2 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. 2 “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” 3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly— my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.
We have to remember that the kings of Israel were saturated with pleasure. There was nothing denied them. Solomon, of course, was no exception. In fact, he could have very well been the most indulgent king. When he says the word pleasure, there are things that pop up in our mind. Whatever the individual idea of pleasure is, we first have to ask if there is anything wrong with pleasure. The answer to that is no. Pleasure, unto itself, if something given by God. We need moments of pleasure, respites from our work, times to power down, so to
speak, to reconnect, recharge, revitalize ourselves. So there is nothing inherently wrong with pleasure. But when does it become a problem? Pleasure (or, in modern terms, comfort), can be a very alluring problem for us. We all need and crave it. But when we move from it being an element of our life to chasing after it, it can become idolatrous. If it becomes that, then it gets in the way of God and affects our relationship.
So in the case of Solomon’s study, he first looks at laughter and calls it madness. Why would laughter of all things be considered madness? Laughter here is equated with entertainment. So, if someone is always chasing laughter, then they are chasing some sort of entertainment, which he determines as meaningless. Next, he cheers himself with wine, in which he also finds no meaning. Then folly, which is really a lack of good sense. Foolishness. On these things, he finds a futility in pleasure, simply because
these things are all distractions.
4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made
gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to
water groves of flourishing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights
of a man’s heart.
Next, he experiments by trying to find pleasure through accomplishment. You see that he creates and acquires many things. But even through creation there is an emptiness. So he moves onto acquiring the things that will fill his soul. But this too proves to be fruitless.
In our own lives we can relate to this. In our rich society we oftentimes try to fill the deeper voids of our life by buying things. But if you’ve ever really wanted something, did all the research, saved up the money, dreamed about that thing relentlessly, and finally got it, you know the end of the story. It never lives up to the hype, and you’re left with a feeling of letdown. So you go onto the next thing, hoping that will satisfy.
9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed
with me.
10
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.
11
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.
Solomon became wiser than any other king and denies himself nothing. We know, in our lives, when we let a multitude of things into our lives, it usually doesn’t work out too well. If we remember Nehemiah’s gates, we’ll remember that story is one big metaphor for our spiritual wall we have to keep to this world. The gates regulate what is let in. As leaders of our house we are the gatekeeper. If we simply let anything and everything into our lives, we become
desensitized, open to anything, and it can destroy us over time. As Solomon found, he devoted himself to the pursuits of this life, and ultimately discovered vast amounts of his life were lived in a meaningless way.
12
Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
than what has already been done?
13
I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
just as light is better than darkness.
14
The wise have eyes in their heads,
while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.
15 Then I said to myself,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
“This too is meaningless.”
16
For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!
Solomon schools us on the certainty of death. Death comes to the wise as well as the fool. So his question becomes, “what is the gain of wisdom?” Since the same fate visits the wise and the foolish, what good is wisdom? From this temporal viewpoint, life has no true meaning, even good accomplishments are temporary, and every accomplishment will one day be forgotten.
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is
meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun,
because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that
person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I
have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began
to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom,
knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it.
This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and
anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and
pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
In understanding the fruitlessness of life, Solomon finally begins to hate human life, viewed through the prism of the temporal world. His accomplishments will go to another, possibly a fool and he is quite concerned about this. In this scenario, human work is meaningless, since its accomplishments have no eternal rewards.
This becomes a deep issue with many people when they get older. What will they do with the money they amassed? Who will they leave it to? This is one of the instances where we fall into temporal thinking. We fall into the very issue Solomon is talking about. Money, riches, accomplishments are all temporal. When someone is on their deathbed, they typically aren’t thinking about their net worth.
This also shows us the struggle of the eternal being verses the temporal being. Just as our spirit battles the flesh, our eternity battles against the temporal outlook.
24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.
This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the
sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who
pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
If life is indeed despairing, if there is nothing more that life from pole to pole, then the best we can make of this terrible situation is to make the best of it. This is because the true meaning in life is impossible to find. We must find contentment in comfortable pleasures. This, of course, is looking at life through temporal eyes. When we can’t see eternity, there is a sense of despair to our lives. We can ignore our eternal design, but God tends to want his
people, so if we ignore and simply live “under the sun”, then God may want to get our attention in larger ways. Sometimes our life has to collapse before we can understand the truth of respecting our design. It certainly happened to Solomon.
