Dead Ends

Dead Ends

We are working our way through the book of Ecclesiastes, so let's turn in our Bibles to chapter 2. If you aren't sure where it is, go to the middle of the Bible, Psalms, and then as you go right you'll come to Proverbs, and then Ecclesiastes.

In Sept. 1942, Viktor Frankl was arrested and transported to a Nazi Concentration Camp where he spent three years of his life. When he was released, he wrote a book about his experiences in the concentration camp and called it Man's Search for Meaning. He observed that the ones who survived the camp weren't necessarily the strongest or the healthiest people, rather, it was the ones who felt they had a reason to live. He wrote that the person who knows the "why" of his life will be able to bear almost any trial.The Library of Congress has Man's Search for Meaning listed as one of the most 10 influential books in US history.

Most of us, deep inside, have a longing for our lives to have meaning and purpose. We want to understand the "why" of our life. Animals don't ask those questions. Dogs don't ponder the meaning of their life. Cats definitely don't! Cows stand around all day doing nothing but eating grass, but, as far as we know, they never look up at the sky and think, "What's it all about? What is the meaning of my life?"'

But we do. We can try to submerge those questions, we can crowd them out with busy-ness, but in quiet moments or on a peaceful night as we gaze at the stars, there is a longing for our lives to have meaning. To be more than a momentary blip on the screen of history. Most of us would be horrified to find out that it really wouldn't have mattered if we had never been born. We long for there to be significance to our lives, but at the same time we wrestle with deep fears that there actually isn't any bigger meaning to our lives.

I think that most of us, consciously or unconsciously, search for meaning. There are different paths we can choose in our search. Maybe meaning comes from achieving a certain amount of success in life. Or maybe meaning comes from becoming famous, when our name is a household name. If everyone knows our name, certainly our life must have meaning. Or making a lot of money. Or driving the kind of car that turns heads. There's a commercial out now where a certain car drives down the street, and people stop what they're doing, bumping into each other, as they try to get a better view of this car. That commercial is selling more than a car. It's selling meaning: you could be the one sitting behind the wheel of that car, people would envy you, and your life would have meaning. We can search for meaning in adventure, finding ourselves, or helping a lot of people, or just helping ourselves. Some of us might give up on the search and settle for just existing, but Viktor Frankl was right, the search for meaning is an important part of our lives.

Solomon recognizes this search for meaning and he decides to conduct an experiment: he decides he is going to use the extraordinary wisdom God has gifted him with, and take the different paths that promise meaning to their end to see if they deliver what they promise. That is what Ecclesiastes is all about, Solomon's search for meaning in life. But there are two things we need to keep in mind about how Solomon approaches this question. The first is that he decides to examine this question from an earthbound perspective as if life on this earth was all there is. The key phrase he uses is "under the sun". That phrase isn't found anywhere else in the Bible but Solomon uses it 29 times in Ecclesiastes. Solomon asks, if we take God out of the picture and life after death out of the picture, and limit our search to this life alone, to just what happens "under the sun", can we find meaning and purpose to our lives?

The other thing we need to keep in mind is that Solomon isn't interested in how we might feel at given points in our life. On a great day you might feel like your life has all kinds of meaning - bursting with meaning. And on a terrible day you might feel like there's no meaning to life. But Solomon isn't interested in the snapshots of our feelings - he wants to press the question to its logical end point. He wants to take the paths to their destination and find out what's at the end of the road. He knows that we can be completely deceived about where our lives are headed. In Proverbs 14:12 he observed There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. Solomon realizes that we can be traveling through life thinking all is well and bam! The destination of the road we're on is utter disaster. This is really important to keep in mind because often roads that seem promising can end very, very badly. And roads that seem really rough can end really well. So he isn't concerned with snapshots along the journey, he wants to see the destination at the end of the journey. He travels the road to the end to see where the road takes him. And time after time, path after path, he discovers that, no matter what they promise, they are all dead ends. In chapter two he travels the path of pleasure. Let's work our way through this chapter a little at a time.

1. The path of pleasure

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. Eccles. 2:1

Solomon is going to take the most obvious route to happiness: pleasure. Self-indulgence. It's natural to think that if we could have everything we want, we'd be happy, our lives would feel fulfilled, we'd be satisfied. Imagine with me for a moment, what if you could have whatever you wanted to have, go wherever you wanted to go, and do whatever you wanted to do? Solomon was able to do just that. The world was his oyster. He was rich, powerful, and famous and he denied himself nothing that he wanted. He gave himself permission to experience every pleasure his heart could want.

