ESOCS Devotional 22 October 2024 – Enjoying Futility
MEMORY VERSE: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:2
TEXT:ECCLESIASTES 1:1-END
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher;
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
3 What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he 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 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 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.
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 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 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.
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The writer called himself “the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (vv. 1 and 12), which would indicate Solomon (since no other king besides David reigned over the whole kingdom of Israel from Jerusalem). We read in 1 Kings 3 that Solomon asked God for the wisdom to govern His people, and God was pleased to give him “a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you” (1 Kings 3:12).
But Ecclesiastes came from a dark place in Solomon’s life. The Scriptures tell us that Solomon himself became an object of lesson in the futility of this world, when late in his life, he abandoned wholehearted worship of God and turned to the other gods of the women in his harem. Here is bewildering folly and futility: the king who built and dedicated the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem to God ended his life building temples to Chemosh and Molech and all of the gods of his many wives! (1 Kings 11)
Solomon wrote this book, having seen great blessing from God, and having experienced the depths of apostasy and falling away from Him. He had seen great success and wealth and power, and had seen that none of that success or wealth or power or authority meant anything, when it was all said and done.
Solomon pulled no punches, as he talked about the futility of this world; the bewildering repetition, the meaningless struggles, the dull monotony, etc. What he was going to do through this book was to confront us with the reality that there is no way to escape the futility and meaninglessness of this world apart from God.
- The evidence that we love God is that we hold onto Jesus Christ in poverty and in riches, in sickness and in health, in sorrow and joy, in bad times and in good times.
- Lord, let me remain close to you at all times.
Furter Reading: Job 19:1-27; 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1; 1 Peter 5:1-11
ESOCS Devotional 22 October 2024
