Living in Circles

Living in Circles (Ecclesiastes 1:1-18)

you know you’re in trouble when the doctor says, "Was this here the last time I examined you?"
at a routine yearly physical, Pat Howard’s doctor discovered a mass in her abdomen
the look on his face told her instantly that the mass was suspicious and would need more investigation
during the next weeks she was x-rayed, sonared, bled, and clucked over
finally it all boiled down to the results of a blood test for which she would have to wait five days
five days!
in case you don’t know, the "c" word – cancer – has a way of expanding the number of minutes in an hour
the five days seemed like an eternity
finally, the morning came when she could call for results
her husband held her hand
she placed the call
in the blink of an eye, time returned to a normal pace and she was able to take a breath
the tests were negative; the mass was benign
now her life could get back to normal
do you think her life could get back to normal?
looking back on her life until the doctor found the mass, she comments:
"When had we become so numb? At what point had the color begun to fade from our marriage?…It came to me that ‘normal’ had been the real cancer of my life. I had been painting my life by number…Previously I had been getting by in life. I had resigned myself to being content with less and less. My role…had become robotic. I could just insert the tape for the day and let it play…My role as human being had been overshadowed by fears and worries and survival. Not only did I not stop to smell the flowers, I didn’t know they were there or, even worse, cursed the fact that they were in the way"
you know, there’s something called "urgency addiction"
that’s when your life becomes so busy that you begin to neglect looking at the bottom line issues
sadly, many of us live in this condition for years before a crisis happens and we take a good, hard look at our lives and realize that we’re living in circles
thousands of years ago, a man lived who had the resources to do an experiment with his life
his name was Solomon, king of a nation, rich and willing to do it all
this man was renowned for his wisdom
he had the wherewithal to try every approach to life
hard work, power, riches, sex – you name it, he tried it
here was a man who had tried it all!
here was a man who had gone for the gusto and done everything
in many ways, he was the quintessential man who had arrived
he had done everything
there were no more ladders left to climb
he had arrived
probably near the end of the life, he reflected on human experience, much as Pat Howard did
now please open your Bibles to Ecclesiastes
if you open your Bibles to the middle and go two books east, or toward the end, you will find this jewel of a book
we’re going to look at his preliminary conclusions about life
what I want to do today is to save you the trouble of getting cancer, or having a mid-life crisis, or losing a loved one to slow down and look at your life
in fact, I’m going to save you the trouble and give you the crisis all by itself
you’ll thank me later
I’ll quickly give you Solomon’s thesis, and then we’ll go on to look at some arguments to buttress his thesis
and we’ll see clearly how little life has changed since Solomon wrote these words
here is Solomon’s thesis:
(Ecclesiastes 1:1) The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
(Ecclesiastes 1:2) "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
(Ecclesiastes 1:3) What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
KJV (Ecclesiastes 1:2) Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
NCV (Ecclesiastes 1:2) The Teacher says, "Useless! Useless! Completely useless! Everything is useless."
the word in Hebrew literally means "empty; unsatisfactory; futile"
it is similar to vapor, which disappears quickly, leaves nothing behind, and does not satisfy
one professor defined this word as "whatever is left after you break a soap bubble"
what a conclusion for Solomon to make!
the word "meaningless" is repeated over 30 times in Ecclesiastes
what Solomon is saying is that when he considers his wealth, his works, his wisdom – everything – he comes to this conclusion:
(Ecclesiastes 2:11) Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Solomon begins in chapter one to characterize nature as an endless round of pointless movement
and he points out that this rhythm engulfs human generations as well
now, what I’m going to ask you to do for the remainder of this message is to put your heart on the line
I’m going to ask you to avoid the necessity of being threatened with cancer