The first path he takes is the party scene. What if life could be one long party? “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” ³ I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. Vs. 2-3

Solomon isn't coming down on all laughter and humor. In fact, in Prov. 17:22 he writes that a cheerful heart is good medicine. There is a kind of laughter that's good for our hearts. But here he's talking about the kind of rowdy laughter that tries to drown sadness and emptiness in dark humor, uproarious living, and raucous silliness. He became a party animal to see if some kind of lasting meaning is hidden in the wild life.

This kind of party spirit is still romanticized today. College kids gather at hotspots around the country and in other countries during winter and summer breaks to binge drink, throw caution to the wind and go crazy. Beer pong and fraternity ragers with jungle juice and black lights create an atmosphere where the crazier and wilder the better. Girls gone wild sounds a whole lot cooler than "girls being cautious".

Rachael was a 19 year old freshman at her first college party, and it would be her last day on earth. She fell down stairs and hit her head on the basement cement. Her friends carried her to the couch where they watched her all night, assuming that she was sleeping, but her brain was bleeding internally. By the time they called for an ambulance, it was too late. That's a tragic snapshot in the life a precious girl and her broken hearted family, but many college kids get too drunk and it just becomes one of the funny college stories told when they get older. If we just look at snapshots, the paths seem to lead to very different destinations, but do they really?

Solomon isn't looking at snapshots, or how people feel in the moment, he takes it all to the end of the road. So even while he's living crazy and getting drunk, a part of him is objectively standing there with a clipboard taking notes. Even when he was out of control, he was in control. His mind was still guiding him with wisdom. And in the end, he saw that living for fun and laughs is a dead end. It leads nowhere, whether your path ends tragically at your first party, or you live to be 103 and had fun all your life. In the end it is all meaningless and ends in emptiness. And so Solomon turns to building and enterprise for meaning (still on the path of pleasure):

⁴ I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. ⁵ I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. ⁶ I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. Vv. 4-6

He tries to find meaning in erecting monuments that would carry his name. He built a temple so glorious that after it was destroyed and a second temple erected those old enough to remember the splendor of Solomon's temple were hugely disappointed. Then he went on to build houses and gardens and parks and reservoirs. He planted vineyards and planted great arboretums all for the glory of his name.

We know that Donald Trump is known for buildings that carry his name, but I wonder how many of us know just how many buildings he has built. There are 8 Trump Towers around the world - from NY city to Mumbai to Manila. There are 7 Trump International Hotels from Chicago to Honolulu to Washington DC. There are 4 Trump Plazas. And 9 other Trump buildings. And there are 17 golf courses nationally and internationally. Add to that one foundation and a state park. 47 properties and everyone of them is worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the least. Trump likes to build - he gets a kick out of it. And so did Solomon. He says in verse 10 that his heart took delight in all his labor.

Then Solomon turned his attention to the pleasure of having: 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. ⁸ I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem^[a]as well—the delights of a man’s heart. ⁹ I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

¹⁰ I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.

He sought fulfillment through acquiring whatever his heart wanted: servants and slaves and possessions and money. He had the top singers of his day to entertain him, and he mentions that he had a harem as well, which is an understatement. Solomon ended up with 700 wives and 300 concubines. That's a lot of wives and concubines! There was no discretion or restraint with Solomon. Any single, attractive woman Solomon saw, he married or took as his concubine. Literally, like very few people in history, Solomon was able to indulge every fantasy, every desire, every project, every possession, and every glory, that a man could have.

But in the end when it came to finding a lasting meaning for his life, all this partying and building and indulging came to a dead end. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had doneand what I had toiled to achieve,everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. Vs. 11

Pleasure promised a fulfilling life, but it didn't deliver. I have always thought that the Disney cartoon Pinocchio has one of the most insightful scenes in all of cartoon history (and much of movie history). Taken to the theme park Pleasure Island by a happy go lucky Coachman promising fun and pleasure Pinocchio and Lampwick find Pleasure Island to be a place where they can indulge their every sensual impulse. A voice calls out, "Right here, boys! Right here! Get your cake, pie, dill pickles, and ice cream! Eat all you can! Be a glutton! Stuff yourselves! It's all free, boys! Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!" They stumble on the dream life of eating junk food, brawling just for the fun of it, smoking, and destroying nice things. Could life get better than that? Pinocchio says, "it's a lot of fun being bad." All the while his grasshopper conscience is trying to find him to rescue him. Too late they discover that the consequence to indulging every desire is that they turn into jackasses who are then enslaved by the very people who promised to give them everything they want.

