Vanity of Vanities: The Quest for Meaning
People are pretty good sports when it comes to life. To a reasonable degree, most people live peaceably within the limits of the law. The exceptions to the rule are the ones who make the daily news headlines. This is significant because it means that most people have resigned themselves to live lives of meaningless chasing after the wind.
Wisdom says, “Don’t rock the boat too much; or the boat tips over for all of us.” Without succumbing to hopelessness, we work and then we die. For the most part, we are helpless in controlling any of it. Our lives are but a vapor (Jas 4:14). A vapor is not void of meaning, although it may be deficient in significance.
The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes is a gatherer of wisdom. This is a bit ironic because he, too, was working on something that was not free from futility. Compiling great thoughts about meaninglessness can itself be like chasing after the wind, especially if few people (relative) will ever read your work (something I realize about my own written labors).
If all is vanity, then the preacher poses a key question about the actual advantage of one’s labor. Why does one endeavor to work when nothing comes of it, or no credit is given, or remembered? Ecclesiastes 1:3 sets the stage for the whole rest of the compiled book of wisdom, which is part of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, which includes: Job; Psalms; Proverbs; and Song of Songs (Solomon).
In the structure of the prologue to Ecclesiastes, there is the authorial identification (1:1); the thesis that all is vanity (1:2); the key question to be answered (1:3); and a poem that sets the tone regarding the quest for the meaning of life (1:4–11). Our task is to consider the journey through Qohelet’s (the preacher/gatherer) observations.
Most interpreters of Ecclesiastes come to a negative conclusion about the data gathered by Qohelet. Life lived under the sun is futile. Long ago, my mother inquired as to my favorite book of the Bible. She repeated her question on several separate occasions. After one query, she went and read the book of Ecclesiastes because it truly is my favorite book of the Bible. In our next encounter, she asked whether I was “ok” or if I needed to “see someone.” I laughed. I assured her that I found the book to be liberating.
So how is one liberated by a book that explores the meaninglessness of life? First, the truth, according to Jesus Himself, sets us free (Jn 8:32–35). Knowing the truth about matters great and small is akin to our salvation (Jn 17:3), for the end of the matter is to fear God and keep His commandments (Eccl 12:10).
Fearing God is the beginning of exploration. One may search for meaning in all that God has created (think: research departments); but these are always learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth (2 Tim 3:7). Those who deny or distort the knowledge of the truth will always be living a lie. Lying is an abomination in the eyes of God (Prb 12:22), who is true (Rom 3:4). It is not until we come to the special revelation of God Himself that things find their place. Thus, we must begin with and press on in the truth, as we see it and learn it in Christ Jesus. We learn Him from the pages of Holy Writ, the Bible (2 Pet 3:18).
Second, if the gerbil wheel gets the gerbil nowhere, so do the circuits of everything in life for us without God. The natural man is on the road to nowhere. Why did God make it this way? Why did God make me like this? If one is not careful, the questions will come and not end (another circuit). So much of life threatens us with depression, simply by contemplating life as it is.
Third, if everything under the sun is futile, it is surely designed by God to cause us to find our satisfaction in Him, alone. Everything in a sinful, fallen world will frustrate us. In contrast, because God is infinite in the new and creative, we find delight in meditating on Him. There is nothing new under the sun (1:9); but nothing not new under His Son. “Behold, I do a new thing” says the Lord (Is 42:9; 65:17; 2 Cor 5:17; Rev 21:5). This is why Christians are encouraged to keep their eyes on Him who authors and perfects our faith (Heb 12:2).
It is grievous that we live in a loop of repetition and still we forget and are forgotten. In vain do men build towers and attempt to make a name for themselves (Gen 11). One works; and decay immediately counters one’s efforts. Decay, entropy, and the like, of course, keep us working (e.g. roofer; painter; furniture restorer; book re-binder; etc.).
Now there is a man who questions the endless gyration. If God is not in view, he may forgo performance in favor of a coping mechanism. His desire is to interrupt the weariness of returning again and again to where he started. His new cycle may be addiction — a worse type of cycle, void of production and ultimately leads to destruction.
The earth spins; and it orbits. The water flows but returns. The wind blows and never truly adjourns. The young become old and are replaced by the young who become old. For history repeats itself, and so we forget history because we are busy “making” it all over again. Even the poem from which these musings are derived is a chiasm (1:4–11), a literary device designed to begin and end with the same idea (another circuit).
There is a joy in thinking about the mind of God, who sets each one of us in His story, as created from the dust of the earth, only to return to the dust. If you sin, you shall surely die, and we do, but who will raise us from the dead? He is the God of the circular course. In His redemption, we are reconciled and return home. How then should we live?
Your eyes should be fixed on Him who is Life — new, abundant, indestructible, and eternal. Your ear should hear of Him; for His is the word of God who has promised to deliver us from the grueling traffic circle with no exits. We must set God before us, for all things are possible with Him.
Meaningless and forgettable is the world without God. The gatherer has much more to share with us, but we have a beginning in Ecclesiastes. Where he will take us on the way of wisdom is highly probable — back to the beginning! Therefore, let us remember and often recall that all is vanity apart from Christ (Jn 15:5). In Him, however, is the infinite storehouse of wisdom (1 Cor 1:24), with the invitation, “come and learn of Me.”
Jesus Christ is our only hope that one day the circuits will cease (1 Tim 1:1); and endless day will be filled with all of nature at creative rest (Rev 21–22). His promise is that we will not be disappointed (Ps 22:5; Rom 9:33; 10:11; 1 Pet 2:6). From nothing new to endless new has already begun for those in Christ Jesus. Through the veil, Him crucified, we peek not at the paradox of the endless change of nothing new; but instead, we have a view to a permanent perfection, where everything is new.
May God help me and help you to see glorious things from this day forth and forever. May He help us to know Him who is forever, Creator, and may our witness of Him ever be true.
David Norczyk
Midland, Michigan
May 16, 2025
Ecclesiastes 1:1–11
