Lesson 1

Is Life A Dead End Street?

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3

A Jewish writer once described life as "a blister on top of a tumor and a boil on top of that." You can almost feel that definition! American Poet Carl Sandburg compared life to an onion - "you peel if off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep." George Bernard Shaw, the famous British playwright said that life is "a series of inspired follies." And even Solomon lamented, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." All of these men seemed to think that life is empty, futile, unsatisfying, unfulfilling, meaningless, hopeless. Life seen strictly from the human viewpoint, without any concept or consideration of eternity does indeed appear futile and it is easy for us to get pessimistic.

But it is refreshing to read the words of Jesus when He said, "I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). It is encouraging to be reminded by Paul the apostle to "be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord" (I Cor. 15:58).

Today, I want to begin preaching through the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes. This is an often overlooked book of our Bible. What does it have to say? Is there anything from 1000 years before Christ that our contemporary world can benefit from? Solomon observes and comments on injustice to the poor (4:1-3), crooked politics (5:8), incompetent leaders (10:6-7), guilty people who are allowed to commit more crime (8:11), materialism (5:10) and a desire for the "good old day" (7:10). Sounds pretty contemporary doesn't it? I have come to the conclusion that this ancient book asks some very contemporary questions. Let's look at it and see what it has to say to us. The first three verses of chapter 1 introduce the book to us.

Ecc. 1:1-3 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?

The Author

Who wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes? Nowhere in this book does the author give his name. He only refers to himself as "the preacher" (1:1-2,12; 7:27; 12:8-10). However, he does tell us enough about himself for us to arrive at a well-founded conclusion as to his identity. From 1:1 we learn that he is the son of David the king. From 1:12 we are told that he himself was the king over Israel in Jerusalem. Verse 16 tells us that he was an exceptionally wise man From 2:4-8 we discover that he was a man of much wealth. Who is the author? It becomes clear from all these things that the writer of this book is Solomon. Solomon was indeed a prolific writer. I Kings 4:32 says that he wrote 3000 proverbs and 1005 songs. He was a divinely inspired author. He wrote Psalm 72 and Psalm 127. Some 800 of his proverbs came from God and are recorded in our Book of Proverbs. He also wrote The Song Of Solomon. And the wrote The Book Of Ecclesiastes. If you think about it, you will probably conclude that he wrote Song of Solomon as a passionate young royal lover, that he wrote the Proverbs as a mature middle-aged king and a concerned parent who wanted to pass on the wisdom that he had acquired in life to his son and that he wrote Ecclesiastes as a rather cynical old man.

King Solomon began his reign as a humble servant of the Lord, seeking God's wisdom and help (I Kings 3). Solomon ruled over a great nation that required a large standing army and extensive government agencies. He carried on many costly building project which had to be financed and administrated. To pay for his luxurious lifestyle and government services, Solomon divided the nation, along tribal lines into 12 tax districts, each tribe paid taxed to a district overseer on succeeding month (I Kings 4). In time the system became oppressive and corrupt and after Solomon died, the citizens begged for relief (II Chronicles 10). As he grew older the once humble servant turned his heart away from the Lord to the false gods of the many wives he had taken from foreign lands (I Kings 11). In truth, man of the things Solomon did that seemed to bring glory to Israel were actually contrary to the Word of God (Deut. 17:14-20). God maintained Solomon's throne only because of His promise to David, and after Solomon's death the nation divided, and eventually went into captivity. Even though Solomon stayed on the throne, his latter years were filled with misery because God was not at the center of his life. Although there is no explicit record that King Solomon ever repented and turned to the Lord, his message in Ecclesiastes suggests that he maybe he did. I like to think so.

The Audience

Just as the author is not explicitly identified, neither is the intended audience specifically mentioned. We have to figure it our ourselves. There are some clues.

The challenge in 12:1 is directed toward young people. The word "Ecclesiastes" means "an assembly". The Hebrew word "preacher" refers to "one who speaks before an assembly." The picture that I get from these pieces of the puzzle is that the Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to write this book to an audience of young people (not children) but young adults who are reaching that point when important decisions are being made about one's direction in life are going to be made.

Does a man like King Solomon have any insight into the meaning of life? He certainly does! He can speak out of his own personal testimony. He had the wealth and the authority as a king to pursue any avenue of his choosing. In this book, he reports how that one by one, systematically he traveled down every avenue to see where it led. He pursued the path of pleasure; he walked the way of work and sought the street called "Success." Where do they lead?

Young adults need to know what lies on the roads ahead. We make the decision about the direction in life which we are going to pursue at a relatively young age. College age kids, age 17-25, face many decisions and dilemmas about life. Sure, you can make changes and corrections later in life but often, the further down one road you travel the harder it is admit that you are on the wrong road and to turn around. It's awfully expensive to make major mistakes in life. Most of us don't have the wealth and authority of a rich king who could enter one venture after another.

