August 27, 2025 • 30 mins
He had it all – money, power, fame, and wisdom. He didn't have to worry about having enough money to pay for anything. He never had to ask anyone's permission to do something. He was the king of Israel in its heyday. But he also saw a lot of injustice in life. And with all his power, money and wisdom, there was often nothing he could do about the unfairness of life. He saw others being treated unfairly. And the most seemingly unfair event in life was something that even he could not avoid. That “one event” is death.
So what advice does Solomon give? How did he deal with the problem of evil? What was his conclusion about the injustice and suffering in this life? The book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most remarkable books in the Bible on this topic. This episode is part one of a look at the counsel at Solomon gives.
Read about this subject
- Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1-5
- Rich Without Money
Listen to more on this subject
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My Godand My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
The Bible says in Second Timothychapter three, verse 16, that “All
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scripture is given by inspiration ofGod, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, forinstruction in righteousness, that the
man of God may be perfect, throughlyfurnished unto all good works.”
What we need is in the Bible.
The information we need fromGod, the teaching that we
have of God, is in the Bible.
Second Peter, chapter one, verse threesays that God “has given to us all things
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that pertain to life and godliness.”So if there's a problem, if there's
an issue, if there's a question, ifthere's a need that we have about
living a godly life, the answers andthe explanations are in the Bible.
Now, that doesn't mean that God is goingto answer every question that you have.
Some things are beyond our comprehension.
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The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 29,verse 29, that “the secret things belong
to the Lord our God, but those which arerevealed belong to us and our children.”
There are some things that God hasrevealed and many things that God has not
revealed, but when it comes to the problemof evil, when we look at the issue of why
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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 beginstudying 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 experienceor by listening to experienced
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older people, by reading books, andespecially the book called The Bible,
and we learn a lot from these sources.
But what if all these werefound in one short book?
That book that I'm talking aboutis this book of Ecclesiastes.
It certainly has more wisdom thanevery human book ever written.
The evening news claims to tell uswhat we need to know about life.
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The internet claims to give us allthe answers to our questions, and so
does every college in the country.
But no man was ever qualified to speakabout 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'mtalking about was Solomon.
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The book is Ecclesiastes, evidentlywritten after certain experiences
which taught this man much aswell as his being inspired of God.
This was a man of experience.
This book gives a powerfulperspective on life.
And notice in chapter one ashe begins that the key word in
this book comes out right away.
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In Ecclesiastes chapter one,verse two, he says, “Vanity of
vanities says the preacher, Vanityof vanities, all is vanity.” The
word vanity here means emptiness.
Why is he talking about emptiness?
You know, a lot of peoplefeel empty inside today.
A lot of people try tohave purpose in life.
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They try to enjoy their life, butthey're really empty on the inside.
This is what this book is about, andthis book tells us that there's only
one way to avoid that emptiness.
There's only one thing thatcan fill up a man's soul.
Augustine, who was a writer about 1700years ago, said that the soul of man is
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restless until it finds peace in God.
There's just some kind of yearningwithin us to try to find meaning, to
try to find fulfillment, to try to easethis thing that we call the conscience,
and there's only one way to do it.
This book of Ecclesiastes showsthat many people pursue the wrong
path to have meaning and fulfillmentin life and they end up empty.
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Notice what he saysbeginning in verse three.
“What profit has a man in all hislabor in which he toils under the
sun? One generation passes awayand another generation comes,
but the earth abides forever.”
In other words, everything just keepshappening the way that it always has.
What does the next generation doafter the previous generation?
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Just think about it.
What do they accomplish?
And I'm not talking about technology.
I'm not talking about advances inmedicine or anything like that.
I'm talking about thesame basic human behavior.
What happens in life?
The same things.
People are born, people die, peoplemarry, people have children, people
build and then they pass away.
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They die.
One generation passes awayand another generation comes.
We'll talk more about that as we proceed.
He uses nature to illustrate his pointhere about one generation passing away and
another generation coming and doing thesame things basically and generally that
the previous generation had accomplished.
He says in verse five,think about the sun.
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“The sun also rises and the sungoes down and hastens to the place
where it arose.” What's he saying?
Life continues the same.
The sun is still rising and settingjust like it did thousands of years ago.
Things have not changed.
Essentially, life is the same.
In verse six, he said, “The wind goestoward the south and turns around to the
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north. The wind whirls about continuallyand comes again on its circuit.” So
what does the wind do today that itdidn't do thousands of years ago?
What does the wind do today in thiscountry that it didn't do in the land of
Egypt thousands of years ago, or in theland of Israel thousands of years ago?
It blows in one direction thenanother, but those directions
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are basically the same.
So he says that this is life.
Life just proceeds in the same way.
Things just keep happening thesame that they have happened
over the course of human history.
Look at verse seven.
“All the rivers run into the sea, yetthe sea is not full; to the place from
which the rivers come there they returnagain.” He's saying that the waters
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of the earth are basically the same.
You find that there's thisevaporation process, and then
the creeks run into the rivers.
The rivers run into the sea.
It evaporates, and itall starts over again.
