If you read the Bible very much, you’ve probably noticed that occasionally you run across a passage in which something that someone said or did suddenly leaves you thinking, “Whoa, wait a minute . . . What???” You might read it again and ask whether the words you just read are really saying what they seem to be saying – and if they are, what do they really mean? After all, most of us realize that this book we’re holding is not just another book. This book is different. This is the Word of God we’re reading! And because of that, the things included in it automatically rise to a different level. But that’s not to say, of course, that every minor detail mentioned in the Biblical stories has profound and eternal implications. So that leaves us with the interesting, ongoing, and sometimes challenging task of discerning which ones do have such significance and which ones don’t.

Not My First Encounter ~
In any case, what prompted me to bring this up was my unanticipated reaction to a comment made by King Solomon in the opening chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes (one of your favorite books, no doubt). Given that reading and re-reading the Bible has been a consistent, virtually daily, spiritual rhythm in my life for many decades, it wasn’t the first time I had encountered Solomon’s words, but for some reason, they affected me differently this time.  Things like that shouldn’t be surprising, though, because it is a book like no other. This book has a life of its own and reading it often becomes a uniquely interactive encounter with the Living God who inspired the minds and directed the hands of those who wrote it. Most of us can attest to having had those moments when a passage we were reading suddenly seems to become active and very personal, as though God was sending a message directly to us.  

A Call to Look Deeper ~
But my reaction to Solomon’s unusual declaration that captured my attention wasn’t because it felt like a personal directive or anything like that. Rather, it seemed more like God was saying to me, “Don’t ignore this. There’s more here than you think.” The statement seemed odd enough for the culture Solomon lived in at the time, and I couldn’t imagine how it could possibly have any pragmatic implications for our lives here in 21st Century America. But let’s look together at the text. Solomon wrote: 

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. Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us. (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 NKJV)

Did the wisest man on earth really say what it sounds like he said? Did he really say that there’s no such thing as a new thing? Well, it’s pretty clear that he did, but the real question was what on earth did he mean by it? And beyond that, why did God decide to include a comment like that in His grand story of human redemption? There are likely more answers to those questions than we might grasp at the moment, but at least a couple of things about Solomon’s statement do unveil some lessons worthy of our consideration. 

The Search Continues ~
First, the obsession that people in our culture tend to have to discover and obtain new things is not a modern phenomenon. And secondly, a life devoted to an endless quest for new things is ultimately empty and meaningless. But while those observations might be true, they don’t really answer our basic, original question. That is, when Solomon says there’s nothing new under the sun, what’s he really saying – and what are we to do with it?  The answer to those questions begins with the recognition that Solomon’s words are spoken in the context of a specific and vitally important perspective. That perspective is identified in the form of a Hebrew idiom articulated in the phrase, under the sun. As most of us have been taught over the years, the book of Ecclesiastes presents a view of life as it looks from the human perspective alone. It’s based on how life would appear, as if no other realm existed. But, thank God, life under the sun is not the only life that exists. There’s another realm altogether, and as my favorite Bible expositor and cultural scholar, Kristi McClelland points out, there’s a very real, very active, very personal, and very different realm that exists over the sun.

We Have a Choice ~
Each of those realms has its own set of values and principles that governs life within them. Because of the love and grace that the Living God has directed toward us, we human beings have the opportunity to choose which of those realms we want to call ‘home.’ As is clear in the rest of Solomon’s inspired expose ‘ of life ‘under’ the sun, that realm offers nothing but a frustrating, burdensome life of endless pursuits that Solomon describes as grasping for the wind. In the end, he says, it’s all meaningless, and the vain pursuit of new things is a prime example of that. In the world under the sun, things that are declared to be new come and go in every culture and every generation, but people are never made ‘better’. In just my life alone (which does cover a sizable collection of years), the number of new things that have assailed our world is mind boggling. Yet every news cycle covers a fresh wave of human cruelty, murders, rapes, child molestation, rampant addiction, and a fresh parade of ways to turn human beings into unrecognizable freaks. We have more new drugs, therapies, and ways to manipulate the human body than we would ever have imagined – yet people continue to get old and die anyway.

It’s Different When God Says It ~
So, Solomon looked at it all and said, new is meaningless. It’s an endless cycle in which a new thing moves from an exciting, innovative, world-changing miracle to a worthless antique nobody wants. Ultimately, it accomplishes nothing redemptive. But when God applies the term, it defines something qualitatively different and eternally significant. Take a look at a couple of examples of what new looks like in the over the sun realm …

• • God offers a new way into His presence. He said:
         Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of  Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh. (Hebrews 10:19–20).
     
  • In God’s realm, new isn’t something we have . . . It defines who we are.
         Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17   NKJV)

• • In His realm, new isn’t something we hide on the inside, new is how we live and how we interact with others:
         But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. (Colossians 3:8–10 NKJV)

Solomon condensed the findings of his divinely-guided study of life under the sun like this:

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity [meaninglessness] and grasping for the wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:14 NKJV)

So, what are we left with? It’s simply this . . . 

None of the cherished new gadgets, astounding new discoveries, or shocking new revelations that will assail us in the days, weeks, and years to follow will really change the basics of our lives. They will all end up where their predecessors did. Without the new life that Jesus offers, it all becomes, as Solomon said, meaningless. In light of knowing that, and that so many of us have found that beautiful ‘new’ life over the sun in Jesus now, shouldn’t we show this hurting, worn out, often hate-filled, violent and miserable world, something that’s really new … the gift of a life that will never, ever get old?

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the pull quotes below.  Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter . . .

• • Most of us realize that this book we hold is not just another book. This book is different. This is the Word of God we’re reading, and because of that, the things included in it automatically rise to a different level. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
  • The Bible is a book like no other. It has a life of its own, and reading it often becomes a uniquely interactive encounter with the Living God who inspired the minds and directed the hands of those who wrote it. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • Solomon looked at it all and said ‘new’ is meaningless, an endless cycle, moving from an exciting, innovative, world-changing miracle to a worthless antique nobody wants. God applies ‘new’ that accomplishes redemption with eternal significance. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • In God’s realm, new isn’t something we have, it defines who we are.“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor 5:17).  @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • In light of knowing that so many of us have found that beautiful ‘new’ life ‘over the sun’ in Jesus, shouldn’t we show this hurting, often hate-filled world, something that’s really new – the gift of a new and different life that won’t ever get old? @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 

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