Who Is the Exception?

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.

Is there a thing of which it is said,

"See, this is new"?

It has been already

in the ages before us.

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 1:9-11 (ESV)

The "Preacher" said it and it has endured for centuries, even millennia. Along with Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and the Song of Songs (Solomon), Ecclesiastes has been identified as "Wisdom Literature."

It gives rise to a question: Why would a person think he or she is the exception? Since there is "nothing new under the sun," why would someone expect you or I to believe that his situation is unique in time?

An answer may include the disturbing possibility that he has been deceiving himself until he now believes it. And why would anyone ever nurture the desire to deceive himself? Could it be because he has an even greater desire to please himself? If the truth stands in the way of your desires, simply invent your own truth that fits those desires. Sadly, a person who builds a straw house finds that it has blown away long before the mortgage is paid.

C. S. Lewis said, "If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair."

Final question: What can you do to make a person turn away from the folly of insisting he or she is the exception?

Answer: Nothing. But you can and should pray that the person will be unable to resist the unconquerable truth of God.

These thoughts began near the beginning of Ecclesiastes so they will end with its conclusion:

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (ESV)