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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
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Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
The Bible says in Second Timothy chapter three, verse 16, that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
What we need is in the Bible. The information we need from God, the teaching that we have of God, is in the Bible. Second Peter, chapter one, verse three says that God “has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.” So if there's a problem, if there's an issue, if there's a question, if there's a need that we have about living a godly life, the answers and the explanations are in the Bible.
Now, that doesn't mean that God is going to answer every question that you have. Some things are beyond our comprehension. The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 29, that “the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those which are revealed belong to us and our children.” There are some things that God has revealed and many things that God has not revealed, but when it comes to the problem of evil, when we look at the issue of why bad things happen in this life so often, the book of Ecclesiastes is one of the great books of the Bible on this topic. That's what we're going to begin studying today the Book of Ecclesiastes.
This is a book that looks at life. What is life? What is life all about? We try to find the answer in experience or by listening to experienced older people, by reading books, and especially the book called The Bible, and we learn a lot from these sources.
But what if all these were found in one short book? That book that I'm talking about is this book of Ecclesiastes. It certainly has more wisdom than every human book ever written. The evening news claims to tell us what we need to know about life. The internet claims to give us all the answers to our questions, and so does every college in the country.
But no man was ever qualified to speak about life like the writer of this book. And if we pay attention to what he says, we will save ourselves a lot of worry, a lot of fear and a lot of frustration. The writer that I'm talking about was Solomon. The book is Ecclesiastes, evidently written after certain experiences which taught this man much as well as his being inspired of God.
This was a man of experience. This book gives a powerful perspective on life. And notice in chapter one as he begins that the key word in this book comes out right away. In Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse two, he says, “Vanity of vanities says the preacher, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” The word vanity here means emptiness.
Why is he talking about emptiness? You know, a lot of people feel empty inside today. A lot of people try to have purpose in life. They try to enjoy their life, but they're really empty on the inside. This is what this book is about, and this book tells us that there's only one way to avoid that emptiness.
There's only one thing that can fill up a man's soul. Augustine, who was a writer about 1700 years ago, said that the soul of man is restless until it finds peace in God. There's just some kind of yearning within us to try to find meaning, to try to find fulfillment, to try to ease this thing that we call the conscience, and there's only one way to do it.
This book of Ecclesiastes shows that many people pursue the wrong path to have meaning and fulfillment in life and they end up empty. Notice what he says beginning in verse three. “What profit has a man in all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever.”
In other words, everything just keeps happening the way that it always has. What does the next generation do after the previous generation? Just think about it. What do they accomplish? And I'm not talking about technology. I'm not talking about advances in medicine or anything like that. I'm talking about the same basic human behavior.
What happens in life? The same things. People are born, people die, people marry, people have children, people build and then they pass away. They die. One generation passes away and another generation comes. We'll talk more about that as we proceed. He uses nature to illustrate his point here about one generation passing away and another generation coming and doing the same things basically and generally that the previous generation had accomplished.
He says in verse five, think about the sun. “The sun also rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it arose.” What's he saying? Life continues the same. The sun is still rising and setting just like it did thousands of years ago. Things have not changed. Essentially, life is the same.
In verse six, he said, “The wind goes toward the south and turns around to the north. The wind whirls about continually and comes again on its circuit.” So what does the wind do today that it didn't do thousands of years ago? What does the wind do today in this country that it didn't do in the land of Egypt thousands of years ago, or in the land of Israel thousands of years ago? It blows in one direction then another, but those directions are basically the same. So he says that this is life. Life just proceeds in the same way. Things just keep happening the same that they have happened over the course of human history.
Look at verse seven. “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.” He's saying that the waters of the earth are basically the same. You find that there's this evaporation process, and then the creeks run into the rivers. The rivers run into the sea. It evaporates, and it all starts over again. And so is this any different from the way it was when Jesus walked on the water? No, it's basically the same. The wind and the rain and the waters and the sun rising and setting and the seasons of the year—those are basically the same as they've always been. What's he saying here? These are illustrations of life itself. These are illustrations of man's ways.
Notice that he says in verse eight, “All things are full of labor. Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” What does he mean when he says that all things are full of labor and man cannot express it? That is: people are doing so many things. There are so many events that take place in life, and human beings are so busy that you can't express it. There's no way that you can write it all down or tell it all because people are so busy doing things and he says that no matter what people see, no matter what people hear, no matter what they strive for, they're never satisfied. This is a key expression here. He says the eye is not satisfied with seeing. The ear is not filled with hearing.
