Ecclesiastes and Vanity

“Absolute futility, says the Teacher. Absolute futility. Everything is futile.  What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun?”

– Ecclesiastes 1:2-3

He basically talks about how we get tired day after day for fleeting things. One day this world will end, Jesus will return and what will we take? Nothing.

I’m not saying don’t go after a good and comfortable life, but that’s not all. So many people live their lives in pursuit of riches and goals that will have no value in Eternity.

The Eternal Sameness

The “Preacher” then continues and the title my Bible gives to the passage from verses 4 to 11 is “The Eternal Sameness”.

“All things are wearisome, more than anyone can say. The eye is not satisfied by seeing or the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.”

– Ecclesiastes 1:8-9

Spending time on what is fleeting will not change the cycles of what happens on Earth. We will not be able to prevent our lives from coming to an end or prevent the things we live from being forgotten.

“There is no remembrance of those who came before; and of those who will come after there will also be no remembrance by those who follow them.”

– Ecclesiastes 1:11

That’s why we need to spend our time with what is eternal, because the memory of the Lord is eternal and what we plant in eternity is never lost.

The Preacher’s Experience

The “Preacher” begins to talk about his life and how he dedicated it to looking for things that pass and remain, as he says: “it is vanity”.

“I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.”

– Ecclesiastes 1:14

And he ends in verses 17 and 18 by saying:

“I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly; I learned that this too is a pursuit of the wind. For with much wisdom is much sorrow; as knowledge increases, grief increases.”

– Ecclesiastes 1:17-18

I think the record-breaking verse that most caught my friends’ attention was the 18 and I was wondering why.

I finally got it when I started analyzing it.

In this world we understand that every day we must seek more and more knowledge and it is not a mistake to want to know more. But we have to understand that the more we know, the more we understand.

Have you ever heard that ignorance is a gift? That’s basically it. Because by not knowing, we don’t know enough to suffer with something.

This chapter had us crying together in our WhatsApp group, thinking about how we act and how the Word of God confronts us.

I invite you to read the book of Ecclesiastes, I believe that the Lord will speak to you just as he has spoken to me.

God bless you,
Ana.