Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

1 The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,
    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What do people gain from all the toil
    at which they toil under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
    but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun goes down,
    and hurries to the place where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south,
    and goes around to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
    and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea,
    but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
    there they continue to flow.
8 All things are wearisome;
    more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
    or the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done;
    there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
    “See, this is new”?
It has already been,
    in the ages before us.
11 The people of long ago are not remembered,
    nor will there be any remembrance
of people yet to come
    by those who come after them.

The wisdom literature is probably my favorite part of the Old Testament. We know Psalms the best most likely, and then perhaps Proverbs and Job. But Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) are the other two wisdom books, and each are unique to scripture.

Ecclesiastes holds a special place in my heart. A book about the meaning of life! And on the surface, a challenging one to think of being in the Bible. It seems so fatalistic and even cynical in parts.

And yet it somehow paints life in a way that we can often relate to and in the end, isn't as despairing as it initially seems.

Part of the perceived fatalism comes right at the beginning: "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!

Other ways this has been translated is: "everything is meaningless!" and "everything is useless."

I tend to prefer how the Message Bible phrases it: "There's nothing to anything. It's all smoke!"

Maybe I like it because it is so visual. But also it comes closest I think to the translation I mentioned on Friday: All is vapor.

Smoke, vapor...those are things you can see. Those are things that were here, and then slowly fade away.

Those are things I think that are not meaningless OR useless.

Or vanity!

As you read the rest of these verses, does it paint a life of meaninglessness to you?

Or something else. Something that lasts and then disappears.

Can you think of something that was that kind of vapor in your life? Beautiful and then gone?

I'll bet you were happy for the beauty while it lasted!

Lord of all, open my eyes and heart to the beauty that is before me now that I might truly see it and live it before it disappears into the mist. Amen