Questions From Readers

● A person I was preaching to insisted that such things as airplanes were here long ago, and as proof she quoted Ecclesiastes 1:9 about there being no new thing under the sun. What is the correct understanding of this text?—D. M., United States.

After years of observation and profound meditation King Solomon wrote under inspiration by God concerning the repetition of natural events: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains for ever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south, and goes round to the north; round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 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.”—Eccl. 1:2-9, RS.

In the above the inspired writer describes the viewpoint, not of exuberant youth or of appreciative servants of Jehovah, but of the aging person alienated from God. It is the outlook that gradually comes over persons of this old system of things as time overtakes them, weakens them, wears them down. They see their generation going out of existence and a new one coming in to take their place on the earth that remains forever. When they were young with their life span ahead of them it looked long, but now that it is nearly spent and they look back on it in their old age it seems to have been no more than a breath. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word translated “vanity” is “breath,” and it is used to proclaim that this life is as fleeting and transitory as a breath and that the toil of the man alienated from God is futile, lacking in any abiding gain for him. His generation is just one of many, preceded by undetermined ones and to be followed by more, just one of a long repetition of generations coming and going on an earth that endures.

As analogies to this repetition the inspired writer points to the sun that rises, sets, and hurries around to where it will rise again; to the winds that blow and circle and return to repeat their circuits again and again; to the streams that run to the sea without filling it because water is evaporated from it and carried inland by wind and condensed as clouds that shed rain to replenish the rivers and keep them running to the sea. Throughout their life persons see this repetition of natural events, and as they become old and energies wane, eyes dim, ears dull, joints stiffen and the other senses fade, they lose the zest for living they had in youth, and the repeating days and nights, worries and toils, fill them with an unutterable weariness, a sense of frustration and futility. Their eye is not satisfied with seeing this endless repetition, nor is their ear satisfyingly filled with hearing it over and over again. It is in this setting of natural events, within the scope of these narrated cycles in nature, that the statement occurs that there is nothing new under the sun. We cannot properly take the statement out of its setting and apply it to everything. There are new things invented and made but they follow the principles which God has already established and applied in nature and there is nothing new in the cycles in nature Solomon outlined.

And at the time of writing Solomon was inspired and he did not have this pessimistic, futile outlook himself, as some scholars claim. He did not consider godly works a vanity, but summed up his writing thus: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (Eccl. 12:13, 14, RS) Work done in obedience to the commands of Jehovah would bring a judgment of approval from God. But toil for material things rather than spiritual treasure is vain, and this is realized by weary old persons who have so spent their lives alienated from Jehovah God. Even living becomes a chore to them, the natural cycle of events becomes wearisome to them.

However, in the new world the repetition of the natural cycle of events will not be vain or wearying. Exhausted old persons will not exist then, for all the obedient will return to the days of their youth and each new day will be viewed with the zest of the young. Persons will have the spring of youth and the knowledge of the old, the wisdom of gray hair without the gray hair, the experience of the aged without their aches. No more will youthfulness be limited to the young, but it will be lavished on those with the maturity and wisdom to use it perfectly. No feelings of frustration and futility will mar the recurring days and nights and seasons, the natural cycles of wind and rain and sun.

There need be none even now. If we appreciate Jehovah, his goodness as Creator, and see in natural phenomena his glory and power, we delight in each new day and night. Our view even now is like the psalmist’s, and not that of an old person alienated from God: “The heavens proclaim God’s splendour, the sky speaks of his handiwork; day after day takes up the tale, night after night makes him known; their speech has never a word, not a sound for the ear, and yet their message spreads the wide world over, their meaning carries to earth’s end. See, there is the sun’s pavilion pitched! He glows like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, exults like a hero to run his course; he sets out from one end of heaven, and round he passes to the other, missing nothing with his heat!” Jehovah’s wonderful invisible qualities are clearly seen reflected in his visible creations.—Ps. 19:1-6, Mo; Rom. 1:20.