“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 does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 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. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 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. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. I said in my heart, ‘I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.’ And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”

The Vapor of Humanity, The Foundation of God

There are three books in Scripture which Solomon, the third king of Israel is credited with writing – Song of Solomon, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Song of Solomon, which is attributed to Solomon writing as a young man, is one of, if not the most lighthearted and poetic books of the Bible. It is rich with the fervor and excitement of young love, conveying a giddy kind of anticipation between the bridegroom and the bride, while on a deeper level communicating the love between the Lord and His Bride. Proverbs is a more sober text than Song of Solomon, it carries itself with greater maturity, and it’s many lessons deliver more direct practical applications than the poetry of the first book. Yet for its practical nature it still has bright qualities, it still fosters imagination through the poetic image of the woman known as wisdom, and presents itself with an overall air of optimism. Ecclesiastes on the other hand presents itself with a far different tone. Just as there are some who become bogged down in the poetry of Song of Solomon, and fail to appreciate the depth and richness of the book, there are those who see Ecclesiastes as simply being dark and gloomy. In their minds the book is pigeonholed as the bitter lamentations of a man at the end of his life, and they fail to see the brightness that the dark broodings of an old king present through their contrast. After becoming king, Solomon prays and asks for wisdom. We see the Lord’s response in 1 Kings 3:10–12,

“It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.’”

The Solomon who wrote Ecclesiastes was no less wise than the Solomon who wrote Proverbs – rather with age he gained the perspective to look back upon his life, see his own failings and shortcomings, and see exactly what his abounding wisdom had gained him. This also comes at a point where Solomon had married many foreign women and built altars to pagan gods, as we read in 1 Kings 11:4,

“For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.”

For all the glory and splendor of his kingdom, for all the fame of his divinely given wisdom, Solomon looks back on a life that held an abundance of potential, and sees all the ways in which he failed – all the ways in which the glory and riches of the world, the might and power that accompanied an unnaturally keen mind were worthless if God is not what lies at the center of it all. This book is a masterpiece of identifying the impermanence, untrustworthiness, and all around disappointment that is held within the flesh of man, and the complete futility of life when it is not lived for God. As we move through the text and look on the words of an old and sorrowful Solomon, we’re given an opportunity to reflect on ourselves, to see the condition of our own hearts and, as with all that makes up the God-breathed Word, glorify God for the wonder and promise He has given us, praise Him for the blessing of the Hope He has provided, and align our perspectives to ensure that our Father in heaven is the center of all that we are.

1. The Impermanence of Man

“The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.”

Before we delve into what the book of Ecclesiastes is actually teaching we need to address what is likely the most controversial point of the book – who wrote it? I know I’ve already listed Solomon as the author, and that’s not without reason, but his authorship of the book is actually something that is hotly contested – though I believe the reasoning behind denying Solomon as the author to be ultimately flawed, which I’ll explain. There are no Biblical figures that we know solely as “the Preacher,” however “son of David,” and “king in Jerusalem,” narrow the field considerably, leaving the only candidate for authorship to be king Solomon, son of David and third king of Israel. Purely looking at “son of David,” “king in Jerusalem,” this seems pretty straightforward – given that criteria, Solomon is the only person this could be. Why then is the identity of the author so heavily debated? One reason is that the title, “son of David,” could be applied to any legitimate Davidic descendant. There are some instances in the Old Testament where a king would begin to steer the nation back toward God, and we’ll read, as we do of Josiah in 2 Kings 22:2,

“And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.”

