Ecclesiastes 2:15 Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.
The Emptiness of Pleasure and Wisdom
Families are fascinating, aren’t they? Each person has his own gifts, abilities, and rewards. Although King Solomon had many abilities, his pursuits had generally left him feeling empty.
Solomon was a man of great accomplishment, but he realized that there was an emptiness that accomplishment could not cure. He also saw that wisdom is better than foolishness or folly. But he realized that both the fool and the wise die.
Is the lesson from this that we shouldn’t pursue anything? No, I don’t that it is. The Bible tells us that God has given us richly all things to enjoy, but both pleasure and wisdom are equally empty on their own. God made you for something more. It is more than a cliché that there is a God-shaped void in every human heart, and we seek to fill that void until we find God Himself. Without God, life is vexation.
In Ecclesiastes 2:22 Solomon says, “For what hath man of all his labor, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun?” Everything we accumulate on earth we leave to the next person, whether that person is wise or foolish. What we take with us at the end of this life is the relationship we build with the God Who made us.