instead, we’re going to stop long enough to examine our lives and see if what Solomon said is still true
because if what he said is true, surely we need to make some changes, right?
if your role has become monotonous and robotic
if your contributions add up and amount to nothing
if you are just getting by in life
if you are living in circles, Solomon holds out a sign and says "Stop!"
and we had better make some changes
LOOK AT THESE EXAMPLES OF FUTILITY AND SEE IF THEY RING TRUE:
(Ecclesiastes 1:4) Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
(Ecclesiastes 1:5) The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
(Ecclesiastes 1:6) The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
(Ecclesiastes 1:7) All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
Solomon says, "Nothing has changed"
there is a group of people who will be born today and there is a group of people who will die today
one generation comes and another goes, but nothing really changes
Solomon identified the "wheel of nature" around him: the earth, the sun, the wind, and the water
he compares the transience of generations to the endurance of the earth
despite continual departures and entries of separate generations, the earth stands intact
a man named Jerome wrote, "What is more vain than this vanity: that the earth, which was made for humans, stays – but humans themselves, the lords of the earth, suddenly dissolve into dust?"
we can envision the world lasting for many more generations, but you and I will not profit from it, because we will pass from the scene forever
and Solomon says, this is meaningless
Solomon encourages us to look at the sun
one Scriptural writer describes the daily passage of the sun this way:
(Psalms 19:5) which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
this celebrates the daily journey of the sun with a sense of wonder
but look at Solomon’s description of the daily journey of the sun
instead of picturing a vigorous champion who easily makes the daily round, he pictures the sun as arriving exhausted at the end of the day, only to undertake the whole ordeal again
it’s like the story of Sisyphus in the ancient legend, who was condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder to the top of a hill, only to have it return to the starting place over and over again
it’s perpetual drudgery
are you depressed yet?
he also mentions the relentless blowing of the wind as another example: it makes no more difference than the sun’s daily round or the coming and going of countless generations
to top off our look at nature’s pointless activity, Solomon turns our attention to the countless streams that flow into the sea, and yet the seas are never overflowed!
even lakes or seas with no outlet still remain unfilled
he’s pointing out the countless cycles that go on and on and on for generation after generation
it’s called "living in circles"
Solomon points out that the same is true of the human condition
(Ecclesiastes 1:8) All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
(Ecclesiastes 1:9) What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
(Ecclesiastes 1:10) Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
(Ecclesiastes 1:11) There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
you know, nothing really changes
verse eight points out that we’re just like the Athenians mentioned in Acts 17:21:
(Acts 17:21) (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
humans are always looking to see and hear new things
just look at the entertainment industry
no matter how many bad movies I’ve seen, I’m still ready to try the next one to see if I like it
but despite our hunger to see and hear new things all the time, we’re still not satisfied
let me tell you something: you can buy the biggest television on the market, you can but the fanciest satellite dish or subscribe to the greatest amount of cable channels possible, and you won’t be a happier human being
I guarantee it
what’s more, there’s nothing really new in life
think about it: since Solomon wrote these words thousands of years ago, nothing much has changed under the sun
we’d like to think that the world is full of new things such as computers and fax machines and new cars
but if we think anything is new, it’s because we haven’t read the minutes of the last meeting
there may be new circumstances and new lifestyles, people are just the same as when Solomon wrote
there has been no new development in the areas of human nature and sin
Rudyard Kipling wrote a funny little rhyme:

