June 5, 2025 -Meaning is Not Meaningless

1 KINGS 11:1-43

2 CHRONICLES 9:29-31

ECCLESIASTES 1:1-11

Chronological Bible Readings

Ecclesiastes 1:1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”

    says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

    Everything is meaningless.”

I think we all go through times when we feel that all that we are doing is meaningless. But we know that nothing is meaningless. God created all things and all people with a plan and a purpose. But while we live under the sun. In this life. We can become discontent, frustrated and overwhelmed and feel like we are wasting our time. I find myself in a time when it can be tempting to say this is all meaningless, I am just going to stop dealing with it and move on. But I know that God has a plan and a purpose and that He has me where I am and doing what I am doing for a reason and that if I am seeking to do things for the Glory of God there is great meaning in it all. So, when I read this, I knew it didn't mean that things really are meaningless. But it was tempting to take it and justify walking away from things. But instead, I looked up a commentary to teach me why this is written this way to push away the temptation to take words to heart as they are not intended. We should always look to better understand the meaning and heart behind the word. I think we often need to do that with any written word. If we know the truth about a person and we read a letter, email or text from them that we interpret the meaning to be something that goes against the character of that person, or that doesn't feel right or make sense, we should go to the author and seek clarification. We can't read the bible and simply go by our feelings on what is written we need to take it in context of the character of God and the rest of His word. Now it is rare that God speaks to us with an audible voice, so we aren't likely to have a verbal conversation with Him, but we have ways of seeking clarity. We have the rest of His word. We can seek clarity from scholars who have studied the culture and the language to get clarity.

That is what I did and below is what I found on Enduring Word which I am also linking the page with it. I think they use the NKJ version, so they use the word vanity for meaningless which really caught my attention.

Enduring Word Bible Commentary Ecclesiastes Chapter 1

B. The problem presented: the meaninglessness of life.

1. (2) The Preacher’s summary: Life is vanity, without meaning.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher;“ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

a. Vanity of vanities: The Preacher begins his sermon with his first conclusion (though not his ultimate conclusion). Looking at life all around, he judges it to be vanity – nothing, useless, meaningless.

i. “A wisp of vapour, a puff of wind, a mere breath – nothing you could get your hands on; the nearest thing to zero. That is the ‘vanity’ this book is about.” (Kidner)

ii. “Vanity (hebel) includes (i) brevity and unsubstantiality, emptiness… (ii) unreliability, frailty… (iii) futility, as in Job 9:29 (Hebrew), where ‘in vanity’ means ‘to no effect’; (iv) deceit (cf. Jeremiah 16:19; Zechariah 10:2).” (Eaton)

b. Vanity of vanities: To strengthen his point, the Preacher judged life to be the ultimate vanity, the vanity of vanities. This Hebrew phrasing is used to express intensity or the ultimate of something, as in the phrase holy of holies.

i. This phrase (or something quite like it) will be used about 30 times in this short book. It is one of the major themes of Ecclesiastes.

c. All is vanity: To further strengthen the point, Solomon noted not only that life is vanity, but that all is vanity. It seemed that every part of life suffered from this emptiness.

i. We see from the first two verses that Solomon wrote this from a certain perspective, a perspective that through the book he will expose as inadequate and wrong. Most all of Ecclesiastes is written from this perspective, through the eyes of a man who thinks and lives as if God doesn’t matter.

ii. “It is an absolutely accurate statement of life when it is lived under certain conditions; but it is not true as a statement of what life must necessarily be.” (Morgan) If you say, “My life isn’t vanity; it isn’t meaningless. My life is filled with meaning and purpose.” That’s wonderful; but you can’t ignore the premise of the Preacher – the premise of life under the sun.

iii. Therefore Ecclesiastes is filled with what we might call true lies. Given the perspective “God does not matter,” it is true that all is vanity. Since that perspective is wrong, it is not true that all is vanity. Yet Solomon makes us think through this wrong perspective thoroughly through Ecclesiastes.

iv. Solomon thinks through this perspective, but he wasn’t the first nor the last to see life this way. Many moderns judge life to be equally futile.

· “We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.” (Playwright Tennessee Williams)

· “Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.” (Author George Orwell)

· “Life is rather like a can of sardines, we’re all of us looking for the key.” (Playwright Alan Bennett.

**added 6/25/25 Listening to a great podcast with teaching on ECCLESIASTES. Check it out. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ukIfn2LZVvIuHZ8WFk6My?si=-IICTWerS5moRH2HRFyiEQ