Ecclesiastes 1:1-11
ALL IS VANITY - "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 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. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 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 1:1-11).
There comes a point in each of our lives when we stop and reflect upon where we have been, what we have done, and how far we have come. We see the timeline of events which have shaped our lives and assess how they have impacted who we are today. Typically, that assessment comes after trial and error as we seek to test our theories, ideas and opinions, yet how we react or respond to what we learn determines whether or not we make the same choices or alter course.
Ecclesiastes is the epitome of life reflection as testified by King Solomon, who likely wrote it in his advanced age. Metaphorically, it reads like a photo album or scrapbook of memories which shaped Solomon's perspective over time. What makes Ecclesiastes so intriguing is that it captures man's infatuation with chasing after fulfillment in a myriad of forms and fashions, including everything under the sun except God.
Solomon applied himself to exhaust his pursuit of happiness through wisdom, self-indulgence, success, wealth, honor, etc. He pursued the treasures of this world to the extent that he achieved them all, only to come to the same conclusion each time that life is devoid of meaning and purpose without God.
The wisdom contained in the book of Ecclesiastes is emblematic of our culture today. We are bombarded from every angle with marketing and advertising schemes aimed at satisfying our fleshly desires. Opportunities are endless to wet our appetites into thinking our WANTS are truly our NEEDS, and that is precisely what Satan wants to tempt us with in order to draw us away from God's absolute truth.
"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8).
Satan preys upon our weaknesses and devises the most elaborate and intricate methods at his disposal to bait us into thinking that _____ will make us happy; will bring us peace; _____ will put us back on our feet; _____ will make us feel loved, wanted and/or appreciated; _____ will get us into heaven one day; or _____ will make all the pain go away. He knows that if he can shift our focus off the absolute truth of Scripture, we will begin to struggle discerning what is right and wrong, or what is real vs. a mirage.
We must remember that the forces of hell are not only fully aware of what the Bible says, they also BELIEVE it is true. "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!" (James 2:19). Therefore, we need not debate whether God's Word is worthy to be trusted, for Satan and all his demons testify to its validity and trustworthiness.
That is because the Word of God is not merely a historical timeline of events or collection of opinions from ordinary men, but the real-life manifestation of Jesus Christ who conquered sin and death for eternity.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).
Ecclesiastes carries the theme of "vanity" throughout its twelve chapters. The vanity Solomon speaks of conveys a sentiment of emptiness or without meaning. In other words, we desire only to fill our cravings with the objects of our desires, but realize quickly that the end result leaves us void of feeling fulfilled at all.
Solomon begins Ecclesiastes with a proclamation of vanity and determines that life simply comes and goes without the slightest change to time and creation. Generations come and go, the sun rises and sets, the wind blows where it wills, and waters rise and fall. All these events exist independent of man because they are ordained by God. Therefore, it matters not whether a man painstakingly toils under the sun because one day he will die.
Interestingly though, underneath the surface of his litany of examples, Solomon addresses the question, "What is my purpose in life?" The purpose or meaning of life is perhaps the most speculated of personal application questions known to man. We desire to be known and make an impact on the world, and that the time we have been given here on earth will contribute to our eternal reward at the end of our lives. But we must realize up-front as we study the book of Ecclesiastes that Solomon's experiential journey for fulfillment was devoid of God.
Solomon exhausted all that the world had to offer, and did so without the slightest regard for the Lord's will. He sought happiness and contentment outside of a personal relationship with his creator. And that is why Ecclesiastes is so compelling a book and rich in wisdom, because it proves that nothing in the world will ever satisfy the longing of a man's heart besides intimacy with the Lord in whom everlasting life is found.
Solomon was blessed by God with the gift of wisdom and prospered more than any man in history. However, in his arrogance he felt he could test the limits of self-fulfillment because he had the "Midas touch" and everything he touched would figuratively turn to gold. He misunderstood the Lord's provision as an opportunity to live independent of God while he pursued his passions.
“Solomon took the old adage, ‘Don’t knock it ‘til you try it’ to the absurd by throwing himself into everything life has to offer with reckless abandon, serving as his own subject in the lab of life.”
Simply stated, Solomon had MORE wealth, MORE sex, MORE intellect, MORE power, and MORE EVERYTHING than any man alive, yet it did not satisfy the spiritual hole in his heart.
No doubt, Solomon succeeded in going to the extreme, but he also forgot the prayer his father, King David, prayed over him on his death bed regarding the Lord's will for his life.
"I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn" (1 Kings 2:2-3).
The most important thing to remember as we work through each chapter in Ecclesiastes is that Solomon lived the prodigal life. He started well, he finished well, but he was seriously lost somewhere in the middle. Thus, Ecclesiastes is a story of warning to those of us who think life is about our peace, our joy, our comfort, our happiness, and our contentment.
We must return to God, repent for our sins of pride and selfishness, and cling to His Word for our salvation. Or as the author of Hebrews states, "Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it" (Hebrews 2:1).
Divine revelation has been revealed to us by God through the prophets who pointed to Christ, and the New Testament writers who testified that Jesus was the Christ. So why do we continue to wander? Why do we seek fulfillment in the pleasures of this world?
As Solomon discovered, the mirage of contentment our world tempts us with will fade and pass away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. We simply cannot buy into Satan's lie that the grass is greener on the other side. It isn't! And if we believe that it is, we will succumb to our desires, be enslaved by our flesh, held in bondage by the evil one, and forever lost till we come to our senses and declare, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son" (Luke 15:21).
Let us not be foolish like Solomon and test the limits of self-consumption by throwing away what God has graciously given us through the sacrifice of His Son. Rather, let us remember that "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire" (2 Peter 1:3-4).
