Read Ecclesiastes 1:1–2
“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” (John 10:10). 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 __________.”