All Is Vanity

Ecclesiastes 1:1–4:8  – What's the Point?
Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time  – August 3, 2025 (am)     

I’ve called Ecc. brutal honesty regarding life in this world from the wisest man who ever lived, inspired by the Holy Spirit. It really is almost hard to believe we’re reading Scripture at times, but that’s only because God, in His infinite wisdom, isn’t threatened by brutal honesty like we are. He fully knows and understands the present state of this world. He knows it from beginning to end. He has matters fully in-Hand. And He isn’t threatened by any of the things that can unsettle us pretty deeply as we observe them and begin to understand a little bit more about them. And He isn’t either impressed or confused or thrown off track when we construct false views of this world, then tell ourselves lies and believe them to be true regarding the nature of this world and how it operates.

You’ve just heard a sampling of this book as I read it. And while I could give some time to summarizing and illustrating how to understand it, I think it’s best just to move into it and let the text begin to explain itself—or better, let its A/author explain what H/he wants us to understand about life in this world. To do that well, however, we’re going to need to define three key words and phrases you heard as we read.

In order, the first is the Preacher (1:1): we have no English word that carries the full weight of this word. The many attempts at translating [it] include: ‘Ecclesiastes’ (it’s the title of the book in Greek [LXX]; that word means convenor [gatherer] of a public assembly [Shepherd 256]), so, ‘The Preacher’ (same word as in 1:1), ‘The Speaker’, ‘The President’, ‘The Spokesman’, ‘The Philosopher’. We might… add, ‘The Professor’! (Kidner 13 n.1) (Teacher [niv]). There’s a flavor. And since he’s 1:1 … the son of David, king in Jerusalem (1:1), we recognize him as Solomon, the wisest of all who ever lived, by Scripture’s own testimony (1Ki.3:12). Later in this same chapter he states: 1:16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge” (cf. 2:9). And near the end of the book, we read: 12:9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. There’s been much discussion on this point, but I believe this is Solomon, writing at a stage of his life when he’d amassed a wide range of observations, and had considered them, and the connections between them, from a vast array of angles. Solomon surely wasn’t flawless as Israel’s king. But he was uniquely equipped by God to write Israel’s wisdom literature, even as he leaves all of history both marveling at his gifts and great wealth, and also musing that we need a king much wiser than Solomon if life in this world is going to be better than it is.

Vanity (1:1) is the second key word. I believe it appears thirty-eight times in these twelve chapters, eighteen in today’s three-plus. The niv translates it meaningless. One says: a wisp of vapour, a puff of wind, a mere breath, that’s close to literal—nothing you could get your hands on; the nearest thing to zero (Kidner 22). Another adds: brevity, unsubstantiality, emptiness (neb), spelt out in Job 7 where the ‘vanity’ (v.16, Heb.) of man’s life is a ‘breath’ (v.7), an evaporating cloud (v.9), soon to be ended (v.8) and return no more (vv.9f.); unreliability, frailty (Eaton 1983 66). And that includes all (1:1) that exists in this world—all human activity (1:14; 2:11): joy (2:1) and frustration (4:4, 7–8; 5:10) alike, life (2:17; 6:12; 9:9), youth (11:10) and death (3:19; 11:8), the destinies of both the wise and the foolish (2:15, 19), the diligent and the idle (2:21, 23, 26) (Eaton 1983 67). It’s all empty, futile, in the sense of disappearing like warm breath on a cold day. Trying to grasp it is like striving [to grasp the] wind (1:14).

Third comes under the sun (1:3). The Preacher uses it twenty-eight times over the course of this book, twelve of those in today’s passage. This vivid description is almost self-explanatory. It tells us that the scene in mind is exclusively the world we can observe, and that our observation point is at ground level (Kidner 23). It’s everyone and everything the sun illuminates.

Finally, notice the structure. There’s a narrator who’s different from the Preacher. He speaks of the Preacher in third-person (1:1) as he provides the introduction to the book (1:2-11). The Preacher begins to speak in 1:12 and continues on through 12:7. Then the narrator picks it up again in 12:8 and provides the conclusion.

Into the Text

So, what is it that the wisest man in history believes we should understand about this world in which we live? In the narrator’s summary: 1:2 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? In the Preacher’s own words: 1:13 … I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. Some suggest that Solomon is just depressed in Ecc., that he’s grown disillusioned with all his wealth and privilege. But I don’t think that’s so. I believe he’s sharing his insights into what life is like under the sun, in this very good world (Gen.1:31) that groans so deeply under the weight of sin (Rom.8:20-23) (cf. Eaton 1994 611).

