Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Life is Meaningless
Life is meaningless.
It is the vanities of all vanities.
Everything in this life is like smoke in your hands.
Just as soon as you see it, smell it, taste it, and try to grab it and hold on to it, it slips through your fingers.
James says life is a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes into thin air.
That is is the message of the Preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Saying life is futile is the same as saying life is meaningless.
The word futile can also be translated smoke or vapor.
It shows up 30 times in the book (Ecclesiastes 2:11, 22; 3:9; 5:16).
Life is likened to someone who works hard to chase after the wind with the hope of grab ahold of it.
Just as grabbing wind is futile, so is life.
Some of you may have the translation “hevels of hevels.”
The phrase means “ as meaningless as possible.”
The atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell, in his autobiography, captures the futility of life.
He observes,
“We stand on the shore of an ocean, crying to the night and the emptiness; sometimes a voice answers out of the darkness.
But it is a voice of one drowning; and in a moment the silence returns.
The world seems to me quite dreadful; the unhappiness of most people is very great, and I often wonder how they all endure it.
To know people well is to know their tragedy: it is usually the central thing about which their lives are built.
And I suppose if they did not live most of the time in the things of the moment, they would not be able to go on.
(Russell, Autobiography, 1,994)”
In many real ways, Russell understands the life experience of the author of the book of Ecclesiastes, which is likely King Solomon.
The first verse of the book reveals as much.
In Ecclesiastes 1:12, the writer reveals that he ruled over Jerusalem.
Solomon was the only son of David to do this (1 Chr 29:25).
If you also consider the life of Solomon, his wisdom, work, and wealth, it seems to line up well with the life of the author.
Solomon took over the reign of Israel after his father David died.
Solomon was very young.
God came to Solomon and gave him the opportunity to have anything his heart desired.
Solomon wisely asked God to grant his great wisdom so that he can rule justly (1 Kings 3:5-15).
God loved Solomon’s request so much that he not only granted Solomon great wisdom, but great wealth and might, so much so there there has not been a king like him sense 1 Kings 4:29-34).
Solomon had everything his heart desired in this world, which seems to be the case for the Teacher in Ecclesiastes.
By the time Solomon sits down to write Ecclesiastes he’s much older.
Life under the sun has taken its toll on Solomon.
The wisest man on earth did not heed the wisdom of Deuteronomy 17:14-20 regarding the kings of Israel.
He allowed his heart to become greedy.
His lust to obtained over 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), which lured his heart away from the Lord into idolatry.
By the end of his life, because of his unfaithfulness, God told him that upon his death he would divide his kingdom (1 Kings 11:9-13).
As an old man, with his life in his review mirror, he concedes, although he had every satisfaction this world can offer, life is meaningless.
What a provocative statement coming from the wisest, wealthiest, and most powerful men who ever lived.
His heart was denied nothing, and at the end of the day, life is absolutely futile.
The power, the prestige, the prosperity, the pomp, the posterity, at the end of his days, he concludes, its all meaningless.
At the end of his life, Solomon stands on the shore of an ocean, crying to the night and the emptiness.
With this in mind, I believe and older and repentant Solomon wrote the book for his sons.
Like Proverbs, he is saying, “Be wise.
Guard your heart as the wellspring of your life (Proverbs 4:23).
Listen to the Teacher and understand the meaning of life in a meaningless world.
What makes the world seem meaningless?
The world we live is paradoxically beautifully broken.
God created everything to be perfect.
The moon and stars and sun, and everything under the sun was good in God’s eyes.
He was satisfied with hie work.
He made man in his image and was satisfied with man.
For two short chapters in Genesis, the world was beautifully perfect, living In perfect harmony and unity with man and God.
We see glimpses of this perfection in wintery morning sunrises or summer sunsets.
We see it in random acts of kindness and compassion by our neighbors.
The world and the people in it are amazingly beautiful.
But we also know it is catastrophically broken.
In Genesis 3, the serpent deceives Eve and then Adam, and man disobeys God’s command to not eat from the tress of knowledge and evil.
As a result, sin enters the world.
Man is separated from God and the earth now groans under the curse Romans .
When God judges Adam, he reveals how life is going to become so burdensome that it will seem meaningless.
The earth is cursed.
You will work so painfully hard for so little, and at the end of your days, death will take it all away from you.
Life is hevels of hevels, vanities of vanities, futile, meaningless (Eccl.
1:2) The apostle Paul sees the futility of life on this earth in
Paul says that the curse of man brought corruption and bondage to creation, making life difficult, so much so it seems futile.
Everything breaks down.
Nothing works as it should.
It really does not matter if something is made in China or the United States.
Its going to break sooner than later.
Work is going to be stressful.
Sleep will evade you most nights.
The milk will spoil.
And yes, mom might lean on cereal night several days throughout the week.
Life will be grinding in a futile world.
And do you know what you have to show for it?
Destitution, drug addiction, divorce, dysfunction, depression, and ultimately death.
That is the bondage and corruption of creation.
Life is meaningless.
Johnathan Akin sums the reality of life under the sun well when he says
“East of Eden and separated from God, we live in a cursed, meaningless existence seeking lasting joy in things that eventually let us down!
This is the reality of life “under the sun” that Solomon unfolds for us in this book (Akin, Exalting Jesus in Ecclesiastes).”
To begin his argument for why life futile, he opens the lesson with a question in verse three that leads to the reality that the monotony of life seems meaningless.
The Monotony of Life seems Meaningless (Ecclesiastes 1:3-11)
The main idea in verse three is the monotony of hard work is meaningless.
Monotony means wearisome or a lack of variety.
I experienced monotony at its best when I worked at Ashely Furniture as a wood catcher.
One guy put a long 2x4 into a wood cutter.
I stood on the other end, catching the wood and stacking it on a pallet for 8-10 hours a day.
The physical labor combined with the monotony, made it grueling for seven and a half the eight hour day.
The man I worked with had been at that job for over twenty years, laboring, even grinding, over a wood cutter, stacking wood all day.
That is the idea in verse 3.
The Hebrew conveys hard physical labor.
Under the sun is the same as saying “under heaven.”
It refers to this world, life as we know it.
You work day and night, exerting great strength and effort to what end?
Truth is there is no net gain for your work when death.
So, all of these questions about how much you make, or who knows your name, or how many homes do you have, are all irrelevant.
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