Cyclical view of life as nothing changes (1:4-7) and nothing’s new (1:8-11).

Like Henry David Thoreau or John Muir, the Preacher of Ecclesiastes learns from nature and witnesses divine truth in the creation. The cyclical nature of life is like what is found in nature and the seasons as in “earth” (4), “sun” (5), “wind” (6), “circular courses” (6), and “rivers” and “seas” (7). God, through his creation, reveals a natural rhythm – cyclical flow – which provides comfort like a mother rocking her toddler. And yet, this natural rhythm also leaves us weary and exhausted.

People are complicated. Our psyche is multifaceted and often in conflict with itself. We are conflicted because we desire change while wanting consistency and we desire stability while fearing stagnation. We want something new; it is an innate desire of our psyche (8) but the world provides nothing new (9-10). And yet, we think things are new because our self-deception and poor memories (11).

What are we to take away from this paragraph about life’s monotony? “All things are wearisome,” says verse 8 (NASB). Just as the sun, winds, streams, and all natural objects of God’s creation are weary with their ceaseless round of activities, so our existence of ceaseless rounds nothing but wearisome. Weary (yaga’) is used two other times in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 25:18 linked with being faint and Second Samuel 17:2 linked with being exhausted). No activity, whether routine and common or new and inventive, can provide true and meaningful purpose, joy, and fulfillment. All activity becomes wearisome grinding us down rather than polishing our shine. Busyness is not fulfillment but wearisome linked with fainting and being exhausted. Think of Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Search For Significance: Examination of Ecclesiastes
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DJVJJMQ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_VR21GKM48W63JYH29YWD

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