Ecclesiastes 1:3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun
Vanity, vexation, and meaninglessness, those are the apparent meaning of Ecclesiastes. It makes sense that the book of Ecclesiastes would be so iconic in modern culture, particularly in American culture. Voltaire cited Ecclesiastes because it speaks to the meaningless of life. There is a caveat to that to which we will come back. Ernest Hemingway took the title of his book The Sun Also Rises from Ecclesiastes.
The question that Ecclesiastes seems to bring up is the bottomless kid question. A mom says to her child, “You need to go do your homework.” The child responds, “Why?” She says, “Because you are going to school tomorrow.” The child responds, “Why?” She says, “So you can get smart.” The child responds, “Why?” Mom says, “So, you can get a job.” The child responds, “Why?” Mom says, “So, you won’t starve to death.” The child says, “Why?” Now, maybe we don’t go all the way to the end there, but here is a kid who starves to death at a young age and a person who lives to be ninety, but they both die. Without being cold or callous, the question that Solomon seems to raise here is, “Why? Why go through all this? What is the point?”
People can endure almost anything if they are given purpose. If they have a reason, if they have a substantive why at the beginning and end of their life. Viktor Frankel suffered at the hands of the Nazis in World War II. After his time in a prison camp, he wrote Man’s Search for Meaning in which he proposes there are three ways people can find purpose. Do you have purpose and is Frankel right? Where does your purpose end and where does your why lead you? There are three reasons people come up with to answer why they do what they do.
One reason is just hedonism, which is just a fancy name for the idea that pleasure is virtuous in and of itself. Another reason is duty. People think that duty itself is the purpose. During the Crimean War on October 25, 1854, 627 British dragoons charged 25,000 Russians. It was a great mishap and was later immortalized in the poem “Charge of the Light Brigade.” One line from that poem reads, “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.” Duty is the purpose for some people, but where does that lead you? Third, people find purpose in religion. It is amazing how much religion there is in Hollywood. They may reject Christ, but people go to Buddhism and a number of other religions because people are intrinsically spiritual beings. The thing that hedonism, duty, and religion all have in common is that all end with you. So, you will go as far as your purpose or why takes you.
Ecclesiastes 1 says, “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem.” Solomon had tried everything, wisdom, wine, pleasure, purpose of various kinds, and he says, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?” Verse 7 says, “The sea is not full.” Verse 8 says, “The eye is not satisfied.” Verse 9 says, “There is no new thing.” Verse 11 reminds us that “there is no remembrance of former things.” So, how far will your purpose, aim, and why take you? Will it take you to heaven? How high is your why? That is an important question to ask yourself.
Your life will be as full as your why. Verse 7 says, “All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” There is an endless water cycle that goes on and on.” Jesus said in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” God is not a cog in your success in ministry or secular business. God is your success. Your life will be as full as your why. The oceans never get over full. There is just an endless cycle. There has to be more than just graduation, getting a job, retiring, doing well, and then dying. Your life will be as full as your why.
Your life will be as satisfied and as satisfying as your why. Verse 8 says, “All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” We go through life kind of like a gerbil on a wheel and we get nowhere. The work we do is unutterable; it is more than we have time to tell, yet we are not satisfied. There used to be this SkyMall catalog on commercial flights that was full of things you didn’t know you needed until you saw the picture of them in the catalog. You can buy those things, but things are not going to satisfy. That is not a transcendent why or reason.
Your life will be as fresh as your why. Verse 9 says, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” New is for newbies, which is to say, sometimes people think, “I want the latest greatest thing.” There is no latest, greatest thing. It is just a newer version of what has always been. I think about the clothing my children think is hip. It is essentially what I was wearing years ago. There is nothing new under the sun. Socialists think they will be the first one in history to make a socialism that actually works because the smart people just haven’t tried hard enough at the right time, yet verse 15 says, “That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.” There are more problems than we can number and there is no one who can make it straight.
The bottom line is that if there is no God, there is no meaning. Psalm 16:11 says, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” If you want to know the sum and substance of the book, Ecclesiastes 12 brings us to all of the things Solomon tried for fullness, satisfaction, and novelty, yet in Ecclesiastes 12:13 he says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
Today, don’t cut God out of your life. God has given us richly all things to enjoy, but ultimately you will go as far as your why, your purpose and reason takes you. The greatest purpose in life is God Himself and that which He gives to you.