We have to remember that the kings of Israel were saturated with pleasure. There was nothing denied them. Solomon, of course, was no exception. In fact, he could have very well been the most indulgent king. When he says the word pleasure, there are things that pop up in our mind. Whatever the individual idea of pleasure is, we first have to ask if there is anything wrong with pleasure. The answer to that is no. Pleasure, unto itself, if something given by God. We need moments of pleasure, respites from our work, times to power down, so to
speak, to reconnect, recharge, revitalize ourselves. So there is nothing inherently wrong with pleasure. But when does it become a problem? Pleasure (or, in modern terms, comfort), can be a very alluring problem for us. We all need and crave it. But when we move from it being an element of our life to chasing after it, it can become idolatrous. If it becomes that, then it gets in the way of God and affects our relationship.
So in the case of Solomon’s study, he first looks at laughter and calls it madness. Why would laughter of all things be considered madness? Laughter here is equated with entertainment. So, if someone is always chasing laughter, then they are chasing some sort of entertainment, which he determines as meaningless. Next, he cheers himself with wine, in which he also finds no meaning. Then folly, which is really a lack of good sense. Foolishness. On these things, he finds a futility in pleasure, simply because
these things are all distractions.
4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made
gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to
water groves of flourishing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights
of a man’s heart.
Next, he experiments by trying to find pleasure through accomplishment. You see that he creates and acquires many things. But even through creation there is an emptiness. So he moves onto acquiring the things that will fill his soul. But this too proves to be fruitless.
In our own lives we can relate to this. In our rich society we oftentimes try to fill the deeper voids of our life by buying things. But if you’ve ever really wanted something, did all the research, saved up the money, dreamed about that thing relentlessly, and finally got it, you know the end of the story. It never lives up to the hype, and you’re left with a feeling of letdown. So you go onto the next thing, hoping that will satisfy.
9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed
with me.
10
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.
11
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.
Solomon became wiser than any other king and denies himself nothing. We know, in our lives, when we let a multitude of things into our lives, it usually doesn’t work out too well. If we remember Nehemiah’s gates, we’ll remember that story is one big metaphor for our spiritual wall we have to keep to this world. The gates regulate what is let in. As leaders of our house we are the gatekeeper. If we simply let anything and everything into our lives, we become
desensitized, open to anything, and it can destroy us over time. As Solomon found, he devoted himself to the pursuits of this life, and ultimately discovered vast amounts of his life were lived in a meaningless way.
12
Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
than what has already been done?
13
I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
just as light is better than darkness.
14
The wise have eyes in their heads,
while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.
15 Then I said to myself,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
“This too is meaningless.”
16
For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!
Solomon schools us on the certainty of death. Death comes to the wise as well as the fool. So his question becomes, “what is the gain of wisdom?” Since the same fate visits the wise and the foolish, what good is wisdom? From this temporal viewpoint, life has no true meaning, even good accomplishments are temporary, and every accomplishment will one day be forgotten.
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is
meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun,
because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that
person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I
have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began
to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom,
knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it.
This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and
anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and
pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.
In understanding the fruitlessness of life, Solomon finally begins to hate human life, viewed through the prism of the temporal world. His accomplishments will go to another, possibly a fool and he is quite concerned about this. In this scenario, human work is meaningless, since its accomplishments have no eternal rewards.
This becomes a deep issue with many people when they get older. What will they do with the money they amassed? Who will they leave it to? This is one of the instances where we fall into temporal thinking. We fall into the very issue Solomon is talking about. Money, riches, accomplishments are all temporal. When someone is on their deathbed, they typically aren’t thinking about their net worth.
This also shows us the struggle of the eternal being verses the temporal being. Just as our spirit battles the flesh, our eternity battles against the temporal outlook.
24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil.
This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the
sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who
pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
If life is indeed despairing, if there is nothing more that life from pole to pole, then the best we can make of this terrible situation is to make the best of it. This is because the true meaning in life is impossible to find. We must find contentment in comfortable pleasures. This, of course, is looking at life through temporal eyes. When we can’t see eternity, there is a sense of despair to our lives. We can ignore our eternal design, but God tends to want his
people, so if we ignore and simply live “under the sun”, then God may want to get our attention in larger ways. Sometimes our life has to collapse before we can understand the truth of respecting our design. It certainly happened to Solomon.