QUEST FOR MEANING
Ecclesiastes 1:12 to 2:11

Philippe R. Sterling
 
On an edition of the TV show NFL Today Deion Sanders and Dan Marino found themselves arguing on the air.  The bone of contention was Lawrence Taylor’s book LT: Over the Edge – a controversial account of Taylor’s years in the National Football League.  Taylor admitted he had often been out of control, addicted to cocaine and a hard-partying lifestyle that led to a bitter divorce, numerous arrests, financial ruin, broken health, and deep depression.  He went on to describe the excesses of other NFL players.
 
As Sanders and Marino discussed the book on the air, Marino expressed surprise at some of the revelations in Taylor’s book and indicated that such things didn’t happen when he was quarterback.  When Sanders scoffed at Marino’s incredulity, Marino took offense.  “Why are you saying I’m naïve?” he retorted.
 
Deion replied, “Don’t tell me you don’t know what goes on in the NFL.  You don’t know guys get high and guys do everything under the sun?  Twenty-year-old or thirty-year-old guys with millions of dollars – that equals destruction.  So you can’t sit up here and tell me that you were immune to that stuff.”
 
I find it interesting that Sanders reached back three thousand years for Solomon’s phrase to describe the lives of modern athletes.  Whether modern athlete or ancient king, you can try everything “under the sun,” but none of it ultimately satisfies or give meaning.  None of it!  To drive home his point, Solomon recounts some of his own experiences under the sun.  [King’s Quest for Meaning]
 
 Quest for Meaning through Wisdom  

The Seeker (1:12)  

The seeker reminds us of his identity.  We know that he had as much wisdom as a man has ever had.  And he was the great king over all of Israel.  He had the brains and the bucks to make a full investigation of all things.

The Search (1:13-15)  

With wisdom he searches everything that is done under the sun.  This exploration is “a grievous task” given to the “sons of Adam.”  Thinking back to Adam, we realize that God did indeed give to Adam the task of searching out by wisdom all of God’s works.  But this task is a grievous task for the children of Adam because we labor under the curse.  Life has become crooked because of the curse and we cannot straighten it out.  We are missing what we need to do what God created us to do.  God ordained our problems so that we would never be satisfied with our lives on earth; they are part of the purposeful discipline which He imposed upon us as the sequel to the fall.

The Summary (1:16-18)  

Solomon ends the first chapter of Ecclesiastes by describing the futility of searching for meaning through learning.  His wisdom was legendary.  Yet to his surprise, the more he learned, the emptier he felt.
 
He’s not alone.  A few years ago, in his monthly letter from Focus on the Family ministry, Dr. James Dobson told the story of Karen Cheng, age seventeen, from Fremont, California.  She achieved a perfect score of 800 on both sections of the SAT test.  She also got a perfect 8,000 on the rigorous University of California acceptance index.  Never before had anyone accomplished this staggering intellectual feat.

Karen, a straight-A student at Mission San Jose High School, described herself as a typical teenager who munches on junk food and talks for hours on the telephone.  She even claimed to be a procrastinator who didn’t do her homework until the last minute.
 
Karen’s teachers told a different story.  They called her “Wonder Woman” because of her unquenchable thirst for knowledge and her uncanny ability to retain whatever she read.  But when a reporter asked her, “What is the meaning of life?”  Karen’s reply was surprising.  “I have no idea,” she answered.  “I would like to know myself.”  T. S. Eliot once remarked, “All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance.”
 
Consider the sum total of all our knowledge, all our progress, all our technology.  Has any of it really made the experience of life richer?  Yes, we’re thankful for medical advances and jet travel.  Most of us have more information on the hard drives of our computers than entire nations once possessed in their ancient libraries.  Yet there have never been so many unhappy people, so many illiterate, so many hungry and diseased and disowned.  All our accumulated knowledge of history cannot keep us from terrorism and war and discord on every continent.
 
The seeker reflects on the results of his search for meaning through wisdom.  There was no one wiser or more powerful (16a).  He conducted the experiment rigorously and exhaustively (16b).  Yet he found no profit in wisdom but only sorrow (17b, 18).  The only thing wisdom does is tell the wise man that life is full of pain and sorrow.  He is tempted to conclude that there is no advantage to wisdom.  He will eventually conclude that there is a limited advantage to wisdom under the sin.  Before he returns to the question of wisdom he explores the benefits of pleasure.  Perhaps there he will find the antidote to the pain wisdom has brought him.
 
Quest for Meaning through Pleasure  

Forward into the second chapter of Ecclesiastes comes the weary king, prolonging his quest for meaning.  Education proved fruitless, but perhaps he’ll find what he seeks in reckless abandon.  These verses sound like a report from one of our tabloids or celebrity magazines.
 
Ernest Hemingway was the great example of twentieth-century man.  He filled many books with reflections of his worldwide adventures.  He might be found sipping champagne in Paris, hunting grizzly bears in Alaska, running with the bulls in Spain, fishing for tarpon in the Florida Keys.  He lived the fullest life imaginable – under the sun.  Yet the time closed in upon him when he chose to end his own life.  His suicide note read, “Life is just one damn thing after another.”
 
Her parents christened her Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone – but the world has been on a first name basis with Madonna since she took the record industry by storm in the early 1980s.  She has become the icon of the outrageous, parlaying what industry experts call only average talent into extraordinary profit and shocking as many people as she can along the way.  The self-proclaimed “boy toy” and “material girl” pursues the pleasures of life in the fast lane as if there is no tomorrow.  Forbes magazine called her “the smartest business woman in America” and since her I.Q. is nearly 150, many think she is.  In five years she made $125 million through music, acting, merchandising, and endorsements.
 
I can think of few modern personalities who seem to live for pleasure more than Madonna.  If a hedonist is one who lives by the creed, “If it pleases me, I’ll do it,” then Madonna is the rightful queen of hedonism.  Yet in personal interviews she has said that she is not happy, that she doesn’t know anyone who is, and that her only goal in life is to “be somebody.”

The Summary (2:1-3)  

The seeker tests himself with pleasure and concludes that it is all futility (2:1-3).  To pursue his search, he recreates a second Garden of Eden (2:4-11).

The Search (2:4-11)  

Recreate Eden.
 
Consider the similarities of vocabulary between 2:4-6 and Genesis 1 and 2: to plant, garden, tree, fruit, to irrigate, to sprout, to work and make.  In fact, the “gardens” of Ecclesiastes 2:5 are translated into the Greek as “paradises,” the same word used for the Garden of Eden and the place where the thief on the cross went with Jesus.
 
