Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes: How to be Satisfied in 2008

Introduction: Read Ecc 1:1-11

Review the vanity of 2007
Time Magazine listed the top ten news stories of 2007; among them were things like the political crisis in Pakistan, the mortgage crisis in the US (in the media, everything has to be a crisis- it sells newspapers), the protests in Burma, the release of the final book in the Harry Potter series (Let’s hope this is really goodbye); the recall of all those Chinese-made toys (I’m surprised that wasn’t called a crisis, when it had the potential to kill children, but the mortgage problem was a crisis?); then there was the Virginia tech tragedy…. I’m just glad Brittany Spears or Paris Hilton didn’t make the list. The Canadian media added the high flying dollar, and the Mulroney scandal to the list of top stories.

I wonder if any of that would have made God’s top ten list? Did anything surprise God or did He simply say, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Most of what we humans consider to be newsworthy and important is dust in the wind to Him who holds all things together with just a Word.

Ecclesiastes:
Title: Ecclesiastes means the Preacher (קֹהֶ֫לֶת); one who assembles people for the purpose of instruction. You can imagine Solomon summoning the people to share this inspired sermon with them. Ecclesiastes is read in synagogues every year during Pentecost.
Author: According to Macarthur, “The autobiographical profile of the book’s writer unmistakably points to Solomon.”[1]

Date of Ecclesiastes: If tradition is correct and Solomon is the author, then the date would probably best fit towards the end of Solomon’s life after a prolonged period of debauched living. Solomon, might well be described as a prodigal, having started as a ruler renowned for his wisdom, The preacher says that he concluded that wisdom was vanity and set out to seek satisfaction in (among other things) pleasure, only to find that those things were vanity. So Solomon has “came to himself” and decided that it would be better to be servant in his Father’s house then a ruler over pigs.

Theme: The key word in Ecclesiastes is ‘Vanity’ (Haval- הֶ֫בֶל); it is used in Hebrew in relation to idolatry and ill gain. It literally means breath or vapour. For the preacher, vanity “expresses the futile attempt to be satisfied apart from God.”[2]

Four Vanities:
Q: Is there vanity in your life: things that are just smoke and mirrors, dust in the wind, ill gotten gain, useless idols, or any other futile attempt to replace God as the source of your satisfaction that you need to let go of in order to have a truly satisfying life in 2008?

I’m going to list three vanities (there are more) from Ecclesiastes that may be keeping you from the thing for which your soul was created- satisfaction; which can only be found in the glorious, majestic, omnipotent and beautiful God of the universe who is full of light and life and mercy.

I. Your Labour may be keeping you from being truly satisfied: Read 2:18-20

18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. 

People labour first and foremost to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. This is not vanity. What is vanity is when people labour beyond their needs, maybe out of guilt, or misplaced loyalty to an employer; maybe they labour to accumulate wealth beyond what they will ever spend, or because they don’t want to be with their families and spouses; maybe their labour is out of pride, selfish ambition, because nobody else can do it as well as they can, or they’re building an impressive resume.

The Apostle Paul was like that before he met Christ. Looking back on his career whose success Paul says was surpassing his peers, Paul wrote that he considered all his worldly labour as dung, manure, fertilizer… compared to the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus.

Consider Mary and Martha…. Whom did Jesus commend and for what reason?

What are you labouring to build? Are you putting in extra hours for the work of the Kingdom of God which never perishes or are you labouring for your own Kingdom, clinging to something that has no lasting value? Is working for the Kingdom drudgery and a side note, while all your passion is for the labour of things that will not survive the end of the ages?

Store your treasures up in heaven; this does not just apply your cash- it applies to your time, energy and talent. Don’t spend it all on mammon. Your labour is never in vain when it is in the Lord.

II. Your Pleasure is the another Vanity that is depriving you of satisfaction:
Solomon writes in 2:1-3:

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter—“Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” 3I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. (2:1-3)

Matthew Henry describes Solomon’s quest for satisfaction this way; he says that in pursuit of the good life, Solomon leaves
…his study, his library, his laboratory, his council-chamber, where he had in vain sought for it [satisfaction in human wisdom], [and he goes] into the park and the playhouse, his garden and his summer-house; he exchanges the company of the philosophers… to try if he could find true satisfaction and happiness among [the base pleasures of this life]. Here he takes a great step downward… to the brutal [pleasures] of sense.[3]

But he only finds madness and folly in those pleasures. The chief end of man is the enjoyment of God and we enjoy Him most when we worship Him, not ourselves.

III. Finally, Your Religion will keep you from the satisfaction of God: 8:10-13
By this, I do not mean the kind of religion that God loves (to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world). I am uncomfortable with the cliché that Christianity is not a religion because it is; its right religion, true religion. But that means there is also wrong religion; religion that is man made, man centered, boastful and full of pride. Solomon tried this; he wrote (8:10-11),
10 Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity. 11Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Very few things are more pugnacious to God then religious hypocrisy. Nothing is more insidious to the human condition then to cover his sinfulness with religious ceremony. You will find such hypocrisy even in the den of thieves and murderers. Calvin says, “Nothing is more dangerous [to the human soul] than hypocrisy….”[4]

The Pharisees are the epitome of man centered false religion. Once, the Pharisees criticized Jesus for not washing his hands according to the religious rituals of the Pharisees. Jesus used that opportunity to point out the heart of the Pharisees false religion. He said, it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean, but what comes out of him, which reveals that condition of a mans heart.

The religion of the Pharisees was focuses on externals; it was a matter of being seen by men and cared nothing for the fact that God looks at the heart. That’s why tax collectors and prostitutes get into the Kingdom while religious leaders seal their fate in hell.

Conclusion:
If you are satisfied in your religion, then are you are probably not very satisfied in God. If you want true satisfaction 2008, can I suggest that you become very dissatisfied by your religion? Become uneasy about the efficaciousness of your performance before God, not so that you will try harder; but so will you trust harder. God has already secured your salvation!

Solomon testified that he gave up on wisdom for a time and sought satisfaction in human philosophy, pleasure, labour etc., But towards the end of his life he discovered the vanity of it all. When he finally came to himself, he wrote,
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil (12:13-14)

NOTES
[1]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible. Nashville: Word Pub.
[2]Ibid.
[3]Henry, M. (1996, c1991). Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible
[4]John Calvin. Commentary on John - Volume 1 (59). <<>>.