The Empty Promise of Novelty

Well this morning we return to Ecclesiastes. We're in the first chapter and we began last week properly with Verse 3, which is the programmatic question that will occupy us. At least specifically up to chapter 2 verse 26, but arguably the the entire book.

Beginning with that question in verse 3 what prophet has a man? From all of his labor in which he toils under the Sun we introduced The importance of that phrase under the Sun last week. If we're looking at the beginning of chapter 1 here we have that programmatic question and then really verses 4 through 11 are sort of an introductory poem and Then beginning with verse 12 where we're going next week.

You have more of the the body the beginning of the body of the letters. So we're wading our way through an introductory poem that sets the tone and the direction for this wisdom literature for Ecclesiastes.

We want to appreciate something of the structure really there is this unity to verses 3 through 11 or particularly 4 through 11. But verse 8 sort of is an interlude and I want to appreciate something of the structure of what we began last week that will Conclude this morning.

So again verse 3 the programmatic question. What prophet has a man from all of his labor in which he toils under the Sun? John Goldengay in his commentary points out the contrast that we saw last week between the steady consistency of the cosmos going about its way merrily in circles the Sun rising and Returning circling and circling and circling speaking again from our perspective here on the earth or of the wind.

Though it seems at any given time to blow northward or westward or eastward or southward. Ultimately speaking it's just going in circles around the sphere and the streams. That always seem to be going in one direction, but in fact are simply cycling through Evaporation and saturation into this endless circle of water so whether Sun or wind or water we see this endless circularity to creation and Amidst that endless circularity is this monotony of humanity the repetition of generation to generation.

And we see the generation is like grass. The earth the cosmos being this stage upon which the generations succeed generations rise up. One after the other they come and they go and somehow the earth remains unchanged.

The Sun the wind. Carrying out their own life as it were in their own way for their own reason if you think of Job Chapters 38 and 39. This is essentially God's rebuke to Job. So we have the widest contours of creation and then the generations in the midst of creation really that begins the structure of this poem in verse 4.

Verse 4 introduces both of these things the earth and human generations. So verse 4 one generation Passes away another generation comes. The earth abides forever. All right. So verse 4 setting the tone for the poem one generation passes another generation comes.

Here's the circularity of human generations and what's the larger framework for that the earth abides forever. Now following that verse verse 4 through verses 5 6 7 We have three paired lines describing the earth.

We saw that last week. The Sun the wind the water and then verse 8 is sort of an interlude. It asked it asked the question who can articulate this. It's not possible for a man to express this weariness.

Weariness is saturating all of these things. What are these things the things introduced in verse 4 the generations of humanity and the circularity of nature? And that follows as an interlude with verses 9 through 11 now instead of focusing on the earth.

We're focusing on the human generations so that's the structure that we're seeing in verses 4 through 11. Verse 4 introduces human generations and The earth or the cycles of nature. 5 through 7 have three paired lines.

Describing the earth there verse 8 is an interlude returning to that question of verse 3 and then verses 5 9 through 11 are expanding on the human generations. Okay again, we're gonna be doing a lot of this through Ecclesiastes.

Appreciating poetic structure repetition and so on. So again, this poem is setting the tone setting the course for the whole book and it opens by an expansion of verse 3. But it doesn't answer it. In some ways it only adds to the dilemma of verse 3.

So we're already on our way searching for the answer and we're not gonna find it here in verses 9 through 11. We're not even gonna find it in chapter 1 and so you're not gonna find it in today's sermon either.

Please be prepared for a lot of Hangovers as it were what I have to wait till next week and in some ways We're gonna have to have this sense of tension that runs through the whole book of Ecclesiastes.

That's part of this inexplicable tension that we feel in the midst of life itself again. Verse 8 this interlude all things are full of labor full of toil. Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing.

Verse 8 is this conclusion? No, no man could ever fully express the toil that's in everything every aspect every fiber of life under the Sun. No, I can never fully see it. No ear can ever fully receive it.

Everything is so shot through with utility that we can't fully articulate it so he's turned from the circle of the Sun and the wind in the waters to that interlude of there's there's no way to fully Express the toil the futility of it all and then verses 9 through 11 here is he's returning to speak of humanity or human Generations.

So here's our focus this morning verses 9 through 11 that which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the Sun. Is there anything of which it may be said look this is new.