With that in mind, consider what the seeker claimed to do.  I planted vineyards for myself – just as God had planted a garden and put Adam in it to tend and keep it.  I made gardens and parks for myself and planted all kinds of fruit trees – just as God did on Day 3 of creation.  I made ponds of water from which to irrigate a forest – just as God watered the Garden of Eden with mist from the ground and four rivers.  The seeker is mimicking God and creating a second paradise.  He seeks to put creation in order for his own benefit.  And he almost succeeds.  His heart rejoiced in all his labor and this was his reward (2:10).  That is, he had a similar pleasure as God looking at His creation and pronouncing it all “very good.”  But then the seeker looked again (2:11).  He blinked and it was all gone and he saw his work for what it truly was, vanity and grasping for wind.  There was no profit in it because it would not remain.
 
Solomon did all of his pleasure seeking with a measure of temperance.  He was a “controlled” party animal, but that didn’t make him happy.  Instead, he experienced the immutable law of diminishing returns [Pleasure Seeker’s Cycle].  He did not withhold anything from himself.  He did not tell himself no.  And soon, what used to satisfy became ho-hum, commonplace, boring.  So he allowed himself a little more – a little more wine, a little more food, another concubine – or two, or ten.  Maybe you do not have a wine cellar like Solomon’s – or a team of iron chefs ready to tickle your palate with the latest culinary delights – but the law of diminishing returns is easily illustrated in other ways.
 
For example I have heard that there are golfers, and then there are golfers.  Some people out there are passionately committed to the game.  They have a bumper sticker on their cars that say: “Life is a game – golf is serious.”  They might have started playing with borrowed clubs and make-shift attire – but now they have gone far beyond that first stage.  The time comes when only Ping irons will do.  And Callaway woods.  Graphite shafts become essential.  Without these “necessities” the game just isn’t fun anymore.  These golfers cannot get excited about a 7 a.m. tee time at the city course.  But just watch their eyes light up when they tell you they have played the Masters, Pebble Beach – or better yet, the Plantation on Maui.  Or that they are members of the most exclusive club in their state.  Get the picture?  The law of diminishing returns says the same effort produces less satisfaction.  So we put more into our passion – whatever it may be – just to enjoy it as much as we did yesterday.
 
From partying, Solomon the pleasure-seeker moved on to projects.  He built houses, home, offices – his portfolio of construction projects would make Donald Trump’s operation look small-time.  Wealthy men and women through the ages have undertaken building projects, leaving behind colossal monuments to their wealth and creativity.  Have you ever seen the Mellon or Rockefeller estates?  Or San Simeon, the California castle of William Randolph Hearst?  They have built great retreats, study centers, libraries, and gardens for themselves.  The projects are beautiful, but they probably did not satisfy their builders’ tastes for pleasure any more than Solomon’s did.
 
We can’t get no satisfaction.
 
The title of this section is borrowed from a song that was popular some years ago. While it may not be proper grammar, it does accurately express the age-old lament of man. What Mick Jagger and Keith Richards expressed in a rock song, King Solomon expressed in Scripture.

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
When I'm drivin' in my car
And that man comes on the radio
He's tellin' me more and more
About some useless information
Supposed to fire my imagination
I can't get no, oh no no no
Hey hey hey, that's what I say . . .
I can't get no, I can't get no
I can't get no satisfaction
No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction
Solomon’s experiment shows the real need.  God needs to make a new creation and pronounce it good.  A real second Adam, without the tainted seed of the first, needs to come to bring order to creation and take delight in it.  Thus, the book becomes a cry for the work of Christ.

Quest for Meaning through Christ  

Praise God that things will not remain wearisome.  God has prepared wonderful new things for those who fear Him.  He promises to make us new (1 Thess 5:17).  He promises to give us a new name (Rev 2:17).  He will make a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21:1).  He will give us a new city (Rev 21:2).  He will make all things new (Rev 21:5).  All things are grievous under the sun; all things are made new in the Son.  God promises not temporary gratification, but lasting joy.  He promises a place with Jesus, in whose presence is fullness of joy, and in whose right hand are pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11).
 
Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is. 
-- Colossians 3:1
​

THE WEARY GO-ROUND
Ecclesiastes 1:4-11

Philippe R. Sterling
 
Sisyphus was a character in Greek mythology who upset the gods with his extraordinary wisdom. As punishment, he was sentenced to be blinded and to perpetually roll a giant boulder up a mountain to the peak, only to have it inevitably roll back down the mountain into the valley. Sisyphus is a metaphor for the meaninglessness of life under the sun. Life is a great circle, a “weary go-round.”

I went to the gym for many years.  I was astounded by the vast array of exercise machinery – stationary bikes, treadmills, and stair-climbers – all designed to enhance fitness. You get on them, and you go…nowhere.  In fact, going nowhere is part of their design. The point is not to get somewhere – the point is to expend as much energy as possible for as long as possible while you are going nowhere. Every time you step off the treadmill or the bike, you are in the same place you began. Life is pointless, Solomon argued, because it is always moving in circles but going nowhere. He supported his thesis by observing patterns in nature and noting that they are all cyclical.
 
Nothing seems to change (4-7).
 
The Course of Life: Generation come and go, while the earth remains forever.
 
We can imagine Solomon sitting at his breakfast table with the newspaper open, reading the birth announcements on one page and the obituaries on the next.  Generations pass in parade.  There is a deathbed in one room, a crib next-door.  History is a continuously repeated drama; the earth abides, but the actors play their parts and move on.

Rabbi Harold Kushner tells of a man who came to him for counseling.  After the usual chatter that precedes such appointments, the man told Kushner why he had come.
 
“Two weeks ago,” said the man, “for the first time in my life I went to the funeral of a man my own age.  I didn’t know him well, we worked together, talked to each other from time to time, had kids about the same age.  He died suddenly over the weekend…It could just as easily have been me.  That was two weeks ago.  They have already replaced him at the office.  I hear his wife is moving out of state to live with her parents.  Two weeks ago, he was working fifty feet away from me, and now it’s as if he never existed.  It’s like a rock falling into a pool of water, and then the water is the same as it was before, but the rock isn’t there anymore.  Rabbi, I’ve hardly slept at all since then.  I can’t stop thinking that it could happen to me, and a few days later I will be forgotten as if I had never lived.  Shouldn’t a man’s life be more than that?”
 
There is no meaning in the day-to-day repetition of life.  We get up, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to bed – only to repeat until retirement.  Then we die.  What’s the point?
 
The Circle of the Sun: The sun is constant with its rising and setting.
 
We know that the earth circles the sun.  Solomon is using observational language.  Solomon’s phrase, the sun also rises, speaks of the silent, uncaring machine that life and nature can appear to be.  For him, every golden sunset represented another short day gone from his brief life.

It’s intriguing that Ernest Hemingway chose these words, The Sun Also Rises, as the title of his first best-selling novel.  His book conveys the despair that characterized his life and writings.  Years later, shortly before his suicide, the great writer confessed, “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into.”
 
The Circuits of the Wind: The winds continue their whirling cycle.
 
