King Solomon of Israel had all the potential to be the greatest king of Israel. Compared to his father David, Solomon’s life was easy. He never fought a war, and instead had excellent trade agreements with other nations, allowing Israel to amass wealth on a scale unknown before or after his reign. He was personally fabulously wealthy and, like many kings of his day, had hundreds of wives and concubines. He also had celebrity status — kings and queens would travel great distances just to talk to him.

Besides all this, Solomon had a precious gift — wisdom from God. This gave him a perspective on life that few have known or expressed as eloquently. The book of Proverbs (a collection of wise sayings) is probably his best-known work. Solomon also wrote a lesser-known book of wisdom: Ecclesiastes. The title of the book is taken from the first verse: The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Ecclesiastes means a ‘preacher’ who gathers an assembly of people (Greek: ecclesia) to listen to him.

Why Ecclesiastes is special

In this series, I want to join the assembly of people listening to Solomon. In the course of his sermon, he will examine each aspect of life with one purpose: to find out if it is worthwhile. Should humans pursue this or that idea or purpose in life? If we devote our lives to any of these things, would it be worth it? If not, does that pursuit have any point at all, or is it ‘folly’ — totally pointless?

His summary of most of the things he examined is given upfront in verse 2:

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” (NKJV)

Or in more modern language:

“Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “Completely meaningless!” (NLT)

Solomon is no “glorious life” salesman — he wants us to know the reality of our situation. He presents life unvarnished and raw. This is why I love the book of Ecclesiastes. He is not in the business of flattery or deception. If you want an uplifting message that masks the emptiness of your life or distracts you from asking important, difficult questions, then you have come to the wrong place. If you want the truth, then buckle up and join me in the assembly.

Why dedicating your life to saving the planet is meaningless

His first set of observations relate to the cyclical nature of the times and seasons of earth, compared with the life and death of humanity. Similarly, we may respond to some calamity or tragedy with the phrase: “the sun will still rise tomorrow.” If you think about it, that is not a very hopeful phrase — you just lost a loved one, yet the sun will still rise like nothing happened. 

Solomon goes even further: the wind will continue its swirling through the atmosphere and the water cycle will carry on, whether you are alive or not. “Mother Earth” doesn’t care about you or your loved ones.

If you have devoted your life to saving “Mother Earth”, this should give you pause for thought. Your achievements will not be remembered by the earth itself, and after a few generations most people won’t remember them either. Given the general trajectory of the world, it is likely that your best efforts will be reversed in just a few generations.

Is there really nothing new under the sun?

Solomon then strikes on a favorite theme of the book that many misunderstand: “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc.1:9b). Given the great technological advances between his time and ours, surely if he could see the world today, he would retract such a silly statement?

Yet the text is not referring to human inventions, but to humans. Our problems, weaknesses, and questions about life remain the same. We are still groping about for meaning, as he was, and are still largely lost, as was his generation. Ecclesiastes is as relevant today as when it was written.

Be wise, but beware

After this brief introduction or “warning label” for his book, Solomon tells us why he wrote it and why he was qualified to do so. God had given him wisdom that no one else possessed in his day, and he intended to use it to answer life’s biggest question: Why are we here?

In doing so, he realized something that perhaps came as a shock to him: amassing wisdom for its own sake is ultimately meaningless! The more you know, the more you realize that other people don’t know, nor do they care. As a result, your wisdom brings with it sorrow and loneliness.

As I embark on this study of Ecclesiastes, I am deeply aware of that last warning. I may share the wisdom of Solomon with a 21st century audience, but is anyone willing to listen? If you’ve made it this far, then at least the warning label hasn’t scared you off — well done. But do you want to go further? Do you want to honestly examine every pursuit of this life and figure out if it’s really worth it?

If you are serious about finding an answer to life’s biggest question, I urge you to stick with it. Let’s take this wild ride through life with Solomon and discover the one thing that makes life worth living.