Sermon: Resuming Ecclesiastes (Part One)

Review of Several Main Points
#1095B
John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 07-Apr-12; 72 minutes

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We will begin in Deuteronomy 30, and I will read an 8 or 9 verse stretch of this very significant chapter. These words have a great deal to do with our Christian life.

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

This is easily one of the most significant paragraphs in the entire Bible regarding our responsibilities as sons of God. God is explaining to us that He wants us to stand and be counted regarding morality. The emphasis of God’s concern expressed to us in this exhortative appeal is to make good choices by using the faith that He has given us. The basis of His appeal is to never forget that "I am always very near you; indeed, I am in you," and therefore, we can count on having His attention.

Mr. Armstrong used to make the statement on occasion that the Bible is a coded book. It is not written so that all people at any given time can easily understand it. I recently gave a sermon that I titled, “Without a Parable,” built on this truth. Jesus said in Matthew 13:9,

Matthew 13:9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

Was He not clearly implying that not everyone can hear with understanding? The reason for this is that God himself is selectively choosing who can hear with understanding and who cannot. Those who cannot understand reveal themselves by their attitude and conduct. They reach a point when they will depart from their obedience to Him.

The first part of this paragraph in Deuteronomy 30 has important consequences to us. It is telling us that He ensures that we have no excuse. We will re-read verses 11-14,

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. [He is telling us that He is going to remove the veil of the mystery of God so that we, His children, can know, understand, and do.] It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

That is pretty strong. God says He will never forsake us, and yet so often we do not think that He is aware of what we are going through here in our trials on earth. By this scripture, He is letting us know that is not true, and we cannot use that as an excuse, because He says He is right in us. He will communicate with us if we will communicate with Him.

Go back now into the New Testament in II Corinthians 5:7-10.

II Corinthians 5:7-10 For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

I reminded you earlier that I had just concluded a series of sermons involving elements important to living by faith. Those verses we just read in Deuteronomy 30 are important to living by faith because we often get it in our mind that we are being severely tried, and that it continues because we do not fully understand what is going on, but God promises that He will open the mysteries to us. Those elements that I believe strongly support successfully living by faith include God’s sovereignty, human pride (which is a negative), humility (which is a good attribute), God’s sentence of judgment, justice (which should induce some fear), and God’s grace (which should also give us confidence that He is forgiving and merciful). Balancing these five elements work toward giving us understanding so that we can continue in faith without giving up.

Morality involves issues in which we cannot remain neutral if we are going to live by faith. Do not be misled, immorality includes conduct such as a failure to do what is right and good when the opportunity presents itself. We tend to think of immorality as failing in the sense of actually breaking a law, robbing somebody, or something like that, but immorality includes doing nothing when we had the opportunity to do something good. We did not break a law in that sense; we just failed to do good. Things like the failure to be kind, the failure to be thoughtful and helpful, instead of being mean-spirited and critical in judgment or prejudiced in our thinking. We did not do anything, actually, but the failure was in the heart in failing to carry through to do something good, which is also immoral. It is possible that we do a lot less of the actual law breaking and a lot more of the failure to do the right thing.

Today is the first day of Unleavened Bread and historically its observation looks back upon Israel leaving Egypt as a free people, their pilgrimage through the wilderness, and the abject failure of those who began their journey to the Promise Land. If we compare this to the church era here, they failed after being baptized in the Red Sea and during their sanctification period. They failed during the same period that the overwhelming majority of us in this room are involved in right now. Most of us were baptized a long time ago. Evelyn and I were baptized back in 1959. We have been in our sanctification period a long time, and we really needed it. We still need it. This is the time for the preparation for the Kingdom of God and what we will be doing then.

What is the overall reason that those adults who began that pilgrimage failed? God makes it very clear. Hebrews 3 says that they failed because they did not believe Him. Their faith, their trust in Him, broke down. They did not convert what they heard and saw of God working in and through Moses and Aaron (and a few others as well), and in the things that God did in and for the nation to meet its challenges, and because they did not connect it within themselves, they failed. They did not believe what they witnessed and heard. In plain language, they did not live by faith, governing themselves to direct their focus, each day, on all the little things that might arise.

I recently read a short story that I think might be helpful in illustrating the importance to a Christian of making right choices. I am passing it on to you to think about because so many things mentioned in Ecclesiastes paint a picture of life that is overwhelmingly negative. So negative is the view that most people cannot see the forest for the trees; because their mind is so prejudiced, they miss the God-intended message that He gave through Solomon.