Solomon anticipates what is now known about the world’s great wind circuits and the global circulation of the atmosphere.  There’s something about the wind that speaks to the soul.  Jesus spoke of it as blowing “where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes” (John 3:8).  In that case, Jesus was speaking about the mystery and marvel of the work of the Holy Spirit.  But for Solomon, the wind represented the invisible brevity of life.  As Margaret Mitchell would later express in the title of her great novel Gone with the Wind, sooner or later everything in life – even our most cherished relationships and possessions – vanish with the wind.

Remember the haunting words of the song from the rock band Kansas:

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.
Don’t hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky.
It slips away, and all your money won’t another minute buy.
 
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind;
Dust in the wind, everything is dust in the wind.
 
The Cycle of the Water: The water also, as rivers run into the seas, and then through evaporation and rain return to the rivers again.
 
Solomon describes the earth’s amazing hydrologic cycle.  The sun and the wind make possible the evaporation and circulation of water.  But the sea never changes.  The rivers and waters pour into the sea, but the seas remain the same.

We live under the sun, but our destiny is beyond its rising and setting.  Colossians 3:1-3 says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
 
Nothing seems to satisfy (8).
 
Despite all our labors, we are never truly satisfied.
 
“Boring!” – usually pronounced “Booooooo-ring!” – is the ultimate put-down today, yet everyone seems afflicted by it.  This verse explains why.  Nothing under the sun satisfies.  We can never see enough or hear enough to bring satisfaction.  Everything ultimately brings weariness and boredom.

In 1958, American writer Barnaby Conrad was badly gored in a bullfight in Spain.  Eva Gabor and Noel Coward were overheard talking about the incident in a New York restaurant.  “Noel, dahling,’ said Eva, “have you heard the news about poor Bahnaby?  He was terribly gored in Spain.”  “He was what?” asked Coward in alarm.  “He was gored!”  “Thank heavens.  I thought you said he was bored.”  There’s a bit of wisdom there.  Ultimate boredom – the fate of those who can look only under the sun for meaning – may be the worst fate of all.
 
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
 
No matter what we see, we continue to look for things more pleasing to the eye.  With cable and internet there is now available five-hundred-plus television channels in our homes.  Bruce Springsteen’s song “57 Channels and Nothing’ On” is very close to the truth.  But we will scan those channels, all the same, just to be sure we are not missing anything – because the eye is not satisfied, no matter where it looks.

Certainly, if ears were filled with hearing, some people would be full.  I once saw someone in a truck that had speakers in the back bigger than its tires.  The sound was cranked up so loud that the whole truck was rocking back and forth.  I thought his ears must be bleeding for the sound – mine almost were!  There is not enough sound to fill us.
 
Nothing is new under the sun (9-11).
 
Do you believe there is anything new in our world today?  What about cellphones?  Pacemakers?  Actually, the physical properties of these inventions have always been with us; we have just learned how to combine them into different forms.  But how far have we really come?  The seven deadly sins are as deadly as ever.  People are still at war with one another, and no less inclined to fight than before.  There is no less greed, no less immorality, and no less dishonesty, as far as I can see.  Is our world getting better?
 
What will be done is that which has been done.
 
We look at the world that is around us – what we can see and feel and hear under the sun – and we realize there is nothing new.  It is as it ever was.  Rudyard Kipling expressed the sentiments of Solomon when he wrote these lines:

The craft that we call modern,
The crimes that we call new;
John Bunyan had ‘em typed and filed
In 1682.
 
If thought to be new, it has been done in ancient times.
 
A reporter named Chris Ross filed his last column for the Jacksonville Daily Progress.  This is part of what he had to say:

If I’ve learned anything in my days at the Progress, it’s there really isn’t anything new under the sun.  Of the first things people said when I’d tell them what I did, was usually, “Wow, I bet that’s interesting.  Something new every day.”  And I’d smile and say, “Yeah, it beats getting a real job,” or something.  But the longer I worked as a reporter, the more I realized I’m doing the same stories over and over.  Some of the names and places and even motives would change, but essentially it was the same old thing.
 
We simply don’t remember the past, nor will the future remember the present.
 
Conclusion
 
Weighing his evidence alone, most of us would have to agree with Solomon’s conclusion that life is empty, would we not?  Even the best life lived out under the sun is meaningless, boring, and empty.  Listen to the word of a modern-day Solomon if you are not sure.  Alexander Curry was a thirty-something Wall Street trader for a large brokerage house.  His hefty six-figure income afforded him a well-furnished Upper East Side apartment filled with high-tech toys.  In his more introspective moments, he wondered what it is all about.

I’ve always felt that there was something I could do and feel I was doing something of real tangible benefit. Trading, arbitraging futures markets does not have any real tangible benefit, in my opinion.  I mean, it serves a purpose for the economy, but I don’t think of myself as really doing a lot for society.  I’m really doing more for myself.  I would have to say that I feel that there is a lack of purpose in my being.  I don’t understand why I’m here.  I don’t really try to understand why I’m here because I think it would probably be futile.  It does provide a real hole in my existence.
 
Is there a way off the treadmill?  Can we step off the stair-climber?  Is there an alternative?
Howard Mumma was a Methodist pastor who, during several summers in the 1950s, served as a guest minister at the American Church in Paris.  One Sunday after the service, he noticed a small crowd of admirers gathered around a man in a dark suit.  The man was Albert Camus, a famous existentialist author whose books centered on the theme of the absurdity of the human condition.  Camus’ novels, The Plague and The Stranger, and essays such as The Myth of Sisyphus, were the talk of the intellectual community; and he won the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature.  Camus had begun attending the church’s services to listen to the organist, and he had continued attending to listen to Mumma’s sermons.
Mumma and Camus became friends in spite of the gulf that separated their beliefs.  Mumma kept the content of their conversations private for forty years.  At the age of ninety-two, he finally went on the record about his discourses with the nihilist philosopher.  In one conversation, Camus told Mumma:

The reason I have been coming to church is because I am seeking. I’m almost on a pilgrimage – seeking something to fill the void that I am experiencing – and no one else knows. Certainly, the public and the readers of my novels, while they see that void, are not finding the answers in what they are reading.  But deep down you are right. I’m searching for something that the world is not giving me…In a sense we are all products of a mundane world, a world without spirit. The world in which we live and the lives which we live are decidedly empty…Since I have been coming to church, I have been thinking a great deal about the idea of a transcendent, something that is other than this world. It is something that you do not hear much about today, but I am finding it.
 
These were not yet the words of a man who believed in Christ for eternal life, but they are significant.  Camus had built a career out of the idea that life is absurd and meaningless, but after living with that philosophy for several decades, he wasn’t so sure anymore.  He was willing to consider that there was a God who might satisfy his thirst for meaning after all.
Another philosopher lived centuries earlier.  Blaise Pascal was without equal, a brilliant French thinker, scientist, mathematician, and inventor.  As a young man, Pascal had trouble with the spiritual equations of life, and he soon grew disillusioned with the pleasure of his fashionable society.  Everything seemed boring to him.