And so is this any different from the wayit was when Jesus walked on the water?
No, it's basically the same.
The wind and the rain and the watersand the sun rising and setting and the
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seasons of the year—those are basicallythe 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 notsatisfied with seeing, nor the ear
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filled with hearing.” What does he meanwhen he says that all things are full
of labor and man cannot express it?
That is (07:03):
people are doing so many things.
There are so many events that takeplace in life, and human beings are
so busy that you can't express it.
There's no way that you can write it alldown or tell it all because people are
so busy doing things and he says thatno matter what people see, no matter
what people hear, no matter what theystrive for, they're never satisfied.
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This is a key expression here.
He says the eye is notsatisfied with seeing.
The ear is not filled with hearing.
Notice the key word in verse eight.
The eye is not satisfied with seeingnor the ear filled with hearing.
Remember what we saw in verse two?
He talks about vanity, and he doesn'tmean they're a vain person from the
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standpoint of trying to get attentionlike we oftentimes use that word today.
The word vanity means emptiness, andhere he tells us in verse eight that
you cannot fill up that emptiness byseeing things, by having things, by
buying things, by enjoying things.
He says over in chapter five, “Whengoods increase, they increase who eat
them. So what profit have the ownersexcept to see them with their eyes?”
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[Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse 11].
In the end, what can youdo 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 thesoul with material things.
And man has been trying to do the veryopposite of that for thousands of years.
Man tries to satisfy himselfwith the things of the world,
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and that cannot be done.
The soul has to be satisfiedwith spiritual things.
In verse nine he says, “That which hasbeen is what will be. That which is
done is what will be done, and thereis nothing new under the sun.” If
you don't learn anything else, if youcan't remember anything else about this
program today, just remember that verse.
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It will help you.
It will save you a lot of stressand a lot of worry in this life.
No matter what you endure, no matter whatyou face in life, you can mark it down.
It's not new.
Regardless of whether this is a problemin life or an exciting experience in
life, millions of other people haveexperienced the same thing in their
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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 repeatingitself, but he says that will continue.
So what is going to happen afteryou, as we say, are dead and gone?
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What's going to happen when your childrenare grown, your grandchildren are
grown, and you're not there anymore?
This verse tells us there's notgoing to be anything different.
It's going to be the same kindof life that you have today.
There is nothing new under the sun.
In verse 10, he said, “Is there anythingof which it may be said, see, this is
new?” He says this (10:01):
“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 whowill come after.” In other words, the
people that will rise after you andI, people who live after we are dead,
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will experience the same things andthey will be so busy with their lives
that they won't remember much about us.
They'll have to learn on their ownsome of the same lessons that we've
had to learn by experience ourselves.
In verse 12, Solomon tellsus some things about himself.
He says, “I, the preacher was king overIsrael in Jerusalem, and I set my heart to
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seek and search out by wisdom concerningall that is done under heaven. This
burdensome task, the King James says “thissore travail,” God “has given to the sons
of men, by which they may be exercised.
I have seen all the works that are doneunder the sun, and indeed all is vanity
and grasping for the wind.” The King Jamessays “vexation of spirit,” and that's
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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, andknowledge, but he wanted to find out more.
He wanted to figure things out.
He wanted to seek and search for things hewanted to discover and to see new things.
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He wanted to hear about what hadhappened and what was happening.
So the Bible says in this book that hewas interested in things like politics,
relationships, business and money anddeath, and the unpredictability of life.
The Bible says in this passage thatGod has given us this sore travail,
this grievous or burdensome task.
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God made us and the world.
He made us so that we have toexperience the world and learn from it.
We're like a child who has to seeand learn as much as that child can.
We have to experience things.
He says a little bit later in Ecclesiasteschapter three, verse 10, “I have seen
the God-given task with which the sonsof men are to be occupied. He has made
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everything beautiful in its time. Also, hehas put eternity in their hearts, except
that no one can find out the work thatGod does from beginning to end.” When
it says that God has put eternity in ourhearts, that's an interesting expression.
He's not talking aboutthe concept of eternity.
He's not talking about the ideaof eternity, but he's simply
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talking about the fact that weare naturally curious beings.
Solomon said in verse 17, “I set my heartto know wisdom and to know madness and
folly, and I perceive that this also isgrasping for the wind. For in much wisdom
is much grief, and he who increasesknowledge, increases sorrow.” Now that
might seem like an odd thing to say.
But there's a price thatcomes with knowledge.
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The more you know, the more sorrowyou're going to have in your life.
How's that true?
Well, think of a little child.
Why does a little childenjoy 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 thatknowledge and understanding, you
have grief that they don't have.
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And this is even true in spiritualthings, you might even say, especially
spiritual matters, because the moreyou learn about the Bible, the more you
realize that most people don't follow it.
That causes grief.
The more you learn about what beinglost means according to the Bible,
the more you grieve over lost people.
The more you realize what hell islike, the sadder it makes you that
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so many people are going there.
The more you know about the church, thehome, worship, false religion, living the
Christian life and Bible authority, themore 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 emptinesswithin him, but he tried to do that
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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, andsurely this also was vanity.
