These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem. “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”
Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 (NLT)
Isn’t it exciting to begin your day with such words of encouragement? Just think, it doesn’t matter what you do today whether it is good, bad or indifferent it doesn’t mean a single solitary thing. At least that had become the attitude of Solomon. He had tried everything that he could try and found that nothing that he did would bring him happiness or meaning to life.
Let’s look at little farther at his words:
“What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven. I soon discovered that God has dealt a tragic existence to the human race. I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind. What is wrong cannot be made right. What is missing cannot be recovered.”
Ecclesiastes 1:3-4, 12-15 (NLT)
Have you ever met someone who was so negative that you couldn’t stand to be around them because if you were you felt as though some of their negativity would rub off on you? I mean, nothing positive ever came out of their mouth and you just wanted to run away? That is what it must have been like to be around Solomon in his later years. Listen to his words: hard work gets on nowhere; nothing will ever change; God is mean to us; it is all meaningless; wrongs cannot be made right; and once you have lost it you can never get it back. And, this is just a small part of the first chapter—it gets worse.
I suppose the people who chose to keep this book as a part of the Cannon did so just to let us know that there is a part of life that is terrible when we have forgotten God, which is what, at least in part, that Solomon did. If we had the attitude that Solomon had then we would just throw up our hands and say phooey on life. However, we cannot do that for we have been given the promises of God and we must continue to live to a higher standard and positively believe that God has a wonderful plan for our lives. We must not arise in the morning and say, “Good Lord it’s morning.” Rather, we must say, “Good morning, Lord” and go about our day rejoicing that Christ is our Savior, our hope and our soon coming King. When we do that, we will have a blessed day. Can you say amen? Amen!