Notice the key word in verse eight. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing. Remember what we saw in verse two? He talks about vanity, and he doesn't mean they're a vain person from the standpoint of trying to get attention like we oftentimes use that word today. The word vanity means emptiness, and here he tells us in verse eight that you cannot fill up that emptiness by seeing things, by having things, by buying things, by enjoying things.
He says over in chapter five, “When goods increase, they increase who eat them. So what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes?” [Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse 11]. In the end, what can you do with these things? Look at them. And what good does that do? Does that fill up the soul? Does that satisfy the soul? No, you can't satisfy the soul with material things. And man has been trying to do the very opposite of that for thousands of years.
Man tries to satisfy himself with the things of the world, and that cannot be done. The soul has to be satisfied with spiritual things. In verse nine he says, “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.” If you don't learn anything else, if you can't remember anything else about this program today, just remember that verse.
It will help you. It will save you a lot of stress and a lot of worry in this life. No matter what you endure, no matter what you face in life, you can mark it down. It's not new. Regardless of whether this is a problem in life or an exciting experience in life, millions of other people have experienced the same thing in their lives long before you were born.
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. So not only is history repeating itself, but he says that will continue. So what is going to happen after you, as we say, are dead and gone? What's going to happen when your children are grown, your grandchildren are grown, and you're not there anymore?
This verse tells us there's not going to be anything different. It's going to be the same kind of life that you have today. There is nothing new under the sun. In verse 10, he said, “Is there anything of which it may be said, see, this is new?” He says this: “It has already been in ancient times before us. 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.” In other words, the people that will rise after you and I, people who live after we are dead, will experience the same things and they will be so busy with their lives that they won't remember much about us. They'll have to learn on their own some of the same lessons that we've had to learn by experience ourselves.
In verse 12, Solomon tells us some things about himself. He says, “I, the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven. This burdensome task, the King James says “this sore travail,” God “has given to the sons of men, by which they may be exercised. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and indeed all is vanity and grasping for the wind.” The King James says “vexation of spirit,” and that's probably a more accurate translation, but still the idea of emptiness is what's being talked about here.
So Solomon was king. He had great power. He had great wealth, fame, pleasure, and knowledge, but he wanted to find out more. He wanted to figure things out. He wanted to seek and search for things he wanted to discover and to see new things. He wanted to hear about what had happened and what was happening.
So the Bible says in this book that he was interested in things like politics, relationships, business and money and death, and the unpredictability of life. The Bible says in this passage that God has given us this sore travail, this grievous or burdensome task. God made us and the world. He made us so that we have to experience the world and learn from it.
We're like a child who has to see and learn as much as that child can. We have to experience things. He says a little bit later in Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse 10, “I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” When it says that God has put eternity in our hearts, that's an interesting expression. He's not talking about the concept of eternity. He's not talking about the idea of eternity, but he's simply talking about the fact that we are naturally curious beings.
Solomon said in verse 17, “I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly, and I perceive that this also is grasping for the wind. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge, increases sorrow.” Now that might seem like an odd thing to say. But there's a price that comes with knowledge.
The more you know, the more sorrow you're going to have in your life. How's that true? Well, think of a little child. Why does a little child enjoy himself so much? Why do they have fun all the time? Because they don't understand what you do. They don't see what you do. They don't have the knowledge that you do.
But because you have that knowledge and understanding, you have grief that they don't have. And this is even true in spiritual things, you might even say, especially spiritual matters, because the more you learn about the Bible, the more you realize that most people don't follow it. That causes grief. The more you learn about what being lost means according to the Bible, the more you grieve over lost people. The more you realize what hell is like, the sadder it makes you that so many people are going there. The more you know about the church, the home, worship, false religion, living the Christian life and Bible authority, the more you see how mixed up and ignorant and far off many people are these days.
Now when you turn to chapter two, you find that Solomon tried to enjoy himself and fill up the emptiness within him, but he tried to do that with the wrong kinds of things. In Ecclesiastes chapter two verse one, Solomon said, “I said in my heart, Come now, I will test you with mirth. Therefore, enjoy pleasure, and surely this also was vanity. I said of laughter—Madness! and of mirth, What does it accomplish? I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh. Now notice that statement.
He wanted to gratify, he wanted to satisfy, the body. He wanted to satisfy the flesh. That cannot be done except temporarily. In other words, when a man has this yearning or he has a bodily desire, he satisfies the flesh momentarily for a while, but then the desires just keep coming back. Whether they're right or wrong desires, they're only temporarily satisfied.
And so Solomon is trying to satisfy his whole being. He's trying to satisfy his soul because he says,I'm going to test my heart here. So he is trying to fill up his heart with earthly pleasures, with material things, and he goes into that by saying I tried to gratify my flesh “with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their life.”
