Show Video from ALPHA Course #
2Alpha Course More to life than this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGI3z9YXW9A
Read Scripture Passage
SLIDE 2+3
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
1 These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem.
Everything Is Meaningless
2 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
3 What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. 7 Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. 8 Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. 11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
That is the most depressing passage that I have ever started a sermon with. But this is how the book of Ecclesiastes starts out. Ecclesiasties is about searching for wisdom.
SLIDES 5-7
On a lighter side here are some things that wise people like me like to ponder:
1. Why is there a best before date on Sour Cream?
2. Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all"?
3. Why are cigarettes sold in gas stations when smoking is prohibited there?
4. If a cow laughed, would milk come out her nose?
5. Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
6. If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?
7. Why do banks charge you a "in-sufficient funds fee" on money they already know you don't have?
8. Why do we wash bath towels? Aren't we clean when we use them?
9. If man evolved from monkeys and apes, why do we still have monkeys and apes?
10. And if Solomon was the wisest man to have ever lived, then why did he end out his life so poorly?
SLIDE 8
Historical Background
On that note: now is the time that I want to give you some historical background. Starting out I want to talk to you about authorship of the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is called a wisdom literature book. There are four books in the Bible that are called Wisdom Literature. They are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Solomon. Wisdom Literature is written if the goal in mind to get people to think outside of their normal ways of thought.
In the Old Testament times wisdom literature is was written with the intent to get people to think outside of the multi God pantheistic ideas that the god’s essentially hate humanity and we are doomed by fate.
The traditional author for the book of Ecclesiastes is King Solomon, that is King David’s son who was also remembered as the richest and most prosperous King in the history of Israel.
As it is with many of the books of the Bible and the rise of Liberalism scholars in the twentieth many theologians do not think that Solomon was the author. They say that Ecclesiastes is written by a man named Qoheleth, which means “Teacher in Hebrew.”
Interestingly there are very a few of the books of the Bible that scholars do not give the traditional authorship to. But however in the twentieth century we have been “enlightened” with critical thinking to realize that for 1900 years the church has been totally wrong.
Notice the strong hit of sarcasm in my voice.
Fortunately that pendulum has begun to swing back, as there are many new younger scholars who have asked the question, “How come the church was wrong for so long and it only got it right now?” With that in mind they have come to the conclusion that maybe there is something to be said about the original authorship.
I own three commentaries on the book of Ecclesiastes and I took out eight more from the Bethany College Library and only two of them say that Solomon was the author. Incidentally the two that say that he is the author is the oldest commentary and the newest commentary that I have.
I too believe that Solomon was the author of Ecclesiastes. Here is why. In the time of Solomon until the time of even Jesus there were groups of scholars who’s job was to write things down. In Jesus’ day they were called scribes. In Solomon’s day they were called court secretaries. In either case it was extremely rare for a king or a high official to write for himself. They had a professional do it.
These people were the smartest and brightest in reading and writing because mistakes were costly. There was no whiteout in those days. A scroll was often made of calf skin and the process to make it made the writing material very expensive.
A standard scroll was approximately 5-6 feet long and in today’s money it would have been worth about ten thousand dollars.
My understanding of authorship of Ecclesiastes is that Solomon in his old age wanted to pass on the knowledge that he had learned so that the younger generation would learn from his mistakes. In partial it was written to his sons, with Rehaboam in mind. It makes sense that he would have had is best court secretary writing down his musings.
We see a glimpse of these court in 1 Kings 12, that was read just before my sermon, as the old advisors who told Rehaboam to reduce taxes when he became king and not to live as extravagantly as his father had done before him.
It was likely one of these secretaries or advisors that wrote down Ecclesiastes for Solomon. The final copy of Ecclesiastes, the one that you and I have today may not have been finished until after Solomon’s death but I believe that these are the thoughts and musing of Solomon shortly before he died.
We see a change in voice a few times throughout this book. In chapters one and two it is clear that Solomon is talking. However later in the book like in chapter eight when we are told to obey the king it seems that the secretary is speaking here. This change in voice is most evident in the conclusion of the book. Chapter 12 verses 9-14 seem to be the “teacher’s” conclusion of Solomon’s conversation.
Does that take away from Solomon being the author? No, it just shows that there was an editor. There are editors for almost every book that is published today. In that light I hold Solomon as the author and his chief secretary as his editor or co-author.
This discussion is best done in a conversation with a group of people in a small group. I have lead this book in College in Career in the past and for the first Bible study we got into the finer details through a conversation. There were questions and answers, discussions and debate. Unfortunately this is not the same forum nor do we have the same time to spend on it. I have found that when a Bible study goes into overtime because of good discussion and debate people say, “Wasn’t that a great Bible Study?”
On the other hand when a preacher goes over time he is often accused of being “long winded.” I would love to talk to anyone about more after the service or some time this week over coffee.
Anyway, I am coming at this book from the perspective that Solomon was the author of all the main ideas. This was a book written from the perspective of Solomon and what he learned about life. Solomon may have had his chief secretary helping.
SLIDE 9
What do we know about Solomon. From the Bible it says that Solomon was the richest and wisest person to have ever been the King of Israel.
Solomon collected 24 tons of Gold every year in taxes.
He had 35,000 people on his pay roll. This included:
His Army,
700 hundred wives
300 concubines
His Wives servants
Those who took care to the harem.
Cooks
Craftsmen
Farm Hands
Stable men
And General Labourers
Solomon owned 1,400 chariots (worth 15pds silver each or $4000) and 12,000 horses (worth 3.75pds of silver each about $1000 each) and he owned a large about of weapons and armour, enough to up to 300,000 men in the event of war!
