From Vanity Under the Sun to Victory Under the Son
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“I
the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom
all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to
the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is
done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. . .” (Ecclesiastes
1:12-14).
Grace
to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Have
you ever stepped back from your work, your possessions, your life—and asked, “What’s
the point?” If you have, you are not alone. Solomon, the wisest man who ever
lived, asked that question in Ecclesiastes. He had it all—power, riches,
knowledge, pleasure—and still declared, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” That’s
life “under the sun”—life apart from God. But thanks be to God, there is
another way: life under the Son—Jesus Christ, the Redeemer who brings
purpose, peace, and promise even in a world that seems so futile. Today, we
journey with Solomon through despair to faith, from the dust of death to the
dawn of eternal life.
Solomon’s
initial view of life in this fallen world and apart from God, that is, “under the
sun,” will ultimately stand the test of his observations and contemplations.
What may seem unthinkably pessimistic at first turns out to be true after all:
all of it is empty, futile, and meaningless. By itself, it offers nothing of
eternal significance. It is all vanity.
This
gloomy evaluation is affirmed elsewhere in Scripture. After the fall into sin,
God cursed the earth so that its natural processes would be frustrated. Man
could eke out a living only by laborious toil. Yet all of this is part of a
larger divine purpose: creation was subjected “not willingly, but because of Him
who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its
bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of
God” (Romans 8:20-21).
Thus,
the futility of the present creation and its pointless repetitiveness, is part
of God’s plan to bring about something truly different and new … the new
creation in Christ in the Resurrection, with the promise of the new heavens and
new earth in which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). But for now, all is
vanity!
Exactly
what is vanity? You name it: the sinful world with its decay and injustice;
material possessions that people seek to grab in this world; toiling so hard
for the things of the world; and the people themselves who toil and live for
earthly things even as they face death and the certainty of leaving it all
behind. Everything about this life is vanity. There are no redeeming qualities
in anything other than God Himself.
And
life is vanity because it is fleeting and ultimately meaningless. Some people
sit back and quietly let life pass by; others raise big commotions and try to make
their mark in the world. But all will end up in the grave, whether they take it
stoically or fight it, kicking and screaming. Humanity presses on and fights to
survive and dominate, but it doesn’t know why.
The
words “vanity of vanities” accurately describe worldly life without God—human sight
and searching without God’s revelation, the world’s sickness without God’s cure
in Jesus Christ, the world’s things without knowledge of the Creator who gave
them as blessings, man in sin not seeking or receiving God’s forgiveness, a
world careening aimlessly without God’s plans or purposes, man’s labors without
God’s intentions, the world’s crimes apart from God’s justice rendered on the Last
Day (Ecclesiastes 12:14).
God
is not the problem; man is, abetted by the devil. God made His creation “very
good” (Genesis 1:31), but now the world has been corrupted by man’s seduction
into sin and its consequence, death (Genesis 3). Sinful man and the sinful
world coexist in a reciprocal relationship: man corrupts the world, and the
world, with its enticements, further corrupts man. It is a deadly, downward spiral.
A person is already sinful from the moment of conception (Psalm 51:5), and from
the time of his or her birth in this world, he or she is already heading toward
death.
Solomon
himself can attest to the search for meaning apart from the only One who is the
meaning of life. During one era of his life, he used his wisdom without
recognizing the God who is Wisdom (1 Kings 11:1-10). Solomon had totally violated
the pointed message God had spoken through Moses directly to the future kings
of Israel (Deuteronomy 17:14-20), as he looked toward Egypt and multiplied for
himself wives, horses, silver, and gold.
Solomon
writes candidly about his solo search for meaning. He does so from the point of
view of one who once was tangled in the fatal web of vanity, but who has now,
toward the end of his life, regained his sense of the true meaning and purpose
of life through faith in God and knowledge of His wisdom in Christ. Indeed, his
return to God drives Solomon to speak even more vividly about the futility and
emptiness of life without God. The seriousness of sin and its effect of death
and damnation without God’s grace are unmistakable and inescapable.
But
at the same time, God is always there in Ecclesiastes in the background. In a
sense, God’s presence is assumed throughout. The unfairness of life would not
strike Solomon as unfair at all unless he presupposed a God of justice. People
must guard their steps (5:11) because they will have to answer to God whether
they realize it or not. Throughout the overall dark picture of life in the
book, there are flashes of God’s light that reveal Solomon’s repentance and
return to faith. There is still a place for beauty (3:11), for enjoyment (2:24),
for companionship (4:12), and even for wisdom (2:13), because there is a God in
heaven. The fear and wisdom of God enable a person somehow to make it through life,
death, and judgment and into everlasting life (7:12, 18; 8:12; 12:7, 13-14).
There
is a sense in which the laments of Solomon, the king and sinful son of David,
can simultaneously be read as the personal laments of the King of kings and
sinless Son of David. Like Solomon, the man of peace, Jesus, the Prince of
Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7), can speak from personal experience about what He has
endured for our sake. In the weakness of His human nature, the Suffering
Servant was tempted to wonder whether the hardships He endured were in vain: “But
I said, ‘I have labored in vain; I have spent My strength for nothing and
vanity’” (Isaiah 49:4).