And then he begins to give us some specifics here. Here's what he did to try to have meaning and fulfillment in life, and he said it didn't work. He said I made great works. I built myself houses. Not a house, not one house, but houses, and we're talking about elaborate, very expensive houses. Solomon had them.
We center our lives many times on the house that we live in. Solomon said, I wanted to do this so that it would satisfy me. “I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.”
So we might say here that he had the best landscaping possible, the best landscaping that money could buy. Solomon didn't have to worry about money because he was more wealthy than any man that ever lived. He said in verse seven, “I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were before me in Jerusalem.”
So he has all kinds of servants. He does not have to lift his hand to do anything at all. Whatever he wants done—all he has to do is to say it to one of these servants. And he had all kinds of livestock. Many people like to invest in livestock or to own livestock. Solomon had it all. Not only that, in verse eight he said, “I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings of the provinces.”
This man was so wealthy that in his day, silver was not worth very much. The Bible says that it was counted like stones. In other words, just like gravels to us. The drinking vessels in the palace of Solomon were all made of pure gold. None were silver. The Bible says this man was so wealthy that he didn't even fool around with silver. Everything that he had was gold.
He said, “I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds.” Solomon had so much power and so much money that he could call in the best musicians and the best singers from anywhere in the world to perform before him. He could enjoy live performances anytime that he wanted to. Now we enjoy our music today. We enjoy listening to music.
Solomon had it all. What he's saying here is whatever I wanted that I enjoyed. So the Bible says in verse nine, “So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me.” Now, watch what he says in verse 10. “Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had made, and on the labor in which I had toiled.”
Now you go back to verse four, and he is talking about his houses. He's talking about the vineyards and the pools of water. He's talking about the trees. He's talking about all his servants, all his silver and his gold, all the live entertainment that he wanted. And he said, here's how I felt about it. In the end, he said, “And indeed all was vanity or emptiness and grasping for the wind,” or, as the King James says, vexation, that is torment in spirit, “and there was no profit under the sun.” So how did Solomon feel after he'd acquired all of this? Did he want more? No. There was no more. He had done and he had experienced and enjoyed everything that a human being could with money.
It reminds me of Lee Iacocca. Lee Iacocca was the CEO of Chrysler when it was really at its pinnacle, and he once wrote this. He said, “When you get to the top, there's nothing there.” That is how Solomon felt. He did not feel fulfilled. He felt empty. That's why he talks so much about vanity or emptiness in this book.
And notice what he confesses in verse 17. “Therefore I hated life.” Why did you hate life, Solomon? He said, “Because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun because I must leave it to the man who will come after me.”
Why is he so down? He has everything. One of the reasons is because he is focused on this life and he is fixated on keeping the things that he has and that he enjoys. And the Bible says here that he realizes that he is going to die. That's what he's talking about. He said I'm going to have to leave it to the man who comes after me.
That is the “event” that he talks about in verse 14. “The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all.” The word “event” in the Book of Ecclesiastes often refers to death. And Solomon is saying here this is just not fair. This is disappointing.
This is discouraging and depressing because you work hard and just about the time that you get things set in life to try to enjoy it, then death comes and there's nothing that you can do about that. You're going to die. And he said that that was a depressing thought to him. Now, you have to remember when you read the book of Ecclesiastes that he is not done yet.
Don't think that he's going to end up this book with this same kind of depression because he is going to end this book telling you how you can avoid being depressed about the disappointments and about the injustices of life, and about the fact that you're going to die and others around you're going to die.
You don't have to live in a life of emptiness and depression about that. He's going to give us the key to that as we get to the end of the book, but right now he's just building up the point and he's saying in chapter two, I have worked all this time, and he didn't do the physical labor, but he's talking about the mental energy and making sure that it got done.
He had to oversee and manage this, and what he's saying is it was disappointing and discouraging to me to think about the fact that I've put all this time and thought into it and yet I'm going to die and somebody else is going to get it. And he says in verse 19, “And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun.”
This also is vanity, and that is true of you. It's true of all of us. You work hard to get what you've got. You have a house, you have a vehicle, you have a savings account, you have clothes, you have personal items, and you have in mind that you're going to give that to your children and to your grandchildren or to someone else.
But eventually someone else will get those things. Somebody else is going to have your land. Somebody else is going to have your property, and there's not going to be one thing you can do about that when you're dead. And Solomon says all that is depressing because you do all that work. You put all that time and planning into it, and for what? He said, this is vanity.
