The Wisdom of Vanity: Living Life Over the Sun

The book of Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of the Bible. It has one of the greatest opening statements of wisdom ever written down. “Everything is meaningless. We will all die and be forgotten.”

Ecclesiastes 1:2–11 ESV

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? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. 7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

The book of Ecclesiastes gives us some perspective. We are just a speck in the course of history. Worse than that our hearts cannot be satisfied by anything under the sun. We will all die and there will be a new generation that takes our place. Time marches on. We will die and be forgotten. All the drama and worries of life are forgotten when we look at our lives with perspective. Eternal perspective without eternal hope makes life a dreary burden. there is nothing new under the sun. It is all the same. The same sins, the same world views, the same broken people and atrocities. All these things will continue to happen as long as there is life under the sun.

The pursuit of Wisdom is Vanity

Ecclesiastes 1:12–18 ESV

12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And 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. 15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. 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.” 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Knowledge and wisdom are not enough to satisfy. There will always be more to learn and you will never be completely wise. With wisdom comes the understanding of injustice and foolishness, but no matter how wise you become you can never get rid of them. For every one wise person there are ten foolish people. No amount of wisdom can make straight what has been made crooked by sin. Wisdom is not the means by which the world is satisfied. Chasing wisdom is like chasing after the wind. If all life is, stuck under the sun than wisdom is a waste of time. Life is about so much more than head knowledge. Wisdom is better than foolishness but is still a waste of time.

Ecclesiastes 2:1–11 ESV

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—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. 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. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

When the preacher could not be satisfied with wisdom he turned to self-indulgence, but he found that this too is meaningless.

The pursuit of Self is Vanity

There was no pleasure that the preacher did not have. He had multiple houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, fruit trees, slaves, herds and flocks, silver, gold, status, singers, even concubines. He had everything this world could offer him and it did not satisfy. He was the richest man in the world with incredible power yet this was all vanity. Do not be deceived. The world tells us we can be satisfied by serving ourselves but that is a lie. We are never satisfied. We will never have enough. Maybe if I have a little more money, maybe if this person liked me back, maybe if I go to another party, maybe if I do this, maybe if I do that. It can never satisfy us. We will spend our entire lives chasing temporary high after temporary high only to find we have wasted our entire lives. If we try to find purpose in this world it will only leave us with heartache. If all is vanity what is the point? Why try? The preacher considers this. If wisdom is folly, and foolishness is folly maybe it is better to waste my life as a wise man than waste my life as a foolish man.

Ecclesiastes 2:12–17 ESV

12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 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 this also is vanity. 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. How the wise dies just like the fool! 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.

Even in this he found it to be folly. The wise man the fool, the rich man the poor man, all will die and be forgotten. No amount of wealth, wisdom, or worth can slow the inevitable march of time. We will all die.

The pursuit of Anything is Vanity

Ecclesiastes 2:18–26 ESV

18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21 because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. 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, 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.

At this point you are probably thinking, you’ve done it Phillip this is the worst sermon you have ever preached. But, I would like to continue to add to this depressing sermon by bringing up another problem that exists under the sun. Not only will we live a meaningless, depressing life that will inevitably end in death. There is also the problem of sin. Our meaningless lives have also resulted in an eternal life of death, vanity, and separation from God because of sin. That is much scarier than living a meaningless life.

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” -C.S. Lewis

Enter Jesus.

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity when you look for satisfaction under the sun.

The location of our searching determines the outcome

We cannot find satisfaction in this world. That is why we must look beyond what is under the sun. What does life look like when we look over the sun? What if we looked for an eternal solution to our problem?

John 3:1–21 CSB

1 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus. 10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

Life under the sun is vanity, but life over the sun is everlasting!

1 Corinthians 15:58 CSB

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Why is it that Paul can say our lives are not in vain when the preacher of Ecclesiastes tells us our lives are vanity?

The Resurrection has given life purpose

1 Corinthians 15:50–58 CSB

50 What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53 For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. 54 When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory. 55 Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

The Creator has given life Value

Human life is not meaningless because it was created by God in His image.

Genesis 1:26–31 CSB

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. 28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” 29 God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This will be food for you, 30 for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it—I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

We find our value and our purpose in God. He has created us in His image, and He has given us purpose in this otherwise meaningless life.

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 ESV

13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Do you want to live a life that is worthwhile? Turn from vanity and trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior. Follow Him and serve Him by loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love others as He has loved you. Give glory to God in everything you do and you will find peace, joy, and hope in a world filled with vanity.

Are you living under the Sun, or are you living life under the Son?