One night Pascal picked up a Bible and turned to John 17.  As he began reading, verse 3 blazed out like a spark and seemed to set the room on fire:  And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.  Taking pen and parchment, he began writing snatches of his thoughts:

In the year of Grace, 1654
On Monday, 23rd of November
Fire
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob
Not of the philosophers and scholars.
Certitude. Certitude, Heartfelt Joy. Peace.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the Only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Jesus Christ.  Let me never be separated from Him.
 
Pascal spent the rest of his life proclaiming the greatness of God.  That scrap of parchment was found after his death sewed into the lining of his coat, that it might ever be close to his heart.  It was this same Pascal who echoed the words of Ecclesiastes in this well-known paraphrase of one of his Pensées: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man that cannot be filled by any created thing, but by God alone made known through Jesus Christ.”

Let’s end by comparing this passage of Ecclesiastes with 2 Pet 3:3-13.  In verse 3 Peter points out that unbelievers mock by saying everything goes on the same; there are no changes.  Yet that’s exactly what Eccl 1:4-11 seems to be saying.  Remember this is life under the sun.  This is life as it is on this earth that lies under a curse.
​
Peter responds to the objection by pointing to Noah.  God clearly announced His intention that the earth should not continue in an endless cycle.  There will be a judgment day.  And the heavens and the earth will be renewed to an entirely different kind of existence.
Because of this, Ecclesiastes can end by saying Fear God and keep His commandments…for God will bring every deed into judgment (Eccl 12:13-14).  Don’t be fooled by appearances; things won’t go on this way forever.  Believers are to prepare for the Judgment Seat of Christ where their works will be evaluated and appropriately rewarded (2 Cor 5:10).  But Ecclesiastes makes this point by first giving due weight to appearances and by pointing out the futility of looking for fulfillment short of the new heaven and the new earth.
 
Get off the weary go-round.  Get on track with Christ.
 

​LIFE UNDER THE SUN
An Introduction to the Futility of Life on Earth
Ecclesiastes 1:1-3

Philippe R Sterling
 
The Big Question: What’s it all about? (v 3)

Some years ago, a popular song by Dionne Warwick asked:

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?

October 6, 1993 was a significant date in the history of professional basketball.  On that autumn day the man who was the game’s finest player called a press conference to announce his retirement at age thirty, after winning an unprecedented third world championship and seven consecutive NBA scoring titles.  There was no injury, no indictment or shocking personal revelations, no contract dispute.

As he faced the assembled crowd of media representatives with their cameras, microphones, and notepads, Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan told them the game offered no more challenges to motivate him.  Having accomplished everything basketball could ask of him he simply felt it was time to call it a career.  This young man, whose God-given athletic ability revolutionized the way the game was played, retired with more money than he could possibly spend in a single lifetime, and at an age when many are only beginning to taste career success.  Including endorsements that far exceeded his salary, his last season as a player netted him $40 million.

Why would a man with everything under the sun walk away?  Jordan, whose father was murdered earlier in the year, hinted at the answer as he told reporters, “One thing about my father’s death was that it reinforced how [life] can be taken away from you anytime.”  The “stuff” of life lost its meaning for Jordan when he considered the fragile transience of it.  Basketball – and the fame, money, and excitement of being better at it than anyone else – no longer was enough for this superstar.  And as he looked ahead to the prospect of another NBA season, it all seemed empty.[i]

Years ago, a man with more power, money, and fame than Michael Jordan also asked, “What’s it all about?” and chronicled his search for the answer in a book.  His name was Solomon and his book is called Ecclesiastes.

What advantage does man have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?
 
The Phrase “Under the sun”

“Under the sun” means “in this world” (5:13-20; 6:12; 8:14-15; 9:3-6, 9).  And, specifically, “in this cursed world” (1:14-15).

Background:  The Fall and the Curse

God created everything “very good” (Gen 1:31).  Adam and Eve fell from the perfect state in which they were created, bringing death (Gen 2:16, 17; 3:1-13, 19).  Because of man’s fall, God cursed mankind (3:16, 17-19).  And God cursed His creation (3:17-19).

The Short Answer: Zilch (v 2)

Vanity of vanities,” says the preacher,
“Vanity of vanities!  All is vanity.”
 
Ecclesiastes begins and ends with this statement (1:2 and 12:8).  The Hebrew word for “vanity” is used 37 times in the book.  Let’s get acquainted with this word.  Today we connect vanity with egotism – with that man or woman who is overly self-involved.  Vanity is based on an illusion.  A woman once told her pastor, “When I confess my sins, I confess the sin of vanity most of all.  Every morning I admire myself in the mirror for half an hour.”  To this the pastor replied, “My dear, that isn’t the sin of vanity.  You’re suffering from the sin of imagination.”

The meaning of the Hebrew word hebel which is translated “vanity,” “futility,” or “meaningless.”

1.  Breath – a thing that doesn’t last; that which is insubstantial, fleeting (Job 7:16; Psalm 39:4-11; 62:9; 144:4).  Everything is vanity because life is a breath; we don’t live long enough to see the fruit of our labor.

2.  Futility – Something pointless or vain (Job 9:29; Isaiah 49:4).  Everything is vanity because life is frustrating, and futile.  We lack the power to accomplish what we want.

3.  Vanity is when we have added everything up and the sum is zero, nothing, emptiness, meaninglessness.

As Solomon uses the word, he refers to emptiness, to that which is transitory and has little meaning.  In this case, vanity is akin to a vapor that lasts only a moment before quickly vanishing, leaving nothing behind.

The implication of the expression “vanity of vanities”

1.  What does this expression remind you of?  What was the innermost part of the tabernacle?  What was the innermost part of the temple?

2.  The Holy of Holies was a symbolic copy of the throne room of God in the third heaven (Heb 9:23-24).  It was not of this creation (Heb 9:11).

3.  By contrast everything “under the sun” (i.e., of this creation) is the opposite of heaven – vanity of vanities.  There is no profit in labor under the sun.  Labor is a creation ordinance.  But labor fell under the curse and is therefore subject to frustration and futility.  Our hope lies out from under the sun.  We need nothing less than a new life and a new heaven and a new earth.

Four hundred years ago, a poet answered the question this way,

“Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.” 
Macbeth, act 5, scene 5, William Shakespeare

More recently the rock band Kansas answered the question in a song:

I close my eyes, only for a moment, and 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
[Now] Don't hang on, nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky  It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy.
Dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind
Dust in the wind, everything is dust in the wind.

