On December 27, 1927 the Broadway musical Show Boat premiered. The story was about a theatre boat called the Cotton Blossom, going down the Mississippi River from St Louis to New Orleans. Based on the novell by Edna Ferber, the music was written by Jerome Kern, and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote the lyrics. It became the second most performed show on Broadway in the 1920s, with 572 performances.
There is one song in Show Boat that I think is one of the greatest commentaries on human nature and its despair I have ever read. The song is Ol' Man River. It is sung by Joe, one of the black stevedores who keeps the boat going down the river. When I hear the song I cannot help but think of the Book of Ecclesiastes. The despair of Joe, the poor, hard working, down trodden black man, was also the despair of Solomon, one of the richest and wisest men who ever lived.
Ol' Man River is the Mississsippi. It "just keeps rollin' along." The river never changes. In Ecclesiastes, the world never changes. Both the river and the world are equally stuck in routine. A look at Ecclesiastes 1:1-9 demonstrates this:
"The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher,
vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labor
which he hath taken under he sun?
One generation passeth away; and another generation cometh:
but the earth abideth for ever.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down,
and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The wind goeth toward the south,
and turneth about unto the north;it whirleth about continually,
and the wind returneth again acording to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full;
unto the place from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again.
All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it:
The eye is not satisfied with seeing
nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be;
and that which is done is that which shall be done:
and there is no new thing under the sun.
It has been suggested to me that when Hammerstein wrote Ol' Man River, he had Ecclesiastes on his mind. This could be true. Just as Joe's despair is evident in the song, so is Soloman's in the book.
In these verses, Solomon is saying that since the world runs in cycles with no variation, what good does it do for a man to work hard to achieve? As we shall see, without God, a man's achievements will ultimately mean little or nothing. As it says in verse 4, "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever." What happens to a man's achievements after he is gone? They are forgotten.
Joe sings of the river;
He don't plant 'taters, he don't plant cotton,
And them that plants them is soon forgotten,
But Ol' Man River, he just keeps rollin' along.
Verse 11 says, "There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after."
Note the despair. Joe will not be remembered long after he dies. Few people are remembered for very long. After funerals, people go on with their lives, and the dead are rarely thought of. And unless there is a relationship with Jesus Christ, the only thing God will remember about a man will be his sin, which is why he will be in hell. But the one who dies in Christ, Jesus' blood covers that man's sins, and God remembers remembers everything about him except his sin, which is why he will be in heaven.
Verse 3 says, "What profit hath a man of all his labors which he hath taken under the sun?" Without God, all the work a man does is ultimately useless. No matter what he achieves, when it's over, it's over. Without God, labor is meaningless.
Verses 8 and 9 tell us, "All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done shall be done: and there is nothing new under the sun." Methods of doing things may change, but in the end thhere is nothing new "under the sun." Life apart from God is just boring, meaningless routine.
Just as Joe sings,
You an me, we sweat and strain, body all achin' and racked with pain,
Tote that barge, lift that bale, git a little drunk and you lands in jail.
Poor Joe! He is a man without God. He is not saved. He feels as Solomon must have when he said in verse 2, "Vanity of vanities," saith the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." In other words, life apart from God is a lesson in futility from beginning to end, and on into eternity.
Joe sings,
Ah is weary, and sick of tryin', Ahm tired o' living, and sceered o' dyin',
But Ol' Man River, he just keeps rollin' along.
Without God, Joe's life has no genuine purpose, and neither does yours or mine. Of course, weariness is going to set in, if for no other reaason than because ther is no ultimate purpose for labor or living. As Psalm 14:1 says, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." But apart from God, there can be no purpose to life. Ol' Man River is just going to keep on rollin' along after we are all dead and buried.
Maybe you are weary and sick of trying. Maybe you are tired of living and afraid of dying. I have good news for you. You don't have to be weary or tired. You don't have to be sick of trying, because you don't have to try. For your salvation, you don't have to try, but to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8 and 9 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." True Christianity is not religion, but having a trusting relationship with the One Who shed his blood for your sins on the cross. Christianity says everything needed has already been done. In fact, the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:21, "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ died in vain."
I will be very frank with you: If you do not trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you should be, as Joe was, scared of dying. Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment." The only way to come out ahead in your appointment with death is to trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. When all is said and done, the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes (12:13 and 14) is as true today as when it was written: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
The Lord said of people in John 10:10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." You do not want to live Joe's life of despair, and you don't have to. You can have the better, fuller life Jessus offers, not only now but for ever. Trust Him now.
(Copyright, 2002, by Walter E. Ferguson III. All rights reserved.
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