However, using this to explain away Solomon as the author of Ecclesiastes can be used a little too liberally, as it encounters a problem. While certain kings are acknowledged as having David as their father, we don’t see “son of David” applied as a title to any of them. Nowhere in the Old Testament do we see, “king Josiah, son of David,” written, and while the two things have essentially the same meaning, “walked in all the ways of David his father,” is descriptive, while “son of David,” is not just a description, it’s a title. The only other place we see “son of David” used in the Old Testament is in the opening verse of Proverbs, referring to Solomon, Proverbs 1:1 saying,

“The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel…”

We don’t see “son of David” used elsewhere in Scripture until we get to the New Testament and it’s applied to Jesus. It’s something that was used in reference to messianic figures, but we don’t see it used for any Old Testament king but the writer of Ecclesiastes (and Proverbs… Because they’re the same person). Another reason that people will question Solomonic authorship is the claim that the dialect of Hebrew that the book is written in doesn’t fit the time period when Solomon would have lived. I confess, I’m no linguist, however this argument seems to completely fizzle out, as the influences of Phoenician and Aramaic, as well as certain regional dialects all play a factor here, some of which very much support Solomon as the author. So to definitively say, “Solomon couldn’t have written this because they didn’t speak like that then,” doesn’t gain nearly enough traction to dismiss his candidacy as the author. Next, people will claim that Solomon wasn’t the author because there are things addressed in the book that point to later in the timeline than when he ruled as king. That’s a fair critique – but let’s look at what some of these things are. There is the claim that the writer states that there have been many kings over Jerusalem before him, citing Ecclesiastes 1:16,

“I said in my heart, ‘I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me…’”

Ecclesiastes 2:7,

“I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.”

And Ecclesiastes 2:9,

“So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.”

There are a few different angles from which we could spot problems with this, but what seems to be by far the strongest is noting that while David was the first king of Israel to reign in Jerusalem, he was by no means the city’s first king. We have record of kings of Jerusalem dating back to Genesis 14 when Abram is met by Melchizedek, the king of Salem, and by this reckoning we’re given over a thousand years of rulers that have come before Solomon for him to compare his wisdom and wealth to. The final critique I’ll address is that people will say that Solomon couldn’t have been the author of Ecclesiastes because the writer clearly had firsthand knowledge of the mistakes of other kings. The problem with this being a critique is that Solomon having this knowledge fits exceptionally well. The sections used to attempt to support this view would be passages like Ecclesiastes 4:13–16,

“Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor.  I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king’s place. There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.”

Or Ecclesiastes 10:5–6,

“There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place.”

But here were dealing with comments that are even more general than those about the previous rulers of Jerusalem. These sound like broad proverbial statements about rulers, not ones aimed at specific leaders. And if they are meant to speak of specific kings, we have to remember that one, there were two kings over Israel before Solomon, and while he only saw his father’s reign firsthand, it’s only logical to assume that he was familiar with Saul’s rule as well, giving him insight to pull from both men. Two, this is Solomon we’re talking about, the prosperous king in Jerusalem who was basically a super diplomat. This is a man who, through his divine blessing of wisdom and political exposure, had insight into the reign of countless kings. And let’s not forget the king he had the greatest insight concerning – himself. This is old Solomon, the man who, for the span of his life, was king of the most prosperous nation the world has ever seen. He led Israel into glory and riches in obedience to God, and in the folly of his later years, he laid the groundwork for God’s people to be fractured and scattered, as the disease of idol worship struck down the once holy nation so that only a remnant remained. This idea that Solomon couldn’t have written Ecclesiastes just because the author seems to have firsthand knowledge of the failings of kings is simply laughable. And this final point, the perspective surrounding his own failings is why understanding Solomon as the author of this book is so important. The Word of God is the Word of God – if Solomon weren’t the author then Ecclesiastes doesn’t stop being part of the canon of Scripture, however identifying the author helps us understand the tone and subtext of the book as a whole. Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:1–4,

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.”

These words are a faithful and true call to any and all that God has given authority to teach or lead to, and we don’t have to know that they came from Peter for that to make sense. However when we understand who Peter is as a person, his character throughout Jesus’ ministry, his three denials of Christ after Jesus’ arrest, and the exchange between Jesus and Peter that is shown at the end of John’s gospel where Peter is told, “Feed my lambs,” “Tend my sheep,” “Feed my sheep,” suddenly the context and the gravity of Peter exhorting his fellow church leaders and pointing them to the coming of the Chief Shepherd takes on a greater meaning.   

Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:15,

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

This could sound like an overabundance of humility, or hyperbole on Paul’s part to emphasize his unworthiness before the holiness of God – but when you understand his upbringing as a Pharisee, his zealous persecution of the Church, and the miraculous transformation that Christ wrought in him, then hearing Paul call himself the foremost of sinners means something far greater, and the glory of God’s redeeming power shines all the brighter. Ecclesiastes would be a valuable book regardless of its author, but when you consider the position of Solomon looking back at his life and seeing the fruitlessness of so much waste through his God-given wisdom, suddenly the idea that all is vanity goes from sounding bitter and cynical, to being something that transforms our perspective. Because if the world is nothing but vanity, nothing but emptiness on top of emptiness, then where shall we look to find substance but outside of the world? Understanding Solomon as the author helps us see that despite the weight and darkness of the book, it is ultimately pointing us to the Light and purpose of the Lord.

“All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?”

If we’re going to move through the book of Ecclesiastes we need to have a firm grip on the word “vanity.” The word, as understood in a modern, English context means to have an inflated sense of pride in yourself, most commonly in your appearance. When we read the word in Ecclesiastes it carries the same meaning, but it’s not just limited to this. The same word can also mean “vapor,” or “empty talk,” both of which are relevant in Solomon’s commentary on vanity. But we also see this same word appear in passages like 1 Kings 16:26,

“For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sins that he made Israel to sin, provoking the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols.”

And Psalm 31:6,

“I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the LORD.”

Here the same word that is used for “vanity” and “breath” in other places is used for the word “idols.” This lends a different gravity to what Solomon is teaching – Solomon, the man who for all his wisdom and prosperity is the one who is guilty of inviting the sin of idol worship back into the kingdom of God’s people. This also lets us see how these pieces connect – how vain self-glorification and the worship of idols are tied together in the common ground of impermanent and insubstantial mist. James 4:13–14 tells us,

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

Man in his flesh is nothing more than vapor, a mist that appears and vanishes without a trace. We are invited however to look upon something more than what we are, at One who is not mist, but a fixed and eternal pillar, to aim up out of our dark and fleeting existence to the radiant glory of God – but we don’t. So often we who are mist cherish and prize the things that are mist – we prize what we concoct in our own fallen minds, failing to understand that we are placing our faith in insubstantial shadows instead of the assurance of the Living God. Isaiah 44:13–20 speaks of the sad irony of idolatry, saying,

“The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, ‘Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!’ And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god!’ They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’ He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’”

In our modern culture we may (though this is not certain) mock someone who bows down before a statue – and yet with all sincerity we will wear down our minds and bodies as we toil away at our occupations, cherishing them for the future they provide. Many is the man who worships his retirement account, and sets aside money as the foundation for the years to come – turning a blind eye to the fact that one day his life, his money, and all the things it has allowed him to collect will be gone. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a job, that you can’t have a 401k, or that you shouldn’t own anything you enjoy – but you have to, you are morally and spiritually obligated to check your devotion to these things. Jesus says quite simply in Matthew 6:24,

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

You cannot serve money, you cannot idolize your job, you cannot fill your days with nothing but toil under the sun – be it out of pain or in the pursuit of pleasure, so that it is all that your life entails, and also imagine that you have not made yourself an enemy of God. And so Solomon observes the fruitless nature of humanity’s work, our idolatrous natures that begin and end as mist – how our generations come and go and yet the earth remains as it was, and our presence and our passing is meaningless. While our toil may seem pointless now, it wasn’t always this way – we see the change occur at the fall, as God says to Adam in Genesis 3:17–19,

“… Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Work is not, as some people think, a product of the fall – Adam’s purpose in first being placed in Eden was to work and keep the garden. What the fall changed was our relationship with work, as it went from something harmonious and fruitful, to an act of toil and a war against the cursed ground – a war against the thorns and thistles that we brought upon ourselves.

“A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.”

