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 profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever. Ecclesiastes 1:1–4
The outlook on life which Solomon outlines at the beginning of Ecclesiastes is not very different from the pessimistic view that so many people take in our own time. They see a world in which nothing ever seems to change in spite of the continued exertions made upon it. It seems that even the most powerful and ambitious men can ultimately make no lasting mark, and even if he could, he cannot know what his heirs will do with what he leaves. If the masterpieces of Renaissance Europe could not be protected from Goering’s avarice during WW2, what should make us think that our investments will never fall into the hands of evil men? And if this is so, what’s the use? What is the purpose of working so hard? What is the point in living at all? It was for this meaning that Solomon conducted a lifelong search––a search which took many different turns.
He sought purpose in pleasure. If after all, it is the case that “tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32), then by all means, “let us eat and drink” today! For a time Solomon looked for every transient pleasure that money could buy (Ecclesiastes 2:24–25). What he missed during this period of his life is the fact that after “tomorrow we die,” comes the universal judgment (Hebrews 9:27). There are many wealthy people who purchase every possible amusement for themselves and wonder why they can’t be happy. The reason is that pleasure gives us no purpose for living each day.
He sought purpose in learning. Those who go to school perpetually or bury themselves in books find eventually that “what is lacking cannot be numbered” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). The trouble with learning is that the more you acquire, the more you become aware of your ignorance! Knowledge might make you feel superior to others, but it will also make you feel quite small. Isaac Newton (maybe the greatest scientist of all time), once compared himself with “a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” Solomon saw that great wisdom would not keep him from following the same course to the grave that the fool follows (only with less trouble of mind) (Ecclesiastes 2:14–16; 1:18). Knowledge can be useful, but it cannot give us purpose.
At last Solomon found purpose in this: “Fear God and keep His commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). “This,” he adds, “is man’s all.” He then proceeds to tell us that all we do (even secret things) will be brought out in the judgment (v 14). As we live our lives in which one day is pretty much like the one before it, we can find meaning only when we realize that there is coming a day which will not be at all like the ones before it––the Judgment Day––a day in which all that we have done will matter! Instead of living with the mindset that says, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” we live with the mindset that says, “Let us fear and keep, for tomorrow we die, and after this the judgment!” When we do, we always have a purpose for living and for suffering what we must today, and, as Niezche used to say, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
The research has been done. If you are looking for meaning to your seemingly purposeless existence, you will not find it in pleasure or human wisdom, but only in seeking to please God!