The craft that we call modern;
The crimes that we call new;
John Bunyan had them typed and filed
in 1682

there’s nothing new
verse 11 is very sobering:
(Ecclesiastes 1:11) There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
when we are gone, who will remember us?
our children, our close friends
but pretty soon they will pass on too, and our memory will pass from the earth
if you ever go to an old cemetery, where the names are beginning to fade from the headstones, you’ll realize that for many people, that headstone is the only sign that that person ever lived
no one remembers that person
our name will pass from the earth as well
previous generations are quickly forgotten, and future generations will fare no differently
finally, the historian becomes the philosopher
Solomon describes how he went about searching for the answer to the human condition
look at what he writes:
(Ecclesiastes 1:12) I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
(Ecclesiastes 1:13) I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!
(Ecclesiastes 1:14) I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
(Ecclesiastes 1:15) What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.
as king he had the resources necessary to experiment with different solutions, trying to find an answer to the problem of meaninglessness
Solomon pulled up his sleeves and looked at life from every angle
it appears that he made his study his life’s focus, ignoring the affairs of running the country
he set aside all his religious moorings and tried sex, money, work – everything!
and here are his findings:
literally, verse 13 says that God has given men and women an evil burden
in other words, life is tough!
do you believe it? life is tough!
everything, he says in verse 14, is meaningless, a chasing after the wind
in verse 15 he says:
(Ecclesiastes 1:15) What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.
in other words, there is something fundamentally wrong with life on earth
there are some problems which continue generation after generation which have never been solved
there are some problems, from a human perspective, that are unfixable
and after all Solomon’s study, described in verses 16 and 17, he concludes:
(Ecclesiastes 1:18) For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
in other words, "ignorance is bliss"
sometimes it’s better not to know
even wisdom has limitations
there are some things that even wisdom can’t change
humanistic wisdom – wisdom without God, also leads to grief and sorrow
[CONCLUSION]
now, my purpose this morning is not to depress you
that’s the farthest thing from my mind
but many people are living as Pat Howard did before the doctor found a mass in her abdomen
they’re painting by number in their lives
they’re just getting by
they’re robotic
their roles as human beings have been overshadowed by fears and worries and survivals
was Solomon being pessimistic?
I think he was being realistic:
life – and remember here he’s talking about life without God – is futile, and there is no profit from endless activity on earth
"empty, vain, meaningless, futile," Solomon says, "everything is meaningless"
it’s a chasing after the wind
Henry David Thoreau said, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"
and I agree
sometimes it takes a brush with death to make us realize it
remember, Solomon was one of the wisest men who ever lived
he tried everything
he wasn’t a naysayer or a prophet of doom
he realized that life really is monotonous
that if we add up our lives, they really don’t total what we think they might
okay, application time
APPLICATION ONE: DON’T DISAGREE TOO QUICKLY
I know there are some people here this morning who disagree with this first chapter of Ecclesiastes
there are some people who always look on the bright side, and I admire them
but what I ask you to do is to read the first chapter of Ecclesiastes a few times in the next week
see if you can disagree with him or not
argue with him if you like
but ask yourself honest questions – is Solomon right or not?
next week we’re going to look at Ecclesiastes chapter two, and I invite you to read ahead there as well
APPLICATION TWO: TAKE TIME TO THINK
many of us are too rushed in our lives
there are too many items in our inbox or to-do list
we’re too busy for our own good
Solomon slowed down
I invite you in these next weeks to slow down and really look at your life
if what Solomon says is true, we have to change our lives
APPLICATION THREE: LOOK ABOVE THE SUN
basically Solomon is looking at life from a human perspective, not from heaven’s point of view
he is examining life merely at a human level
we have to remember as we read Ecclesiastes that most of the time, he is reflecting life apart from God
that’s what the phrase "under the sun" means
now I’ll give you a hint as to one of the applications of this book
life only makes sense with God
a few years ago there was this slogan that Coca Cola used, "Things go better with Coke"
let me rephrase this statement to reflect one of the truths of Ecclesiastes: "Life goes better with God"
in fact, life only makes sense with God
apart from God, from an "under the sun" perspective, life is utterly futile, empty, and meaningless
we need God and a personal relationship with his Son in order for life to make any sense
in the words of Teilhard de Chardin, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
Warren Wiersbe summarizes:
the scientist tells us that the world is a closed system and nothing has changed
the historian tells us that life is a closed book and nothing is new
the philosopher tells us that life is a deep problem and nothing is understood
this is life "under the sun"
the only way out of this mess is to look somewhere else
perhaps if you’ve never done so, you need to look at God
let’s pray

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Living in Circles (Ecclesiastes 1:1-18)