Yet, it is in the midst of knowing that the world is what it always has been that we clearly see that God’s grace is all that will give us hope and purpose. No, the world isn’t changing, there is nothing new under the sun. Finally, consider the cross where the one person who never committed wrong, the one person who never spoke a lie, was sentenced to death for speaking truth that was hard to bear. Consider the Garden of Eden, where sin first brought separation between God and humanity.
Consider Noah and the society that had grown so corrupt God sent the flood. Consider Sodom and Gomorrah, where God wiped out both cities as a consequence of their rejection of Him. Consider ancient Egypt, where God’s people were held in slavery. We may hear about it more now than years ago, we may see political leaders taking official policy stances that are illogical, ungodly, and unsettling, but none of it is truly new. All of culture, and humanity in general, is striving against God due to our sinful nature, and that is manifest in our actions. Society is not getting worse society is generally what it always has been. We say this as if our society is somehow getting worse, and things were better in the much longed for, ‘good old days.’Īre things really ‘crazy’ now compared to years past? Of course not. How often have we heard that the world has just gone crazy, or people are just crazy these days? We say this as if it is a new thing, that people have made bad decisions and acted irrationally for the first time. What Does 'Nothing New Under the Sun' Mean for the History and Future of This World?Īs we consider the true implication of nothing new under the sun, it can completely change how we view and respond to current events and how we think of our future. This thought is echoed by Peter when he writes, “ All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” ( 1 Peter 1:24-25). Everything we do outside of Christ, no matter how important, is only temporary. When we choose to live life outside of faith in God, we have to admit that everything does indeed seem meaningless. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’” In so many places the Bible gives us meaning, and reasons for encouragement and purpose, but here it seems to be doing just the opposite! What the passage is actually accomplishing is to give us perspective on the stark difference between a life of faith and a life in futility. We read in Ecclesiastes 1:2, “‘ Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. Most of us have heard this phrase used somewhere, but what does it mean exactly, and why is it written in Scripture? The phrase from Ecclesiastes appears in what can truly be a rather unsettling chapter. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again there is nothing new under the sun.” - Ecclesiastes 1:9 What Does 'Nothing New Under the Sun' Mean in Ecclesiastes? Yet a look at the bigger picture reveals that what we consider unique is not quite as unique as we think and that there truly is nothing new under the sun. In the midst of chaotic times such as these, it can be easy to think that what we are experiencing is different than what others have ever experienced. Yet, we have to ask whether all of this is new, or if it is simply new to us. We have learned to wear masks, to practice social distancing, to quarantine ourselves, to ‘slow the spread’, and so forth. The entire globe has adapted to situations many of us have never thought about before. There is no doubt that 2020 has been all of the above, and these are words we have all heard (and used) to describe it.
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