It has already been in ancient times before us. There is no remembrance of former things. Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. We're gonna look at verses 9 through 11 in two parts and the first part I think captures the tone of verses 9 through 11 and that tone is this the empty promise of novelty the empty promise of novelty.

Novelty being something new something flashy some change in. Verses 9 through 11 in particular show us how bankrupt that promise is how hollow that sense of change or newness. Is there is nothing new under the Sun?

Kids don't say that verse with much meaning. I'm not that old of a man, but I'm old enough to say that verse with some meaning now I imagine in another 30 years. I'll say it with even more meaning truly.

There is nothing new under the Sun. We asked the question the rhetorical question. Is there anything of which it may be said see this is new. A Less thoughtful mind a less reflective mind will quickly say of course, there's all sorts of things that are new.

IPhone 18 is on its way out. Look at the frontier of AI we're surrounded with the potential of all things new. Wise mind a reflective mind a Solomonic mind says no, there's nothing new not under this Sun.

Now I'm sure We at first glance want to muster up a thought of some discovery some invention. Something that could represent for us a real breakthrough and there's no shortage of those. Teases and tales of real breakthroughs some Unprecedented advanced in knowledge or technology and of course even in Solomon's day.

He could understand advances in engineering advances in in the arts advances in military strategy or technology advances in music or agricultural industry or economy or commerce. Of course, he himself understood the breakthroughs the sense of advancement.

He's speaking at a much higher level than this somehow in one way or the other all of the latest developments all of the Unprecedented frontiers all of them still belong to the human experience under the Sun.

That's the frame of reference for Kohelet. That's the frame of reference for this poem under the Sun. Truly, there's nothing new. He says it explicitly there is nothing new under the Sun. There's nothing new in other words.

Categorically new to human experience that can't in one way or another be followed like a thread all the way back to our origins.

There's nothing new.

For all that is different. There's also something familiar. Something true of the progress of that new thing that draws us all the way back to our roots.

This too.

Kohelet says is vanity. At the widest scale of reference, there's nothing new to human experience. No new technologies or advancements That come out of a fundamentally different desire or need or hope at that level at that widest level.

There's nothing new under the Sun. This is because human beings as human beings under the Sun Post-genesis 3 have the same basic problems in life. The same basic needs the same basic desires the same moral deficiency the same underlying.

Insecurity.

That Adam and Eve had when they were exiled from the garden that has not changed. If you read the the account of Genesis Post-genesis 3 you see that The the Cainite civilization introduces so much change so much novelty in the world.

But they're simply managing the effects of the fall. Everything that flows post-genesis 3 is Essentially life or human experience under the Sun. It doesn't matter how far back you rewind. The same fundamental problems the same fundamental needs the same fundamental drives that people have always had.

We have different ways of navigating that culturally. We have different levels of technology or capacity that cause us to address these things. But there's an eerie familiarity that runs through it all.

It's one of the things that always strikes me having had opportunity a few weeks ago to be around the the Roman ruins in southern Italy and There's something that is so distant about a two millennia year old culture or archaeological site.

It almost feels like you're an astronaut bouncing around from place to place trying to understand this foreign environment. But at the same time there's something all too common. And perhaps that that dawns when you leave the archaeological site.

And then you go on to the the main streets and you realize they're doing the exact same thing. Their shops are about the same size. They're essentially selling the same services. Essentially the whole city 2 ,000 years apart looks Identical.

I think if the volcano blew again. You have a hard time distinguishing Pompeii from its 2 ,000 year old version to its two-year-old version. That illustrates the point. There's actually nothing new under the Sun in This sense from this perspective history doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Whatever the sense of scientific advancement or technological prowess may offer. History does seem to be more circular than it is linear. You've heard of George Santayana and his famous dictum those who study those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.

And I saw a good comic strip that said no. Those who study history are doomed to watch others repeat it. You realize that history is going to be repeated in all sorts of ways. Those who study it don't intervene.

They simply witness and observe it being repeated. Some of you in this room are old enough to see the political cycles on endless repeat new Candidates new issues new dilemmas new crises, but truly even you can say there's nothing new under the Sun.

Nothing new and yet we hope for progress. Was that not a campaign poster not that long ago progress with some arrow pointing and who knows what direction.

Progress.

Hope.