Solomon writes that the earth remains forever – but this is only true by the limited, misty perspective of man. We are born into the world, with creation already being present, and for all of human history (as will be the case for all who pass away before the end of days), we die with the world still fixed firmly in place. The toil is the same toil, the sweat the same sweat, the thorns the same thorns, again and again. From the vantage point of the eyes of man we see the years coming and going, as we live and die, inventing and revolutionizing, claiming new victories with each passing generation, and yet the world remains the same broken thing that we continue to fight against without ever making any true conditional progress. Humanity repeats a cycle that Peter described in 2 Peter 2:22,

“What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.’”

Throughout our sinful lives, mankind goes round in a cyclical relationship with our sin, ever returning, ever repeating, until, unless we’re delivered to salvation through Christ, we die in our sin, and as we are born and live, then perish and fade, the world remains forever – or at least, it seems to. Because the world doesn’t actually remain forever, it only lasts forever by the perspective of man. There is a time designated where all things come to an end – again looking at the writings of Peter, 2 Peter 3:4–7, 10,

“They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” … “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

And it’s not just that the world will end, the curse that has plagued the world, the thing that has made the toil of our flesh both fruitless and painful comes to an end as well. Revelation 20:14–15 tells us,

“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

The impermanence of man, our fleeting, vaporous nature is something that can lead to bitter sorrow, the pointless philosophy of nihilism, and the crushing weight of depression – and this would be the right response if the flesh was all we were and this life was all we had to know. For those who do not know Christ, who are in a state of alienation and rebellion before God, a fruitless, wasted life is all that the world can offer them, and the only thing that awaits them eternally is an endless trial of justly delivered pain and suffering. But for the Christian, life is far more than that – Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20,

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

And in Romans 8:37–39 he writes, giving encouragement under the greatest persecution,

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What life in the flesh offers us is nothing but wasted effort that ends in death, but a life lived in pursuit of God delivers peace and promise beyond imagining in all circumstances. In this we can see the contrasts that come from building upon the mists of mankind, rather than the foundation of Christ.

2. The Impermanence of the World

“The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 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. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”

If man himself is plagued in our existence by our temporal nature, how much more so is the world that we inhabit? What Solomon speaks of – the patterns and paths of the wind, the cycle and flow of our water, he gives witness to as the weary eye of man perceives them. As I said before, from the perspective of man the world is essentially eternal, grinding forward in predictable tedium day after day. And yet what man may look upon and see an unfailing and unfeeling cycle is actually something that Scripture reveals to be another piece of the Lord’s grand design, and just as much under His power and control as all of creation. Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3:5–8,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The wind moves, and although we may attempt to predict, we may look to signs and evidence and say with great certainty what it is about, its constant movements are a mystery to us – they are not however a mystery to God. The movement of the wind that mankind can’t grasp its driving force or comprehend its origin is likened to the Holy Spirit – grand, powerful, and utterly alien to the minds of men. Scripture also points us to a time when, despite the fact that we think of it as a ceaseless, mysterious force the wind is stopped for a time. Revelation 7:1–3,

“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’”

Now, it’s commonly held that the “wind” here that is held back is symbolic for the destruction occurring on the earth in the midst of the tribulation. While I don’t deny this as a possibility, I actually think it’s highly likely that what we’re seeing isn’t a pause in the trials of the tribulation, but another worsening of conditions as the wind upon the earth is brought to a complete halt. Rather than creating a window of calm during the sealing of the 144,000 this would leave the sea in a state of dead calm, cause floods on the coastlines, drought throughout the mainland, and violent extremes in temperature based on geographic location. Either way, whether seen as symbolic or literal, the passage allows us to see the wind that moves ceaselessly across the face of the earth is nothing arbitrary, not some endless, tedious, drudging thing, but an element of nature fully under and within the providential might of God. Concerning the water the same can be noted – Solomon speaks of something tedious and endless, the rivers feeding the sea and the sea the rivers again and again without end. But the waters are the first thing in all creation to be made by God, seen in Genesis 1:1–2,

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

The creation account shows as God develops from the chaos of the deep that He has made, bringing forth light and land and life. In the book of Job we see God’s command over what He has made testified to by His own mouth. In Job 38:16–18, 28-30, 37-38 God says,

“Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.” … “Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven? The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.” … “Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?”