A couple of weeks ago I made friends with a young man, age 32, single, nice-looking, charming, good sense of humor. One night he really opened up to me about his life. You see, a few years ago he made some decisions that now he is living with. He broke off a serious relationship which he had with a girl because he wasn't ready to be tied down. He, apparently, got involved with some people and activities that have left him with an addiction. Today, he sees that his sister, 5 years younger than him, is settled - happily married, owns a house, has a six month old baby boy, and he has nobody and lives in a backroom at his parents home. I think that he is questioning whether he made some major wrong choices back there a few years ago. He thinks about the way life could have been. He wonders if there will ever be a wife and a family and home for him. It is hard for him to get back to where he was when he made those choices. Please don't misunderstand. I am not saying that it is wrong to be single and living at home at age 32. I am saying that when we are young and make those kinds of choices, you often do not know the far-reaching implications that they will have. We need someone who has traveled that road to tell us where it leads. We shouldn't have to learn everything by trial and error. Experience may be the best teacher, but it is not the only teacher. The problem isn't with the teacher, it is with the student. Is he willing to be taught, to listen and to take advice from someone who has already been down a dead-end street? Or must he learn everything the hard way?

Solomon, one of the most brilliant minds to ever have lived, unquestionably the riches man to ever have lived, is going to tell us that he has been down a lot of streets. Will we learn from him? What will we learn?

The Aim

Solomon has put the key to Ecclesiastes right at the front door: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?" (1:2-3). Just in case we cannot find the key at the front door, he put the same key at the back door: (Ecc. 12:8) "Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity."

In these opening verses, Solomon introduces some of the key words and phrases that are used repeatedly in Ecclesiastes. We would be wise to get acquainted with them. In fact, 12:9-12 says that Solomon sought to find the right words and that these words were intended to be goads to prick our hearts and minds. What are some of the most important words? Often we discover by considering words and phrases that are used repeatedly.

Vanity. The word is used 38 times in this book. The Hebrew word means "emptiness and futility." Solomon is saying that life is filled with emptiness. Whatever road he travels seems to be a dead-end road - whether it is his wealth, his work, his wisdom or his world, it all seems to be empty. This is not his final conclusion nor the only message that he has for his readers. (We will discover more about that later.) But the emptiness of life is a major theme in Ecclesiastes.

Under the sun. You will find this phrase 29 times in the twelve chapters of this book. It means that Solomon is viewing life from a human perspective and not necessarily from heaven's point of view. "This man has been living through all these experiences under the sun, concerned about nothing above the sun ... until there came a moment in which he had seen the whole of life. And there was something over the sun. It is only as man takes account of that which is over the sun as well as that which is under the sun that things under the sun are seen in their true light" (G. Campbell Morgan). In other words, this book shows us what life without God is like. At times in sounds very humanistic (man is his own God), hedonistic (8:15 - if it feels good, do it) materialistic (10:19 - get all you can) fatalistic (3:18-20 -in the long run, nothing lasts anyhow), pessimistic. (Be careful not to pull these verses out of context). They show us what life without God is like. Life without God is pessimistic!

Profit. This Hebrew word is used by Solomon 10 times in this book and has been translated with several different words (excelleth; excellency; better). This particular Hebrew word is used nowhere else in the Old Testament. It is the opposite of the word vanity. Vanity means emptiness; profit means surplus. Vanity means futility and meaninglessness; profit means worthwhile.

Labor. This is one of 11 Hebrew words translated labor and this one is used 23 times in Ecclesiastes. It means to toil to the point of exhaustion and yet experience little or no fulfillment in your work. It carries the idea of frustration or misery or weariness.

Man. Found also in these opening verses and 49 times in this book.

Other words of significance in book are evil (sore, hurt, mischievous; grievous; adversity; wickedness, misery) Found some 31 times in this book, it is one of Solomon's favorite words for describing life as he sees it "under the sun." Another common word is joy (17 times), wisdom (54 references) and God (40 times). Before we leave this study of the vocabulary of Ecclesiastes, we should note that the book abounds in personal pronouns and questions (29 if I counted correctly).

Solomon's opening words seem to set the tone and the theme for this book. "Life is empty, meaningless, useless, futile. Nothing satisfies." He asks, "What do people really gain from all the hard work which they do in this world?"

Which road will take me and you to a fulfilling, meaningful, satisfying life? An American author said, "Life is a crowded superhighway with bewildering cloverleaf exits on which a man is liable to find himself speeding back in the direction he came." Are you traveling down the wrong road at a very high rate of speed? Are you lost? Are you on a dead end street? King Solomon has already explored the road exhaustively and given us a dependable map to follow.

Are you trying to find meaning to life apart from God? Is your life empty? Job discovered that if all a man has in life is God, God is enough. Solomon discovered that if you everything in the world except God, none of it will satisfy. Only God can satisfy the deepest hunger of the human heart. Don't try to live your life and leave God out! What will your life be - vanity or victory?