The Seeking Inquirer: Solomon (v 1)

The words of the Preacher,
the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

The traditional name of this book, Ecclesiastes, and the author’s title “Preacher” both come from the same Hebrew term: qohelet.  This term described one who convened an assembly of wise men and served as its principal spokesman.  The author chose this as his pen name for Ecclesiastes.  Perhaps instead of the “Preacher,” we might call him the “Searcher.”

The author of Ecclesiastes was Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel.  On his deathbed, David ordered that Solomon be anointed king of Israel and advised his son to walk in God’s ways (1 Kings 2:2-4).

Solomon began well.  He had a godly heritage.  He was blessed by God in a way that no one else has ever been.  Only one person on this planet has ever been given a blank check by someone who could deliver, regardless of the sum.  God said to Solomon, “name it and claim it.”  Solomon chose – and his choice pleased God.  He asked God for wisdom and he also received riches and honor in tremendous amount (1 Kings 3:4-13).   His future was bright. 

A spider dropped a single strand down from the top rafter of an old barn and began to weave his web.  Days, weeks, and months went by, and the web grew.  It regularly provided the spider food as flies, mosquitoes, and other small insects were caught in its elaborate maze.  The spider built his web larger and larger until it became the envy of all the other spiders.  One day this productive spider was traveling across his beautifully woven web and noticed a single strand going up into the darkness of the rafters.  I wonder why this is here? he thought.  It doesn’t serve to catch me any dinner.  And saying that, the spider climbed as high as he could and severed the single strand that was his lifeline.  When he did, the entire web slowly began to tumble to the floor of the barn, taking the spider with it.  This is what happened to Solomon.[ii]

As a young man, Solomon asked God for the gift of wisdom that would make him a good king, and God answered his prayer. Somewhere along the way, however, Solomon cut the strand that kept him in fellowship with God and decided to find meaning and satisfaction in a life lived under the sun.  For example, against the command of God, he took for himself a harem of foreign women that turned his heart towards other gods (1 Kings 11:1-13). 

As an old man Solomon may have recognized his folly and wrote Ecclesiastes.  In Ecclesiastes, this man of wisdom and prestige with every talent and asset possible, said that life under the sun was empty.  It takes forty minutes or so to read the book aloud – about the length of a sermon – but it is not a sermon.  It is a testimony.  Solomon observed, “I went down every path.  I exhausted every extreme in life, because I had the talent and the means and the position to do so.  And now that I am old, I see that most of it was just so much chasing after the wind.  Life is meaningless.”

Jack Higgins, author of such bestsellers as The Eagle Has Landed, says the one thing he knows now that he wishes he’d known as a small boy is this: “When you get to the top, there’s nothing there.”  Solomon climbed the same ladder and made the same discovery.  There’s nothing here; all is vanity.
 
Jewish statesman Abba Eban tells of meeting Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest.  Eban asked Hillary precisely what he felt when he reached the peak.  Hillary replied that there was an immediate rush of triumphal ecstasy – for a fleeting moment.  It was quickly replaced by a sense of desolation.  Where could he go from here?  What mountains remained to climb?

Another Everest climber expressed a similar sentiment.  Jon Krakauer described his feelings on May 10, 1996, as he reached the highest point on earth: “Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal.  I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet…I’d been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months.  But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Everest, I just couldn’t summon the energy to care…I snapped four quick photos…then turned and headed down.  My watch read 1:17 p.m.  All told, I’d spent less than five minutes on the roof of the world.”

Not only is it empty at the top, but it’s empty at the bottom – and everywhere in between.  Life, in and of itself, is a cluster of cells dividing and redividing; nature recycling its rituals ad infinitum.  Emptiness.  Vanity.  As Peggy Lee used to sing, “Is that all there is?”

Conclusion

Romans 8:20 is the New Testament commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes.  It states plainly that “vanity” exists, and also that it has a beginning and an end.  Before its beginning and beyond its end is a creation without vanity.  God subjected creation to vanity when mankind fell (Gen 3).  God will one day liberate creation to freedom from vanity (Rev 22).

The person under the sun needs an existence that is not under the sun.  This is available through the resurrected Jesus.  Without the resurrection our faith is “vain” (the Greek word for vain translates the Hebrew word hebel) because it is for this life only, i.e., life under the sun (1 Cor 15:17-19, 58).  We can reign in life through the resurrection (Romans 5:12, 17).  We are new creatures in a new creation, no longer under the old sun (2 Cor 5:17).  Yet we await the final consummation of that new creation (Rev. 21:1).  The final resurrection will redeem creation and our bodies from vanity (Rom 8:18-23).  And we shall discover that our labor was not in vain (Phil 2:16; Rev. 14:13).

Do not seek meaning under the sun.
Find life and eternal purpose in the Son.
 
[i] The account of Michael Jordan’s retirement from basketball is shortened and adapted from the book Been There, Done That, Now What? by Ed Young Sr.

[ii] The fable of the spider as an illustration of what Solomon may have done is also adapted from Ed’s Young’s book.

PSALM 139: THE SEARCHER OF HEARTS
Search Me, Know Me, Lead Me

Philippe R. Sterling
 
Psalm 139 is one of the best-known psalms. One of its statements, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” is inscribed on T-shirts and social media memes.

The typical usage of the psalm can mask its major statements on the nature of God and His relationship to us. We will consider these statements, with special attention to three of the classical attributes of God: omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, and their relevance to us. We’ll ascertain that an all-knowing, ever-present, all-powerful God cares for us and we can pray for His righteous rule in the world and in our lives.

Psalm 139 is artistically structured. It has two parts and four stanzas. The first part has three stanzas that address three themes: God’s knowledge of us, God’s presence with us, and God’s making of us. The second part has one stanza that expresses a personal prayer for the removal of wickedness in one’s surrounding and in one’s self. Each of the four stanzas have two sections, one of four verses, and one of two verses. The first section focuses on a revelation about God and the second on a response to that revelation.

Two statements, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me” (v 1) and “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (v 23), enclose the psalm as bookends. They provide a key for understanding and applying the psalm.
 
GOD KNOWS US FULLY
 
Psalm 139:1-6
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
 
5 You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
 
God knows and evaluates every aspect of our lives.

Issue: Should we be concerned about how much is known about us? Social Media and Internet Companies know a great deal about their users. Some governments such as China track their citizens behavior and give them social credit scores which significantly impact their lives.

Verse 1: Summary Statement – Yahweh has searched us and known us.

The psalmist refers to Yahweh, “I AM,” the NAME by which God made Himself known to Moses and Israel (Ex 3:13, 14). It is also the NAME which Jesus implicitly used to describe Himself (John 6:35; 8:12, 58; 10:7, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1; 18:4-5).

The psalmist states, “You have searched me and known me.” Yahweh has probed everything about him and knows him completely.  God knows us thoroughly.

Verses 2-4: Yahweh knows and scrutinizes every aspect of our lives.

Yahweh has full knowledge of our movements. He knows when I sit down and when I rise up.

Yahweh has full knowledge of our thoughts. He understands my thought from afar.

