Rev. David Holwick B Ecclesiastes Series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 12, 1997
Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26
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I. The quest for significance.
A. What have you sought after for happiness?
1) Romance - chasing women.
2) Money - getting more.
3) Drugs and parties.
B. Solomon did it all. 1:12
1) He had it all.
a) Reputation for wisdom. 1 Kings 4:29-34
b) Enjoyed time of peace and security.
c) Fabulously wealthy.
1> (Our fascination with Bill Gates...)
2) He searched for more. Quest motif.
II. Wisdom is chasing after the wind.
A. Solomon's quest for significance.
1) The conclusion given right away. 1:17-18
a) Wisdom doesn't satisfy.
b) Indeed, it's a burden than brings grief.
2) He experiments with experiences.
B. Existentialism.
1) Real life is limited to this moment.
a) We exist in a series of experiences and cannot discover
any meaning in them.
b) All we can do is exist and make the best of what comes,
or drop out altogether.
2) Yet most believe life has meaning, if only we can find it.
III. Frustration of Pleasure. 2:1
A. Solomon focuses on pleasures most people consider worthwhile.
1) Amusement (jokes) grows stale. 2:2
2) Drink leads to overindulgence. (Isa 22:13) 2:3
a) Some doubt he got drunk, but he did "embrace folly."
b) Solomon still tries to remain objective.
c) Parties aren't the answer to his quest.
B. Grandiose projects. 2:4
1) Pyramids as lasting significance - ??
a) David Moses (?) and Port Authority projects.
b) Solomon had palace and Temple.
2) He accumulated people and wealth. 2:7
a) Harem.
b) Frick museum, and accumulation of wealth.
3) To many, unlimited money suggests unlimited satisfaction.
a) Philosophy behind gambling mania.
Everyone thinks they'll strike it rich.
Even the government does.
Some say it is exploiting what commentator George Wills
calls "the pathology of hope."
It is particularly strong among the poor who have lost
confidence in work as a means of getting ahead in life.
One South Side liquor store sells 2,700 lottery tickets
a day when the state jackpot reaches $20 million.
Gambling may be for many people a fatalistic expression
of the belief that most of life is luck.
Life is to a significant extent a lottery won or lost at
conception, so one might as well roll the dice as
life rolls along.
The pursuit of wealth without work is nothing new.
But in the end it only leads to despair or depression.
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C. Pleasure in and of itself is a dead end.
1) Sensual pleasures hold out promises that lack staying power.
2) Sensual pleasures offer to open our eyes, but blind us.
3) Sensual pleasures disillusion us.
IV. The ultimate frustrations - work and death.
A. Wisdom is better than insanity, but both die in the end. 2:14
1) No matter what we accomplish, we are forgotten. 2:15
2) There are no guarantees what will happen when we are gone.
B. Toil causes grief. 2:17
1) A jerk may inherit it. 2:18
2) We lose control.
3) The unfairness of it all.
C. What do we get for our sweat?
1) Pain and grief.
2) We cannot even get peace at night. 2:23
3) There is nothing that makes it possible for us to extract
enjoyment and purpose from the things we do.
V. Normal life has meaning - with God.
A. We can experience fulfillment despite life's difficulties. 2:26
1) Eat, drink, find satisfaction in work.
a) Not pleasure-seeking, but ordinary life.
2) It is from the hand of God.
a) There is no real enjoyment apart from God.
B. God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness.
1) Sinners are frustrated by unfairness of toil.
2) Meaningless for them, chasing after wind.
3) But with God, it is not meaningless for us.
Most of us cherish the music of Handel's "Messiah," particularly at
Christmas.
We love the beautiful choruses and the solos.
We stand together reverently as we listen to the "Halleluia Chorus."
But most of us don't know much about Handel's life and what brought
him to write "Messiah."
In his 30's Handel became successful as a composer.
By his 20's he had already established his reputation throughout
Europe as an outstanding organist.
On moving to London, he decided to build a reputation as a music
composer.
Through his 30's and 40's he continued to write music in London.
He primarily wrote operas for the upper class.
The difficulty was that it took him so much time to write an opera
and to rehearse it with the singers that by the time it was
finally performed, he was deeply in debt.
His income from each opera went to pay back the debts he had incurred
during the composing and rehearsals.
It took him about 2 months to get an opera ready.
The opera would run for 3 or 6 nights; sometimes a really
well-received opera would run for 11 nights.
He would pay his bills and then immediately he needed to start on
another opera.