But that forces a second question: Is it really as bad as Solomon says? Is all really vain, meaningless, futile in this world? Is all really empty, insignificantly short-lived? All? Solomon has anticipated that question and answered it right here. 1:15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. We can’t fix what’s broken under the sun, and we can’t supply what’s missing. Not even the wise among us can do anything about that: 1:17 … I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I used my God-given wisdom to understand even the nature of foolishness. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. Human wisdom can’t get this job done. 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. So long as wisdom is restricted to the realm ‘under the sun’, it sees the throbbing [noise] of creation, life scurrying round its ever-repetitive circuits, and nothing more. ‘The more you understand, the more you ache’ (Moffatt) (Eaton 1983 76). The narrator saw this in the introduction: elements of this world that can even be beautiful when viewed in a certain way become wearisome (1:8) to the point of suffocating if we seek for meaning in those things alone. The incessant cycle of sun rising and setting, the wind blowing in its pattern, the streams running to the sea and the water returning to the same place and doing it all over again, unceasingly, methodically, without end—the throbbing [noise] of creation [patterns] scurrying round [their] ever-repetitive circuits while people wonder and struggle and suffer and die. What in smaller doses might be refreshing pastoral scenes become the soundtrack for a bizarre horror movie from which there’s no escape! Remember Groundhog Day? So, even some of the things we might think could most easily escape the charge of vanity are among the first examples of it the narrator cites. In this sense, then, vanity also takes on characteristics of a paradox, an enigma (tbp) (an apparent contradiction or incongruity that defies clear description): life under the sun can appear to be one thing (significant or meaningful) when all the while it’s actually another (fleeting or empty). So, bottom line, yes, it really is as bad as Solomon says!

That leads to a third question, an obvious one, but hard for us to form. But Solomon anticipates it for us. Might pleasure, self-indulgence, essentially hedonism, folly, provide an answer that wisdom and virtue miss? It’s a legitimate possibility, so it should be explored. 2:1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, a virtual metaphor of joy in Scripture—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. And he tried some good things, not just debauched self-gratification. 2:4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees, an irrigation system. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house, servants I didn’t even have to buy. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks…. 8 [and] silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, [everything anyone could want] (cf. 2:9-11).

And a good insight resulted: 2:13 … I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. But this provided no escape from the vanity (2:15) because: 2:15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that is also vanity. My life is no less a vapor and my death is no more avoidable than the fool’s. Wisdom under the sun is just as vain as folly. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. There’s not even any greater legacy for the wise! How the wise dies just like the fool!

But it’s even worse than this! 3:18 I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. 19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts…. 20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? And so: 4:2 … I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. 3 But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. This is the brutally honest truth of life under the sun. Every aspect of it is entirely out of our hands. And trying to take hold of it, to control it, is like trying to grasp air! 2:17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

We’ll see more of this in the weeks ahead, but this is likely enough for today—enough, at least, to leave us with the question: Is there no hope at all of escaping this vanity of life under the sun? And the answer is, yes, there is, because the Preacher understands something that he’s only begun to hint at in these early chapters. We saw it with some clarity first at the end of c.2. 2:24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, not under the sun, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. There’s Something above the sun! And It offers not only meaning but wisdom and knowledge and joy as a gift!

He hints get even clearer in the next chapter: 3:10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. We have just enough sense that there’s life beyond the sun to recognize the vanity of life exclusively under the sun. But we’re still going to need God’s help to live in light of it. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. The best we can do is to enjoy the gifts of God in this world, to recognize where they come from and enjoy them as the good they actually are.

Conclusion

That’s a good takeaway for us today. But I think there’s something even more important than seeing this glimmer of light that the Preacher has given us so early on here. I think we need to let the heaviness of his message, the vanity, the fleeting nature of life and the unavoidability of death, sit with us a bit. We need to soak in it. We need not only to understand it but to feel it and to grieve it.

Otherwise, there’s just no way for us to appreciate fully the glimpses of light we see here, or the full light we’ll receive as the Preacher finishes. I believe this heaviness is his point, and the developing point of his message here. We lose touch way too quickly with the utter vanity in every aspect of life devoid of all reference to God. The meaning and value and purpose of it all is a gift from Him. And absent that gift we can’t tell the difference between the wise and fools, between image-bearing creatures and beasts. We can see that with abundant clarity right now, today, in our world—vanity of vanities. No, we’ll only enjoy this light to the degree that we’ve feel that heaviness.

Then what we’ll recognize most as we read Ecc. is that what we really need is some sort of confirmable message, or Messenger, Who settles the fact once for all that life under the sun is not all there is. And as we come to the Table of the Lord during this series, we’ll celebrate, and give thanks, that this is precisely what was done by Jesus.

 ___________________

Resources

Carson, D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Ecclesiastes, by Michael A. Eaton, 609-618. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.

Clendenen, E. Ray, and Kenneth A. Matthews, eds. 1993. The New American Commentary, vol.14, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, by Duane A. Garrett. Ecclesiastes, 253-345. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.

Dever, Mark. 2006. The Message of the Old Testament. Ch. 19, The Message of Ecclesiastes: Wisdom for the Successful, 527-544. Wheaton: Crossway.

Grudem, Wayne, ed. 2008. ESV Study Bible. Study notes on Ecclesiastes, by Max F. Roglund. Wheaton: Crossway.

Guthrie, D. & J. A. Motyer, eds. 1970. The New Bible Commentary Revised. Ecclesiastes, by G. S. Hendry, 570-578. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Keil, C. F., and F. Delitzsch. 1891. Commentary on the Old Testament, trans. M. G. Easton. Ecclesiastes, 627-816. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

Kidner, Derek. 1976. The Message of Ecclesiastes. Nottingham: InterVarsity.

Longman III, Tremper, and David E. Garland, eds. 2008. Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Revised Edition, vol. 6, Proverbs – Isaiah. Ecclesiastes, by Jerry E. Shepherd, 253-365. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Wiseman, Donald J., ed. 1983. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Vol. 18, Ecclesiastes, by Michael A. Eaton. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.

The Bible Project/Videos/Ecclesiastes, [TBP].

NEXT SUNDAY: Striving After Wind, Ecclesiastes 4:9–6:12