Been There. Done That. Now What?
02/05/2006 - I Can't Get No
This morning we continue our series called Been There. Done That. Now What? It's a series that's going to take us through the book of Ecclesiastes which is really the personal journal of King Solomon. And in it are the observations of a man who is totally frustrated with life. He's had it! “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” Portions of his journal read like a suicide note.
That word “meaningless” or “vanity” is found 35 times in the book. It's the recurring theme that appears over and over and over again. But not only is it the recurring theme of Ecclesiastes, it's the recurring theme of life. Every generation, every thinking person at one time or another, wrestles with the vanity and meaningless of life. And often that struggle is best expressed in the lyrics of a song at least in our generation it has been.
Let's take a moment to listen to sound bits of some familiar songs dating back to the 60's that express the same anguished cry of Solomon's heart.
I can't get no satisfaction
I can't get no satisfaction
‘Cause I try and I try and I try and I try
I can't get no, I can't get no
(“Satisfaction,” The Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, 1965)
What's it all about, Alfie?
Is it just for the moment we live?
What's it all about
When you sort it out, Alfie?
Are we meant to take more than we give?
(“Alfie,” Dionne Warwick, written by Burt Bacharach & Hal David, 1967)
I close my eyes
Only for a moment
Then the moment's gone
All my dreams
Pass before my eyes
A curiosity
Dust in the wind
All they are is dust in the wind
Same old song
Just a drop of water
In an endless sea
All we do
Crumbles to the ground
Though we refuse to see
Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind
(“Dust in the Wind,” Kansas, written by Kerry Livgren, 1977)
I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
(“I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For,” U2, written by U2, 1987)
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
(“Hurt,” Johnny Cash, written by Trent Reznor, 1994)
A great big thanks to Tim Giessler and Chris Slawecki for producing that Grammy award winning montage. What these songs are saying is nothing new. And what Solomon is saying in Ecclesiastes, 3,000 years ago, is nothing old. It's as relevant today as it was the day he penned it.
And in Ecclesiastes 2 he continues this quest for meaning that he's on. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes 2.
Listen as I read Ecclesiastes 2:1-3, I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. 2“Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?” 3I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for people to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.
Two weeks ago we talked about the spider that clipped the strand that held up his web. Well Solomon has clipped the strand that connected him with God and what we're calling “above the sun” living, so now he's left to find meaning only “under the sun.” And so he starts a passionate pursuit of pleasure.
It's interesting to me that he begins this journal entry by saying, “I thought in my heart” or as some translations put it, “I said to myself.” At this point in his life Solomon is out there on his own. He has no accountability. He's doing whatever he pleases. He's not consulting anybody. And nobody has the guts to confront him because he's the king. He doesn't have a Nathan in his life. Like his father David did. It was Nathan who confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba. And that was a turning point in David's recovery. But Solomon has no community around him and that's a dangerous place for any of us to be.
He's violating his own counsel. In Proverbs 15:22 he once wrote, Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed. Solomon has no one advising him right now. He's not asking for anybody's input and that's not healthy.
So he becomes a party animal. He has 1,000 women at his beck and call and can have sex anytime and anyway he wants it. He surrounds himself with all kinds of entertainment, game rooms, Jacuzzis, home theaters, big screen TV's, state of the art stereo equipment, court jesters to make him laugh.
But when all that doesn't work he turns to the bottle. He doesn't become a hopeless drunk. His mind is still guiding him with wisdom. Instead, he becomes a connoisseur of fine wine. He enjoys the best wine that Napa Valley can produce. But wasting away in Margarita Ville leaves him empty.
That great prophet Jerry Seinfeld once said, “Everybody's looking for good sex, good food, and a good laugh. They're little islands of relief in what's often a painful existence.” Solomon can relate and so can many of us. I can't get no satisfaction.
After his pursuit of pleasure he pursues projects. Look at verses 4-6, I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
“Wine, women, and song didn't do it, so I threw myself into my career,” he says. Like many people today Solomon buried himself in his work hoping to find meaning and purpose there.
He became a builder and did he ever produce. Solomon's temple, which he doesn't even mention here, took seven years to build, and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. First Kings 5:13-15 tell us that at times there were as many as 180,000 people working on the project, thousands at the constructions site, thousands in the quarries, thousands in the mines, thousands shipping cedar down from Lebanon, floating it on rafts along the Mediterranean Sea to Joppa and then over the mountains and up to Jerusalem.
In 1 Chronicles 22:14, we read that the Temple cost him 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver to build. One hundred thousand talents of gold amounts to 3,000 tons and 3,000 tons of gold at today's prices are worth over 66 billion dollars. The numbers are staggering!
And when he finished the Temple he didn't stop there. Instead, he spent the next thirteen years building his own palace and doing exotic landscaping with parks and trees and pools and fountains. It was beautiful. It was bigger than Shannondell! But after twenty years of construction Solomon looked at it all and said, “But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.”