Yahweh has full knowledge of our activity and rest. He scrutinizes my path and my lying down.

Yahweh has full knowledge of all of our ways. He is intimately acquainted with all my ways.

Yahweh has full knowledge of our speech beforehand. Even before there’s a word on my tongue, God knows it.

Verses 5-6: Conclusion – God’s comprehensive knowledge of us can seem overwhelming, restrictive, and incomprehensible.

God’s pervasive knowledge can seem restrictive and overwhelming. The psalmist feels hedged in. God knows all of us thoroughly and comprehensively at all times. Are you distressed in being so completely known?

It’s not simply that God knows everything – God knows me.

God’s pervasive knowledge is incomprehensible. It is too wonderful for me. It is too high for me to attain.

GOD IS ALWAYS WITH US
 
Psalm 139:7-12
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
 
God is present everywhere we go.
 
Verse 7: Summary Statement – We’re unable to escape God’s presence.

Verse 8-10: God is present everywhere in the universe.

God not only knows us but we cannot go anywhere from His presence. The psalmist shows the comprehensiveness of this in several exploratory paired statements.

God is in the height of heaven. If I ascend there, He is there.

God is in the depth of the netherworld. If I lie down in the realm of the dead, He is there.

God is at the far East. If I fly off to the East, He is there.

God is at the far West. If I travel to the remotest part of the Western Ocean, He is there.

Such a presence of God with us can have a consoling application. God can lead us and hold us wherever we go.

Verses 10-12: Conclusion – Nothing hinders the protective presence of God.

The psalmist fears being overwhelmed by darkness and unaided by light.

The psalmist acknowledges that God is impervious to darkness and His light overwhelms darkness.

It’s not simply that God is everywhere – He is everywhere with me.

GOD LOVINGLY MADE US
 
Psalm 139:13-18
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
 
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
 
God lovingly oversaw our development and planned out our lives from the womb.

Verse 13: Summary Statement – God formed us in the womb.

Verses 14-16: God oversaw our development in accordance with His plan for us.

God made us. Though David's knowledge of embryology was limited compared to ours today, he is awed by the fact that God fashioned him within his mother's womb (cf. Job 9:10-12). He is also awed by the fact that God has fashioned the days of his life.

The psalmist looks back to the past of his creation and looks forward to the future God has appointed for him. God has counted every day of his life and written them in His book.

Two Issues:  This portion of the psalm is relevant to the ethical issues of abortion and euthanasia.

Abortion – “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb (v 13).

Euthanasia – “And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (v 16).

Verses 17-18: Conclusion – God’s loving intention for us are precious and innumerable.

After reflecting on God’s fashioning of his body and his future, the psalmist bursts into a doxology, an expression of confident praise to God. He values God’s thoughts towards him. He is overwhelmed by the vastness of them. He takes comfort in God’s abiding care.

It’s not simply that God created everything – He created me.

WE ARE LOYAL TO GOD
 
Psalm 139:19-24
19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
20 For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
 
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
 
We will find comfort and security in God when we are loyal to Him.
 
The final stanza of the psalm seems out of place.  It is made up of an outcry (imprecation) against the wicked, an affirmation (commitment) of loyalty to God, and a request (petition) for the recognition and removal of wickedness from within oneself.

The psalmist states that he hates those who hate God. The word translated “hate” means “to reject.” This is opposed to the word for “love” which means “to choose.” The wicked first rejected God and made themselves God’s enemies.

The psalmist rejects those who reject God. If we are loyal to God, we cannot have fellowship or close friendships with God’s avowed enemies (2 Cor 6:14-18).

The words are those of someone who wants to see God honored in every way. Such a concern leads to a desire that all God's enemies are abolished, and that everything within us that is not honoring to God also be abolished. Ask God to deal with the evil of others and your own potential for evil.

The everlasting way is God’s way. It is the righteous way He has set out for His people. God calls believers to walk with Him in faith and righteousness (Gen 17:1; Eph 4:1; Heb 11:6).

Our walk with God is a walk in the light (1 John 1:5–2:2). The light reveals whatever is not right within us. We acknowledge the sins the light reveals. The blood of Jesus cleanses us. We maintain fellowship with God. God leads us in the everlasting way.
 
Conclusion

Psalm 139 is theological and practical. It speaks of the attributes of God in ways that impacted the psalmist and impacts us.

God’s attributes are beyond our full comprehension. God’s knowledge is too high for us to reach (v 6). God’s thoughts are too many to count (vv 17, 18).

Praise God for His knowledge of all our ways.

Praise God for His presence, wherever we are.

Praise God that He has marvelously made us and planned all of our days.

Pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth.

Pray for God to search you, know you, and lead you in righteousness.
 
O God, search me, know me, lead me.
 

THE PSALM OF THE THUNDERSTORM
What a Thunderstorm Teaches Us about God
Psalm 29
 
Beethoven Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” fourth movement, in F Minor, depicts a violent thunderstorm with painstaking realism, building from just a few drops of rain to a great climax with thunder, lightning, high winds, and sheets of rain. The storm eventually passes, with an occasional peal of thunder still heard in the distance.
 
Psalm 29 deals with the power of God revealed in nature and available to His people, if they respond with faith. A thunderstorm reveals the power and majesty of Yahweh. He sits enthroned over all forces of nature. He gives power and peace to His people.
 
Scientists calculate that a typical thunderstorm (not even the kind of great or major storm described here by David) releases around 10,000,000 kilowatt-hours of energy – the equivalent of a 20-kiloton nuclear warhead. Storms still are examples of the massive power of God.
 
Seeing and hearing a violent storm is an awesome experience that quite naturally turns one’s thoughts to God.
 
Summary
 
Having witnessed the awesome manifestations of the LORD’s power in a terrifying thunderstorm over Lebanon and Syria, the psalmist calls on the angelic hosts to glorify Him who sovereignly rules over nature, displaying His ability to give power and peace to His people.
 
Exposition
 
Call to Praise: The psalmist calls upon the angelic hosts to glorify Yahweh in holy array (1-2). 

The first two verses of the psalm are a call to praise. It is a call to attribute glory to Yahweh which is befitting His character and reputation. The call is put in the form of climactic parallelism. Three lines are similar, but the fourth changes to make the important qualification: Ascribe to the LORD…, ascribe to the LORD…, ascribe to the LORD…, worship the LORD in holy array.”

The call is addressed to the “sons of the mighty.”  The expression probably means “sons of God.” In the Old Testament these would be angels (Job 2:1).
 
The call is to give God the praise that is fitting for His “name,” or, His nature. Everything about the nature of God deserves praise, especially His strength, His supernatural power. In this psalm that strength will be experienced in His sovereign control of nature.
  
The psalmist was calling to the hosts of heaven to praise the name of Yahweh. They were to worship Yahweh in “holy array.”
 
