The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem

"The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after... I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit... For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." What we have just read is the bulk of Ecclesiastes chapter one. The last line there really caps off the rest of the chapter because true wisdom and knowledge keeps us aware of the factual reality that absolutely nothing in or of this life lasts, and that really is a thing of sorrow and grief as the scripture says. I don't think any of us ever get completely used to the looming reality that everything we do, everyone we know, and everything that we have; simply cannot and does not last in this lifetime. It all comes to an end at one point or another. I don't believe we can be altogether comfortable with this because we actually weren't created with death in mind. God made us to live forever but Adam messed that up for us all by disobeying the word of God and selling us all into sin and death (Rom. 7:14; I Cor. 15:21,22). The result was what Solomon called, "all is vanity and vexation of spirit." 'Vanity' in this context means "passing away without continuance," and 'vexation of spirit' means "the pursuit of wind." The connotation is evident. Nothing lasts, and nothing of this world fully satisfies the soul of man because it has no enduring substance, and the soul and spirit of man is everlasting. Trying to be consistently happy and content by means of this life is like trying to catch up with the wind and store it in a bottle for ourselves. It just can't happen.

At the time that these things were written there was, as Solomon noted, "no new thing under the sun." There still isn't. However there is something in the world today that is 'new,' but it didn't come from anything that is "under the sun." It came from heaven, and it was made available by the Son of God coming to this world to suffer and die in our place to pay the price for our sins, which price is death (Rom. 6:23). And it was made available by the same Son of God raising from the dead and going back to heaven TO make it available. Jesus told it just like it is to the woman at the well of Samaria, and Solomon would have loved to have been the first in line to hear about it and receive it: "Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water... Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (Jn. 4:10,13,14). Jesus was speaking here of "the eternal Spirit" of God that he came to make available to mankind. Because God's Spirit is eternal it CAN AND WILL completely satisfy the souls of men, because it is what reconciles the lost soul of man back to his maker (Heb. 9:14). This is what he meant when he said, "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." He was speaking of more than the well that the woman was drawing from when he told her, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again." He was talking about the incomplete and non-lasting state of man and of this present life that Solomon described in Ecclesiastes. Nothing short of or apart from the Spirit of God can restore wholeness to the soul of man and redeem him back to God, not to mention that the holy Ghost is the ONE 'promise' of eternal life to come (Acts 2:33,39; Gal. 3:14; I Jn. 2:25). The man that God sent to introduce Jesus and to tell of his mission made that very clear by definitive instruction of God: "I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost" (Mk. 6:8). "And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost" (Jn. 1:33).

In fact this is the only thing that John said Jesus was going to do. He actually said one other thing, but it in fact was and is the SAME thing: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (Jn. 1:29). You may note that this was spoken by John only a breath or two before the previous quote, which is to say that the baptism of the holy Ghost is HOW Jesus "takes away the sin of the world." As the apostle Paul clearly stated: "And such [sinners] WERE some of you: but ye ARE washed, but ye ARE sanctified, but ye ARE justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of our God" (I Cor. 6:11). We are washed from our sins "in the name of the Lord Jesus" because the Spirit was sent back IN the name of Jesus, as Jesus plainly told us it would be (Jn. 14:26). We are washed from sin and reconciled to God thereby through faith in Jesus and the price he paid for our redemption, BY MEANS OF the baptism of the holy Ghost that Jesus has made available to us: "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that BELIEVETH on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly SHALL flow rivers of living water. [But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive]" (Jn. 7:38,39). Yes my friend, tangible "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost" is the true result of total faith in Jesus for his death and resurrection to set us free from sin and death (Rom. 14:17; Rom. 8:2). It is by the Spirit baptism, along with its inseparable sign of speaking in other tongues, that we drink of that "living water" that Jesus told the woman at the well about: "For BY ONE SPIRIT are we all baptized into one body... and have been all made to DRINK into one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13). The holy Ghost sent back by Jesus after he returned to heaven from whence he came, is the ONE "new thing under the sun," and the ONE eternal thing available to mankind that was not available before Jesus provided us with it. All I can say is that over the period of many years and many major losses and changes in this life, I would have no chance at all to have the fulfilling peace, joy, and contentment that I possess today; except that I allowed Jesus to baptize thirty four years ago me with the very divine, eternal life substance that dwells in both he and his Father. The eternal Spirit is the very life and nature of the Father and the Son, and Jesus has paid the price for that same "divine nature" and "Spirit of life" to dwell in us (Jn. 5:26; Jn. 10:10; Rom. 5:5; II Pet. 1:4; Rom. 8:2). After thirty four years of drinking from that well, I just thank God that this "well of water" is still in me, "springing up into everlasting life." To say that I wouldn't have it any other way is an understatement of massive proportion, but words fail so I'll just have to say it anyway. Amen.