Ecclesiastes Chapter One, Old & Forgotten

Ecclesiastes 1:10 Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. [11] There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who come after.

Amazingly, these first 11 verses form a sort of primer for the weightier material the preacher is about to examine and give his insight on. One may say that this introduction was a sweeping overview of the issue (the purpose for man’s labor) and his rebuttal to an argument for purpose under the sun: there isn’t one. Not one that is universal and absolutely satisfies the craving eyes and ears of humanity.

Prayer Request For Joanne

Good evening all. I would like to bring this matter before my readership and request that prayer and supplication are made on behalf of Joanne, the grandmother of one of my employees. My employee came to work today with the distressing news that his grandmother was diagnozed with cancer.

Ecclesiastes Chapter One, Vain Repetition

Ecclesiastes 1:9 That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

Verse 9 solidifies the former passage, summarizing the preacher’s observations about life under the sun. Anything formerly experienced by preceding generations will be “what is new” for the generations that follow, typifying the old saying that there are no new things, only old things happening to new people.

Ecclesiastes Chapter One, Filled With Labor

Ecclesiastes 1:8 All things are full of labor; man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

Verse 8 is the culmination of the previous four verses. In fact, verse 3 actually begins a rhetorical question that is nonetheless explored in the following five verses, finishing with verse 8.

Ecclesiastes Chapter One, Circular Nature

Ecclesiastes 1:6 The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. [7] All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.

While these verses are not meant to specifically be scientifically accurate statements as we would construe such things in modernity, yet they do aptly describe the weather system and hydration. The winds the preacher refers to constitute a global circulation that does indeed form what the preacher referred to as a “circuit.” The hydrological cycle, discovered and proven in modern times, reveals that the rivers receive their hydration from oceanic evaporation, thus creating a cyclical nature of rainfall.