The language is descriptive of priests who were to array themselves for service in the sanctuary. The priests were to have on pure white linens to signify holiness and purity to Yahweh.
 
In the heavenly courts those worshipping Yahweh, both saints and angels, are describes as arrayed with priestly clothes for their unending service to Yahweh. The point is that while praise is appropriate for Yahweh, it has to be from those who are arrayed in the holiness that is necessary for the heavenly sanctuary.
 
God deserves to be praised by His servants for His majestic power.
 
Cause for Praise: The psalmist describes Yahweh’s all-powerful control of nature in a terrifying storm over Lebanon and Syria (3-9). 

The psalm now gives the reason for the call to praise: Yahweh’s all-powerful control of nature by His word.
 
The psalmist describes a tremendous thunderstorm that sweeps across the land. He traces its path and development, and each step of the way attributes it to the voice of Yahweh. The voice occurs seven times in the passage. It compares to Rev 10:3 with its seven thunders.
 
The section breaks down into three parts: the rise of the storm in its fury (3-4), the full force of the storm (5-7), and then the passing of the storm off into the desert (8-9).
 
He attributes the rise of the storm to the “voice of Yahweh” (3-4). 
 
This section of the psalm begins with the statement the “the voice of the LORD is upon the waters.” The voice was commanding the elements of nature, causing the storm by His word to develop and then die out. Yahweh spoke the thunderstorm into existence.
 
The path of the storm is from the waters inland to Lebanon and Syria. This means that “waters” is a reference to the Mediterranean Sea, the Great Sea.
  
Verse 4 affirms the might and majesty of the voice of Yahweh.
 
God brings up the storm by His majestic word.

He witnesses the “voice of Yahweh” in the height of the storm (5-7).
   
The voice of Yahweh now breaks the cedars in pieces. These are the pride of Lebanon, but the storm that Yahweh caused overpowers them, uprooting and breaking them with the fierce winds that drive the storm.
  
Verse 6 then describes an earthquake in poetic form: “He makes them skip” provides the comparison for the shifting ground. Lebanon and Sirion are two mountains or mountain regions north of Israel. Mt. Sirion refers to Mt. Hermon (Deut 3:9).
  
Verse 7 is a poetic description of forked lightning: “The voice of the LORD splits (hews out) flames of fire.
 
God’s powerful word causes the storm to rage.
 
He attributes the passing of the storm to the “voice of Yahweh” (8-9). 

Next, the storm passes over the mountains into the eastern wilderness where it dies out. The location is “the wilderness of Kadesh.” The name does not refer to Kadesh Barnea in the south. This is Kadesh on the Orontes River in the north.
  
The voice of Yahweh shakes the wilderness. “Wilderness” refers to the flora and fauna in the wilderness.
  
The last verse of this section of the psalm records the effects of the storm.
  
The first is that it causes the deer to give birth prematurely.
  
The second is that it strips the forests bare.
  
Third, the heavenly hosts praise God. Everything in His temple says, “Glory!” “Temple” here probably refers to the heavenly temple. To glorify God means to extend His reputation by praise. This means declaring that He alone is the sovereign, Lord of all nature.
 
God’s powerful word causes the storm to subside.
 
God is to be praised for His control of nature by His powerful word.
 
Conclusion: The psalmist declares that Yahweh rules over all nature and is able to share His strength and peace with His people (10-11).  
 
In addition to the description of Yahweh’s demonstrating His power and glory in Canaan, the psalmist recalls the greatest demonstration of it—the flood in Genesis (Gen 6—8).
  
The next colon expands the idea from the flood to all time: “Yes, the LORD sits (enthroned) as King forever.”
 
The psalmist envisions Yahweh’s sovereign control over all nature, then, in a universal event, and now in a localized storm.
 
God reigns over all nature.
 
Drawing upon the description of the movement of the storm, the psalmist now expresses the lesson for the people of God. Because Yahweh displays His strength by bringing up a fierce storm, He is to be praised for His strength, and He grants that strength to His people as well.
  
The power of God is available as a resource for the people of God to overcome the world.
  
And then, just as Yahweh can command the storm to die out in the wilderness, He can give peace to His people. There is no fury in life that He cannot calm.
 
God meets the needs of His people.
 
God is able to bless His people with power and with peace.
 
In the New Testament we read of Jesus calming the storm and walking on water. Jesus used such acts to authenticate His claim to be the promised Christ. To Him believers look for power and peace throughout their lives.

OVERCOMERS

Philippe R. Sterling

Popular Christian culture refers to overcomers. Mandisa recorded a hit song called Overcomers. Priscilla Shirer, daughter of Tony Evans, has produced and starred in a series of commercially successful movies with the general title of Overcomers. Some churches use the word overcomer in their names.

Are you an overcomer? Who are the overcomers and what are the promises made to them?

Who Are the Overcomers?

The Apostle John refers to overcomers in 1 John and in Revelation.

John wrote of overcoming the world three times in 1 John 5:4-5, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

This could be a positional kind of overcoming. When we believe in Christ, we overcome the world which was trying to keep us from believing in Him. This kind of overcoming would apply to all believers who are positionally in Christ.

It could also be an experiential kind of overcoming. The reference to faith would be to living by faith. When a believer lives by faith, he overcomes the world in his experience.

John wrote about overcomers eight times in Revelation. There are four primary views concerning these overcomers.

There is the all-believers view. All believers become overcomers when they believe in Christ. This position emphasizes faith in Jesus rather than faithfulness to Him. All believers receive the promises made to overcomers.

There is the loss of salvation view. Jesus exhorted believers to overcome so as not to lose eternal life and experience the second death which is the lake of fire.

There is the perseverance view. All genuine believers persevere and overcome by living godly and obedient lives. Overcoming proves the genuineness of believing.

There is the eternal reward view. The overcomer in Revelation is the believer who perseveres and remains faithful to Jesus until death or until His return. Jesus will reward the overcomer in addition to the free gift of eternal life.

Believers encounter conflicts and trials of many kinds and degrees. Jesus promises rewards to believers who overcome. The context of the overcomers in Revelation supports the eternal reward view.

Jesus specified specific instances of overcoming. To the church at Ephesus overcoming meant to return to their first love for Jesus. To the church at Smyrna overcoming meant to be faithful in persecution even to death. To the church at Pergamum overcoming meant to resist immorality and idolatry. To the church at Thyatira overcoming meant not to tolerate immorality and idolatry. To the church at Sardis overcoming meant to be watchful and hold fast to what they had received. To the church at Philadelphia overcoming meant to persevere in faithful obedience to the end. To the church at Laodicea overcoming meant to turn from spiritual apathy and fellowship with Christ.

What Are the Promises Made to Overcomers?