The enormity of creation rests within the complete control of the Lord. These elements of nature aren’t just tedious forces, grinding away inexorably as man is born, lives, and dies, the days passing on without meaning. The wind and the water and all of creation cry out and attest to the existence of God, they glorify their Maker through their very existence and function, and for those born of the Spirit, with eyes to see what the Lord has made as just another source of awe and wonder, just another log upon the fire of our worship. But man for his part sees with eyes of flesh and takes in none of this – we see and imagine a tedious, eternal cycle, driving endlessly at nothing when in fact what is unfolding before our eyes in the patterns of nature is something that had a clear and decisive beginning, serves specific purposes, and will have an ultimate and final end. But the mortal mind can perceive only weariness – and though we cannot fully capture the wonder of nature that is the work of God, our eyes and ears never tire in taking in that which in our blindness looks to be just an endless cycle of weariness. Galatians 6:7–8 tells us,

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

For the one estranged from God the world is weariness, as is all of existence. Jesus teaches during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:22–23,

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

And Paul counsels Timothy, saying to his young friend in 2 Timothy 4:3–4,

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

The eye that is fixed on the world is an eye that is full of darkness, an eye that is hostile toward God. The day that Paul warned Timothy of was both coming and also past – for the ears that crave the words that are counter to God have been filled with emptiness since the fall.

3. The Impermanence of Wisdom

“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. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.”

It is interesting that in everything Solomon has written so far, he’s absolutely correct, but it depends on your perspective. The arbitrary nature of our work, of nature, of all existence is a very real position from eyes of flesh, and yet to eyes that have been made new and given sight by the Light of the world there is far more than the vapor of vanity. Here however we see an interesting flip – eyes that are set upon the world are the ones who spy out innovation, development and advancement, not realizing that their creations are nothing new, that everything is the same when mired in sin. Our technology advances, our medicine, transportation, food, and housing all develop, and as we grow, as we see ourselves prosper we think we’re witnessing something new, as though civilizations haven’t risen and fallen throughout history. We say to ourselves as those in Genesis 11:4 did,

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

The tower of Babel wasn’t just an innovation or development of man, it was an attempted monument to the self-sufficiency of humanity. The flesh sees innovation, while the eye that has been turned by God sees the truth of the repeating cycle of sin, and that there is nothing new under the sun. The most vivid Biblical illustration of this is given through the nation of Israel. God delivered the people from Egypt, they were drawn to Him, given the Law and in the triumph of the Exodus were shown to the world as belonging to the Lord. The people sinned in the wilderness, they were punished in their forty years of exile, they were drawn back to God as the generation of transgressors passed away. The people enter the promised land, they’re delivered victory, they sin against God and the process of punishment begins again. The book of Judges catalogs this cycle repeating – the people are given into the hands of their enemies, lacking the support of God in their sin. The people repent and turn to God and a judge is raised up to deliver them. But over the course of the book we see the stain of the people grow darker, until the nation eventually breaks out in civil war and the tribe of Benjamin is nearly erased. The pattern continues in the kings – the hope of Saul that turned to failure, the devotion of David that was marred by his sin, and the wisdom of Solomon that still ended in folly. In each generation we think ourselves wiser than those who came before us and those who come after, we imagine that we have something new, revolutionary, that things will be different in our hands – and yet the Spirit of Truth reveals that there is nothing new under the sun. We forget what is past, and our blindness stops us from discerning where our path leads, and so as long as we remain in a world that is stained by sin the cycle continues without end – for though the sin may seem different, the wage remains the same. The hope then lies in the fact that, as we’ve already addressed, this world does not endure forever. Isaiah 43:16–19 tells us,

“Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: ‘Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.’”

Man may be incapable of breaking our cycle of sin and death, but where man is limited, God is not. He declares from the throne in Revelation 21:3–4,

“… Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 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.”