I said of laughter—Madness!
and of mirth, What does it accomplish?
I searched in my hearthow to gratify my flesh.
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Now notice that statement.
He wanted to gratify, hewanted to satisfy, the body.
He wanted to satisfy the flesh.
That cannot be done except temporarily.
In other words, when a man hasthis yearning or he has a bodily
desire, he satisfies the fleshmomentarily for a while, but then
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the desires just keep coming back.
Whether they're right or wrong desires,they're only temporarily satisfied.
And so Solomon is tryingto satisfy his whole being.
He's trying to satisfy his soul becausehe says,I'm going to test my heart here.
So he is trying to fill up his heartwith earthly pleasures, with material
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things, and he goes into that by sayingI tried to gratify my flesh “with wine
while guiding my heart with wisdom andhow to lay hold on folly till I might see
what was good for the sons of men to dounder heaven all the days of their life.”
And then he begins to giveus some specifics here.
Here's what he did to try tohave meaning and fulfillment in
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life, and he said it didn't work.
He said I made great works.
I built myself houses.
Not a house, not one house, buthouses, and we're talking about
elaborate, very expensive houses.
Solomon had them.
We center our lives many timeson the house that we live in.
Solomon said, I wanted to dothis so that it would satisfy me.
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“I built myself houses and plantedmyself vineyards. I made myself
gardens and orchards, and I plantedall kinds of fruit trees in them. I
made myself pools from which to waterthe growing trees of the grove.”
So we might say here that he had thebest landscaping possible, the best
landscaping that money could buy.
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Solomon didn't have to worry aboutmoney because he was more wealthy
than any man that ever lived.
He said in verse seven, “I acquired maleand female servants and had servants
born in my house. Yes, I had greaterpossessions 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 hishand to do anything at all.
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Whatever he wants done—all he has to dois to say it to one of these servants.
And he had all kinds of livestock.
Many people like to invest inlivestock or to own livestock.
Solomon had it all.
Not only that, in verse eight hesaid, “I also gathered for myself
silver and gold and the specialtreasures of kings of the provinces.”
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This man was so wealthy that in hisday, silver was not worth very much.
The Bible says that itwas counted like stones.
In other words, just like gravels to us.
The drinking vessels in the palace ofSolomon were all made of pure gold.
None were silver.
The Bible says this man wasso wealthy that he didn't
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even fool around with silver.
Everything that he had was gold.
He said, “I acquired male and femalesingers, the delights of the sons
of men and musical instruments ofall kinds.” Solomon had so much
power and so much money that hecould call in the best musicians
and the best singers from anywherein the world to perform before him.
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He could enjoy live performancesanytime that he wanted to.
Now we enjoy our music today.
We enjoy listening to music.
Solomon had it all.
What he's saying here iswhatever I wanted that I enjoyed.
So the Bible says in verse nine, “SoI became great and excelled more than
all who were before me in Jerusalem.Also, my wisdom remained with me.”
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Now, watch what he says in verse 10.
“Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keepfrom them. I did not withhold my heart
from any pleasure, for my heart rejoicedin all my labor, and this was my reward
from all my labor. Then I looked on allthe works that my hands had made, and
on the labor in which I had toiled.”
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Now you go back to verse four, andhe is talking about his houses.
He's talking about the vineyardsand 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 allwas vanity or emptiness and grasping
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for the wind,” or, as the King Jamessays, vexation, that is torment in
spirit, “and there was no profitunder 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 experiencedand enjoyed everything that a
human being could with money.
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It reminds me of Lee Iacocca.
Lee Iacocca was the CEO ofChrysler when it was really at its
pinnacle, and he once wrote this.
He said, “When you get to the top, there'snothing there.” That is how Solomon felt.
He did not feel fulfilled.
He felt empty.
That's why he talks so much aboutvanity or emptiness in this book.
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And notice what he confesses in verse 17.
“Therefore I hated life.” Why did youhate life, Solomon? He said, “Because
the work that was done under the sunwas distressing to me, for all is vanity
and grasping for the wind. Then I hatedall my labor in which I had toiled
under the sun because I must leave itto the man who will come after me.”
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Why is he so down?
He has everything.
One of the reasons is because heis focused on this life and he
is fixated on keeping the thingsthat he has and that he enjoys.
And the Bible says here that herealizes that he is going to die.
That's what he's talking about.
He said I'm going to have to leaveit to the man who comes after me.
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That is the “event” thathe talks about in verse 14.
“The wise man's eyes are in hishead, but the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived that thesame event happens to them all.”
The word “event” in the Book ofEcclesiastes often refers to death.
And Solomon is saying herethis is just not fair.
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This is disappointing.
This is discouraging and depressingbecause you work hard and just
about the time that you get thingsset in life to try to enjoy it,
then death comes and there'snothing that you can do about that.
You're going to die.
And he said that that was adepressing thought to him.
Now, you have to remember whenyou read the book of Ecclesiastes
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that he is not done yet.