We put our hope in progress in change. Change means something other something new the way out the answer the solution the remedy to it all. We're far removed from them. But essentially we're no different than the Athenians in Acts 17.

We read for all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time. Spent their time and nothing else but either to tell her to hear some new thing. Just want to hear want to learn want to be on the latest edge on the cutting edge.

I want to have the neatest newest gadget. Want to have the latest headline. Did you hear about did you hear about you know? I just heard about The newness the novelty to hear to tell some new thing. And what does Ecclesiastes say?

The eye can't see the ear can't be filled. It's too hard to express there really is nothing new under the Sun. Marketers. Entrepreneurs, they understand and take advantage of this insatiable desire for newness for novelty.

Something must be new better bigger more attractive more safer more faster more efficient. There's new models every year. Like Pavlov dogs were trained for the release dates trained for the time. I I used to remember Taking my earnings from working at D 'Angelo's or wherever I worked in high school.

And I knew what movies or what albums were coming out on what day and it was that endless cycle. I was the perfect consumer in that sense. Marketers. Entrepreneurs, they know how to put the flashy new stickers new and improved.

This is the thing that you really need. We we really figured it out this time. This will be the phone to end all phones. This will be the platform to end all platforms. This will be the thing that finally fulfills that little area of your life where you feel so hopeless so distraught so despairing.

The entertainment industry thrives on this insatiable desire for newness. They promise there'll be some level of satisfaction. To tell a new story with a new angle you see enough movies read enough novels you realize there really are no new stories.

Same plot twists same dilemmas. It's very very hard to do anything original when it comes to the arts when it comes to the media now. They don't even try to hide that fact. They're simply re-releasing movies from the 80s with new actors.

Why bother there's nothing new under the Sun it worked back then maybe it can work now. What we're looking forward to in that sense in the future is no different. From what past generations were looking forward to and we like they will not find the illusion of progress ultimately satisfying.

We're looking forward to changes to progress to things to come. So did everyone that came before us and guess what it never fully satisfied us. They never satisfied them. They never arrived. They never actually found the thing that they were progressing toward it never offered what it promised.

It was the empty promise of novelty. Now I need to put a caveat here and it's the only time I'll do it because I'm not gonna take the thrust away. But that does not mean that there's not time for change.

In fact Ecclesiastes is about to tell us in another poem all about times that God has appointed Seasons that he has appointed there are times for changes. Ecclesiastes will go on to say there's in fact time to cast your bread on many Waters, you don't know what will return to you.

So so seeing through the illusion of progress or the empty promise of novelty Does not mean that there's not a place for change in our lives. But there's not a time a season and a way to close one chapter and begin another chapter to actually recognize that there was a time appointed for a reason for a purpose and that purpose seems to have come to an end and Now it's time to go to a new place to a new pasture toward a new chapter or a new goal.

This is a part of a way of walking in wisdom. But the wisdom takes the widest frame of reference and says don't think that change that chapter is ultimately going to satisfy. Don't think it's going to answer don't think it's going to deliver.

For as many problems as it solves. It's going to create a host of whole new problems that the answer will come like a carrot dangling in front of your eyes. You need more progress. You need more novelty.

You need more change. You were so close. And so it is with every season in our lives. That which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done. This is the great review the great reflection over this empty illusion of novelty.

The reality is simply this that which has been is what will be. For all the adjustments for all the chapter turns that which has been is what will be in the same way that what has been. For a generation even millennia ago is what will be for a generation yet to come because the human experience under the Sun Has not fundamentally changed in terms of our needs our vulnerabilities our desires and drives.

We cannot change the fiber from which we have been made. We cannot change the effects of the fall that causes our bodies in the earth around us to groan and wait for redemption. For that reason if for no other what has been is what will be.

So because we live by the same basic needs that connects us to our human ancestors. Because we have the same reactions and patterns though with more sophisticated management systems or technologies. We ultimately are no different than even Adam and Eve once they were exiled from the garden.

There is nothing new under the Sun after that from this point of view. Novelty newness change is always eliciting our hope addressing our hope. But only as an empty promise of real fulfillment of Real change we capture with this sentiment the more the things change the more things stay the same.

The more I thought I finally would have a breakthrough. I finally found the be-all end-all the more I found that like sand slipping through my fingers. Have you lived life long enough to realize that I hope so.