This illustration is a true story. It begins with a man named Edwin Thomas, an American who became an actor at age 15 and was very successful on the stage. He had two brothers, John and Junius, also actors, but they never reached Edwin’s fame. One April evening at the height of Edwin’s career, his brother John quietly stole into the rear of a box in Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC, and assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. John and Edwin’s last name was Booth. John’s bad choice devastated Edwin and destroyed his career. He never fully recovered because shame from his brother’s murderous act forced him into retirement.

Though he never fully recovered, a good choice of his helped him to considerably repair some of the damage. One day a few years after this unfortunate event, Edwin Thomas was standing on a New Jersey train station, and he chose to risk his life to save the life of a young boy. The boy had fallen between an already moving train and the platform, and he was about to be snagged by his clothing and dragged against the platform. Edwin did not hesitate. Somehow or another he braced himself, grabbed the boy’s clothing and yanked him up onto the platform. Edwin just dismissed the incident and walked away, not knowing who it was whose life he had saved until a letter came from the Office of the United States President at that time, Ulysses S. Grant. He had saved the life of Robert Todd Lincoln, the son of the man his brother had murdered. Publicity from the choice that he made somehow revived his career to some extent.

What I want you to think about is that Edwin and John were brothers. They had the same father and mother, grew up in the same household, went into the same profession, and both had a passion for their work, yet one chose to preserve life and the other chose to take life. Given similar backgrounds, how could that happen? I do not know, but I want you to think about this: God let them do it.

Able and Cain had the same father and mother. Abel chose God; Cain chose murder, and God let him. Abraham and Lot were in the same general family, and they were also fellow pilgrims in Canaan. Abraham chose God; Lot chose Sodom, and God let him. David and Saul were both kings of Israel. David chose God; Saul chose demons and political power, and God let him. Peter and Judas both denied their Lord. Peter chose to seek God and His mercy; Judas chose to seek suicide and death, and again, God let him.

God allows us to choose the narrow gate or the wide one, the big crowd or the small one. We can choose to build on the rock or the sand, serve God or riches, be numbered among the sheep or the goats. We can choose to fill our vessels with oil or simply wait things out until Christ returns. We can choose to use the Sabbath day wisely or play fast and loose with it almost as if it is an ordinary day.

The underlying theme and purpose of Solomon’s appeal in Ecclesiastes is to use your faith and not let life lure you into carelessly thinking that what God says does not matter, and that life is purposeless. The reality is that everything in life matters to some degree, and that can be an overwhelming thought. Thankfully, our God is mercifully kind and patient, and He gives us some time to learn and to overcome.

When you were born, you had no choice regarding what you were born into. You had no choice regarding the family you were born into, its race, or its religion if they even had any. You had no choice of your ethnicity, your gender, your nation, or whether you had blue eyes and blonde hair or brown eyes and black hair, a fast metabolism or a slow one, an average or a high IQ, or a high or low family income.

In any circumstance, it is very easy for human nature to say that life is unfair. However, looking at your life now, have we been given any greater privilege than that of being able to choose? Having the power to choose is one of God’s greatest gifts because now, as a result of what He has done with His merciful calling, He has given us the power to choose to spend eternity in His family. The family we can be born into is the highest and the greatest one. We can choose our destiny.

We have all made bad choices. We may have chosen the wrong friends, the wrong line of work, maybe even the wrong spouse—but think of the thief on the cross. His bad choices brought him crucifixion, but he repented and he prayed that he would live again and see Christ in His glory. He is not saved, yet, but he has made the first major choice and is moving now in the right direction. It is virtually impossible to make up for bad choices, but it is possible for us to change our future from this point on. The choice is yours, and God will let you.

Since I prepared the sermons on Ecclesiastes at the Feast last year, I can no longer think of it as being sort of a mirror image of the book of Proverbs, because unlike Proverbs, Ecclesiastes does not merely consist of a long series of brief, wise, and pithy sayings. It is not that such things do not appear in Ecclesiastes, because they do. What sets Ecclesiastes apart from Proverbs is that it is much deeper and requires a great deal of meditative thought to understand. It is difficult to read, but it contains a clear and valuable central narrative from beginning to end. That theme, in common terms, is that even though no one knows the purpose of life, it nonetheless remains puzzling and difficult. How can one find guidance for making right choices?

