The Paradox of Rivers

"All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full!"  Ecclesiastes 1:7

Isn’t that an amazing thought? We could stand in awe at the mouth of Amazon, the Yangtze, the Danube and Brahmaputra, the Mississippi, Thames and Congo, the Mekong, Volga and Rhine, the Columbia and a thousand other rivers, large and small, pouring themselves day and night into the sea, and marvel at the paradox of the sea never getting filled to capacity.

It’s fascinating how this world seems to be a perpetual motion machine.
Gravity pulls the streams downward to the sea; solar energy pumps them back up to the clouds and mountain peaks and the cycle repeats itself, again and again. The hydrological cycle serves to keep the earth alive, woodlands and wet-lands, cities and prairies - it is a  wonderful fascinating arrangement.

But to Qohelet, the philosopher-poet of Ecclesiastes, it illustrates the futility of life. What it the point of it all? To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say.  Ecclesiates 1:7-8

Despite the constant in-flow of rivers, the ocean is never filled, and the streams are never drained. Nothing changes. And the same phenomenon describes the human condition. We grow up, work hard and die; we’re hamsters on a wheel, but the wheel isn’t taking us anywhere. Nothing we achieve will last forever.

Is Qohelet just a jaded philosopher? In part, yes, but he’s also onto something important. His observation is a harsh dose of realism that checks our delusions of grandeur, our inclination to over-estimate our significance and our capacity to make a difference. All the rivers in the world don’t make a difference to the ocean. Nor do we.

No wonder he says “this is wearying thought – more that words can express” This is hardly an inspiring or motivating vision for life. It’s enough to take the wind right out of our sails and paralyze us with the futility of it all.

As his essay continues, the author recognizes the pleasures we can experience along the way in the process of this ultimately meaningless life. And like all the wisdom writers of Israel, he sees a riddle in life that cries out for an explanation.