Don't think that he's going to endup this book with this same kind of
depression because he is going to endthis book telling you how you can avoid
being depressed about the disappointmentsand about the injustices of life, and
about the fact that you're going to dieand others around you're going to die.
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You don't have to live in a life ofemptiness and depression about that.
He's going to give us the key to thatas we get to the end of the book,
but right now he's just building upthe point and he's saying in chapter
two, I have worked all this time, andhe didn't do the physical labor, but
he's talking about the mental energyand making sure that it got done.
He had to oversee and manage this, andwhat he's saying is it was disappointing
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and discouraging to me to think aboutthe fact that I've put all this time and
thought into it and yet I'm going to dieand somebody else is going to get it.
And he says in verse 19, “And whoknows whether he will be a wise man or
a fool? Yet he will rule over all mylabor in which I toiled and in which I
have shown myself wise under the sun.”
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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, andyou have in mind that you're going
to give that to your children and toyour grandchildren or to someone else.
But eventually someoneelse will get those things.
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Somebody else is going to have your land.
Somebody else is going to haveyour property, and there's not
going to be one thing you cando about that when you're dead.
And Solomon says all that is depressingbecause you do all that work.
You put all that time andplanning into it, and for what?
He said, this is vanity.
But beginning in verse 24, hesaid there is an upside to this.
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It causes you to realize what thereally enjoyable things in life are.
They're not all these fancy, expensiveways of entertaining ourselves.
That's what most American peopleare doing right now, and other
people throughout the world.
They work themselves to deathfor one reason, and that is to
enjoy the things of this life.
They don't think about heaven.
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They don't think about eternity.
They don't really think about the factthat life is filled with hardship as well.
They just want to squeeze all ofthe fun and all of the laughter
out of life that they possibly can.
Solomon said it's not in theexpensive, big, showy things that
you find fulfillment in life.
He said, it's in thesimple things of life.
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This is very important toremember when you think about
what we call the problem of evil.
The most satisfying earthlypleasures are the simple things.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter two verse 24.
“Nothing is better for a man than thathe should eat and drink and that his
soul should enjoy good in his labor.”
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Just being able to sit downand 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 mansionto enjoy a good meal, and you don't
have to have the best of silverwareor golden cups to enjoy a good meal.
And yet Solomon himself, who livedin the palace beyond our wildest
imagination said when it boils rightdown to it, it's just enjoying a meal.
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It's being able to sitdown and enjoy good food.
And he said also to enjoythe good of your labor.
Now what that means is you put in ahard day's work or a good day's work,
or you built something and you feelgood about the work that you've done.
That internal satisfaction is worthmore than all of the expensive
adornments that this world can offer.
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So this is a very important point toremember here, and people wouldn't
feel like they were cheated in lifeif they just understood and would
listen to what Solomon is saying.
There are many people who feellike that life is just unfair, that
they've been mistreated, that they'vebeen cheated out of a good life.
And yet Solomon said really it's thesimple things in life that are the best.
Those are the most valuable.
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So there are people that are actually richand they don't even realize it because
they have what Solomon is saying here.
In Ecclesiastes chapter three, Solomongives more wise advice about how to
deal with the unfairness of life.
He tells us in Ecclesiastes chapterthree verses one through eight that
you have to remember that therewill always be good days and bad
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days, good times and bad times.
They're always going to bethe 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 (25:26):
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, and a time todie, 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.
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A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to cast away stones and atime to gather stones together.
A time to embrace and a timeto refrain from embracing.
A time to gain and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to throwaway, a time to tear and a time to sow.
A time to keep silenceand a time to speak.
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A time to love, and a time tohate, a time of war and a time of
peace.” There will be good timesand there will be hardships in life.
And you may say, “But what aboutall the injustice in life? Solomon
surely saw that, didn't he? What didhe say about all the unfair things
that people do to each other?”
Here's what he said inchapter three, verse 16.
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“Moreover, I saw under the sun in theplace of judgment, wickedness was there,
and in the place of righteousness,iniquity was there.” Chapter four verse
one (26:41):
He talks about this again. Then he says, “I returned and considered all the
oppression that is done under the sunand look, the tears of the oppressed,
but they have no comforter. And onthe side of their oppressors, there is
power, but they have no comforter.” SoSolomon saw all this injustice in life.
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He knew a lot more than you and I do.
He saw a lot more than you and I do aboutthe evil that people can do to each other.
And as king, he had the power to punishpeople, but he couldn't settle everything.
He could not solve allthe problems of life.
There were injustices that even he andall his wisdom and with all his power
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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 thisthe problem of evil.
We look around and see evil in theworld around us and we pray to God and
it's not God's timing to do anythingabout it then, or at least we don't
see God doing anything about it.
And we get discouraged.
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We get dismayed.
And Solomon is saying, that's what I felt.
I felt empty on the inside, butI want you to notice a few other
things here in chapter four.
He talks about the unfairnessof envy in this life.
Look at chapter four verse four.
“Again, I saw that for all toil andevery skillful work, a man is envied by
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his neighbor.” Solomon says, if you doanything 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 wouldbe glad that you've done something
or that you have something good.
