Not vanity
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 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.
My work is very physically demanding; the hotter it gets the more I work. Friday a long day in the heat caught up to me; I suffered from dehydration all day Saturday. The results are extreme headaches and body fatigue, yet I also had to work again Saturday through it; the benefits of being self employed. Some days it really tugs on the mind, and this morning I thought of the book of Ecclesiastes after getting some more rest. This book of Solomon points to the vanity of life in so many ways; to those that pursue all the things in life, yet never think of the eternal life after this temporal one. At some point in your life you must realize the life after this; where you place your faith will determine your destiny.
The commentaries on the word vanity in Ecclesiastes are intriguing. There is much struggle to interpret the word correctly; many times it is referred to a vapor, which in a simple understanding is fleeting, or temporary. The word vanity is used 38 times in Ecclesiastes, and it is used in different nuances to describe what is being pursued. The book is a book of pursuit by the man who pursued knowledge; he found it as a gift from God, and came to realize it’s burden and loss. Ecclesiastes 1:16 I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
The American Dream is the pursuit of “stuff”. The dream of the Christian should be their life after with Christ, and their evangelical pursuit of this life for others to know of Him. The entire Bible points to Christ, and our need for Him. The more time you spend there, the more you come to understand the vanity of this life. The more you understand what Solomon tires to describe, the more you will invest your energies in the eternal. You come to understand the the highs and lows of life are vanity, the demands of life are vanity, the only thing that is not fleeting is the eternal promise of the Hope that lies within you. A hearts desire to spread that Good News is the heart of a disciple, and that is what He called us to be.
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