If you could be granted just one wish, if you could be guaranteed any one thing that you wanted, what would you wish for?
Health? Long life? Wealth? Honor? A caring and considerate spouse? Meaningful work? Joy? Peace? Immortality? We all have things that we long for; things that we are convinced would give our lives meaning, value, and purpose.
Three thousand years ago God appeared to King Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want Me to give to you.”
Solomon answered God… ‘Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours.’ God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, possessions or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern My people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.
2 Chronicles 1:7-12
Solomon lived a storybook life. His wisdom was legendary. He authored books, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. He was a musician writing 1005 songs. 1 Kings 4:32 His ships circumnavigated the globe. 1 Kings 10:22 Rulers from around the world came to learn from him. 1 Kings 10:24 For example:
When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. 2 Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. 3 Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. 4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, 5 the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.
6 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 7 But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8 How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9 Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”
1Kings 10:1-9
The Queen of Sheba had heard great things about Solomon but after she went to investigate she concluded that, in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. However, despite the fact the Solomon ruled a great nation with great wisdom and despite the fact that he was admired the world over, Solomon was human. Like all humans, who like sheep have gone astray, Isaiah 53:6, Solomon was a man with divided loyalties. Over a period of years, he turned from his Creator, succumbing to the temptations of, among other things, sex, power, and wealth.
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
1 Kings 11:1-13
After God’s pronouncement of judgment on Solomon, at the end of his life, as he is preparing to turn the kingdom over to his son, Rehoboam, Solomon writes the book of Ecclesiastes as both fatherly advice and as a warning to avoid the foolish, sinful and destructive path that he had pursued. Solomon knew that his son, Rehoboam, soon to be king, was heading in the wrong direction. Rehoboam had surrounded himself with foolish advisers who would be the undoing of both Rehoboam and the kingdom after Solomon’s death. But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 2 Chronicles 10:8 As we follow Solomon’s argument, jumping to the end of the book, Solomon wants us to conclude, like him, that finding meaning and purpose in life apart from God not only leads to ruin but is ultimately impossible.
Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem:
The English name of the book, Ecclesiastes, is derived from the Hebrew title, Koheleth, meaning, one who gathers the assembly, or, as we read in the first verse, the Preacher. Because God had granted Solomon great wisdom and knowledge, Solomon saw it as his responsibility to pass that wisdom along, not only to his son, but to future generations.
Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
Solomon begins his lesson by saying that everything is vanity. The Hebrew word translated vanity in the English is actually hevel. In Hebrew hevel means smoke, vapor, or mist, Proverbs 21:6; breath, Psalm 144:4; emptiness, Jeremiah 2:5; worthless, Jonah 2:7; and futility, Psalm 78:32.
There is an old saying that goes, “The fog was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.”And from a distance smoke or the mist of fog might appear to be solid, but trying to catch and hold the vapor in your hand is futile. It can’t be done. Similarly, many of the things that we think are valuable and important enough to pursue, are, in the end, worthless in themselves, because they are unable to fill our void, they leave us empty and unfulfilled. Solomon builds the case that pursuits, apart from God, do not contain the value that we place in them.
When I was an undergraduate a course was offered entitled, “The Finding is in the Seeking.” The point of which was, enjoy the journey but don’t expect to reach the destination.
Think of it like this, we fill our lives with activities and pursuits trying to give life meaning, but lasting meaning somehow always seems to elude us. How many times have you pursued a goal or a dream, only to discover that upon reaching it you did not find the ultimate meaning or satisfaction that you had hoped for? As a result you embarked on yet another quest. But the end was always the same. Lasting peace was always outside your grasp, like trying to catch and hold the wind or trying to hold a vapor in your hand.
I’ve been trying to negotiate peace
With my own existence
She’s got a stockpile full of weaponry
She’s breaking every cease-fire agreement
Oh the whole thing is full of decay
As sure as I’m made of dust
And into rust I know
This beast is falling…
Bill Mallonnee, Vigilantes of Love, Struggleville
We live our lives trying to negotiate peace with our existence, but despite fleeting joys, looming in the background the whole thing is full of decay; decay that must ultimately return us to dust.
Ecclesiastes 1:3 What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun? 4 One generation goes, and another generation comes; but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries to its place where it rises. 6 The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north. It turns around continually as it goes, and the wind returns again to its courses. 7 All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness beyond uttering. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it may be said, “Behold, this is new?” It has been long ago, in the ages which were before us. 11 There is no memory of the former; neither shall there be any memory of the latter that are to come, among those that shall come after.
Because it is impossible to see things clearly when you are caught in a fog or in smoke, Solomon begins by grounding us in reality. Like every other generation, we may think that our generation is the center of things but another generation will follow ours and, except for a passing curiosity about some of our cultural idiosyncrasies, the new generations will not care at all about the things that we valued or thought were important. There is no memory of the former; neither shall there be any memory of the latter that are to come. No matter how important we think we are, to future generations, we are just a passing curiosity.
Our time here is short. With our limited lifespans, generations come and go but the earth doesn’t care; the earth remains forever. The sun rises and sets generation after generation. The jet stream circles the earth generation after generation. The rivers constantly run to the sea generation after generation. We may think that our generation is unique and special, and because we ignore the past, we might even think that we have discovered something new and unique, but, in fact, there is no new thing under the sun.
Consider the laments of Job and David.
I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a vapor. Job 7:16
You have made my days handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. All humanity stands as a vapor. Psalm 39:5
Humanity is like a vapor, its days are like a passing shadow. Psalm 144:4
Solomon, like Job and David before him, saw that though life is amazing and the cosmos is a marvelous creation, the problem of hevel is that because our lives are fleeting, like a vapor, we are unable to hold on to the beauty of our accomplishments.
Ecclesiastes 1:12 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under the sun. It is a heavy burden that God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with. 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and trying to herd wind. 15 That which is crooked can’t be made straight; and that which is lacking can’t be counted. 16 I said to myself, “Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a chasing after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much grief; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Solomon, being a man of great experience… wisdom and knowledge, set out on a quest to untangle the mystery of life here on earth under the sun. Although it was a heavy burden, as a young man, Solomon thought that he was the man for the job. He would discover, once and for all, if it were possible to grasp the vapor and hold onto the meaning of life. Looking back he explains that his quest was a fools errand because his quest itself amounted to nothing more than chasing after the wind. Trying to hold on to something that could not grasped only brought grief and sorrow.
But nevertheless, Solomon documented his descent into hevel, for his son, Rehoboam. We have much to learn from Solomon as he lays out all of the avenues and the dead ends that he followed in trying to secure lasting personal happiness, as he sought to discover meaning by unlocking the secrets of life.