Have you actually accomplished the goals you thought were the answer the satisfying thing? Only to find them to be empty bankrupt hauler. I Hope so. That's often far harder. But far better than spending the rest of your life chasing a goal that you don't fulfill.

Better to to fulfill that goal and find it to be empty as it must be than to waste your life chasing it only to then. Have nothing else to turn back to nothing else to appreciate. This is again the wisdom that hits us like a rabbit punch between the eyes.

Is there anything of which it may be said see this is new it's already been in ancient times before us. If there's anything that cuts against the grain of modern Westerners, it's it's that kind of charge that kind of rebuke.

How dare you say that to us? Do you know anything of our sophistication of our technology? Do you know what we're capable of. We're on the verge of eliminating age sickness disease war. We have almost become the perfect captains of our fate in our destiny.

We are the modern paragons of mastery for human civilization. I hope you can see it's it's the illusion. It's the empty promise of novelty that causes man to rear up and this kind of arrogance and God has many different things in his Toolbox to pull down that kind of mulish pride.

We find in our society this imperative. Captured I forget by who but the little limerick is well said if it's new. It isn't true. And if it's true, it isn't new.

That's well said.

We have this imperative in society that is almost the opposite of that. It's only true if it's new. We should castigate and and get away from previous truths that govern previous forms of Western civilization.

And we've taken hand-in-hand with that this sort of command of technology. What some writers call a technological imperative? It's a very powerful thing because it's not just that we're open to technology technological novelty.

We actually surrender to it. We fulfill its its whims the novelty is actually something that puts us in bondage. We're actually now subject to these forms of allegedly more convenient ways of navigating Life, in fact, they're more disruptive to life.

So some writers call this the technological imperative other writers call this the novelty imperative. It was it was Neil Postman. I mentioned this book a very famous book though. It was written many decades ago called amusing ourselves to death.

It was a study of media ecology. It came out in the in the mid 80s and at the in the forward to that book. He he mentions two previous writers that were both seeing the shifts in society. And we're very alarmed about what those shifts might lead to so they wrote fiction to try to ring the alarm bell to where society Might be headed.

That's George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. So Postman is pointing these two figures or well, of course animal farm 1984 Aldous Huxley's famous novel brave new world and the difference between the two as Postman notes is that in 1984 Orwell thought our technology our innovation our novelty will actually be the very thing that puts us into bondage.

We'll become slaves subjects to the machinations that we have created in our own image. That's the that's the fear of 1984 Huxley on the other hand and brave new world recognized. No. The elites the libertarians the rationalists who are always opposed to tyranny fail to account for this.

Our infinite appetite for distraction and so Postman summarized a difference between the two is this. In Orwell and speaking of 1984 people are controlled by inflicting pain In brave new world. They are controlled by inflicting pleasure.

Now, which of the two do you think are more accurate? I Would have to go with Huxley. It's pleasure and guess what? This too is also nothing new. The Roman senator Tacitus when he saw these otherwise free Peoples especially toward the north in the British Isles in the area Sort of beyond Hadrian's Wall and he saw these These ways that these free warrior like people who were not subject to that iron boot of Rome Didn't actually get to feed it on the battlefield he lamented over this even though he was a Roman senator.

He said we did not defeat them with legions nor with boots or swords but rather with bread and circuses. He recognized it was through pleasure that they were defeated. They gave up their freedom. They gave up Their their peace their joy their tranquility as a people their identity.

They became subjects unwilling subjects through pleasure. This too is nothing new under the Sun. There's forms of technology. There's forms of tyrannical power through pain people can be controlled. But I would say in our day through this unyielding Embrace of the potentiality of technology people are actually in bondage through pleasure.

There's nothing new under the Sun how many ways We creatively destroy the tools and the ways of living simply for this reason.

We're bored boring I.

Need something new. It's fun. It's really fun, isn't it to go to? Some reenactment site. Plymouth plantation. Maybe or I the name escapes me, but these little places where they recreate maybe an 18th century village.

It's fun to visit that place. Oh, honey. Look look how they used to churn butter. It's fun to visit that place for a day. Would any of you want to live like that for the rest of your life? Do you think your kids would stand in line to have that kind of lifestyle?

What would their first cry be?

This is boring.

Where's my touchscreen? Where's the novelty? Where's the new buzzy flashy thing? We have in many ways found Creative technology as a disruptor for the simple pleasures for the simple goods of life. Ecclesiastes is gonna have a lot to say about that.

