Discouraged? Skeptical? Need an encounter with the real God? Meaningless Life is a simple plan that walks through the book of the Bible that bemoans its’ hardships and yet discovers deep joy: Ecclesiastes. Struggling in relationships, work, physically, or emotionally? Are you a high-achiever, insecure, worried, proud of what you’ve accomplished? The wisest man in the world set out on a quest to find solutions for these and more and he found them!
Vanity of Life & Grief of the Wise
Read Ecclesiastes 1
Ecclesiastes. Why this book? Well it resonates with the point that many experience at one point: a blandness to life, a feeling of purposelessness and chasing the wind. In this Bible book our complaints and struggles find a voice and an answer.
Solomon, David’s son, is the human author of this divine book, and he paints a pretty dull picture of life, doesn’t he? There is a purpose why he is writing this way as we will see as we go on in the book. But here in chapter 1, we see the wisest man who ever walked the bemoan that life is meaningless, vanity, a chasing after the wind. Generations come and go. There is a big craze about the current generation and the generation coming up next but guess what? The cycle will continue, each successive generation perpetually worries about the one coming after it.
Not only is this so with people, but planet earth itself continues its cycles. The sun rises and sets daily. The wind blows year after year. The rivers go back to the sea in the water cycle century after century.
The monotony, the incessant sameness of life can lead to weariness and indeed does for many. There is no satisfaction to be found in the daily grind stripped of purpose and hope. History repeats itself and we neglect to remember what we ought. This is the lesson that Solomon begins Ecclesiastes with.
In response to this bland view of reality Solomon had a good idea, as many today have, to put forth his effort to seek knowledge and wisdom so he could get better! But what we discover, as the demeanor of many professors and even seminarians reveal, is that much knowledge and wisdom lead to sorrow. Understanding that mankind is desperately wicked and is going to continue to make the same sinful decisions of rebellion to God and His ways again and again is wearisome. Human nature is not comforting when it is truly seen.
Solomon is showing us the meaninglessness of life apart from God through Christ Jesus. The atheist has no hope. The despairing Christian sees no horizon. Tomorrow in chapter 2, we will see the specific things that mankind continues to chase and prioritize in hopes to fill the satisfaction void within. All mankind feels it—the realization of the fact that their lives are chasing the wind without a higher purpose. Solomon will point to the answer for lasting hope and meaning in later chapters.
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