"Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us" (Ecclesiastes 1:10).
I briefly went over this verse in the previous post. I would now like to look at it alone a bit more.
I think this verse is often misapplied to external, physical, stuff. I know I have done it. We might do it looking at a car, "Ya, a car like that was out a long time ago". We might do it with a song or with music in general, "That song sounds just like something the Beattles already did". It could be any number of things and then we go, "Well, the bible says there is nothing new under the sun".
This is not what is intended here I am sure. What follows after this verse is twelve chapters of experiences. There isn't anything new in human experience. We will all feel the same emotions. We will all have the same experiences, oh, the circumstances might be different, but the emotional reaction will be the same. I haven't been skydiving (I would like too though!) but I am certian I have probably felt the same adrenalin rush and have been as excited, scared, whatever one might use to describe skydiving. Most of the people that come here I'm guessing haven't done the drugs I have done but I bet everyone has felt the same emotions, they just handled them differently. These are probably bad examples but the point I want to make is that Solomon is right. There is nothing new in human experience.
People got up and went to work in Solomons day. They paid bills. They paid taxes (high ones at that! I'll let you search it out). They fell in love, got in fights, stressed out, had fun, bought stuff, sold stuff, envied others, were envied, ect, ect. People in Jesus day did the same things. People in all ages have done the same things we are doing today. The only thing that has changed is technology. Instead of watching entertainers in the square, at the gate, in the palace, where ever people went, we goto the movies, watch TV, surf the internet. I'm sure you can think of other examples.
"So what's your point Michael?"
Well, my point is, Solomon is about to give us twelve chapters of human experience. All of it had already been done. All of it was going to be done again. All of it is being done right now.
I think Solomon sat down, looked back, found when He lost fellowship with the Lord, and began writing about all the things he did to fill that vacancy in him. I have done a great many things to fill the vacancy in me. I have drank to the excess. I have drugged to the excess. I have had sex to the excess. I have done most everything I have ever done to the excess. When the Lord came all that changed. The vacancy was gone. God filled it up. I think in the next twelve chapters Solomon is doing his best to ask God to come fill him up again cause none of the things he list were going to do it.
I know there are people who come here who are experencing difficulties right now. I know there are temptation whenever difficulties arise. I know if we give in to them they might help for a brief moment but it will take something bigger, better, and more of it the next time. I admire and find encouragement in people such as live, love, laugh at Sweeter Than Ever! who is trusting wholeheartedly in the Lord as her mom is ill. "It's in God's hands, only He knows how much time we have. I could go today, I am not promised tomorrow, she may be here six more months, or maybe one day, only He knows".
It's who we trust with our experiences that make the difference. Trust in the Lord or trust in nothing since everything else is empty and void. Were about to start a twelve chapter trip down a list of things that will never make anyone happy. Will never bring joy. Will never amount to anything. All any of it will do is bring a person to depression when they realize "vanity of vanities; all is vanity." (Ecclesiastes 1:2).
What Solomon needed is the same thing people need today. THE LORD! Want something new? Try Christ! "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
8 comments:
Brilliant Michael I see Ecclesiastes 1:10 very similar:
If you look at just one living cell and magnify it again and again you have more technology then the most complicated super computer ever made.
What If you keep magnifying what is there? Scripture would tells us it would be God, Who is Spirit and holds all things together. The Spirit which searching the very depths of God.
Therefore Solomon got it right for can anyone say they have made something new or done something that has not been done before.
For our very Savior Jesus was Crucified before the foundation of the world for whosoever shall believe in Him.
Michael,
It seems to me, that you have a heart for this book. Keep up the good work.
At school and during my first year of uni I studied many different Philosophies, from Existentialism and other modernist and post-modernist theories, to Freudian ideas about the human psyche, to Socratic and Platoic and Greek and Classical philosophies. All have one thing in common. They are all searching for an answer which can only be found in God. The meaning of our existance.
The Existentialists are close, they follow a verysimilar pattern to Solomon in Ecclesiastes, and conclude that all life and existance is meaningless.
"I think, therefore I am" - explains that we do in fact exist and pieces such as Waiting for Godot attemt to portray the futility of life.
They stop too soon though "There isn't anything new in human experience" and YES a life IS futile and meaningless, IFF spent away from God.
(The 'iff' is my inner mathematician and represents the mathematical notation for "if and only if")
keep up the good work michael.
MDM
I like this ...
"It's who we trust with our experiences that make the difference."
... too bad it took Solomon ... like most of us ... so long to really understand that trust is of the heart and not the head ... seems like he would have got it when he wrote Proverbs 3:5. Like Solomon I have lived most of my life out of the intellect of my head instead of the wisdom of my heart ... glad that I am finally starting to understand trust a bit better.
I dig the new skin michael,
I tried a couple of new ones lately but my sidebar didnt keep the right feel. So its just old faithful for me.
;)
MDM
Good exposition. Like the new "do".
Thanks Everyone!
Gordon,
The new look is because of you!
I started looking at templets at the site you got yours and then around the internet once I realized I could change up. I didn't like anything I found so I figured out how to tweak the one I had.
Done, being done and will be done.
Good post!
The New Life in Christ is where it's at (so to speak).
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