About what our highest good in life under the Sun actually is and it cuts against the empty promise of novelty. This is true of anything under the Sun. Anything innovative. Another great novel even turgan of fathers and sons where his son comes back with a friend from University and it's speaking of sort of society in the 1840s and just a 20-year gap with the onset of so many changes in Russia and now you have this nihilistic Rationalistic man that comes back and he's disrupting all the ways of life on this little farm.

And it's this generational conflict between a father and a son being pulled away from his way of life. From his desire for his son's future and legacy as he's being pulled toward this modern change from this this friend this this nihilist and he's using in the household this Idea of how society is shifting this tension between a father and a son.

There's that novel novelty and in the in the novel. It's so wonderful because of course there's certain things that the the rationalist the cold Calculated nihilist can't actually explain or contend with like falling in love other powerful forces of nature.

And so there's a return to recognize the place of his father's way of life. We think of the attraction of novelty of innovation theologically. If you study church history if you study historical theology, you see how.

Powerful a.

Current of innovation or novelty is what are the theologians thinking about? What are they writing about? What's the new thing? What's the new study? What's the new discovery? What's the new breakthrough?

Oh, that's how we used to read Paul. That's how we used to read the Gospels now. We know better. There's an endless series of downgrade controversies if you have an eye to see them. This too is the empty promise of novelty.

We'll finally figure it out. We'll finally master it. We don't need to go down the old path. We don't need to abide by the faith. Once we're all delivered We're on the verge of something new something revelatory something reformational.

That's the empty promise of novelty. CS Lewis in screw tape letters letter 25. You're familiar with the context. Of course you have this demonic advice of how to trip up the patient That is the believer Who's seeking to walk a God-pleasing life and this demonic activity to cause him to stumble or go astray.

And CS Lewis picks up. On this empty promise of novelty. He says as a demon what we want if men become Christians at all is to keep them in the state of a mind that I call Christianity and.

You know.

Christianity and the crisis. Christianity and the new psychology. Christianity and the new order. Christianity and faith healing. Christianity and psychological research. Christianity and vegetarianism.

Christianity and spelling reform. If they must be Christians, let them at least be Christians with a difference substitute for the faith itself Some fashion with a Christian color Christian veneer work on them the horror of the same old thing.

That's the demonic advice. Give them the horror of the same old thing. Oh What what hopelessness what despair the same old the same old? The horror of the same old thing is one of the most valuable passions.

We have produced in the human heart an Endless source of heresy and religion folly and counsel infidelity and marriage inconstancy and friendship. In other words that the demonic advice is create this passion this drive for the new thing.

Do that by giving them a horror a disgust for the same old thing once they the humans he's saying once they knew that some changes were for the better and Others were for the worse and others were indifferent, but we have largely removed this knowledge.

Now in its place is this thirst this desire that all change must be good all change must be progress. There can't be any negative change. The only thing that's negative is not changing at all. Again, Kohelet is not arguing against innovation.

He himself experienced that in his lifetime and reflecting on the past. He's not against using technology. Especially as it meets human needs or Unfolds human potential. Rather as we'll see throughout this whole book He is arguing against trying to find ultimate meaning in change or in progress or in technology.

Trying to create a legacy something lasting something that will actually Stamp your foot your name your reputation your honors on terra firma forever. That's what we see in verse 11 there is no remembrance of former things.

Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. We live in a certain part of the country where we have cemeteries that go back several centuries. It's an impressive thing.

Especially when you find something that dates back to the colonial period and even around these parts. We have some that go back to the early 18th century. We don't know any of the people we're not moved at all by the names.

It might have something of a historical fascination or Take a little charm in an interesting note or maybe a connection or I think we have that in one of our genealogies. That name but as far as that person Doesn't mean anything to us.

There's no remembrance there's no connection and In fact, even that just slowly gets severed and severed and severed we drive past these headstones that mean almost nothing to us. We hardly even acknowledge their presence.

I went to as I mentioned I was in Pompeii several weeks ago and we went outside. One of the main gates or several main gates and and there you have excavated what was called the necropolis this burial place outside Of the walls for the dead and the Romans loved making Reminders of who they were and all of their accomplishments.

They carved it into marble and they had great busts of their figures. And so you're walking down this this paved street this necropolis and you're surrounded by all of these elites. These busts and statuaries of these prominent men and a list in Latin of all of their great accomplishments.