But he said mark it down (28:21):
anytime you do anything good in life,
somebody will be jealous of you.
Here's something else in chapterfour 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.
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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.
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And not only that, but Solomonsays, “nor is his eye satisfied
with riches.” He's got money, buthe doesn't know what to do with it.
He doesn't enjoy it.
He's not satisfied with it, andyet he just keeps on working.
And Solomon says I don'treally understand that.
He says this man that he's talkingabout never asks, “For whom do
I toil and deprive myself ofgood?” I could be enjoying this.
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But he never asks himself that question.
He never thinks about that.
And Solomon says, “This is vanity anda 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 waythat Solomon is laying this out.
He is presenting the problem right now.
He is going to talk abouthow you're to deal with that.
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But before he does that, he paints thepicture very darkly, and then later he's
going to put the bright spots in there.
And so I would encourage you to read thebook of Ecclesiastes or to listen to it
from beginning to end as many times as youcan as we go through it in this series.
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
(30:08):
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
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in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
Study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My Godand My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee
Bible College, where we see the Bibleas not just another book, but the Book.
Join us in a study of the inspiredWord to strengthen your faith and to
share what you've learned with others.
The Bible says in Second Timothychapter three, verse 16, that “All
(00:21):
scripture is given by inspiration ofGod, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, forinstruction in righteousness, that the
man of God may be perfect, throughlyfurnished unto all good works.”
What we need is in the Bible.
The information we need fromGod, the teaching that we
have of God, is in the Bible.
Second Peter, chapter one, verse threesays that God “has given to us all things
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that pertain to life and godliness.”So if there's a problem, if there's
an issue, if there's a question, ifthere's a need that we have about
living a godly life, the answers andthe explanations are in the Bible.
Now, that doesn't mean that God is goingto answer every question that you have.
Some things are beyond our comprehension.
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The Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 29,verse 29, that “the secret things belong
to the Lord our God, but those which arerevealed belong to us and our children.”
There are some things that God hasrevealed and many things that God has not
revealed, but when it comes to the problemof evil, when we look at the issue of why
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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 beginstudying 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 experienceor by listening to experienced
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older people, by reading books, andespecially the book called The Bible,
and we learn a lot from these sources.
But what if all these werefound in one short book?
That book that I'm talking aboutis this book of Ecclesiastes.
It certainly has more wisdom thanevery human book ever written.
The evening news claims to tell uswhat we need to know about life.
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The internet claims to give us allthe answers to our questions, and so
does every college in the country.
But no man was ever qualified to speakabout 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'mtalking about was Solomon.
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The book is Ecclesiastes, evidentlywritten after certain experiences
which taught this man much aswell as his being inspired of God.
This was a man of experience.
This book gives a powerfulperspective on life.
And notice in chapter one ashe begins that the key word in
this book comes out right away.
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In Ecclesiastes chapter one,verse two, he says, “Vanity of
vanities says the preacher, Vanityof vanities, all is vanity.” The
word vanity here means emptiness.
Why is he talking about emptiness?
You know, a lot of peoplefeel empty inside today.
A lot of people try tohave purpose in life.
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They try to enjoy their life, butthey're really empty on the inside.
This is what this book is about, andthis book tells us that there's only
one way to avoid that emptiness.
There's only one thing thatcan fill up a man's soul.
Augustine, who was a writer about 1700years ago, said that the soul of man is
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restless until it finds peace in God.
There's just some kind of yearningwithin us to try to find meaning, to
try to find fulfillment, to try to easethis thing that we call the conscience,
and there's only one way to do it.
This book of Ecclesiastes showsthat many people pursue the wrong
path to have meaning and fulfillmentin life and they end up empty.
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Notice what he saysbeginning in verse three.
“What profit has a man in all hislabor in which he toils under the
sun? One generation passes awayand another generation comes,
but the earth abides forever.”
In other words, everything just keepshappening the way that it always has.
What does the next generation doafter the previous generation?
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Just think about it.
What do they accomplish?
And I'm not talking about technology.
I'm not talking about advances inmedicine or anything like that.
I'm talking about thesame basic human behavior.
What happens in life?
The same things.
People are born, people die, peoplemarry, people have children, people
build and then they pass away.
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They die.
One generation passes awayand another generation comes.
We'll talk more about that as we proceed.
He uses nature to illustrate his pointhere about one generation passing away and
another generation coming and doing thesame things basically and generally that
the previous generation had accomplished.
He says in verse five,think about the sun.
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“The sun also rises and the sungoes down and hastens to the place
where it arose.” What's he saying?
Life continues the same.
The sun is still rising and settingjust like it did thousands of years ago.
Things have not changed.
Essentially, life is the same.
In verse six, he said, “The wind goestoward the south and turns around to the
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north. The wind whirls about continuallyand comes again on its circuit.” So
what does the wind do today that itdidn't do thousands of years ago?
What does the wind do today in thiscountry that it didn't do in the land of
Egypt thousands of years ago, or in theland of Israel thousands of years ago?
