reach the stage where they don’t want to hear something new. He travels incessantly and frenetically for new sensations, new sights, new sounds.

never satisfied always looking for something new -

Acts 17:21 KJV 1900

21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

He is after what an American sociologist calls the fundamental wish for new experience.

But he returns dissatisfied and jaded. Man is so constituted that all the world cannot bring lasting happiness to his heart. This does not mean that his case is hopeless. All he needs to do is get above the sun to the One who “satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness” (Ps. 107:9).

Psalm 107:9 KJV 1900

9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, And filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

Proverbs 27:20 KJV 1900

20 Hell and destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.

There is always just one more

Illustration ---- just one more and the cycle continues

Much more here -----

sin is always asking for more

illustration here

Its a loosing battle

enjoy the present you will never get it back?

family

friends

God’s grace

life too short

III. The Oldness Cycle

Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 KJV 1900

9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

Boring nothing is different.

1:9 An additional feature of Solomon’s disillusionment was the discovery that there is nothing new under the sun. History is constantly repeating itself. He longed for new thrills, but before long, he found everything was, in its own way, “a bad trip.”

1:10 Is it true that there is nothing really new? Yes, in a sense. Even the most modern discoveries are developments of principles that were locked into creation at the beginning. Many of man’s most boasted achievements have their counterparts in nature. Birds flew long before man did, for instance. Even space travel is not new. Enoch and Elijah were transported through space without even having to carry their own oxygen supplies with them! So those who spend their lives searching for novelties are bound to be disappointed. It has already happened in ancient times, long before we were born.

it all comes back to the fall of man and it repeats over and over again....

Solomon is saying I cant make a difference

It will always turn out the same way

Fatalism - a doctrine that events are fixed in advance so that human beings are powerless to change them

Easily bored people are at higher risk for depression, anxiety, drug addiction, alcoholism, compulsive gambling, eating disorders, hostility, anger, poor social skills, bad grades and low work performance.

Despite boredom's ubiquity and pathological associations, psychologists have yet to pin down what, exactly, it is. Several different scales all claim to measure boredom—the most widely used is the Boredom Proneness Scale—but a recent analysis suggests that they are measuring slightly different phenomena. Explanations for ennui are even more plentiful, ranging from Freud's theories of repressed emotions to individual differences in personality traits, the need for excitement, and attention skills.

Life goes on and on you make no difference....

IV. The Forgetfulness Cycle

Ecclesiastes 1:11 KJV 1900

11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

You are not that important yo will be forgotten...

Another bitter pill that man has to swallow is the speed with which he forgets and is forgotten. Lasting fame is a mirage. Many of us would have great difficulty in naming our great-grandparents. And fewer, perhaps, could name the last four vice-presidents of the United States. In our self-importance, we think that the world can’t get on without us; yet we die and are quickly forgotten, and life on the planet goes on as usual.

more here

The bottom line is that life lived under the sun will disappoint all of us ...

Nothing Changes

I am never satisfied

I will be forgotten

WE are not under the sun!

We have the God of creating in our corner and we can meake a difference

The philosophies of this world lead to Solomon like depression and fatalism!

God loves you and you don’t have to live under the depression of the “Cycle Under the Sun”