The book begins with a rather mysterious declaration of who is writing it. It
begins with saying that these are the words of the "Preacher, the son of David, the
king in Jerusalem." I believe that this can be none other than Solomon, King
David's son, who in this book is preaching a sermon. He is preaching a sermon
which shows forth the vanity of this life when God and His wisdom, God and His
commandments, are not received and lived by. Why doesn't Solomon simply come
out and call himself by his own name? He states the fact that he is King David's
son, but he doesn't speak of himself as king until verse 12 of the first chapter. I
believe that the reason that he doesn't state his own name is because he is truly
ashamed and repentant over the way that he has lived his life. He was given more
wisdom than any man of that generation and yet he did not live wisely in
accordance with God's Word. We shall see the proof of this in many places in the
book. The proposition of Solomon's sermon is that a man cannot be truly happy if
he only pursues worldly interests and pleasures and investments. He calls this
"life under the sun". It is trying to find the meaning of life apart from God and His
commandments. Solomon calls himself the Preacher because he himself has
learned some lessons in life the hard way, and now that he is old, he would like to
preach the truth of his own repentance of living a lifestyle of "life under the sun."
He begins the sermon by declaring his negative conclusion first. "Vanity of
Vanities, says the Preacher; vanity of vanities, all is vanity."
So 1st of all- Let us try to define what Vanity is.
The word vanity in the Hebrew is the word, Hebel. It occurs no less than 37
times in the book. Primarily it means "breath", and "light wind". The word vanity
in the original Hebrew means "a thing insufficient and worthless, that soon
vanishes away, like a vapor or a bubble." (Taylor's Hebrew Concordance) In the
margin of my Bible it states that other words for vanity are "absurdity",
"frustration", "futility", and "nonsense". To me, as I look at the context of the
things that are mentioned as vanity in the first 6 chapters of this book; labor,
greatness in an earthly sense; wisdom and knowledge in regard to gardening,
possessions, music, laughter and mirth, power and position; you can begin to
understand what Solomon means by vanity. Solomon was looking for meaning
and lasting satisfaction in the good things of the earth which God has given him in
this life, but as much as he tries, he finds that their profit and satisfaction does not
last. The more that he labors at it, and the more that he searches for satisfaction in
building an earthly kingdom, at building a satisfying and productive earthly life,
the more illusive and uncertain the continuance of these things is to him; and to
the people that he loves, and to the kingdom that he rules over. The vanity of
vanities is that all is vanity. All of life under the sun; all of life simply considered
in itself, apart from the knowledge of God and the blessing of God upon anything
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that we are, become, or do; is filled with vanity. It does not bring the lasting
satisfaction that one would think that it would. There is an frustration, a
disappointment, and an emptiness that comes to the person who pursues life in
this way, in the final analysis.
2ndly- Solomon uses the example of what man labors for, which may
be done in vain.
He says in verse 3, "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." He has thought about the generations of men that so
quickly go by and pass away. Each one labors and toils, but what is the result?
Something that lasts and will stand forever? No. It is something that will last for
that generation and then will fade away, eventually passing away into oblivion. A
man's house and his estate, which he has spent so much time building; he cannot
continue in it because of death. He passes it on to his children; they sell it and
spend the proceeds and someone else comes to live in it. But all of what he has
tried to do and establish and have last, comes to vanity. It is at this point that the
mind of the Christian raises a question. "But is it not true that in all labor there is
profit," as it says in Proverbs 14: 23? "In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter
leads only to poverty." Does this not contradict what we have been reading in
Ecclesiastes? I think that we only need to understand that there are 2 different
sorts of labor in this world. One is tainted with vanity and it is reaps only
temporary results; and the other has God's glory and his grace in mind and it
yields eternal rewards.
Let's look at the labor that is tainted with vanity. Turn with me to Psalm 49:
16. It says here, "Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, when the glory of his
house is increased; for when he dies he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall
not descend after him." "Though while he lives he blesses himself (for men will
praise you when you do well for yourself), he shall go to the generation of his
fathers; they shall never see light." "A man who is in honor, yet does not
understand is like the beasts that perish." You see, this is vanity. This is labor
tainted with no goal other than to please oneself and impress other people. Now
turn with me to the gospel of John Chapter 6: 27. We find here the principle of
labor which will turn an eternal profit. "Do not labor for the food which perishes,
but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you,
because God the Father has set His seal on Him. If you labor to understand the
spiritual things, the principles of wisdom that give real understanding; this is the
food that nourishes the soul and satisfies and sustains the soul when earthly
satisfactions, and even earthly food will not encourage you. This food endures to
eternal life. Your soul has been fed and satisfied and God Himself is there working
in your heart to be the strength of it forever.
