“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 NIV)
We humans take some things for granted . . . things that bring us pleasure . . . things that satisfy our egos. Yet, we are prone to error in such attitudes and thinking.
Consider for a moment how we take for granted that our inventions are so novel and new. One would think that no advances in knowledge or new discoveries were ever made until we came along. Some preachers think their sermons are all original and never been preached anywhere at anytime before.
O the folly of the human mindset! We boast of new fashions, new thoughts, new methods, new expressions, new this and new that. With little consideration and respect, we denigrate the old traditions and concepts. We ignore the biblical injunction that the things which exist, and will exist in the future, are the same sort of things that have existed in the past and present human actions are the same as those of past human beings. The truth is “there is nothing new under the sun.”
Who can say, “this is new?” Heaven and earth are the same as when God finished creating them. The laws of nature and the links to natural causes are the same ones God set in place and have not changed.
Humanity is still the same. Human desires, and pursuits, and complaints . . . still the same. God is also still the same yesterday, today, and forever . . . He has not changed. He still deals with his creation according to his promises in scripture.
He would graciously present us with this consideration to show us our folly of pride in ourselves . . . our imaginings . . . our affections . . . our discoveries . . . our pleasures . . . our follies. It is so easy to grow weary of “old, worn-out” things. Like the Greeks at Mars Hill in Athens, we desire something new to hear and tell.
If we would experience something new, we must acquaint ourselves with the old things of God. He is the only one who can do a new thing. And He will take our old things and make them all new in Christ. “Behold, if any person is in Christ Jesus, then that person is a new creature. Old things have passed away and all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Christ puts a new song into our hearts. In Christ, we have a new perspective and attitude, wholly unlike the old state of things — a new world — always fresh, always flourishing. This consideration should make us shout praises to the King.
In this world there is nothing but the same-old-same over and over again, and we can expect nothing from it more or better than has always been. But one day soon, the same-old-same will pass away and the new heavens and new earth will descend. O what a day that will be!
Dear Father, thank you for your mercy and grace. Open our understanding that we might see with new perspective. This I pray in the name of Jesus. AMEN
Be encouraged in the new things in Christ,