Ecclesiastes 1:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Ecclesiastes 1:8

Comments

Solomon sums up the effect on the human mind of the endless repeating cycles that he has described in the last few verses. To observe them and to think deeply about them is to be filled with weariness for, as we try to trace these endless patterns, the heart grows sick with the ceaseless futile activity of everything, and the unprofitability of it all. He does not mean that the earth itself is weary, as if these cycles have been going on so long that the earth has grown exhausted and gives signs of reaching its limits. That thought would be extraneous to his argument. On the contrary, from man’s perspective, the earth seems capable of continuing to follow the same repetition for ever, but man watching all this and believing that this is all that exists, man searching for meaning and purpose in the world around him, is wearied in his mind to the point where he wants to scream at the pointlessness of it all. Neither does Solomon mean that the world is so great and its systems so extensive that it is a task beyond human ability to describe it all. His point is not that the world is too complex to understand but that its endless repeating cycles are depressingly futile. If we were to try to fully describe this endless repetition on which Solomon has only touched, we would be unable to find sufficient words to express it. Paul summaries the situation in Romans 8:20-23, ‘For the creature was made subject to vanity … for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also.’ The consequence of this is that anyone who turns to the world around him to find fulfilment is bound to be disappointed. A human soul is so vast that it can never be satisfied with anything other than God himself. In addition to this, the only alternative available – the world itself – has been cursed by God and so corrupted from its original glory, so that man now finds that in grasping the world he has taken hold of something that is passing away, something that is a weariness to itself. The Lord has ensured the creature will never be a substitute for the Creator.

Application

This is about human appetites. If we try to grasp the world with our senses, and if you depend on it for happiness and turn to it as the ultimate source of satisfaction for the soul, you will be bitterly disappointed as you discover that you have taken vanity itself into your soul. Though life may be full of effort, the eye will never be satisfied with seeing. You will not be content for long. Things which engage your enthusiasm for a time will soon fail to excite us. The grass will always be greener on the other side. The ear will not for long be satisfied with the things it hears. This is not just because we are hard to please. It is because we all have built into us a deep sense that we ought to be alive in a spiritual way. Everyone has this instinct.

This verse confirms the idea that the subject is man’s appetite. All things go on in a circling and predictive manner. All of this is valuable to the preacher, to show the vanity of life and to silence the young mind which thinks that religion is predictable and dull and boring. No, it is life without God that is predictable and boring.

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Ecclesiastes 1:8 Commentary and Bible Study