It blows in one direction thenanother, but those directions
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are basically the same.
So he says that this is life.
Life just proceeds in the same way.
Things just keep happening thesame that they have happened
over the course of human history.
Look at verse seven.
“All the rivers run into the sea, yetthe sea is not full; to the place from
which the rivers come there they returnagain.” He's saying that the waters
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of the earth are basically the same.
You find that there's thisevaporation process, and then
the creeks run into the rivers.
The rivers run into the sea.
It evaporates, and itall starts over again.
And so is this any different from the wayit was when Jesus walked on the water?
No, it's basically the same.
The wind and the rain and the watersand the sun rising and setting and the
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seasons of the year—those are basicallythe 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 notsatisfied with seeing, nor the ear
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filled with hearing.” What does he meanwhen he says that all things are full
of labor and man cannot express it?
That is (07:03):
people are doing so many things.
There are so many events that takeplace in life, and human beings are
so busy that you can't express it.
There's no way that you can write it alldown or tell it all because people are
so busy doing things and he says thatno matter what people see, no matter
what people hear, no matter what theystrive for, they're never satisfied.
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This is a key expression here.
He says the eye is notsatisfied with seeing.
The ear is not filled with hearing.
Notice the key word in verse eight.
The eye is not satisfied with seeingnor the ear filled with hearing.
Remember what we saw in verse two?
He talks about vanity, and he doesn'tmean they're a vain person from the
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standpoint of trying to get attentionlike we oftentimes use that word today.
The word vanity means emptiness, andhere he tells us in verse eight that
you cannot fill up that emptiness byseeing things, by having things, by
buying things, by enjoying things.
He says over in chapter five, “Whengoods increase, they increase who eat
them. So what profit have the ownersexcept to see them with their eyes?”
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[Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse 11].
In the end, what can youdo 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 thesoul with material things.
And man has been trying to do the veryopposite of that for thousands of years.
Man tries to satisfy himselfwith the things of the world,
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and that cannot be done.
The soul has to be satisfiedwith spiritual things.
In verse nine he says, “That which hasbeen is what will be. That which is
done is what will be done, and thereis nothing new under the sun.” If
you don't learn anything else, if youcan't remember anything else about this
program today, just remember that verse.
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It will help you.
It will save you a lot of stressand a lot of worry in this life.
No matter what you endure, no matter whatyou face in life, you can mark it down.
It's not new.
Regardless of whether this is a problemin life or an exciting experience in
life, millions of other people haveexperienced the same thing in their
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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 repeatingitself, but he says that will continue.
So what is going to happen afteryou, as we say, are dead and gone?
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What's going to happen when your childrenare grown, your grandchildren are
grown, and you're not there anymore?
This verse tells us there's notgoing to be anything different.
It's going to be the same kindof life that you have today.
There is nothing new under the sun.
In verse 10, he said, “Is there anythingof which it may be said, see, this is
new?” He says this (10:01):
“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 whowill come after.” In other words, the
people that will rise after you andI, people who live after we are dead,
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will experience the same things andthey will be so busy with their lives
that they won't remember much about us.
They'll have to learn on their ownsome of the same lessons that we've
had to learn by experience ourselves.
In verse 12, Solomon tellsus some things about himself.
He says, “I, the preacher was king overIsrael in Jerusalem, and I set my heart to
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seek and search out by wisdom concerningall that is done under heaven. This
burdensome task, the King James says “thissore travail,” God “has given to the sons
of men, by which they may be exercised.
I have seen all the works that are doneunder the sun, and indeed all is vanity
and grasping for the wind.” The King Jamessays “vexation of spirit,” and that's
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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, andknowledge, but he wanted to find out more.
He wanted to figure things out.
He wanted to seek and search for things hewanted to discover and to see new things.
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He wanted to hear about what hadhappened and what was happening.
So the Bible says in this book that hewas interested in things like politics,
relationships, business and money anddeath, and the unpredictability of life.
The Bible says in this passage thatGod has given us this sore travail,
this grievous or burdensome task.
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God made us and the world.
He made us so that we have toexperience the world and learn from it.
We're like a child who has to seeand learn as much as that child can.
We have to experience things.
He says a little bit later in Ecclesiasteschapter three, verse 10, “I have seen
the God-given task with which the sonsof men are to be occupied. He has made
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everything beautiful in its time. Also, hehas put eternity in their hearts, except
that no one can find out the work thatGod does from beginning to end.” When
it says that God has put eternity in ourhearts, that's an interesting expression.
He's not talking aboutthe concept of eternity.
He's not talking about the ideaof eternity, but he's simply
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talking about the fact that weare naturally curious beings.
Solomon said in verse 17, “I set my heartto know wisdom and to know madness and
folly, and I perceive that this also isgrasping for the wind. For in much wisdom
is much grief, and he who increasesknowledge, increases sorrow.” Now that
might seem like an odd thing to say.
But there's a price thatcomes with knowledge.
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The more you know, the more sorrowyou're going to have in your life.
How's that true?
Well, think of a little child.
Why does a little childenjoy 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 thatknowledge and understanding, you
have grief that they don't have.
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And this is even true in spiritualthings, you might even say, especially
spiritual matters, because the moreyou learn about the Bible, the more you
realize that most people don't follow it.
That causes grief.
The more you learn about what beinglost means according to the Bible,
the more you grieve over lost people.
The more you realize what hell islike, the sadder it makes you that
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so many people are going there.
The more you know about the church, thehome, worship, false religion, living the
Christian life and Bible authority, themore 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 emptinesswithin him, but he tried to do that
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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, andsurely this also was vanity.
I said of laughter—Madness!
and of mirth, What does it accomplish?
I searched in my hearthow to gratify my flesh.
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Now notice that statement.
He wanted to gratify, hewanted to satisfy, the body.
He wanted to satisfy the flesh.
That cannot be done except temporarily.
In other words, when a man hasthis yearning or he has a bodily
desire, he satisfies the fleshmomentarily for a while, but then
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the desires just keep coming back.
Whether they're right or wrong desires,they're only temporarily satisfied.
And so Solomon is tryingto satisfy his whole being.
He's trying to satisfy his soul becausehe says,I'm going to test my heart here.
So he is trying to fill up his heartwith earthly pleasures, with material
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things, and he goes into that by sayingI tried to gratify my flesh “with wine
while guiding my heart with wisdom andhow to lay hold on folly till I might see
what was good for the sons of men to dounder heaven all the days of their life.”
And then he begins to giveus some specifics here.
Here's what he did to try tohave meaning and fulfillment in
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life, and he said it didn't work.
He said I made great works.
I built myself houses.
Not a house, not one house, buthouses, and we're talking about
elaborate, very expensive houses.
Solomon had them.
We center our lives many timeson the house that we live in.
Solomon said, I wanted to dothis so that it would satisfy me.
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“I built myself houses and plantedmyself vineyards. I made myself
gardens and orchards, and I plantedall kinds of fruit trees in them. I
made myself pools from which to waterthe growing trees of the grove.”
So we might say here that he had thebest landscaping possible, the best
landscaping that money could buy.
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Solomon didn't have to worry aboutmoney because he was more wealthy
than any man that ever lived.
He said in verse seven, “I acquired maleand female servants and had servants
born in my house. Yes, I had greaterpossessions 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 hishand to do anything at all.
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Whatever he wants done—all he has to dois to say it to one of these servants.
And he had all kinds of livestock.
Many people like to invest inlivestock or to own livestock.
Solomon had it all.
Not only that, in verse eight hesaid, “I also gathered for myself
silver and gold and the specialtreasures of kings of the provinces.”
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This man was so wealthy that in hisday, silver was not worth very much.
The Bible says that itwas counted like stones.
In other words, just like gravels to us.
The drinking vessels in the palace ofSolomon were all made of pure gold.
None were silver.
The Bible says this man wasso wealthy that he didn't
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even fool around with silver.
Everything that he had was gold.
He said, “I acquired male and femalesingers, the delights of the sons
of men and musical instruments ofall kinds.” Solomon had so much
power and so much money that hecould call in the best musicians
and the best singers from anywherein the world to perform before him.
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He could enjoy live performancesanytime that he wanted to.
Now we enjoy our music today.
We enjoy listening to music.
Solomon had it all.
What he's saying here iswhatever I wanted that I enjoyed.
So the Bible says in verse nine, “SoI became great and excelled more than
all who were before me in Jerusalem.Also, my wisdom remained with me.”
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Now, watch what he says in verse 10.
“Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keepfrom them. I did not withhold my heart
from any pleasure, for my heart rejoicedin all my labor, and this was my reward
from all my labor. Then I looked on allthe works that my hands had made, and
on the labor in which I had toiled.”
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Now you go back to verse four, andhe is talking about his houses.
He's talking about the vineyardsand 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 allwas vanity or emptiness and grasping
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for the wind,” or, as the King Jamessays, vexation, that is torment in
spirit, “and there was no profitunder 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 experiencedand enjoyed everything that a
human being could with money.
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It reminds me of Lee Iacocca.
Lee Iacocca was the CEO ofChrysler when it was really at its
pinnacle, and he once wrote this.
He said, “When you get to the top, there'snothing there.” That is how Solomon felt.
He did not feel fulfilled.
He felt empty.
That's why he talks so much aboutvanity or emptiness in this book.
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And notice what he confesses in verse 17.
“Therefore I hated life.” Why did youhate life, Solomon? He said, “Because
the work that was done under the sunwas distressing to me, for all is vanity
and grasping for the wind. Then I hatedall my labor in which I had toiled
under the sun because I must leave itto the man who will come after me.”
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Why is he so down?
He has everything.
One of the reasons is because heis focused on this life and he
is fixated on keeping the thingsthat he has and that he enjoys.
And the Bible says here that herealizes that he is going to die.
That's what he's talking about.
He said I'm going to have to leaveit to the man who comes after me.
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That is the “event” thathe talks about in verse 14.
“The wise man's eyes are in hishead, but the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived that thesame event happens to them all.”