Ecclesiastes is an overview consisting of a collage of real-life experiences that impact on every thinking person’s life, regardless of when they live in the expanse of recorded history. God uses the notes of Solomon, the preacher, the convener (as his name also means), the lectures that he compiled during his life, and then late in life he taught them to others. God gifted Solomon with incredible intellect and insight, plus the political power and wealth to enable him to experience and record what he learned for the benefit of those who came along later. Foundational to Ecclesiastes’ theme is discerning possible paths, making right choices, and therefore, effectively using time.

Genesis 1:14-19 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years [notice days and years and time are regulated by the heavenly bodies that God put in the sky and that is the part they play so that we can measure time and we can see it slipping by as we go through the years]; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth"; and it was so. Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Time is a creation, an invention of God, and a gift to man. Make sure that you understand this. Time is a gift from God; it is within time that we live our life, and we have a way of measuring it, at least to some degree. God himself, as it says in Isaiah 57, inhabits eternity. Time does not mean the same thing to God. It means only something to Him in relation to man. Every person given life lives within time’s parameters.

There is a reality about its movement that everybody comes to know. What is it? It is not deep and it is not difficult. I want you to see it written in God’s word in the book of Hebrews 2:14-15 where it talks about our Savior who was God and became a man. When He became a man, He became subject to the same things that we are, including time.

Hebrews 2:14-15 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Sooner or later, the reality that time is running out impacts on every life. Nobody escapes. Even Jesus had to face that, 33-1/2 years of it. I am 79. How much more time do I have? I have lived longer than just about anybody in my family except for my mother. She lived to be 92 or 93, but she died with dementia. For the last two or three years of her life, she did not know who I was. If we look at it in that reality, even though she was alive, time had run out for her. She could no longer think. She was being kept in a nursing home just a couple of miles from my brother’s home in Cincinnati, and he went to see her virtually every day, and every day he had to introduce himself to his own mother. It is sad to experience, but time had run out for her even though her heart was still beating.

The reality is that sooner or later we are going to die. We are subject to it. This is an important element in the book of Ecclesiastes, and it is why Solomon is appealing to us and mentions death at least seven times. It is a reality that we have to adjust to, and realize we do not know when time is going to run out for you and me. We can drop dead. We can be in an accident, and that is all she wrote until the resurrection comes along. Then you will have to start all over again and experience things living under the government of God. But, we have the time right now to prove to God that we will be faithful to Him, that we believe Him, and that we are willing to live our lives under Him.

What is important about time? Death makes time important to every thinking person who is concerned about the future. Do you want to achieve your destiny? For those of us who know God, surely you do. We do not have to live life like we are standing on the edge of the cliff. We can take comfort in the knowledge that God says He will be with us. He will help, guide, and watch over us. We know that it is His purpose to achieve in us the greatest amount of growth that is possible in the time that He has allotted for you and me. Within time everyone is born, ages, is educated to some degree, has multitudes of experiences, worships something or somebody, works, devotes his life to some level of achievements, sleeps, plays, faces many forks in this road of life, and for better or for worse makes multitudes of choices.

Evaluating what to do with one’s time, making choices, and exercising the will to accomplish them in the best manner in alignment with God’s purpose are the major elements of Ecclesiastes’ message.

Did you get that? I will repeat: evaluating what to do with one’s time, making choices, and exercising the will to accomplish them in the best manner in alignment with God’s purpose are the major elements in Ecclesiastes’ message.

It is, without a doubt, one of the greatest of all the books in the Old Testament for the preparation of a Christian for the Kingdom of God. It is not to be overlooked or sneezed at. It is something that we should know from beginning to end, because there was a man who wrote that who had gone through, in many cases, a wretched life, and he had some wisdom worth passing on.

In Proverbs 14:12 Solomon writes:

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

The overall point is how can one avoid the bulk of the many choices that lead nowhere except to death? The reality is that this cannot be done without the help of God, and some of that help (indeed a great deal of the major understanding in terms of an overview of getting that help) is in the book of Ecclesiastes. We will go now to the end of the book of Ecclesiastes 12:13. Do you like to read books at the end to find out how it works out? That is what we are doing, and I think it is a good idea to do it, here.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter [here is the conclusion of everything that Solomon says in the book; it leads to this. What is it?]: Fear God and keep His commandments [this is the way to success], For this is man's all.

He is saying that this is everything! It cannot be said any more succinctly than this. This is how you avoid the labyrinth of choices that we have, where so much of the path we go down leads to nothing more than a block.

What is he saying without saying it? If we really do fear God, He will let us make choices, but the chances are very great that because He is there and He loves us, He is going to get us turned around before we go very far and do something that is downright dangerous to our salvation.

This verse succinctly highlights the major purpose of the entire writing: God and His purpose for our calling must be given the highest and utmost consideration when making our choices, if our life is to be successful. Who defines what success is? God does.

After beginning Solomon’s final charge to us, the first urgent command that Solomon issues in his conclusion is that we must fear God. Spend a little time on this because it comes first. We must fear God. It means to reverence Him. In practical application, it means to pay extra special attention whenever He says something, because it is going to be important to His purpose for us. If we are giving Him that special attention, that special place in our thinking in regard to life, he says He will find a way out for us so that this thing can be worked out correctly.

Back to Proverbs again and this has to do with the fear of God. In a sense it is something we may have thought of frequently and did not extrapolate it out quite as much as it should have been. He is telling us here why he wrote this particular book.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

There is a great deal of wisdom in the book of Proverbs and there is a great deal of wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes, though, is more of an overview regarding making choices. Now go to Job for another verse in which Elihu is the one who is speaking:

Job 28:28 And to man He said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.'"

Wisdom is the fruit of the fear of the Lord; but if we do not have some measure of wisdom to begin with, we will never have this fear. So fearing God is wisdom. Why? Because it raises the success rate much higher so that one will make the right choices. Even beyond this . . . understanding is the less clear fact that wisdom is not only the beginning of knowledge (as Proverbs 1:7 states), but it can be extrapolated out (to the understanding) that the fear of the Lord is also the beginning of faith, the beginning of love, the beginning of hope, the beginning of joy, the beginning of peace, and the beginning of eternal life. If we do not respect God, how far are we going to get in fulfilling our destiny? Our calling will be flat, and there will not be much in the way of growth.

Ecclesiastes has a reputation of being dreary, negative, a downer of a book that the unconverted seem to focus on as showing the meaninglessness of life. There is no doubt that this is so if one does not grasp its importance to successfully avoiding the vanity so easily available in this Satan-devised world. The book is revealing the carnally attractive pitfalls available to every level in any culture found in the world. It does not matter if it is China or India, the USA, South Africa, or wherever. Thus, many reach the conclusion that Ecclesiastes is all about the meaninglessness of life.

However, the correct view is that Ecclesiastes is all about the meaninglessness of life without God and His guidance. There is a big difference. That is why the book seems like such a downer. People do not understand that in a sense God is having Solomon write this in an inverse way. He shows you how bad the world is without dwelling on God. We should be able to supply that and I will tell you why shortly. This is why I went to the conclusion of the whole matter in Ecclesiastes 12:7 very early in this review of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Everything is written here to help the reader fit himself into God and His purpose in his life by choosing to avoid all or as many of the vanities that come into each one’s life; and Solomon makes so clear what they are. It is written to give us overviews to making wiser choices. The theme, which admittedly is not right on the surface, is that when you are making your choices in life you should never leave God out of the picture. Because everything, whether small or great, matters to some degree. Can we remember that?

That is what Solomon is saying: everything matters. It depends on what we choose to make out of it and make our choice. Do we really want the vanity? We should study Ecclesiastes to learn what will happen to us if we choose what the world tries to offer instead of what God has to give.

Solomon had more wisdom than any other human except Jesus Christ and more than enough money to enable him to experience what the world offers, and he seems to be saying, “Why make your own mistakes when you can learn from an expert like me?” He really messed up, and in a major way he is saying without directly saying it, “Please, don’t do what I did. That’s dumb.” Three hundred wives and seven hundred concubines; that does not sound very good for a wise man does it? But he did it. Whatever the connections were, they were not good. Can we take the hint? It almost seems as though Solomon overdid everything in his life, and he is saying, “Follow what I say and not what I did.”

Very often, Solomon seemingly asked the question, “What is the meaning of life, and why am I so unhappy?” These are common questions that come into everybody’s life from time to time, and we wonder if God really cares. Why is there so much suffering and injustice in the world? Is life really worth living?

As we move on through the book we ask the question, “Will I be ready for death?” This is something he thought about pretty often because he could see that time was running out. It teaches much about death because it teaches us how to live for God and not just for ourselves so that we are much better prepared when the inevitable happens. What is the inevitable? Death. Nobody escapes. Can we bear the truth of that? Without directly asking that question, that is a major portion of the book of Ecclesiastes. Some might think this guy dwells on death, but he did not really dwell on it at all; he just asks and presents uncomfortable situations.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-7 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again. All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, "See, this is new"? It has already been in ancient times before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after.

We are going to spend a little time on chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes because it is foundational to the theme of the entire book. Three terms important to grasping Ecclesiastes’ message are contained within the first three verses. They are “vanity,” “profit,” and “under the sun.” Before I review each of these terms briefly, there is another factor about time that I believe is helpful to understand. I know I gave it in the sermon in Topeka, but I want to repeat it again because the Israelitish people are somewhat different than most nations on earth.

I want to point out how people generally perceive time and its events. Most observers in most nations picture time and its events as occurring in a circular fashion. You see that by what is written here in the book of Ecclesiastes. It gives a number of illustrations. This concept is that time passes and events within it are endlessly repeated. History repeating itself is a common theme, but these repeating cycles advance toward no specific objective or goal in particular.

This is circular perception and most of the world views things in this manner. The Hebrews, though, were different. They were the one anomaly among all nations. Even though they could see the progression of time and the repetition of events occurring to some degree in a circular fashion, they pictured time as occurring more in a linear manner. In other words, time was going somewhere. To them there was a definite objective or goal toward which time is moving and they grasped this only because of the revelation of God. They perceived God as moving His creation toward a very definite end in which they, as individuals and as nations, were involved.

Go back to Ephesians 2 where Paul makes it very clear that when we are converted we become, spiritually, Hebrews. The Hebrew way of reckoning time was as God had revealed this understanding to them.

Ephesians 2:11-14 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh [notice: once, at one time they were Gentiles]—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands [that is the Hebrew people]—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now [now that they are converted] in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

He is telling those Gentile people that because they have been converted and now have the spirit of God and because Jesus Christ was a Hebrew (a Jew), anybody who is in Christ becomes a Jew, just like Jesus Christ. Do you get the picture? His body, as it were, would accept only that which was made for Him and similar to Him. Understand the symbolism that is used here. When a person is converted, it does not matter who they are; if they are a Gentile, they become an Israelite. They become a Hebrew and God expects them to begin thinking according to the revelation that God gave to the Hebrew people and nobody else. Go to Galatians where Paul is again writing to Christians.

Galatians 6:16 And as many as walk [as they live their lives] according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

Paul is saying that there are two Israel’s. There is the Israel according to the flesh, and there is the Israel according to the Spirit and the church. Everybody in the church becomes part of the Israel of God. This feeds right into the time God expects us to begin thinking about time the way He taught the Hebrew people. Time is moving linearly. It is going in a straight line, and even though there are the same things occurring again and again, they are all on the same line, and God is directing His creation toward a very definite goal.

What is the next objective? It is the return of Jesus Christ. That is where time is moving right now. Beyond that is the Millennium and beyond that is the Great White Throne Judgment, but everything is moving toward that conclusion when the third resurrection comes and all those who have not been accepted into the Kingdom of God are going to be burned up. That is as far as the Bible goes with its time, but that is where it is moving. Even though life is repetitious, be aware it is moving toward your death and mine and the return of Jesus Christ. It is not standing still.

One of these days God is going to be satisfied and He is going to tell his son “NOW!” Of course, I think by that time Christ will know too, but you get the point. We must have this understanding. It is a major part of our life, and I know it is in your life because you, like me, and like all of your brethren in the Church of God are looking for the return of Jesus Christ. That is where time is heading.

The lesson from Solomon, therefore, is to be aware that time is moving on. Anybody with the Spirit of God ought to be able to understand this. What should we do with that? We make use of the time that we have. We dedicate our life to glorifying Him. We dedicate our life using it to overcome, grow, and bring honor to His family.

We are constantly aware that God is moving His creation toward a very definite end. We are looking around speculating who is doing what; who is the Beast; who is the great whore that sits on the Beast, and so on. Those thoughts are there, and they are puzzles that God has not revealed totally. Maybe He gives us a little clue every once in a while, and we think we get it, and then that is dashed and we realize we have gotten ahead of ourselves.

Back to the analysis of the words I mentioned earlier. The word “vanity” is one of the big three words at the beginning of this chapter. It is the Hebrew word which can be spelled either hevel or hebel, but it is a very vivid metaphor. It literally suggests a “breath,” something akin to a vapor. It can be used in the sense of a puff of smoke rising from a fire or one’s breathe on a cold day. Its use here in Ecclesiastes indicates that life is brief. How long does your breath hang in the air on a cold day? Not long; maybe a second and then it is gone. That is what he is saying life is like. If we translate that into our 70-year life, he is telling us that even 70 years (that is how long Solomon lived), is so brief; here today and gone tomorrow. Again, without saying it, he is telling us not to waste time.

