Read Ecclesiastes 1:1–2

Today’s Scripture:  “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 1:2

“Vanity of vanities,” lamented Solomon, “all is vanity!” Solomon liked that

word vanity; he used it in some form thirty-eight times in Ecclesiastes as he wrote about everyday life. The word means “emptiness, futility, vapor, that which vanishes quickly and leaves nothing behind.”

From the human point of view (“under the sun,” Eccl. 1:3), life does

appear futile, and it is easy for us to get pessimistic. The Jewish writer

Sholom Aleichem once described life as “a blister on top of a tumor, and a boil on top of that.”

What a relief to turn from these pessimistic views and hear Jesus Christ

say, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John10:10). Or to read Paul’s majestic declaration, “Therefore, my dear

brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

Life is not in vain if it is lived according to the will of God, and that is

what Solomon teaches in this neglected and often misunderstood book.

Something to Ponder

How would you define your current philosophy of life? Finish this

statement: “Life is __________.”