Jesus always taught the importance of having spiritual understanding. It is
possible to have worldly and earthly understanding and yet not have spiritual
understanding. Turn with me to Matthew 13: 10. "And the disciples came and
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said to Him, 'Why do You speak to them in parables?" "He answered and said to
them, 'Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven, but them it has not been given.' "For whoever has, to him more will be
given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has
will be taken away from him." You see, "a man who is in honor, yet does not
understand is like the beasts that perish." What vanity it is to live life without the
spiritual understanding which comes from God Himself through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Many generations of people have come and gone, and yet every generation
has the same problem with vanity unless they come to the knowledge of God.
Everything that they have will not last, and in the end will be taken away from
them. This is not true of spiritual understanding. More and more is given; and
there is more and more satisfaction which comes from it.
3rdly- Solomon illustrates this truth of vanity by using illustrations
from nature.
(Verses 5-9)
"The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it
arose." "The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; the wind
whirls about continually, and comes again on to its circuit." "All the rivers run into
the sea, yet the sea is not full' to the place from which the rivers come, there they
return again." "All things are full of labor; man cannot express it." "The eye is not
satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." "That which has been is
what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new
under the sun." What Solomon mentions first is the regularity and speed of the
sun's motions around the earth. It rises and goes down. It hastens to the place
where it arose. This is a grand and brilliant picture of a man's daily labors. Every
day he gets up, goes to his business, and then goes home. He hastens through his
labor in order to get home again, and once there, he is too tired to do much of
anything else. He goes to bed and gets up the next day to engage in the same
round of duties, and after a few years of this; it becomes very wearisome to him.
That is, without bringing God into it.
The next illustration is the wind. "The wind goes toward the south, and turns
around to the north, and whirls about continually, and comes again to its circuit."
The wind is much more unpredictable in its motions than the sun. There are many
things which happen during man's days under the sun which cause it to be
interesting to him because they are the unpredictable factors, things which come
just because there are many details to labor and many people interacting with
those details. Things which come out of nowhere and affect his everyday routine.
This is interesting to him and is something that he must pay attention to in his
labors every day. And yet, after a while, he begins to know their movements in his
life as well, and this becomes vanity to him. He is able somewhat to predict things
that are going to happen to him in the course of the day; sometimes they are
interesting; and sometimes they are a nuisance. At the time of writing this; I am
looking out my dining room window and it is very snowy outside and the wind is
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blowing just like the verse that we are studying here. It is strong and it is "whirling
about continually." I had dug paths through the snow for the mailman to be able
to walk through, because the snow is deep. But the wind keeps covering up the
paths that I make. My previous labor has been in vain. I must go out once again
to reestablish the path. It is wonderful to watch the wind from inside where I am
protected. But it wearisome to think about having to go outside to labor in the
snow again. So it is with man's labor. If Christ is the one whom we are laboring to
and for ultimately, then our labor will not be in vain in Him. We can always be
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labors will bring an eternal
harvest and is profitable in every way. There is satisfaction in this kind of labor,
whether it is repetitive or not. The Lord is pleased with it, and we can be satisfied
with doing it. The Lord alone is the only one who can establish all of our works for
us so that they are profitable and bring glory to him. Whereas, if the Lord is "not
in the wind"; if in our mind He is not in all the adversity and difficulties that we
face in our labor, then we cannot find satisfaction or peace in many things that we
do. We will blame people that we work with and we will try hard to control all the
random factors in our work experience. We may end up being very anxious or
bitter people if we cannot succeed in gaining control.
The final illustration is the rivers which flow into the sea. Even though the
rivers do this; yet the sea is not full. This is also the way it is with the labor of men
who live "under the sun." All things are full of labor according to this worldly,
earthly man who will not believe that God is real; that He is the reason for our
existence. We should live and labor to His glory. But the eye of the worldly man is
never ultimately satisfied with his labor, just seeing the sights and hearing the
sounds of what he works at. He is only concerned with getting the job done and
seeing pay for it. But the person that truly likes his work; it is because he has
glimpsed something of the greatness and goodness of God to ordain work as
something which good for man. Only God can give lasting satisfaction to man's
work. And indeed He does, to the person who thinks about himself in relation to
the God who is the giver of every good and perfect gift.
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