And this is the determining factor for mankind – do we live as servants to our flesh? Do we go about our days acting as sons of the deceiver, or are we Sons of God, and servants to our Father in heaven? If we act for the sake of flesh then we remain as slaves in the cycle of sin, just another nothing new under the sun – but if we have died to flesh and been made alive in Christ then we are raised up to walk in new life. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:31,

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

And in Colossians 3:1–4 he states,

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is foolishness, remembrance for the sake of remembrance is wasted effort – this vanity does nothing but feed the cycle of repeated failings. But things done in the name and service of the Lord transcend the feeble impermanence of worldly things. The work of man will cease, but the work of God will never end. The work of nature will come to a rapid and final end, the work of the Spirit is eternal. If our eye is fixed upon our Father, if our citizenship and sense of belonging lies in heaven and not in the broken world we currently inhabit, then we are delivered into freedom from the cycle of endless death that is the common theme of a world stained by sin.

“I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. I said in my heart, ‘I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.’ And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”

Because Solomon was blessed with divine wisdom, there can be a vague assumption that in his vast knowledge he made no mistakes. This of course ignores what Scripture as a whole teaches of his failures and transgressions, but it also fails to see what we’re reading in this very passage. Isaiah 40:6–8 tells us,

“A voice says, ‘Cry!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

If the grass withers and the flower fades, then what purpose could there be, not just in observing and understanding, but in pointedly applying your heart and the focus of your wisdom to understand a thing that is fading into dust? It’s a waste – a waste that if we’re honest, we’re all guilty of at some point, as we take the things that God has given us and squander them on fruitless pursuits that lead to nothing. It’s not that we can’t understand the world – James writes in James 1:5,

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

The world is ultimately, tragically too easy to comprehend through the lens of God’s Word – it’s a broken, evil, self-serving, rebellious thing. Its god is its belly, its mind focused only on the flesh, and it courts its condemnation as it curses God. Extrapolate that across all the cultures of the world, the politics and economics, from dusty villages to vast cities and it applies to all who do not know the transformation of Christ. But the idea of applying great energy or focus to the task of understanding the world, the notion that Solomon brought all his wisdom to bear in understanding the warp and weft of the world is a waste of God’s gifts. In Colossians 3:1–4 Paul tells us,

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Part of the great freedom that we are given in Christ is that we have something to look upon, marvel at, and aspire to that is far beyond the world. Here Solomon confesses that he applied his heart to understand “all under heaven” that is, all that is upon the face of the earth, as well as to understand madness and folly. Philippians 4:8–9 says,

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

There is simply no purpose in extensive contemplation of the broken nature of the world – it is not a deep well full of profound secrets, but a shallow pool filled with broken glass. It seems that in drifting down this path, Solomon failed to follow his own wisdom, as he wrote in Proverbs 3:5,

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

In Proverbs 9:10,

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”

But his confession that we read in chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes, for it is a confession,

“I said in my heart, ‘I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.’”

Tells us that he had fallen prey to delighting in his blessings rather than remaining focused on the One from whom the blessings came. His words, while coming from a very different place, are reminiscent of the self-deception spoken by the harlot of Babylon in Revelation 18:7,

“As she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning, since in her heart she says, ‘I sit as a queen, I am no widow, and mourning I shall never see.’”

Babylon was blind, this woman, symbolic of all the world’s most egregious transgressions delighted in the lie she told herself, the falsehood she clung to up until she was no more. Solomon on the other hand is on the other side of his mistake, and we are given the insight of a man looking back, seeing his failures and lamenting where he went astray. All that is under the sun is vanity, and all Solomon’s time studying and discerning the vapor of humanity was vanity as well. A heart applied to understanding wickedness is a heart that becomes sick, and a mind striving to comprehend madness will find itself less sane than when it began. As Solomon attests, the wisdom of the world will only lead to vexation, and to increase your knowledge of sinful man will only lead to the sorrow of observing darkness. But what the old king offers in his contrast and insight is the perspective to see what is to be sought above these things – we’re presented the opportunity to learn, not just from Solomon’s successes, but from his failure as well. His observations allow us to dispense with what truly doesn’t matter, to refrain from wasting time on the monotonous cycle of sin and decay that the world offers, and seek Christ in everything we do, that our Father might be honored, and that through His deliverance our lives would have meaning. As we’ve already read from Isaiah 40:8,

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”