Ecclesiastes Chapter One, Assembly Line

Ecclesiastes 1:4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.

There are a few sayings in our day and age that catch a little of the spirit of what the preacher relates. One is, “All things old are new again.” The other is, “all news is old news happening to new people.” Rest assured, the preacher deals with the concept of a new generation supplanting the former, and the thoughts and feelings attached to such a cyclical ceremony.

But for now, we focus on the sheer fact of reality. Mankind is destined for death. Among the numerous things Scripture is clear about, this is one of them. Sin was a choice to violate God’s perfect command and replace it with our own. Sin’s entrance morally and spiritually ruined man, killing us in the process by separating us from the Creator. Man is not created to die; man dies because it is a tacit reminder that sin has separated us from the purpose God created our race for. Note how the preacher does not necessarily state that the coming generation replaces us, as though we are parts of a machine that can be changed out when they wear down. No, humanity, each individual, is unique in our purpose on this earth. Far be it from me to tell anyone what that purpose is, apart from believing in Jesus Christ for eternal life. But I can tell you that the Holy Spirit makes it abundantly clear that God has work for each of us that is uniquely ours, Ephesians 2:10. No one may replace us in this capacity, because said work was appointed for us. Mine is appointed for me; yours is appointed for you. No one else can do what God intended for you.

However, if you analyze the preacher’s rhetoric, one may almost come to the conclusion that he’s depicting humanity as an assembly line. Down comes the newest and greatest model to grace the stage yet…until another, newer model follows and outshines it, ad infinitum. There is a certain and deliberate nihilism in this letter. And to be sure, that is the case here. At the end of the letter the preacher informs his readership: “The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars like well driven nails, given by one Shepherd,” Ecclesiastes 12:11. So, the seeming futility of life is presented in all of its glory for the reader to consider. One by one, the preacher will tread the various paths of human existence that we deem as different, but in reality are entirely alike, and reach the same outcome or conclusion. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death,” Proverbs 16:25. “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it,” Matthew 7:13.

The earth, as it were, does not abide forever. Remember that the preacher speaks from human perspective here, or, “under the sun.” The earth from man’s point of view seems eternal. We come and go across the world stage with hardly a thing changing cosmologically. But the patriarchs of yore believed entirely differently. Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth,” Joshua 23:14. David said the same to Solomon when his time to die drew near, 1 Kings 2:2. Aristotle (384-322 BC) taught an eternal earth in contrast to the Genesis account of how heaven (the terrestrial heavens or outer space) and earth were recently created by divine agency. As it stands now, modern Darwinian or Neo-Darwinian science estimates the age of the universe at around 14 billion years, while earth is 4.5 billion years old. From the finiteness of human estimation and perception, that number may nearly be the equivalent of eternity, since the typical human lives .000002% of that theoretical span of time.

Whether one agrees with Biblical accuracy for the age of the earth, or with the frequently altering pseudo-scientific method for determining universal and planetary age, both seem incredible and eternal from human perspective. Yet we know that the earth will not abide forever. But, “the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up,” 2 Peter 3:10. Darwinian evolution teaches the Big Bang Theory to explain the origin of existence. Christians may put that theory at the end of human and cosmological existence, since a Big Bang is certainly how creation will come crashing to an end, 2 Peter 3:12.  What the preacher was observing, however, was the durability of the stage humanity walked across. From Adam, Seth and the rest of the Antediluvians to Abraham, Moses and the Gentile powers; millions preceded the preacher, and millions more would follow him. There he was in his contemporaneous group, looking back at where humanity had been, and looking ahead to where humanity was going and he realized the brevity of his life on earth, however he chose to live it. Compared to the earth created to sustain Adam’s race, our lives were brief before another generation arose in his place.

One generation replacing the next can be the fortune or ruin of all that is left as a man’s legacy. Note in Exodus that we read, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph,” Exodus 1:8. It seems folly that the memory of Joseph’s person and exploits were what the writer refers to. Rather, he did not know Pharaoh’s trusted advisor and Israel’s helper personally. Whatever plans and purposes Joseph had were gone, just as the man was, and now the new Pharaoh would forge his own policies among his own people, regardless of how calculating, careful, or contrary former potentates had ruled. Likewise for Israel itself: “When all that generation (Joshua, Caleb, etc.) had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel,” Judges 2:10.

The best remedy helping the next generation be genuinely wise is this: “Train a child up in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,” Proverbs 22:6. David endeavored to secure this wisdom for Solomon, and Solomon, as is read in Proverbs, does likewise for his own son, Rehoboam, Proverbs 1:8, 10, etc. Of course the preacher knows that the earth is not eternal. The judgment of the Flood was a type of that which is to come, foretold by prophets both before and after the Flood occurred, Jude 15, Haggai 2:21, 22, Isaiah 65:17. But rather than water to cleanse, it will be fire to purge, and the supposedly eternal heaven and earth will be no more, replaced by a new one in which righteousness dwells.