This was their role. This is how they served. These are the things that they built. This is what they accomplished with their life. We're walking by from tourists who paid money to see things like that.

And then a little stray cat runs across between the road and they all whip out their phones to take a picture of the cat. Somehow this great legacy in marble and in Latin meant Nothing compared to a live cat in the middle of the road.

That was the thing to take the picture of that was the thing to point that and make a circle around. There's no remembrance of former things. Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who come after.

Now again a Splinter of a caveat does that mean that we should not be forward-thinking? Does that not mean that we should you know be be generationally minded? Of course it does. A righteous man leaves a legacy a righteous man is forward-thinking.

He recognizes God's blessing upon is upon his children and his children's children. He seeks for that blessing. He prays for that kind of blessing. He prays to make a kingdom impact. But you recognize what Ecclesiastes is saying.

He hasn't found his ultimate fulfillment his ultimate meaning his ultimate identity and things that will be lost. He does that if he does it at all as a righteous man he does that unto God. He does that for the sake of the kingdom of God something that will go far beyond him.

He's a cog in this vast mechanism. He's a note in this vast unending symphony and he tries to play that note as well as he can. As loudly as beautifully as he can but he recognizes at the end of day. He's just a note a Note that almost as quickly as it was heard is then forgotten.

It's on to the drift of the rest of the melody. There's no remembrance of former things. Solomon in his days like all of us in our days have seen one generation come and go. We're always somewhere largely speaking within three generations a Generation that was before us a generation that is in a generation that comes and we find ourselves cycling through that phase of three Century by century by century the earth again verse for this backdrop for it all.

Happening over and over and over and over again carve your accomplishments in Marvel. Ancient ancient kings did that ancient elites did that. New buildings new territories new claims new boasts new treasuries.

Think of the pyramids. What that was meant to lay down? What that was meant to say about the significance about the importance of the man who's shriveled up like a leather wallet inside of it. They wanted something new wanted something profound wanted something extraordinary to establish their reign their rank their reputation their significance.

And Ecclesiastes sees through it all. He's going to do it in greater ways in the next chapter this is life under the Sun.

There's no remembrance.

Not under the Sun there's no remembrance of what has come before nor will there be of things to come after as we said last week. Because we're in the midst of this cycle of three generations everyone here is a bridge of Someone who has gone on before them and perhaps the last plank of that bridge.

I Will be perhaps the last to remember my grandparents to actually have memories of them to know what they were like. If you don't have a memory and experience and interaction Doesn't really mean anything.

It's just a name. It doesn't mean anything. Remove that by just another generation just fast forward 30 years. It's forgotten. It's like chaff Time as we saw from Isaac Watts last week time Like an ever-rolling stream bears all of its sons away.

Time just bearing away that memory that Significance that impact however grand or minute it may have been. So the point of course is this fixed meditation on meaning on significance on the endless monotony and circularity of life under the Sun.

A Life that can't be remembered a life that can't be contained.

A.

Life that can't actually occupy and fulfill amidst an earth that can't occupy or fulfill a Human life. A human generation just like the earth. It's never satisfied. The Sun never completes it the oceans never full the wind never stops.

There's never a destination a goal. It seems that we're all at a small scale or a cosmic scale. We're all caught in this predicament. It's all vanity. It's all a grasping of the wind. John Golden Gate captures are so well.

He says this poem doesn't speak of human failure or of groaning. But it does raise questions about whether our action can take the world to its goal. Human beings have a conviction that we can and we must bring about change and God certainly expects us to and our Technological progress has been spectacular.

But often we've used it against the very point that Ecclesiastes seeks to make human discipline human wisdom human innovation Creative thinking human commitment will not be able to take the world to its goal.

The more things change the more they stay the same. This is an under the Sun perspective from a human perspective from the futility of your life and the limitations and confines of what it is and the Development and achievement of what it may possess.

There's no point.

There's no fulfillment.

Humanity's perpetual pursuit of new advancement will never end. Under the Sun it's never found. Novelty is an empty promise. Until we remember what we established last week. We're only speaking of life under the Sun.

It raises the question of a different perspective and a different source of Life beyond the Sun or above the Sun not speaking of the earthly perspective and experience of fallenness. But rather a heavenly or divine perspective and the the redemptive work of God.