He tries pleasure. He tries projects. Next he tries possessions. Look at verses 7-11 and notice the repetition of the personal pronouns “I, me or my,” I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of the human heart. 9I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. 10I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. 11Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Twenty-seven times in verses 4-11 Solomon says “I, me or my.” It's all about him and he's miserable.
Joy Davidman, the wife of C. S. Lewis, once wrote, “Living for his own pleasure is the least pleasurable thing a man can do; if his neighbors don't kill him in disgust, he will die slowly of boredom and powerlessness.”
And Solomon is bored and feeling powerless to change. And often people who get bored become collectors. And so Solomon collects everything. He collects people and animals and silver and gold and women and music. We go out and buy the CD of the music we like. Solomon goes out and buys the band.
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. He wants everything he sees on TV, in catalogs, at the Mall. You name it. I want it. It reminds me of that special on Michael Jackson a few years ago where they showed him shopping in Las Vegas walking through this exclusive store filled with all kinds of exotic decor saying, “I'll take three of these, five of those, seven of these.” And one of his entourage would say, “But Michael, you have one of those. I do? Then instead of seven I'll take eight.” No limits.
But Solomon goes light years beyond them all. Been there. Done that. Now what? And we think, “What's his problem? What's up with this guy? If only I had half of what he had, I'd be happy. A tenth would do.” Would we? Maybe for a while, but not for long. He's the poster child for the words of Jesus who would later say in Mark 8:36, What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? Solomon has gained the world, but he's lost his soul. He's in a million little pieces.
He tries pleasure. He tries projects. He tries possessions. Dust in the wind. All they are is dust in the wind.
In verses 12-16, Solomon puts wisdom and folly under the microscope and draws some conclusions. Look at verse 12, Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king's successor do than what has already been done? 13I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. 14The wise have eyes in their heads, while fools walk in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. 15Then I thought in my heart, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said in my heart, “This too is meaningless.” 16For the wise, like fools, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like fools, the wise too must die!
What difference does it make to be wise or to be a fool? The same things happen to them both. The fool enjoys the same sunrise and sunset that the wise do. The fool argues with his wife, just like the wise man argues with his 1,000 wives. They both get sick, they both grow old, they both have trouble in this life. And in the end they both die. What have I become my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end. And sometimes the wise die young and fools die old.
Missionary Jim Elliot, whose life is being portrayed in the current movie “End of the Spear” once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” I remember those words vividly because I had written them inside the cover of the very first Bible I ever owned. He was a brilliant, wise, deeply committed man of faith with his whole life ahead of him when he was hacked to death on a beach in Ecuador by the very people he was trying to love at the tender age of 28.
On the other, Bertrand Russell, one of the most well-known atheist philosophers of the 20th century, a man who often dared God to strike him dead, if there was a God, lived to the ripe old age of 97. And wrote at the end of his three volume autobiography, “Much of what I've done in life has been useless.” It makes no sense.
The answer to life can't be found in wisdom alone. Nor can it be found in work alone. Look at verses 17-24, So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet my heir will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21For people may do their work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to others who have not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23All their days their work is pain and grief; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
It sounds like Solomon already knows that his son, Rehoboam, is waiting in the wings. And Rehoboam, the Bible says, turns out to be a fool. In just seven days after his father dies, he's going to destroy the kingdom that Solomon had spent forty years of his life building. He can't sleep at night thinking about it. The wisest man who ever lived turned his kingdom over to a fool who split it right down the middle.
“I can't stand it,” Solomon says, “I hated life and all the things I worked hard to get, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. This too is meaningless and a chasing after wind.” Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.
And just when everything looks hopeless Solomon draws a conclusion that offers a ray of hope. Look at verse 24, People can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26To the one who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
People can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God.
Six times in his journal Solomon is going to draw this same conclusion.
He's not saying, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” This is not Epicurean philosophy he promoting. Instead, he's saying, “Eat, drink, and be content with your lot in life. Resist the myth of more. And if you can that's a gift from God. Recognize that all you have comes from the hand of a good God and be content with it and enjoy it to the full.”
The apostle Paul puts it this way in 1 Timothy 6:17, Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
God wants us to enjoy life! That's one of the two conclusions that Solomon will draw. But we will never enjoy life if we swallow the myth of more. Yet often we have this idea that it's the world that gives enjoyment and it's God who takes it away. And the more of the world we have the happier we will be. But the truth is just the opposite. At least that's what Solomon discovered. True joy comes form God.
If we don't have Jesus Christ at the nucleus of our life we are destined to live life “under the sun.” And “under the sun” living will leave us empty. “Above the sun” living is tough enough but at least with God in the picture we have hope and we have someone to thank. So let's live life joyfully, thankfully, and responsibly before a God who gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness.