Ecclesiasties 1 (TNIV)

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

2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”

3 What does anyone gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?

4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.

8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

11 There is no remembrance of people of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.

12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on the human race! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I said to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.

I’ve really wanted to read Ecclesiastes for a while now, and I’m not sure why. I think part of the reason may be the author’s admitted cynicism, very evident in this passage. Everything is meaningless? I suppose that’s one way to look at things. But is it that far off? Temporal things remain forever in the eyes of the author; the sun keeps coming up, waters continue to flow into the sea. What is forgotten are people and their works.

What surprises me most from this passage is the use of the word “meaningless” on multiple occasions. Everything humanity strives for is meaningless and leads to nothing new. Our toil is in vain. This is what Solomon’s great wisdom led him to? All that we toil for is meaningless? Perhaps wisdom did to Solomon what it has to so many others by making him unduly cynical and critical. Especially telling is the last verse: For with much wisdom comes much sorrow, and from much knowledge, the more grief.

But you know what? I wouldn’t trade that sorrow for anything. The ache I feel when I don’t understand God or the way God seems to work is definitely one of sorrow, but it’s not an unwelcome sorrow. Reading further on in Ecclesiastes (and I haven’t gotten far) it is clear that Solomon starts first by observing the temporal (as this passage would seem to indicate) and finding foolishness there. Solomon even tells us that his quest for wisdom is to understand what goes on under the heavens, which I would agree is indeed foolishness. But what of that which goes on in the heavens? Was Solomon’s wisdom limited strictly to things of the earth?

That’s where I want to increase in wisdom; I long for a greater understanding of God, knowing full-well that I’ll never understand it all. Nothing could be further from meaningless as far as I am concerned. But is wisdom of things temporal truly meaningless? Is all of our toil to understand meaningless? I suppose that in relation to knowledge and understanding of God that it could be seen as meaningless…but I still want worldly wisdom. I’ve already spent a lot of time trying to gain that and to gain an understanding of people; surely that is not meaningless unless compared to the overwhelming responsibility of understanding God.

Here’s another question: can we not gain a better understanding of God by understanding everyone and everything around us? If God is truly in and of all things and people, I would have to think that such a pursuit would not be in vain. Interesting.