Ecclesiastes 1:2 (NLT)
2 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
Ecclesiastes 1:2 (ESV)
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
Upon your first time reading Ecclesiastes you will most likely be taken back as you see in God’s word a definitive statement made saying everything is vain or meaningless. The statement Solomon used was really saying that everything is like a vapor. Something you can see but never truly grasp, that is gone as quickly as it appears. Now you’re probably thinking of all the things you believe to be meaningful and in some ways I’m sure they are. However, as you read on Solomon makes a good case for the fact that everything in this life is in fact meaningless.
Ecclesiastes 1:3–11 (ESV)
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.
Solomon truly believed what he wrote and saw all things in this life as meaningless but why did he believe that. The simple answer is because he was right. So much of what we all do on a regular basis is meaningless. We work day after day to gain things that will eventually wear out and need to be replaced meaning we will need to keep working for those very same things all our life. Then one day all that we worked for will pass away along with the whole earth.
Matthew 24:35 (ESV)
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Even the noblest of professions in which many would believe carry the most meaning is just like everything else meaningless. Because the services they offer can only fix a situation for a short time but are not able to last through eternity. They will never be able to truly accomplish their goal and something else will always need to be fixed.
In the above passage, I said that Solomon was right but that’s only true to extant. You see everything is meaningless except one very specific thing. Something that had yet to be revealed in the time of Solomon and the only thing in life he would have been able to discover true meaning in. That being the salvation that God freely offers to all people through Jesus Christ and the responsibility of God’s people to share that truth with the world.
John 3:16–17 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Matthew 28:19 (ESV)
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
We can feed people but they will be hungry again. Medicine and life-saving surgeries can be provided to those who desperately need them but those fixes will only last a time as no one can escape death. We can support others financially yet they will never have enough. But if we can lead them to salvation we can change their circumstances in this life and the next. Causing them to inherit the greatest gift ever bestowed upon anyone eternity in Heaven. Where all that plagues this world will be no more.
Revelation 21:4 (ESV)
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Solomon believed that everything was meaningless because all that he could see had no true meaning. But that’s because he could not see the Gospel we know today. A message that carries true meaning and has eternal ramifications. There are two things to learn from Solomon’s teaching that everything is meaningless. First that all the world believes to be meaningful truly isn’t when examined in detail. As well as that those who don’t know Jesus can’t see anything meaningful in this life but the church can.
Personally, I have to agree with Solomon that a life without Jesus and without sharing the Gospel is meaningless. No matter what you do it will offer no meaning in the grand scheme of life if it doesn’t lead others to salvation. Those who live for God and work to lead others to salvation will find a meaning-filled life that nothing else in this world is able to offer.
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