Please note that this article is derived from a sermon series on Hebrews given in Bermondsey Gospel Hall, the audio of which can be found here.
We have been reminding ourselves how long it takes to get to Christmas. At this time of year, that’s certainly how it feels as a child. However, we have been reminding ourselves that that is the reality when we think about the first Christmas. Indeed, if you were to slip your finger into your Bible at Matthew 1, you would see that more than three quarters of your Bible precedes the birth of Christ. The story begins at creation, not Christmas. The Bible starts at Genesis 1, not Matthew 1. We have been seeking to grow in our understanding of the first three quarters of our Bible, known as the Old Testament, these last few weeks. We have sought to walk the Emmaus road with those disciples in Luke 24, we are told that after being resurrected from the dead, Jesus met them on the road, ‘And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.’ (Luke 24:27) As those disciples found out on that journey, we have seen that far from being missing in the first three quarters of our Bible, Jesus is revealed within it. John the Baptist was not the first to come preparing the way of the Lord. In fact, as Jesus explained, he was the last in a long line of prophets preparing for and pointing to our Saviour.
The ark bringing Noah and his family safely through the flood of judgement. Abraham offering up his only son and a substitute being provided by God. Moses leading his people out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land. The historical books of the Old Testament provide pictures of what Jesus would come to do. Last week we seen how the sacrificial system given by God in Leviticus establishes not only the method of sacrifice, but it’s very meaning, a complete, costly and communal offering to God to cover our sin. As Sally Lloyd-Jones, the famous Christian children’s author puts it, every story whispers his name.
It’s not just the historical books that prepare us for Christ, the prophetic books do so as well. Long before there was a baby born in Bethlehem, Micah prophesised about the Messiah to come. Indeed, as David showed us, Matthew repeatedly declares in the opening chapters of his gospel that Christ’s life is the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel and the thirteen minor prophets of the Scriptures. As Jesus himself declares in John 5:39, ‘it is they that bear witness about me…’. The Old Testament scholar Alec Moyter explains, the Old Testament is ‘designed to prepare us for the Lord Jesus Christ…without the Old Testament, we could not know Jesus properly.’ If we do not know the Old Testament well, we do not know Jesus well. Historical books and prophetic books both prepare us for Jesus.
What about the third group of books in the Old Testament? Between the books of history (Genesis to Esther) and the books of prophecy (Isaiah to Malachi), we find five books of poetry: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. There are elements of historical narrative and prophecy within these five books. However, they are primarily wisdom literature, books written to teach us wisdom, the best way to live our lives in this world. For example, Job teaches us how to suffer. We learn that we can trust God in our trials because he is sovereign over them. However, as we see Job entrust himself to his faithful creator in the midst of undeserved suffering, we cannot help but see Jesus entrust himself to his faithful father in the midst of his. What about Ecclesiastes? What wisdom does it teach us? Will we hear the whisper of Jesus’ name from ‘the words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:1)?
We don’t really know who this preacher is, the word literally means ‘one who speaks in the congregation or assembly’. Of the sons of David, Solomon would best fit the description within the book. However, it doesn’t necessarily need to be Solomon. Whoever it is, it is clear that their conclusions deserve our consideration. Anyone who reads the book has to confess that these are weighty words, words that are worthy of the wisest man who ever lived, if in fact Solomon is the author. There is no soft start or leisurely introduction for this Preacher. He gives his findings up front, the opening poem contains his final conclusion. Indeed, these words are repeated again in his conclusion in chapter 12: ‘Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:2) As we shall see, the Preacher concludes that under the sun its’s all in vain, there is no gain, nothing we do will remain.
1. UNDER THE SUN – It’s all in vain. There is no gain. Nothing we do will remain.
This idea of vanity not only opens and closes the book, being found in the introduction and conclusion, but this is the Preacher’s constant conclusion throughout. Thirty times he will conclude that something is vanity or vain. Given it is such an important phrase for the Preacher, we need to make sure we understand it properly. The Hebrew word, ‘Habel’, has a number of senses that all overlap. The dominant one is picked up by the translation we have read together, which the ESV, KJV and NASB all choose, ‘vanity’. It denotes 'not achieving the desired outcome', 'futile', 'unsuccessful', 'lacking substance or worth', 'hollow' and 'fruitless'. It is a failing of purpose. However, there is also a complimentary sense of a failing of permanence. ‘Habel’ is also used to refer to a ‘mist’, a ‘vapor’ or a ‘mere breath’, particularly in Psalms and Proverbs. This is what leads Eugene Peterson to paraphrase the Preacher’s conclusion as ‘Smoke, nothing but smoke. There is nothing to anything - it’s all smoke.’ The Preacher tells us that everything is fleeting and futile. It lacks purpose and permanence. How does the Preacher arrive at such a cutting conclusion? He does not leave us in the dark, for in this poem, like a mathematician, he shows us his working out so that we can check it for ourselves. His conclusion in verse 2 is prompted by the question in verse 3 and supported by the explanation in verses 4-11.
The question, ‘What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?’ (Ecclesiastes 1:3), asks us to consider what we gain as a result of our labour during our lives. Under the sun is a reference to this world and our life in it. All of our lives are lived under the sun, within this world. And the question the preacher asks is what we gain from them? This idea of gain is a commercial term, it refers to a surplus or something left over at the end once everything has been paid. Once the sum of our life is worked out, the Preacher wants to know whether there is a remainder. What do we take away from our lives? What do we get from all the effort and work we put in during these years?
If you are starting to worry that the Preacher is being overly transactional, that his analysis of life is too clinical and cold, I want to encourage you to read the rest of the book. Despite his reputation, the Preacher of Ecclesiastes has a surprisingly positive view of life under the sun. In Ecclesiastes 2:24–25, he will state ‘There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This…I saw, is from the hand of God…’ or Ecclesiastes 3:9–13, where he states ‘I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time… there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man.’ There are good things in this life that we can enjoy as gifts from God: friends and family, good food and rewarding work. However, these are gifts to be enjoyed in our time, not gains to be cherished for all time. When we come to consider what we gain, we have to consider what is left over at the end. Friends and family, food and work can all be enjoyed while we are here under the sun, but when your eyes close for the last time and you leave this world behind, you will leave all of that behind as well. What will you have gained in that moment? As Job reminds us, we leave this world as naked as we came (Job 1:21). As God tells Adam after he has sinned: ‘You are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ (Genesis 3:19)
This conclusion of the Preacher, everything lacks purpose and permanence, is prompted by his question in verse 3, ‘What does a man gain from life at the end of the day?’, and supported by his explanation in verses 4-11. His explanation focuses on the permanence of the world around us in contrast to our transience. ‘A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:4) The sun goes up and down in the sky (1:5), the wind goes round and round on the earth (1:6) and the water runs in and out of the sea (1:7). On and on this world goes, but we do not go with it. We are only here for a short period of time, one generation after another comes and goes and nothing changes. ‘What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Now the Preacher isn’t stupid, he isn’t denying the existence of inventions. The iPhone is a new piece of technology. However, ultimately it is just another means of communication, something there had always been. Similarly, we may have planes and cars, but they are just upgrading the horse and cart, methods of transportation. Electricity replaces candles, computers replace books, pharmacies replace traditional medicines. There are updates, but the building blocks of our lives stay the same. Our clothes may have changed style, but they are still clothes. We have rearranged the furniture, but the room has not changed. This world struggles with the same problems it has always struggled with: disease, disaster and death. There is nothing new under the sun, though it may look different at first glance.
Furthermore, what is under the sun now will not be remembered by those under it later. ‘There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.’ (Ecclesiastes 1:11) As the generations come and go, they barely remember each other. We might remember the names of our parents and grandparents. But do you know much about your great-grandparents. Men like Winston Churchill might be remembered for generations, but he will not be remembered forever. Even those who live the most influential and significant lives will eventually be forgotten. Even the greatest legacies will not last for long when compared to the lifetime of this planet. Those we help, the societies we shape, fade into the background of forgotten history just as we will. This is the explanation the Preacher gives for his conclusion that everything is futile and fleeting – for one day we will all be forgotten.
When I was a child and we went on holiday as a family, it was often to the north coast of Ireland. We would take a house up there for a week or two in the summer and whatever days it didn’t rain we would go to the beach. When we got to the beach, we had a very set routine. My old sister would immediately get her wetsuit on and head into the sea to swim and play all day. I went and got my bucket and spade out of the car and started to play in the sand. I often build sandcastles and walls and trenches along with as deep a whole as I could dig. I would play in the sand all day. One time I found a plastic toy dinosaur and had hours of fun playing with it in the hole and around my little city of castles. At the end of the day, my sister would come back from the sea and I would clean off my bucket and spade, we would get in the car and we would go home. It didn’t take me long to realise that if I came back the next day, there wasn’t going to be much of my creation left. The sea would come in and turn everything I had made back into what it was, sand. Sometimes if I dug a hole deep enough, I would come back the next day and there would still be some kind of hole there. But give it a few days and there would be nothing left. You would not have even known I had been there. Hundreds of thousands of children had played in that sand before me, and I never knew. That is what the Preacher is telling us. Our lives are like sandcastles on the seashore. There for a day, and then forgotten. The tides of time will wash all the achievements of our lives away. Under the Sun - It’s all in vain, there is no gain. Nothing we do will remain. In one sense I gained a lot from those sandcastles. It was fun and enjoyable at the time. It must have been, I can still remember that dinosaur almost 20 years later. But at the end of the day, as I drove away what was left over? A pleasant memory? One day my mind will fade, and I will remember those sandcastles no more. Relationships with my family? One day my parents, my sister, I will all be dead and those relationships have ended. Even the photographs of me building sandcastles at the sea, which my children and my children’s children could look at, will spoil or be lost like the dinosaur I enjoyed so much. A day building sandcastles by the sea as a child is all well and good. But if that is all there is to our entire lives here, then can’t you see why the Preacher says that it is in vain, it lacks purpose and permanence?
I wonder if, in the words of the Preacher, you can start to hear a whisper of the words of the Jesus? ‘For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?’ (Mark 8:36) If we gain everything there is under the sun, what will it profit us? Or the parable Jesus tells in Luke 12, ‘The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’’ That man was a fool, for he forgot that this world is futile and fleeting. We are fools if we do the same. Under the Sun - It’s all in vain, there is no gain. Nothing we do will remain. That is what the Preacher proclaims in Ecclesiastes 1, and in doing so he prepares us for another message.
2. IN THE SON – The Gospel remains. Christ is gain. In the Lord our labour is not in vain.
Before photography turned digital and we had cameras on the backs of our phones, you had to go through a whole process to get a photograph. I remember after returning from our holiday, we would go to a chemist with my mum and give them rolls of film to develop from her camera. Camera film isn’t much use in its current form. You can’t put it on the wall or show your friends and family what you got up to. If you looked close enough you could make out the image, but it wasn’t clear. The colours are inverted, so what was dark is light and what was light is dark. It’s called a negative, and only when it is turned into a positive photograph does the image become clear and bright. Sometimes we see Christ in the Old Testament like we see a photograph in a negative. It is there, but not as clear. Sometimes everything is inverted, and we see the other side of the coin, As we thought about last week, in the law we see our own sinfulness. But we also see the spotlessness of Christ. Ecclesiastes acts like a negative. Because it shows us the foolishness of life under the sun, it also shows us the wisdom of life in the Son. The puritan Thomas Watson would famously write, ‘Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.’ In the same way, until this world seems vain, Christ will not seem gain. Just like we wouldn’t understand Christ’s sacrifice without Old Testament sacrifices, we wouldn’t understand Christ’s significance without books like Ecclesiastes.
Nowhere in the New Testament is Ecclesiastes directly quoted, and yet we can see its influence throughout. Jesus himself, in his parable in Luke 12 and teaching in Mark 8, as we have already seen presses the Preacher’s point with the people. And yet, in the New Testament, the negative has been developed. Having seen the vanity of life under the sun, we are shown the value of life in the Son. Ecclesiastes poses questions that the New Testament picks up and resolves. Ecclesiastes points out problems that the New Testament goes on to solve. Will anything remain? Is there anything to gain? Is it all ultimately in vain?
