Week #2: When Time Doesn’t Change a Thing
Blog Series Intention Recap
The Teacher in Ecclesiastes offers ancient wisdom that helps us see our lives with sober clarity. His words challenge our illusions of control and permanence as we begin a new year, pointing us to God’s eternal provision and purpose.
This post is the main page of the series “Nothing New.” Click here to see the rest of the posts.
Let’s jump into Week #2:
Living with Rhythm, Not Illusion. God has created all things and sustains them for His purposes. Humans can only create from the materials God has provided. Our creations will pass away or be repurposed.
Why it Matters:
God designs rhythms, not redundancy. The cycles of creation are not random but reflect divine intentionality.
Human toil is limited and temporary. All effort under the sun is bounded by the materials and time God provides.
Only God's work endures. Creation continues because God upholds it by His will and power.
Prayer reorients ambition. The Lord’s Prayer draws us to seek God’s will rather than strive for self-made permanence.
Go Deeper:
As the calendar turns, many people embrace the promise of a fresh start. Yet beneath the surface of our resolutions and restarts lies an ancient frustration: things often do not change. The same problems persist. The same patterns reappear. The same limits return.
The Teacher in Ecclesiastes speaks to this disillusionment with an almost poetic monotony:
"What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever."
—Ecclesiastes 1:3–4 (ESV)
The Teacher is not being cynical. He is being clear. He offers wisdom for those who would build their hopes on time, on labor, or on progress. His warning is this: the world does not evolve beyond God’s control, and nothing endures except what God sustains.
The Patterned Nature of Creation
Ecclesiastes 1:5–7 describes a world in motion: the sun rises and sets, the wind blows in circles, streams run endlessly into the sea. The imagery is vivid and repetitive, suggesting motion without finality:
"The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises."
—Ecclesiastes 1:5 (ESV)
"All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again."
—Ecclesiastes 1:7 (ESV)
These natural rhythms remind us that we inhabit a created order of cycles. The Teacher does not despise these patterns. He is not criticizing the earth’s design, but the illusion that human activity can transcend these patterns.
The rhythms of nature reflect God’s order. Genesis 1–2 describes a creation built around days, seasons, and boundaries. The repetition in Ecclesiastes is not an argument for futility, but an argument for creaturely humility.
The Vanity of Toil without God
The Teacher’s question—“What does man gain by all the toil…?” (Eccl. 1:3)—echoes through history. What does the entrepreneur gain from endless hours? What does the student gain from sleepless study? What does the builder gain from a finished home?
The biblical answer is complex. On the one hand, labor is a gift. Genesis 2:15 shows Adam tending the garden before the Fall. Work existed before sin. It reflects God’s image in humanity.
On the other hand, labor after the Fall becomes burdened with frustration (Genesis 3:17–19). The thorns and sweat remind us that toil, apart from God’s presence and purpose, yields little satisfaction and no permanence.
The Teacher’s words strike at the heart of modern ambition. He strips away the illusion that our efforts can grant ultimate meaning. This is not to deny the value of labor—but to redefine it under God’s sovereignty.
Paul’s words to the Colossians provide the balance:
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
—Colossians 3:23 (ESV)
Our toil finds purpose when it is done not for gain but for glory—not for legacy, but for worship.
God's Sustaining Presence
Behind the cycles of sun, wind, and water is the invisible hand of divine providence. The constancy of nature is not due to its own power, but to God's sustaining word.
Hebrews 1:3 says of Christ:
"He upholds the universe by the word of his power."
—Hebrews 1:3b (ESV)
Similarly, Paul proclaims in Colossians:
"In him all things hold together."
—Colossians 1:17b (ESV)
These truths remind us that the repetition in nature is not meaningless—it is faithful. Creation is not an aimless machine but a chorus of reliability under God's rule.
The sea does not overflow because God governs it. The sun does not fail to rise because God commands it. The Teacher’s lament over repetition becomes praise when viewed through the lens of divine governance.
This means that our lives, too, are held within God’s faithful hands. Even the seemingly mundane can become sacred when viewed as participation in God’s sustained creation.
The Theology of Dependence
How then should we live? The answer, again, comes from Jesus.
In Matthew 6:9–13, Jesus teaches us to pray:
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.”
—Matthew 6:10–11 (ESV)
This prayer reorients our entire understanding of time, toil, and trust. Rather than asking God to bless our efforts to escape the cycles of life, we learn to dwell within them with grace.
We do not demand the future—we ask for daily bread.
We do not chase legacy—we seek His kingdom.
We do not resist repetition—we embrace God's rhythm.
Jesus does not teach us to resent limitation, but to rest in God’s provision. The Lord’s Prayer is a radical departure from self-reliance. It affirms the Creator’s authority and calls us to daily dependence on Him.
Human Innovation and Divine Boundaries
Modern culture celebrates innovation, and rightly so. God has given humanity remarkable capacities for creativity, healing, and progress. But every act of human creation begins with borrowed materials.
“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.”
—Ecclesiastes 1:9 (ESV)
This is not a denial of invention, but a declaration of origin. We do not create ex nihilo. Only God creates from nothing. We shape, remix, adapt, and reform what God has already spoken into being.
Thus, our greatest technological marvels remain within the bounds of divine permission. Our inventions, like our labor, will fade. Only God’s word endures.
Isaiah affirms this truth:
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
—Isaiah 40:8 (ESV)
Living with Perspective
If nothing new comes along under the sun, then true newness must come from above. The Christian hope is not in novelty but in resurrection. Paul declares:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
—2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
This is not the newness of gadgets or goals—it is the newness of being. God doesn’t just give us a new year. He gives us a new heart.
When we see the world through this lens, even repetition becomes redemptive. The daily patterns of waking, working, and waiting can be transformed into worship. The sameness of the seasons becomes a sacred rhythm of reliance on the One who is unchanging.
How does this help me understand, “Nothing New?”
The Gospel in the Cycles
The Teacher was right—under the sun, there is nothing new. But the Gospel invites us to look beyond the sun. Beyond the cycles. Beyond the striving.
The cross of Christ breaks the cycle of futility. His resurrection inaugurates a new creation. His Spirit renews our minds to see time not as tyranny, but as opportunity.
So as we continue this new year, let us not be surprised by repetition. Let us not be discouraged by the limits of labor. Instead, let us remember:
The God who formed the wind still guides our steps.
The God who sends the rain still meets our needs.
The God who ordains the sunrise still holds tomorrow.
Let us live not in fear of life’s cycles, but in faith in the One who created them. For while nothing new comes along under the sun, everything new is found in the Son.