For 20 years his life became a frantic routine of churning out more
and more operas to pay his debts.
He was living on the edge of debtor's prison day in and day out.
Can anybody relate to that -- running day and night just to stay
even?
Then, when he was 52 years old, Handel suffered a stroke and lost
the use of the right side of his body.
He could no longer accompany his operas.
He was forced, by his bad health, to take a break.
He left London and went to France to soak in some hot, natural baths.
He wanted to get the right side of his body working again.
It was on one of those days, while sitting in the bath, praying that
somehow his right hand would be restored so he could continue
with his music, that somebody talked to him.
The person said, "Sometimes people need more than entertainment.
I can still remember when I heard your oratorio, 'Esther.'
That oratorio inspired me.
It lifted my spirits at a time when I was discouraged."
The speaker was not aware that the music for "Esther" had been
stolen from Handel and used by someone else who combined it with
the biblical material.
The speaker continued, "Mr. Handel, the world is full of
discouragement.
Why don't you write something that will inspire human beings to
live useful lives?"
Bathing in those hot baths for a number of days, Handel finally
began to get a little movement in his hand.
With full recovery, he was able to use his arm and his hand again.
It was a day of rejoicing when he could sit down at an organ and
play again with both hands. He returned to London.
But in the back of his mind he kept thinking about that statement
made to him at the baths.
When he got back to London, he began writing music for biblical
oratorios along with operas.
Writer Charles Jennens asked for an appointment with Handel to
discuss some new music for a libretto he had written called
"Messiah."
Handel was so impressed by the compilation of Old Testament
prophecies which were fulfilled by Jesus that he sat down and
worked for twenty-four straight days.
In less than a month he completed the music for the "Messiah."
The last 20 years of his life he spent writing music for biblical
oratorios.
He took many Old Testament passages and put them to music.
He discovered his real gift was inspirational music.
Now he had a higher purpose than frantically churning out opera
after opera to pay debts.
But it took a crisis in his life to make him pause long enough to
make the discovery.
It is a shame when we wait until we have a stroke or a heart attack
or a divorce before we sit back and think about where our lives
are headed.
Like Handel, you and I need to pause every so often in order to
get God's perspective.
It makes all the difference.
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EBC commentary.
A. Frustration of Wisdom.
1) Existential - we exist in a series of experiences and
cannot discover any meaning in them.
a) All we can do is exist and make the best of what comes,
or drop out altogether.
b) Yet most believe life has meaning, if only we can find it.
2) God has given us something animals don't have. 1:13
a) Urge to make sense of life and work toward a transcendent
ideal. (see 3:11)
b) Animals are instinctive, we try to control instincts.
c) We need the illumination that comes from God.
3) There is much we cannot understand. 1:14
a) Our attempts to straighten things out are ultimately
disappointed.
b) Those who seek wisdom, and those who abandon it, are
both headed for frustration.
c) He is frustrated because his thinking is earthbound.
B. Frustration of Unlimited Wealth.
1) To many, unlimited money suggests unlimited satisfaction.
2) He focuses on pleasures most people consider worthwhile.
a) Amusement (jokes) grows stale.
b) Drink leads to overindulgence. (Isa 22:13)
1> He still tries to remain objective.
3) Sensible use of money on projects.
a) Used slave labor.
b) He excelled in trade, music, women.
4) Conclusion: money and the pleasures it can buy do not lift
us out of the realm of earthbound frustration.
C. The ultimate frustration: Death.
1) Solomon has greater opportunities that anyone that will
follow in his steps concerning wisdom and wealth.
2) Fools and wise alike die.
a) Depressing, but overridden by Jesus, not wisdom.
3) Solomon finds no security or meaning in rewards of labor.
a) Almost a warning of burdens of anxieties of treasure
on earth.
D. The divine order of life.
1) Daily life to be enjoyed.
a) Appears to advocate pleasure seeking, but doesn't.
1> Rounds off first section of book.
b) Daily life must be taken from the hand of God.
2) Normal life and society in view.
a) Social evils not discussed.
b) The life of faith does not understand everything, but
looks for hand of God.
1> Parallel in 1 Tim 6:6-19, "be content with food."
3) God can give us a wise life.
a) We can experience joy of fulfillment despite life's
difficulties. 2:26
b) Rewards and punishments as clear as 2:26 suggests?
1> Normative society in view.
2> God's general plan.
3> Meaninglessness here applies to "sinner."
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