He also had 250 scholars or secretaries that worked for him. He build the magnificent first temple, a place beside it that housed him and his 1001 wives. Solomon had many exotic birds and animals as pets including monkey’s.
Tell the story of Kevin Funk’s pet money. (Ad libel it)
Just as an aside last week we had Otto and Lydia Funk share about their mission trip with us. Kevin, their youngest son was with them for two years. Kevin always wanted a pet monkey and while he was in one of the local markets he saw a young monkey tied up to a fruit stand. Kevin bought the monkey and took it home with his DAD’s blessing. Notice I said DAD.
Kevin’s highlight of living in Peru was his pet monkey. That monkey was so smart and it loved to play tricks on Lydia. All on its own it would climb into the food pantry and wait to Lydia to come in the room and open the pantry and it would jump out and scare Lydia making here scream. The monkey would then run to Kevin and climb up on his shoulder and laugh!
Lydia was sure that Kevin was putting the monkey up to it but Kevin swore that this was all the monkey’s own doing.
Sorry, I digress back to my sermon.
Solomon also build many fortified cities throughout his kingdom as well as many vineyards and gardens and stables for his cavalry.
Solomon was a very, very rich man.
SLIDE 10
It is also important to understand the word that we have translated as meaningless in our Bibles. The Hebrew world that we translate into meaningless is the word Hebel. Sorry Nathan Born if I said it wrong, Nathan is taking Hebrew in Seminary right now. This word can also be translated:
Futile
Transitory
Wind
Absurd
Stupid
Senselessness
Vain
Pointless
Disappointing
Fleeting
Fragile
Flimsy
Or Meaningless
SLIDE 11: So What?
Solomon tries to find happiness by pursing:
- Wisdom, he was considered the wisest man to have ever lived. He surrounded himself with 250 scholars and teachers. - Meaningless!!!
- Pleasure - from alcohol to sex, Solomon had 1001 wives and unlimited wine, and many exotic foods. Meaningless!!!
- From Great accomplishments. Solomon was a master builder, he oversaw the construction of the Temple, his palace, fortified cities, gardens, and vineyards and a trading fleet of ships.
Meaningless!!!
- From Hard Work. Solomon tried to govern his people effectively and fairly, he made alliances with other kingdoms and he was a great military success. MEANINLESS!!!
What will make you happy?
I will be happy when - you fill in the blank
I asked the Elder Board just before our monthly meeting what would make them happy. Here was their answers.
What makes the Elder Board Happy
Sleep
See grandson (and parents would be nice too)
Better weather (right after the snow)
Plus 25 and sunshine
Racing at Willow Springs with a Cobra
That the roads wouldn’t be icy
Relaxing with a good message right now
All we do is we keep chasing happiness by chasing what we think will make us happy.
Solomon was the great science experiment for us. He sought out happiness more vigriously than anybody before him ever did. And in all of them he failed.
That passage that I read at the beginning of the message is the musings of an old man who’s earthly quest to find meaning did not work out. Listen to verses 2-11 again.
2 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
3 What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. 7 Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. 8 Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.
9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. 10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. 11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.
So where does that leave us today?
Praise God that today is Thanks Giving. I have never done such a depressing sermon before. But remember Solomon is trying to shake us into another world view, and if the shock of these opening 11 verses is what it takes then so be it.
There is not much more than can be said for these verses than what they say for themselves. I think they are summed up with there is nothing truly new under the sun.
This actually gives me comfort. There is no problem that previous generations have not already faced before. One commentator states”
“Others have faced the problems we now see. Sometimes we feel that no one understands, that no one has ever been through what we are experiencing. But they have. Thousands of times. There is nothing new under the sun. Everyone before us has struggled with lust and greed, with purpose and meaning. The only difference is the stage has changed. Maybe now there is technology that adds a new dimension to that temptation but the essence of the struggle is still the same. The human heart is still the same thousands of years later.”
As a 14/15 year old one of the most disconcerting and freeing revelations that I discovered was the world did not revolve around me and I was not alone in my struggles. I had a wise aunt who told me that nobody was watching me at school to see how stupid I was. They were to busy watching themselves to notice.
And she was right.
As a young man it was freedom to realize in my first year of Bible College that all my Christian friends struggled with lust too, and it was God’s plan that we should help each other with getting through that struggle.
Technology may make it harder for young men to fight it because it is so easy to find it, but that struggle has been there since the fall of mankind.
So where I leave you today is with this challenge. When you are feeling like Solomon try being thankful.
This takes a little bit of thunder away from my next sermon but I have question for you. Who is richer, King Solomon or the province of Saskatchewan.
I bet your initial gut answer is Solomon. You are very wrong. Solomon brought in $800 million in taxes each year. The province of Saskatchewan brought in $10.7 Billion last year! That is over 13X more money than Solomon brought in! Solomon had approximately 14 million subjects in his empire. Saskatchewan has little over 1 million.
Saskatchewan is 1/14th the size of Solomon’s empire yet we are 13X richer than Solomon! Individually that makes us 182X more wealthy than Solomon’s empire!
I ask you here today, are you rich? Yes you are! Some of us have much more than others but we all have so much to be thankful for.
SLIDE 12
Count your blessings. When ever I start to feel sorry for myself I count my blessings. Part of my regular prayer routine is I thank God for my blessings before I pray for the stuff of life.
The reason that we celebrate Thanks-Giving is so that we have the right perspective on life.
Next sermon we will explore how seeking happiness through the things of the world works out for Solomon and what that has to teach us. This week go home with the knowledge that we are not alone in our struggles with life. People have been in our same struggle before and God knows exactly what we need to make it through those hard times.
Go in the knowledge that God walks with us in all areas of our lives.
Closing Prayer.