One of the most vivid examples of that metaphor that I found in my research is where one man said that hevel is about as substantial as the scum that is left when a soap bubble bursts. That is pretty vivid. Turn to James and we will see an apt description of vanity.

James 4:14 …whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Tomorrow is just a few hours away, and it will be here soon. We go to bed and get up, and it is the next day already. James is comparing that to our entire life.

The Message Bible translates Ecclesiastes 1:2:

Ecclesiastes 1:2 (MSG) Smoke, smoke, nothing but smoke, there is nothing in anything. It is all smoke.

What happens with smoke? It goes up into the air and disappears. Blown about, broken apart, it goes over the horizon and you would never know it was here.

The New International Version translates that same verse:

Ecclesiastes 1:2 (NIV) Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless; everything is meaningless.

This is what hebel tells us. The word itself implies absurdity mixed with pain. That is pretty descriptive. If one understands the meaning of hebel then I am sure that Qoheleth, who was Solomon, has their attention.

Now that opening may seem like a downer, but if one realizes and believes that through this book, though it is based on the experiences of a man, the real author of the book is God Almighty. If you can just look beyond the man Solomon and realize that God wrote this book, and He is telling us that all of our life (70 or 80 years if we happen to be strong, and God has blessed us), is just like a puff of smoke. Of course, He is comparing that to His life, and He inhabits eternity. He has been alive forever and forever, however long that is. Our life, by comparison to His, is nothing.

God is trying to get us into the right frame of mind so that we will accept the propositions that follow. He is telling us by using this word that we have everything to gain if we listen to what He is saying, and if we do not, we are gone. That is pretty strong, blunt language.

The apostle Paul agrees, and we need to look at what he wrote in Romans 8. I think Paul may have picked up what he wrote, here, from his understanding of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation [here, Paul is going to make the creation symbolically be a living being, like you and me] eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God [as are we, looking forward to the resurrection from the dead]. For the creation was subjected to futility [or vanity], not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption [now he is calling vanity corruption] into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

The entire physical creation is subjected by God to vanity. What does that mean to you and me in a practical sense? We have to live in it, and we have to deal with it.

I talked briefly about the second law of thermodynamics a couple of months ago. One of the principles is that everything is running down toward disorganization. It even says this directly in the book of Hebrews 1:11.

Hebrews 1:11 They will perish, but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment;

For you and me, we have to understand that everything in creation is going toward disorganization. When you get a new car and drive it onto the street, it already begins to decrease in value. Bang! Somebody hits you, and that is life. Everything in life is heading in the direction that is opposite of the way God himself is. It is opposite of what God wants to create in us so that we are like Him, and we will inhabit eternity, just like He does. But right now, we have to deal with, accept, and work around it while never really giving into it by always challenging the disintegration that is built into the system.

Everything physical runs toward disintegration. We have to fight that. A lot of people know this because they have lived long enough to learn it through experience and life itself. They cannot do anything with it, and they cannot change it. Neither can we, but God can. Are you beginning to see a little bit more about what Solomon is getting at? Life is meaningless unless God is a part of a person’s life. Life is meaningless, vain, and like a soap bubble that bursts leaving nothing but scum, unless God is a part of it. He is the eternal factor that is working with us.

Notice from what Paul says, and we will see more later on in the book of Ecclesiastes, that God purposely subjected the physical creation to vanity, and it impacts on us. That is what verse 19 says in Romans 8. God himself subjected it to vanity. Vanity appears in life and we should understand it now as God having done it for us to have to face it and to deal with it.

My speculation is that apparently He decided that we first have to see and experience the emptiness of life without Him in order to become thoroughly disillusioned with everything that the world has to offer so we can make a clear, determined choice to throw it off and depart from it. It is like an alcoholic or a drug addict hitting bottom, because that is usually when they change. Then they begin to pick up the resolve and determination to turn their life around and go in the right direction.

The suffering that vanity imposes helps us to make a true assessment of the value of God’s grace and goodness and to truly, zealously commit ourselves to Him and His purpose. If we do, this is the good answer; vanity will NOT have the last word. I hope to prove this to you in the next sermon, God-willing, which I will give on the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

JWR/lft/cah