“Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before…”
I was reminded this week that this is how we humans are. How are we different from those 3,000 years ago? What is new under the sun? We have the same questions, make the same mistakes, and make the same excuses. Time has given us ‘space’ to manipulate the world around us and be effected by the results, but elements of history repeat because our design remains the same.
“Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs, and what does he gain, since he toils for the wind?” So where exists the purpose right? “For who knows what is good for a man in life, during the few meaningless days he passes through like a shadow? Who can tell him what will happen under the sun after he is gone?” Knowledge passes away and time deems itself irrelevant, so where does that leave us? I remember the first time I read those italicized words for the first time about five years ago, written by a well-known king in the history of Israel. King Solomon of Israel, King David’s oldest son, wrote Ecclesiastes in 945 B.C. and rose to his throne in around 967 B.C. The Kingdom extended from the Euphrates River in the north all the way to Egypt. People from all over would traveled to hear what Solomon had to say and to even hear the songs about God and love that he composed. His wisdom was known to be directly gifted from God and fascinating to even the Queen of Sheba.
(Those italicized sentences come from the Bible’s Old Testament in Ecclesiastes 3:15, 5:15 and 6:12.)
I remember being relieved that a King who reigned over a notoriously powerful country at the time around 2,000 years ago, would have similar questioning thoughts about the world I found myself in. I admired how Solomon didn’t leave the grandeur and his endless wealth unevaluated, but rather saw it for what it was and wasn’t. It brought merriment, but not real fulfillment. I admired how he didn’t disillusion himself with empty words and empty comfort, though he tried that for a time. Even more, I admired his humility in the conclusion that he arrived to:
“Remember Him-before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it….” (Eccl.12:13-14) So, I gather this: Don’t think your bigger than you think you are or smaller than you wish you could keep yourself, and remember that our bodies may be only returning to the dust, but the very thought that makes us wonder at this comes from something we can’t see that also wishes to find and return home. Who or what could this be? I’ll get to that in a second. (Stay with me. This time of night provokes me to rant but rest assured. I’ll try to restrain myself.)
So since I like parallels and imagery, I quick want to look at the word humility. The word humility derives itself from the Proto-IndoEuropean ‘humi’ which means ‘on the ground’ or like Latin’s humus meaning ‘earth, soil’. Maybe even a relative to our delectable Mediterranean dip. 🙂 This being said, when we recognize that ‘the dust returns to the ground it came from’ in regards to our mortality, we’ll have to take the same ‘lowly’ posture in humility to recognize that that second something which brings to mind returning home, will mean taking a different position than you’ve ever taken before. From a place that is a bit uncomfortable and maybe unfamiliar. And it impresses me that such a king had done just that, and before Who? (you’ve probably already guessed it) — God.
The Lord has been teaching me about humility lately. How can something like intelligence be so useful yet so useless? How can it aid me and hinder me sometimes at the same time? How can I give Him the glory with it instead of my own?
Man, humility is not a painless process.
Ok, let’s bring it back for a sec…
Maybe something new under the sun would be to admit that I got nothing new to offer, then why am I here?
Maybe something is being offered to me instead.
After reading Ecclesiastes, other Scripture, literature, anything worth a peek, I realized that that something who compels me to search also put a path out before me to know Him. Although I’ve experienced some of the low and high positions, that many have experienced before me, I made the decision to follow Jesus Christ because I’m convinced of who He said He was and is.
