Everything is Meaningless Ecclesiastes Brief Background of Solomon We read about the life of Solomon in the book of 1 Kings He was

s the son of king David and Bathsheba He inherited Davids throne and became king of Israel It is said in 1 Kings 3:3 o Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father He had been faithful to Gods law and as a result God appeared to him in a dream and asked him what he wanted. Anything Solomon asked for and God would grant it. Solomon asked for wisdom. This was round about the time Solomon was building the Lords temple Because Solomon asked for wisdom and not material needs such as money or fame, God rewarded him further and gave him it anyway. Solomon became the wealthiest and most famous man of his day. Eventually as Solomon became older he grew apart from God and he began to search for meaning and purpose from other things in life. Being king of Israel, he was very rich, had a lot of power and had a lot of time on his hands. Solomon essentially does as he pleases because he has all the wealth and fame to do it and the book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon looking back on his search and giving his wisdom and concluding thoughts on his life and observations.

Ecclisiastes Overview Ecc 1:1-2 His opening sentence is Everything is meaningless What Solomon means here is that, in this whole world, everything is meaningless. The sun, rivers, people, everything gets boring after a while.

Ecc 1:13 - I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven Ecc 2:1 The Futility of Pleasure - Solomon finds that pleasurable things in life are meaningless - In his search for meaning and purpose in this life he tried laughter and comedy; alcohol (or more specifically wine in those days); building large homes for himself (his palace was larger than the temple of Jerusalem); planting beautiful vineyards; planting fruitful trees (he did gardening more or less)

He also enlisted in the voluntary services of slaves, he collected large sums of money (We are told in 1 Kings: 10 he collected 25 TONNES of gold each YEAR) To get my point across- I did a search for how much wealth Solomon collected. He coolected 6349 tonnes of gold alone in his lifetime as king. Imagine this weight made up of 1 coins. That would make 668,315,789 and 47 pence In todays economy, that amount of gold would be worth 208,590,046,000. Thats a 12 digit figure people. That the sort of wealth Solomon had in his lifetime Anyways, Solomon also kept many beautiful concubines and hired choirs of Israels best singers to sing for him alone. In fact we are told in chapter 2:10 that I denied myself no pleasure the message translations tells us Everything I wanted I took, I never said no to myself. I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing. I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task my reward to myself for a hard days work He took what he wanted, when wanted it Some of you may be thinking Lucky, lucky man. But you know what he says about it all?

Ecc 2:11 - He calls it all so meaningless. You would think surely after acquiring all that wealth, doing so much hard work, building himself a Jerusalem day super mansion and divulging in other un-nameable pleasures that he would at least be content or happy? - But he calls in meaningless. All so meaningless. Like chasing the wind. - Also notice that in his search for meaning and purpose, Solomon actually sins against God AND goes against his own wisdom. I believe that Solomon is desperate at this point to find anything that isnt meaningless. Such was his desire to find a meaning to and existence - He is so caught up in finding meaning to existence that we are told in chapter 2 verse 12-18 that Solomon began to question his own gift of wisdom and described even it as meaningless. He actually came to hate his own life and works. - He didnt like the fact that the fruits of all his work and wisdom and wealth would be given to another person when he died, when they did nothing to gain it. They gained the fruit of his efforts in life. But- He kept on searching Ecc 2:24 - This is where I believe Solomon hits a turning point in his search. Notice now that after a lot of sinning and questioning the world that Solomon realised God has a part to play in his life and the things he has, but he still hasnt found purpose. Ecc 3:12 - After all this searching and questioning he fully realizes that the things he has settles to enjoy over and above everything else are Gods gift to him. - Also, he is coming to a conclusion that the point of this life is to enjoy it as long as possible.

Youll notice as you advance from chapter 3 onwards Solomon talk about God more.

Ecc 9:7-9 - Again he seems to repeat what he said earlier, BUT note this- Solomon says God approves - He has now taken into consideration Gods law and it implies that he wants to obey God now. - However he describes all of this as meaningless. Even though we enjoy things in life and we have things to enjoy like x-boxes, laptops, computer games [WILLIAM], accordions, frisbeesit is meaningless. Back in chapter 4, he describes companionship as beneficial but meaningless He has pretty much said being with people is meaningless. Beneficial, but meaningless. We get the idea now that quite a lot of things are meaningless. Ecclesiastes is a very pessimistic book we can see. Enter witty comment here King Solomon has essentially observed all aspects of life and labelled it as meaningless However the more Solomon searched, the greater appreciation he gave to God and said God was the cause for Solomons wealthy life and un-sinful pleasures. So youre probably asking yourself- what IS meaningful Garreth? What are Solomons thoughts on what is not meaningless? What does he say we should do?

Ecclesiastes Conclusion Ecc 12:8-14 Concluding Thoughts about the Teacher - His final conclusion on the whole of life and meaning is to obey and fear God - Ill point out it took Solomon years to come to this conclusion and with the state his mind would have been in - He would have thought long and hard about this statement, because he did have a lot of time on his hands - To Fear God is to respect, honour and worship Him. That is what Solomon is saying - It tells us in verse 12 to fear God BECAUSE God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad Okay so weve looked through a chunk of Solomons life where he fell away from God and he went searching for purpose and meaning. Through Solomons life we see that life may be pleasurable, but in the end it is all meaningless. This is where things get interesting All through chapter 12 if you read it is says Remember Him [Read chunks of chapter 12] Why should we remember God if were not going to be with him in eternity?

If, when we die we were NOT going to be with God, why should we remember Him and bear him in mind in our lives? Why follow Jesus if there wasnt an eternity? Exactly. We would have nothing to lose. It would be meaningless. Like chasing the wind. It could even be argued we could do as we want. I could secretly kill xxx without anyone knowing and get away with it. But since we are going to be with God we SHOULD remember him. It says at the ecclesiastes to remember Him and to obey and fear him. Ecclesiastes tell us the meaning to our meaningless lives. LIFE IS MEANINGFUL WITH GOD. WITHOUT GOD- WE HAVE NO END PURPOSE OR MEANING. But with Him, we do. He is our purpose! To do everything with regard to God, fearing him, obeying him and doing everything for Him is the purpose of our lives Let me condense this whole talk into one sentence There is nothing more important in this meaningless life than God

Finalise with? - Choosing to continue with the pleasures Solomon went for and find the meaning of your life out of something meaningless or choosing to fight against it and obey the commands of your creator and not the created. - Ecc 12: 1 Dont use your youth as an excuse to not follow God - I believe God allowed Solomon go through what he did so that people like you and me could find out what happens in the end. Instead of going against God to pursue the world, we can find out the end result from Ecclesiastes and know that it wont end well unless God is involved in it.