The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
6 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.
7 All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
8 All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 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.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
6 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.
7 All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
8 All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 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.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
“See, this is new”?
It has been already
in the ages before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be
among those who come after.
Message: Vanity of vanities; the perspective of life
Time: Solomon's authorship is not stated. Solomon's reign as king of Israel lasted from around 970 B.C. to around
930 B.C. The Book of Ecclesiastes was likely written towards the end of
his reign, approximately 935 B.C.
What the Lord is Saying:
The focus here with this book is not that all things are meaningless and there is nothing in life that is of value, but "vanity" means that we need to put our lives in perspective. There should be lessons we learn in this life that do not make sense, just for this life. Our perspective should be eternal. We should see that this life is temporal, as this chapter mentions often:
The focus here with this book is not that all things are meaningless and there is nothing in life that is of value, but "vanity" means that we need to put our lives in perspective. There should be lessons we learn in this life that do not make sense, just for this life. Our perspective should be eternal. We should see that this life is temporal, as this chapter mentions often:
- What does man gain by all the toil (v.3) - man works hard, but his hard work has often few results; yes, it may add to a standard of living, but that is temporary often; man needs to be focused on the quality of his life verses just gaining his toil.
- A generation goes, and a generation comes (v. 4) - if we just look at our lives, we see history; one people are present, then another
- We can watch the earth and its movements (v. 5-7) and see that it just goes through cycles; again, this should remind us that life is temporary and repetitious.
- Eye/ear not satisfied (v. 8) - the eyes and ears always want more out of life. One TV show will never do it; i need a series to see and listen.
- Under the sun (v. 3,9) - there is nothing new under the sun; this should point us to a different sun; another time and place; I should be reminded that nothing is really new (v. 10); it all repeats, just in different ways.
This is most interesting. Our perspective needs to be eternal. This doesn't mean that there is no happiness we can take from the world, our job, our money, our families, but we are to keep them in the right perspective and focus on them in the right way. What Solomon will often do is weigh them and find, to their fullest extent, they are missing something. Isn't it amazing how many movie stars, musicians, with fame and fortune, still overdose on drugs and die? They have everything they had hoped and yet they don't have peace and are still looking for comfort in something else.
Promise: Ultimately, we can only find meaning in the Creator who creates all and invests life into all.
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