Nothing new under the sun.

 I wonder what Solomon was thinking about in particular, as he penned these words, “What has been, is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  What is amazing is the timelessness of these words.  The reality that he realized as he expressed the words reflectively in what he had seen in his experience is profound but the power of his words is in the fact that they are prophetic in as they would remained significant for future generations as well. There is nothing new under the sun.  There is really no new evil … it has always been around since the fall. People are both good and bad and the struggles and joys have been pretty much the same under the sun over the many and different centuries.

     Later in the same book, Solomon reflected on the equality of life on this earth under the same sun. Life never is what is people expect.  Sometimes the slow win the race, wise are made foolish and on and on it goes … we find that we don’t have a clue of what may happen next in our lives under the sun. In all the things of the earth, we come up a bit empty in our understanding. Solomon examines this thought as he writes this in a passage that comes with an somewhat meaningful prophetic reference number, “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

    The truth is and remains as John Wesley once wrote, “The nature and course of the beings and affairs of the world, and the tempers of men, are the same that they ever were and shall ever be; and therefore, because no man ever yet received satisfaction from worldly things, it is vain for any person hereafter to expect it.”  Our only hope upon which we can truly stand as we face anything that comes along under the sun, remains in the God who made us and redeemed us through our Savior Jesus Christ.  We don’t know what will come along under the sun but we can have confidence in the one that created the sun.  He knows all about the sun and everything that is under it. He knows everything about us and has engraved us in the palm of His hand (Isaiah 49:16).  We are really and truly His. That is the only thing we truly know as we live out our days under the sun. Amen. 

Suggested Bible Reading … Ecclesiastes 1