Will anything remain? Peter will pick up on the transience of our life when he states, ‘"All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.’ (1 Peter 1:24–25) Peter isn’t saying anything here the Old Testament didn’t already declare. In fact, he is quoting directly from Isaiah 40 in Old Testament, yet he clarifies and focuses it in on the gospel. The permeant, unchanging, never ending, never fading, always true, word of God is the good news of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We who were sinners and strangers, rebels against a holy and righteous God can receive new life and forgiveness of sins if we have faith in Jesus Christ because of his sacrificial death on the cross. That is a truth that is timeless. The tides of time will not change or alter it in any way. The Gospel will remain, because God will remain. Long after the sun stops crossing the sky and the wind blows no more. Centuries after the streams stop flowing into the sea, God will still be God. ‘"You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands, they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end."’ (Hebrews 1:10–12). Because God will remain, the word of God will remain. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
Is there anything to gain? Is something that we can obtain that will last longer than our sandcastles on the seashore? In recounting the achievements of his life before he met Christ in Philippians 3, Paul reminds himself of all the thing he used to consider as gain, ‘…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.’ (Philippians 3:5–8) Such is the value, the worth, the significance of Jesus, if you lose everything else under the sun but have the Son, you have gained. In Ecclesiastes, the Preacher explains how death cancels any gain we get through the course of our life. No matter what we accumulate, friends or family, wealth or status, power or pleasure, death comes to us all and leaves us all empty hand. ‘All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.’ (Ecclesiastes 3:20). But in Philippians, Paul explains how the gain of Christ is something that even death cannot erase. In Philippians 1:21 he writes, ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’ For Christians, death is not loss, but is gain! In fact, as John Calvin paraphrases, ‘Whether in living or dying, Christ is gain.’ In Christ we have something, someone, to hold on to, to hold on to us, both in life and in death.
Is it all in vain? In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul will answer yes. Yes, it is all in vain. Our preaching is in vain. Our faith is in vain. Our labour of behalf of the Lord is in vain. If Christ was not raised from the dead. ‘And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain… And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins…If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied…If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."’ (1 Corinthians 15:14–19, 32) However, if Christ is raised from the dead, our preaching is not vain and our faith is not futile. We are no longer in our sins. Tomorrow we may die, but because Christ is raised from the dead we know will one day be raised as well. There is a permanence and purpose to our lives, for we have been given life eternal. No longer fleeting and futile, we have started out on a journey that will stretch into eternity. The resurrection reverses the reasoning of Ecclesiastes. ‘Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?’ (Ecclesiastes 1:2–3) Paul, having assured the Corinthians of the certainty of Christ defeating death and being raised from the dead, will close that great chapter urging them, ‘Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.’ (1 Corinthians 15:58) The labour we do in the Lord will last. There is a way to store up treasure in heaven while here on earth, which rust and moth cannot decay. Gains that death cannot take away.
Under the Sun - It’s all in vain. There is no gain. Nothing we do will remain. In the Son - The gospel remains, Christ is gain. In the Lord our labour is not in vain. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is Solomon who wrote Ecclesiastes. That it took the wisest man who ever lived to come to such conclusions, to see through the glitz and glamour of this life to what it really is in the end. Yet, though Solomon may have received wisdom from God, but our Saviour is the very wisdom of God. ‘For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.’ (1 Corinthians 1:22–24) In Colossians 2:2–3, he declares ‘Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ Not only does the wisdom literature whisper the name of Jesus, wisdom is his name. All wisdom is found in him.
CONCLUSION
Let us conclude by seeing how the Preacher concludes. In Ecclesiastes 12 he concludes as he starts, ‘Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.’ (Ecclesiastes 12:8–11) These words of wisdom are given to us by the one Shepherd, the chief shepherd, the good shepherd, perhaps if we want to see Jesus directly in Ecclesiastes, we can see him right there. These words are given to us as goads and nails. Goads to guide us. Goads are long pointed sticks that would be used to prod animals to move them in the right direction. Nails which are driven into hold something in position.
If you are not a Christian this afternoon, I pray that these words of Ecclesiastes would be a goad guiding you in the right direction. Under the Sun - It’s all in vain. There is no gain. Nothing we do will remain. Given the vanity of this world, will you consider the value of Jesus? How he is gain even though all other things are lost? Will you realise that what you are doing is like building sandcastles at the seashore. Enjoyable while it lasts, but there will be nothing left at the end. Will you respond to that gospel which remains forever? Trust in the Saviour for forgiveness and enter into a life of purpose and permanence?
If you are a Christian this afternoon, I pray that these words would be like nails for you, holding you in place. That the gain that there is in Christ, the value of labouring in the Lord, would provide you something to lean on, to hang your life on. That our fleeting, futile lives, will be focused on that which will never fade. Knowing that in the Son - The gospel remains, Christ is gain. In the Lord our labour is not in vain.
ALEXANDER ARRELL