But beginning in verse 24, he said there is an upside to this. It causes you to realize what the really enjoyable things in life are. They're not all these fancy, expensive ways of entertaining ourselves. That's what most American people are doing right now, and other people throughout the world. They work themselves to death for one reason, and that is to enjoy the things of this life. They don't think about heaven. They don't think about eternity. They don't really think about the fact that life is filled with hardship as well. They just want to squeeze all of the fun and all of the laughter out of life that they possibly can. Solomon said it's not in the expensive, big, showy things that you find fulfillment in life.
He said, it's in the simple things of life. This is very important to remember when you think about what we call the problem of evil. The most satisfying earthly pleasures are the simple things. Look at Ecclesiastes chapter two verse 24. “Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.”
Just being able to sit down and enjoy a good meal is one of the greatest blessings of life. You don't have to be rich to do that. You don't have to have a mansion to enjoy a good meal, and you don't have to have the best of silverware or golden cups to enjoy a good meal. And yet Solomon himself, who lived in the palace beyond our wildest imagination said when it boils right down to it, it's just enjoying a meal. It's being able to sit down and enjoy good food. And he said also to enjoy the good of your labor. Now what that means is you put in a hard day's work or a good day's work, or you built something and you feel good about the work that you've done. That internal satisfaction is worth more than all of the expensive adornments that this world can offer.
So this is a very important point to remember here, and people wouldn't feel like they were cheated in life if they just understood and would listen to what Solomon is saying. There are many people who feel like that life is just unfair, that they've been mistreated, that they've been cheated out of a good life.
And yet Solomon said really it's the simple things in life that are the best. Those are the most valuable. So there are people that are actually rich and they don't even realize it because they have what Solomon is saying here.
In Ecclesiastes chapter three, Solomon gives more wise advice about how to deal with the unfairness of life. He tells us in Ecclesiastes chapter three verses one through eight that you have to remember that there will always be good days and bad days, good times and bad times. They're always going to be the highs and the lows, the twists and the turns of life. That's just life. We can't all have it good every day. That's not going to happen.
So Solomon reminds us in chapter three, beginning in verse one, in this famous section: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down, and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to gain and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to sow. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.” There will be good times and there will be hardships in life. And you may say, “But what about all the injustice in life? Solomon surely saw that, didn't he? What did he say about all the unfair things that people do to each other?”
Here's what he said in chapter three, verse 16. “Moreover, I saw under the sun in the place of judgment, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there.” Chapter four verse one: He talks about this again. Then he says, “I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun and look, the tears of the oppressed, but they have no comforter. And on the side of their oppressors, there is power, but they have no comforter.” So Solomon saw all this injustice in life. He knew a lot more than you and I do. He saw a lot more than you and I do about the evil that people can do to each other. And as king, he had the power to punish people, but he couldn't settle everything.
He could not solve all the problems of life. There were injustices that even he and all his wisdom and with all his power could not do a thing in the world about. And that's a tough pill to swallow. That's hard to live with. That's what you and I have to do. That's why we call this the problem of evil.
We look around and see evil in the world around us and we pray to God and it's not God's timing to do anything about it then, or at least we don't see God doing anything about it. And we get discouraged. We get dismayed. And Solomon is saying, that's what I felt. I felt empty on the inside, but I want you to notice a few other things here in chapter four.
He talks about the unfairness of envy in this life. Look at chapter four verse four. “Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work, a man is envied by his neighbor.” Solomon says, if you do anything good and worthwhile in this life, somebody is going to be jealous of you. That's sad. He says it's vanity.
This is depressing. It looks like that people would be glad that you've done something or that you have something good. But he said mark it down: anytime you do anything good in life, somebody will be jealous of you. Here's something else in chapter four that he saw among human beings. He was an observer of human nature.
He was a student of human behavior, and he said here's something else that I've seen that is vanity. This is depressing to watch. He says in chapter four, verse seven, “Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun. There is one alone without companion. He has neither son nor brother.” Now, here is a man who's not married. He doesn't have any children, and yet Solomon says there is no end to all his labors. All he does is work. And not only that, but Solomon says, “nor is his eye satisfied with riches.” He's got money, but he doesn't know what to do with it. He doesn't enjoy it. He's not satisfied with it, and yet he just keeps on working.
And Solomon says I don't really understand that. He says this man that he's talking about never asks, “For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?” I could be enjoying this. But he never asks himself that question. He never thinks about that. And Solomon says, “This is vanity and a grave misfortune.” Now we're going to look at chapter five in the next episode, but let me give you some advice here.
Don't get discouraged with the way that Solomon is laying this out. He is presenting the problem right now. He is going to talk about how you're to deal with that. But before he does that, he paints the picture very darkly, and then later he's going to put the bright spots in there. And so I would encourage you to read the book of Ecclesiastes or to listen to it from beginning to end as many times as you can as we go through it in this series.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.