Solomon’s
words can easily be applied to the life of Jesus. Take, for example,
Ecclesiastes 2:21: “Sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge
and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for
it.” As far as wisdom, the Son of God is no less than the wisdom of God (1
Corinthians 1:24), who makes us wise unto salvation. As far as knowledge, He
alone knows God the Father (Matthew 11:27) and makes Him known to us so that we
might have eternal life. As far as skill, see Him heal and perform miracles; hear
Him proclaim eternal life and confound the enemies of God.
Jesus
is the Man whose toil is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and He leaves His
heritage to a man who has not labored for it. That would be you, and that would
be me. Jesus serves others and dies, that you might be forgiven for trampling
others in your pursuit of personal gain. He practices perfect contentment and
dies, so that you be delivered from greed and covetousness. He credits you with
His virtue and dies in punishment for your vice.
God
gives to Him wisdom and knowledge and joy, for Jesus is good in His sight. The
Father announces that this is His beloved Son (Luke 9:35) and gives Him all
knowledge and tells us to hear Him. He also gives Him joy, but a peculiar joy
to the world. For the joy set before Him, Christ endures the cross and scorns
its shame (Hebrews 12:2). There, God makes Him who knows no sin to be the
sinner (2 Corinthians 5:21), judges Him for the sin of the world. Because
Christ is the punished sinner in your place, you are forgiven and good in God’s
sight. Therefore, the Lord gives to you the wisdom of salvation, knowledge of
Him, and the joy of the certain hope of eternal life—all for Jesus’ sake.
Ironically,
it’s Jesus who looks like vanity to the world, for sinful man pictures Him as a
good teacher who unfortunately dies for no purpose on the way; His cross, it is
said, is futility that accomplishes nothing. But you know better: What Christ
has accomplished is no vanity. It is your life and salvation. And that, dear
friends, is your identity and worth.
Ultimately,
your identity is not based upon who you are and what you do, but whose you are
and what He has done for you. You are the Lord’s, and He has died to redeem
you. By His blood, you are saved from your sin and delivered to eternal life.
By His doing, your life is transformed from a futile pursuit for meaning to a
grateful response and service. By His grace, the things that you have are no
longer gods that must be attained and kept, but gifts placed under your
stewardship to be used in service to God and others. That is what gives meaning
and purpose to your life.
While
this may not be the legacy you hoped for, it does keep matters straight and
true. Those things which you possess will not last forever; therefore, it is
only sensible not to trust in them for help, to see them only for what they are:
lifeless things that cannot save you. On the other hand, you will now live
forever—not because of the name you make for yourself, but the Name that has
been placed upon you. You are the Lord’s, for He has made you His own.
Oh,
at times you will still be tempted with covetousness and the desire for more,
as your Old Adam seeks to convince you that eternal life and God’s gracious
favor aren’t enough(!). When your sinful nature leads your mind astray, turn
back. Repent. Confess to the Lord your preoccupation with things, trusting that
Christ has died for this sin. Give thanks to the Lord for those things that He
has entrusted to you and make use of them in service to others. Go about your
daily tasks with joy, knowing you do so as one redeemed. Annoy your Old Adam
further by demonstrating your freedom from covetousness, allotting a portion of
what you have and giving it regularly to the Church in service to the Lord. Do
so out of joy, for Christ has set you free to do such things.
At times,
you will be tempted to vanity and futility. Hard work will show little
progress, fervent sowing will reveal little to harvest, and you will wish to
throw up your hands and say, “What’s the use? I’m getting nowhere, so I quit.”
At such times, confess your frustration to the Lord, confident that He has died
for such sins. Remember that servanthood often appears futile, as did the Lord’s
death on the cross; but even as the victory over sin was won there, the Lord is
often behind the scenes accomplishing His will. Never believe for a moment that
you’re getting nowhere. You’ve already been brought into the kingdom of heaven—eternal
life is yours because the Lord has died to make it so. Therefore, go about your
work with joy, knowing that your destination is already achieved for the sake
of Jesus. And should you look back upon past years and regret that much was
done in selfishness, be assured that the Lord still made use of much that you have
done to care for those around you.
Solomon’s
words are bleak, but they are honest. There is nothing under
the sun that can ultimately satisfy. But God, through Solomon’s repentance
and confession, points us to the One who is greater than Solomon—Jesus Christ.
He entered this vain, broken world to redeem it, to redeem you. His toil becomes
your treasure. His death becomes your life. His resurrection becomes your hope.
So, you do not live “under the sun” in futility. You live “under the Son,”—the Son
of God—in faith, in hope, in joy, and in the certainty that all things are
being made new. Go in the peace of the Lord and serve your neighbor with joy. You
are forgiven for all your sins.
In
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Unless otherwise
indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard
Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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