Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
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.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
My great-grandfather, Frank J. Boyer, was a Christian publisher for over 50 years. I recently acquired a 13 year run of his magazine, The Bible Champion. Here is what he wrote in 1923. “”It is such a pity, this habit of calling everybody ‘ignorant’ who does not agree with one’s own opinions. The stock-in-trade of infidels and liberalists is just that fashion. When they cannot answer the arguments of the conservative believer, they resort to ridicule and call him ‘ignorant’… In speaking of the fundamentalist… ‘His beliefs are founded upon an almost inexplicable lack of intelligence, and are often held by ignorant religious fanatics’”. I think I know what the Preacher would say. Nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes is avoided because it seems depressing and fatalistic, but these verses tell us that it is so much more. It exposes the human condition. Those 100 year old words from my great-grandfather could have been written this morning! How often are we maligned in the news and in TV shows as hayseed hicks with one tooth and no idea? Take comfort in the fact that before this happened to us, it happened to Peter, John, Paul, and the early church. There is nothing new under the sun, but the Son makes all things new. Hallelujah!
O Heavenly Father, you have seen everything there is under the sun and yet you make all things new. May we rejoice in the Good News of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.