Ecclesiastes 1 Commentary
All Is Vanity
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KEY THOUGHT: What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he [b]toils under the sun? [Ecclesiastes 1:3 NKJV]
Kindly read your Bible before going through the commentary!
Ecclesiastes 1 NKJV
The Vanity of Life
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 “Vanity[a] of vanities,” says the Preacher;
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
3 What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he [b]toils under the sun?
4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes;
But the earth abides forever.
5 The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,
And [c]hastens to the place where it arose.
6 The wind goes toward the south,
And turns around to the north;
The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.
7 All the rivers run into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.
8 All things are [d]full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things,
Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come
By those who will come after.
The Grief of Wisdom
12 I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be [e]exercised. 14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight,
And what is lacking cannot be numbered.
16 I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has [f]understood great wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.
18 For in much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Footnotes
a. Ecclesiastes 1:2 Or Absurdity, Frustration, Futility, Nonsense; and so throughout the book
b. Ecclesiastes 1:3 labors
c. Ecclesiastes 1:5 Is eager for, lit. panting
d. Ecclesiastes 1:8 wearisome
e. Ecclesiastes 1:13 Or afflicted
f. Ecclesiastes 1:16 Lit. seen
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Ecclesiastes 1 Commentary
This is interesting. We are coming from the Book of Proverbs, where “wisdom” was everything. But here in this book, everything is meaningless, including wisdom!
Of course, we should be surprised. Is “wisdom” in the Book of Proverbs different from wisdom in Ecclesiastes? Of course, they are different.
Wisdom is actually the person of the LORD Jesus Christ. Wisdom is given from above. Wisdom must be given as Heaven’s special gift to an individual. This is Wisdom according to the Book of Proverbs. It’s life!
But according to Ecclesiastes, wisdom is a branch of study. It is the result of human effort at discovery, experience, knowledge, and intelligence. It is acquired using human effort.
It is this wisdom that is both useless and meaningless.
The Book of Proverbs is a jewel wrapped in gold. Even the wrappings are valuable! Ecclesiastes is a jewel without wrappings. You get what you hear. The teachings are crude and almost rude – the kind that leaves you feeling hard done by.
How dare the Book describe God’s creation as dull and meaningless!
While Proverbs is happy to rightly elevate Wisdom above everything else, Ecclesiastes presents a counterfeit version of wisdom. And it is meaningless. Solomon sought Wisdom and the LORD granted his request. Everything else was given to him as well. An individual who seeks human wisdom doesn’t find it and must seek everything else.
Life becomes miserable. Hard labor. The thought of a ‘life by sweat’, as Genesis puts it, comes to mind.
Nothing is new. In this meaningless life of fake wisdom, nothing is new. Standing right up against this sad state of affairs is an announcement that the LORD is doing a new thing! Isaiah 43:19.
While the former generations are forgotten and the current generation shouldn’t hope too much, the promise of the gospel is that the LORD remembered His servant Abraham.
While this volume will labor to explain the folly of counterfeit wisdom, the real value lies in its exposition of the Real, original, and God-given gift – Wisdom. It does so by exposing all wisdom counterfeits.
“Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” This is life after Genesis chapter 3. “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This is life after Calvary.
Standing in the way of the fake wisdom is the Gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ – the Wisdom of God. So the reader is encouraged to read this volume with the cross in mind. What is crooked cannot be straightened. He came to do the impossible. The crooked can be made straight by the miracle-working God.
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