Ecclesiastes 1: 9-11
9 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.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.
Ecclesiastes has been a favorite book of mine for a really long time. The book of Lamentations saved my life. The book of Ecclesiastes saved my sanity.
One of the first things talked about is how there is nothing new under the sun. One way you can see this is the fact that history repeats itself. Just reading through history books you can see civilizations repeat the same cycles over and over again. Changes are never made. Advancements are made, but nothing new is done to stop the cycles. Many times people have seen something happening in the news and said, “This is the end as spoken of in Revelations.” I’m sure many times before these same words have been spoken. Yet here we are still remaining and still repeating ourselves.
Kingdoms come and go over and over. Leadership grows to power and dies over and over. The people revolt and come to peace over and over. Countries fight each other in war and make up over and over. Nature displays its fury over and over. The same things happen over and over. We never learn. Nothing new has happened.
It might be distressing thinking about the fact that you can work your whole life and all you do and say has been seen under the sun before.
There is something about this that you can find comfort in though. This means that you are never truly alone in what you are going through. If there is nothing new under the sun, this means that whatever is happening to you, someone else has been there before. Someone else has struggled with this same thing. Someone else has made it through.
Just look through your bible and find all the times your brothers and sisters struggled and felt they would not make it. Yet they did make it, and so will you.
So in this constantly repeating world full of temporary vanities and things we have seen over and over again, take comfort that there is always someone who has been there before when you enter rough waters. Sometimes the words that bring the most peace are, “Don’t worry; I’ve been through that too.”
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