By Teman Knight
Adjunct Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
PURPOSE QUESTIONED
Ecclesiastes 1:1–14
Ever since God created mankind, we have been on a pursuit of discovering purpose and meaning for our lives. The world claims that we can find purpose in many different ways. People search for happiness or contentment, security and safety or maybe community so they can feel like they belong. Many today are trying to find purpose in identity. They believe if they can just discover who they are, then life will have meaning. The author of the Book of Ecclesiastes shows us Solomon’s pursuit of discovering meaning in his life. His life was filled with frustration at not being able to grasp hold of that for which he was searching. Solomon discovered that when he pursued God the story ended differently.
Without God, what we do in life can feel pointless. (1–7)
“Absolute futility. Everything is futile” (v. 2). The Hebrew word “hebel,” translated here as “futile,” literally means “breath, nothingness, meaningless and vapor.” Have you ever walked outside on a cold morning and seen your breath? What if you reached out your hand and tried to catch it? You would catch nothing.
The vapor gives the appearance of something but nothing is really there. Therefore, it is worthless and futile to attempt to catch it. Everything in life that we pursue apart from God is worthless and pointless.
“What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun?” (v. 3). No matter how hard we work, no matter what we achieve without God, it is pointless. Success in this world will still leave us feeling unsatisfied.
Many people in our society spend all their efforts in life just to accumulate stuff that will not last and will only bring momentary happiness.
Without God, what we do in life does not satisfy. (8–10)
“All things are wearisome, more than anyone can say” (v. 8). Many people today are tired and worn out from pursuing things that do not really matter.
Ecclesiastes reminds us that all of this has been tried before. Our efforts to please ourselves will always come up short. Only when we seek to please God with our lives will we find meaning and purpose. Instead of getting tired and worn out from chasing the things of the world, let us follow Paul’s advice: “Let us not get tired of doing good” (Gal. 6:9).
Without God, what we do in life is a miserable task. (11–14)
The teacher tried everything he could think of to find purpose and meaning in life. Throughout the book, we see that he tried wisdom and knowledge (1:12–18), pleasure (2:1–3), success (2:4–11), religion (5:1–7), riches (6:1–2) and even a good reputation (7:1–2), yet they did not satisfy.
Solomon attempted these at a level we could never compete with. He was known as the wisest man in the world, yet his pursuit of knowledge was not enough to satisfy. He pursued pleasure at ungodly levels, but it did not give him fulfillment.
Solomon acquired more wealth than we could ever achieve, but it still was not enough. He concluded that the only way to find purpose in life was to “fear God and keep His commands” (12:13). If we want to find purpose in life, Jesus said, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you” (Matt. 6:33).
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