Letter to Ephesus

To the believer who listens and overcomes, Jesus promises that he will eat of the Tree of Life which is in the Paradise of God. Revelation 22:2 states that the tree of life will bear twelve kinds of fruit. Perhaps each fruit will impart a special quality of spiritual life to the eater. Access to the tree of life will be limited (22:14). For example, a believer who adds to or takes away from the words of the prophecy of Revelation will forfeit the right to eat of the fruit of the tree (22:19).

Letter to Smyrna

Jesus promised that the one who overcame would in no way be hurt by the second death. The second death is judgment at the Great White Throne, the lake of fire, separation from God forever (Rev 20:14). Jesus employed a figure of speech called litotes. Litotes is an assertion that understates the reality referenced. Jesus was saying that He would abundantly repay the faithful believer for the sacrifice he made.  His eternal experience would be as far beyond the reach of the second death as can be imagined.

The first death is not the end. There is another life to come. The glories of the life to come contrast sharply with the dark shadows of persecution and death.

Letter to Pergamum

To those who overcome, Jesus promised three things: 1) hidden manna, 2) a white stone, 3) a new name. 

Jesus does not want believers to be lured away from fellowship with Him. If we refuse to be drawn away by the enticements of false religions, Jesus promises “hidden manna,” special fellowship meals with Him.

Jesus will also give us a white stone inscribed with a new name. Such a white stone with one’s name on it was the basis for admission to special events. It was also a custom to reward victors at the games with such a token enabling them to gain admission to a special feast. The “hidden manna,” the other part of the reward, also suggests a reference to the Messianic feast. The white stone is, then, a personalized tessara, which would serve as a token of admission to this great future feast. The giving of the white stone to the believer indicates that he has been favored by Jesus. The new name might reflect the proven character of the overcoming believer.

Letter to Thyatira

The overcomer is the one who keeps the work of Jesus to the end. Jesus promised the overcomer the privilege of ruling with Him over the nations and sharing in His royal splendor.

Jesus is going to come and rule the nations. Some believers of the church age will rule with Him. Not all believers will have this opportunity. Only those who have earned that right by being faithful to the end of their lives or until His coming for them at the rapture. Jesus will reward the faithful by making them rulers with Him.

Jesus will give the overcoming believer the morning star. He says in Revelation 22:16 that He is “The Bright and Morning Star.” This may refer to His royal splendor. Thus He may be promising the overcomer a share in His royal splendor. All believers will be glorified, but not all will share the royal splendor of Jesus and the privilege of reigning with Him.

Letter to Sardis

Jesus promised the overcomer three things.

First, the overcomer will walk with Christ in white garments, the symbol of righteous acts (Rev 19:8). This is not the imputed righteousness of Christ given to all who believe in Him for everlasting life. This is an added reward reflected in royal clothing. The word “white” can have the meaning of “bright and shining.” Like a bright and shining diamond the garments will have many colors and hues reflecting the overcomer’s devotion and service to Christ in this life.

Second, Jesus will keep the overcomer’s name in the Book of Life. The overcomer in Revelation is the believer who is faithful until physical death or the Rapture. The “name” can refer to a person’s self or to a person’s reputation. The immediate context indicates the meaning. In Rev 13:8, 17:8, and 21:27 “name” refers to a person’s self. In this context, the removal of the “name” from the Book of Life may be the removal of a commendable reputation. The overcomer can gain a new name (2:17; 3:12), a commendable reputation or title which conforms to his faithfulness.

The program at my Dallas Theological Seminary’s graduation ceremony contained the names of all the graduates. Besides some of the names was one star, two stars, or three stars, representing graduating with honor, high honor, or highest honor.

In addition, Jesus may also have used the figure of speech litotes, an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary, such as saying “you won’t be sorry” and meaning “you’ll be glad.” By saying that He would not remove the overcomer’s name from the Book of Life, Jesus meant that He would highlight the overcomer’s commendable reputation.

The third promise of Jesus clarified this, “I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Jesus will declare the overcomer’s commendable reputation before the Father and His angels. If we are faithful to the end, Jesus will tell the story of our faithfulness and it will reverberate mouth to mouth throughout all future ages.

The Letter to Philadelphia

Most of this letter is composed of promises. Jesus went on to promise several eternal rewards to the overcoming believer.

The overcoming believer will be “a pillar in the temple of My God.” We know from Rev 21:22 that in the New Jerusalem “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” This reward could involve a special nearness to God the Father and God the Son and a prominent supportive position in the administration of the New Jerusalem and of the new creation. The following phrase “he shall go out no more” could indicate the permanence of the position.

The symbolism would be meaningful to people who lived in constant danger of earthquakes. These pillars will never be shaken. There will never be a need to flee the city.

Ancient cities often honored great leaders by erecting pillars with their names inscribed on them. God’s pillars are not made of stone. His pillars are faithful people who bear His name.

Jesus will write three names upon the overcoming believer: the name of the Father, the name of the New Jerusalem, and His name. God’s name reveals facets of His person. There are facets of the person of the Father and of the Son which have not yet been made known, but which Jesus will make known to the overcomer. We may wonder why the overcomer would also carry the name of the New Jerusalem. Some are given the “key to a city” to honor their connection to that city. Having the name of the New Jerusalem would reflect the overcomer’s special connection to the city.

The Letter to Laodicea

Jesus promised the overcomer a seat with Him on His throne. Among the many believers of this age, only overcomers will be granted that honor.  Not everyone will have a crown and sit on a throne with Christ.

Every believer will have the righteousness of Christ.  We will all have a glorified body.  We will all be citizens of the kingdom. There might be a few other things which we will all have in common. But after that, for most of the things which we will have, there will be great differences in the measure of glory, and of capacity to serve, and of intimacy with the Lord.

Our relationship with the Lord will be different for each one of us.  There are some who will have a close physical proximity to the King of kings. They will have access to His immediate physical presence in a way that others will not. It will not be based on how famous we were in this age or how big our ministry was.  It will be based on our faithfulness and love for Him.

The overcomer rewards include the type of the dwelling place we will have in the New Jerusalem, the garments we will wear, the food we will enjoy, the intimacy we will experience with Christ, the status and authority we will have. These privileges will not be solely for our benefit. We have been created to glorify God by loving and serving others.  These privileges will enable overcomers to do just that in the millennial kingdom and in the new heaven and the new earth.

Revelation 21:7 – The Final Overcomer Promise

God makes a final promise to the overcomer, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” “My son” is singular, but it applies to all overcomers. God adopts overcomers as “sons.” All the rights and privileges of sonship come with this promise. The overcomer will rule with God over the new heaven and new earth as God’s son. All believers are children of God by faith alone, but only overcomers are sons of God appointed to rule over the new creation as a reward for their faithful service.

Jesus linked a believer’s overcoming with His overcoming in Rev 3:21. Jesus overcame by finishing the work the Father gave Him to do (John 4:34; 17:4). Let us follow His example and become overcomers by finishing the work God has given us to do.