Solomon visits Pleasure Island, but he's not fooled, he's observing. And he sees beyond the surface attraction to the emptiness, despair, and foolishness that it leads to. Pleasure and self-indulgence is a dead end. As someone observed, The paradox of hedonism is the more you hunt for pleasure, the less of it you find.

2. Comparing the roads of wisdom and foolishness

Then Solomon goes on to compare the path of the wise to the path of the foolish and not surprisingly he realizes that wisdom makes for a better life than foolishness.

 I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
    just as light is better than darkness.
¹⁴ The wise have eyes in their heads,
    while the fool walks in the darkness; vv. 13-14

But then he realizes that while the road might be different, the destination of both the wise and foolish is the same (under the sun):

but I came to realize
    that the same fate overtakes them both.

¹⁵ Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶ For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die! Vv. 14b-16

Whether you live a wise life or a foolish life, whether you take the path of wisdom or the path of foolishness, the destination for both is the same: we all die and our lives are quickly forgotten. No matter what route we choose, it will be a dead end, literally. The life lived solely under the sun cannot find ultimate meaning, because every road is a dead end.

This drives Solomon to a deep despair. Listen to the state of hopelessness this left him in:

¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.¹⁹ And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰ So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. ²¹ For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.²² What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? ²³ All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless. Vv. 17-23

Death will one day pry his fingers loose from everything he worked for and lived for, and there is no certainty that his children will steward what he leaves them wisely. In fact, it's pretty certain that at some point, whether it's his children or his grandchildren, that those who didn't work for what they got will squander it. And in fact, his son Rehoboam did just that. In just a short time after becoming king he listened to the foolish young advisors instead of the older, wiser advisors, and because of their bad counsel he lost most of the kingdom and gave away all the riches Solomon had acquired to appease the Egyptian army. Within a few years of Solomon dying, almost everything he had achieved was lost. Everything, under the sun, is meaningless.

3. Added to our lives, not the center of our lives

But then Solomon inserts God into the picture and it changes everything:

²⁴ A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? ²⁶ To the person 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. Vv. 24-26

This might seem like a contradiction - what, now you're saying we should enjoy the things you just said were meaningless? Yes, but not as ends in themselves, but as gifts given to us by God. The God of the Bible isn't a kill joy. He's the One who gave us all the beauty of creation to enjoy. Food and drink and our work and everything is given to us by God to enjoy, but without Him, they can't bring us the fulfillment or meaning that we crave. But with Him, those things become very meaningful and very enjoyable.

And that's the key to this whole question of our life's meaning: God. With Him, even the smallest pleasures in life have meaning: laughter, a beautiful sunset, a child wide eyed with excitement on Christmas morning, getting up to go to work day after day. When we know these things are from the hand of God and do them with Him at the center, they take on the right proportion in our lives.

Jesus tells us not to live like those who don't have God, who pursue food and drink and clothing and shelter as if that's all life was about.

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matt. 6:32-33

We were meant to get enjoyment from a great steak (remember that cow standing there wondering whether his life had meaning? It does!) or for the vegetarians among us, we were meant to get enjoyment from a dish of curried coconut quinoa with greens and roasted cauliflower, our hearts were meant to be lifted by the music of a songbird outside our window, and from the company of good friends. But we can never derive meaning from them. They are to be added to our lives, not the center of our lives. As Viktor Frankl put it, happiness cannot be pursued, it must ensue as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself. The Bible tells us the only thing under the sun big enough to give our lives ultimate and forever meaning is the One who isn't under the sun, but above and beyond the sun. The Lord of Glory, the God of the universe, our Creator.

Do you ever struggle with questions of what your life is all about? Why are you here? What does your life mean, and what difference will it make you're gone? It's good to search for meaning, as Frankl observed, but Solomon teaches us that we aren't big enough to infuse meaning into our lives. Nothing under the sun is. If we live our lives under the sun, we will lose it all. Jesus said whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses it for Jesus will find it. This is an amazing, massive truth of the Bible: there is more life in living for Jesus, and even dying for Jesus, than in living for anything and everything else. Paul said, "for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Jesus came to give us life, and that more abundantly, by giving us the one thing our souls hunger and thirst for: a relationship with God. By dying on the cross, Jesus took away the conflict between us and God and restored a loving relationship. Our part is to trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Let's pray.