The word “event” in the Book ofEcclesiastes often refers to death.
And Solomon is saying herethis is just not fair.
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This is disappointing.
This is discouraging and depressingbecause you work hard and just
about the time that you get thingsset in life to try to enjoy it,
then death comes and there'snothing that you can do about that.
You're going to die.
And he said that that was adepressing thought to him.
Now, you have to remember whenyou read the book of Ecclesiastes
(20:45):
that he is not done yet.
Don't think that he's going to endup this book with this same kind of
depression because he is going to endthis book telling you how you can avoid
being depressed about the disappointmentsand about the injustices of life, and
about the fact that you're going to dieand others around you're going to die.
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You don't have to live in a life ofemptiness and depression about that.
He's going to give us the key to thatas we get to the end of the book,
but right now he's just building upthe point and he's saying in chapter
two, I have worked all this time, andhe didn't do the physical labor, but
he's talking about the mental energyand making sure that it got done.
He had to oversee and manage this, andwhat he's saying is it was disappointing
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and discouraging to me to think aboutthe fact that I've put all this time and
thought into it and yet I'm going to dieand somebody else is going to get it.
And he says in verse 19, “And whoknows whether he will be a wise man or
a fool? Yet he will rule over all mylabor in which I toiled and in which I
have shown myself wise under the sun.”
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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, andyou have in mind that you're going
to give that to your children and toyour grandchildren or to someone else.
But eventually someoneelse will get those things.
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Somebody else is going to have your land.
Somebody else is going to haveyour property, and there's not
going to be one thing you cando about that when you're dead.
And Solomon says all that is depressingbecause you do all that work.
You put all that time andplanning into it, and for what?
He said, this is vanity.
But beginning in verse 24, hesaid there is an upside to this.
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It causes you to realize what thereally enjoyable things in life are.
They're not all these fancy, expensiveways of entertaining ourselves.
That's what most American peopleare doing right now, and other
people throughout the world.
They work themselves to deathfor one reason, and that is to
enjoy the things of this life.
They don't think about heaven.
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They don't think about eternity.
They don't really think about the factthat life is filled with hardship as well.
They just want to squeeze all ofthe fun and all of the laughter
out of life that they possibly can.
Solomon said it's not in theexpensive, big, showy things that
you find fulfillment in life.
He said, it's in thesimple things of life.
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This is very important toremember when you think about
what we call the problem of evil.
The most satisfying earthlypleasures are the simple things.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter two verse 24.
“Nothing is better for a man than thathe should eat and drink and that his
soul should enjoy good in his labor.”
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Just being able to sit downand 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 mansionto enjoy a good meal, and you don't
have to have the best of silverwareor golden cups to enjoy a good meal.
And yet Solomon himself, who livedin the palace beyond our wildest
imagination said when it boils rightdown to it, it's just enjoying a meal.
(24:03):
It's being able to sitdown and enjoy good food.
And he said also to enjoythe good of your labor.
Now what that means is you put in ahard day's work or a good day's work,
or you built something and you feelgood about the work that you've done.
That internal satisfaction is worthmore than all of the expensive
adornments that this world can offer.
(24:24):
So this is a very important point toremember here, and people wouldn't
feel like they were cheated in lifeif they just understood and would
listen to what Solomon is saying.
There are many people who feellike that life is just unfair, that
they've been mistreated, that they'vebeen cheated out of a good life.
And yet Solomon said really it's thesimple things in life that are the best.
Those are the most valuable.
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So there are people that are actually richand they don't even realize it because
they have what Solomon is saying here.
In Ecclesiastes chapter three, Solomongives more wise advice about how to
deal with the unfairness of life.
He tells us in Ecclesiastes chapterthree verses one through eight that
you have to remember that therewill always be good days and bad
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days, good times and bad times.
They're always going to bethe 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 (25:26):
“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, and a time todie, 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.
(25:48):
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to cast away stones and atime to gather stones together.
A time to embrace and a timeto refrain from embracing.
A time to gain and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to throwaway, a time to tear and a time to sow.
A time to keep silenceand a time to speak.
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A time to love, and a time tohate, a time of war and a time of
peace.” There will be good timesand there will be hardships in life.
And you may say, “But what aboutall the injustice in life? Solomon
surely saw that, didn't he? What didhe say about all the unfair things
that people do to each other?”
Here's what he said inchapter three, verse 16.
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“Moreover, I saw under the sun in theplace of judgment, wickedness was there,
and in the place of righteousness,iniquity was there.” Chapter four verse
one (26:41):
He talks about this again. Then he says, “I returned and considered all the
oppression that is done under the sunand look, the tears of the oppressed,
but they have no comforter. And onthe side of their oppressors, there is
power, but they have no comforter.” SoSolomon saw all this injustice in life.
(27:01):
He knew a lot more than you and I do.
He saw a lot more than you and I do aboutthe evil that people can do to each other.
And as king, he had the power to punishpeople, but he couldn't settle everything.
He could not solve allthe problems of life.
There were injustices that even he andall his wisdom and with all his power
(27:21):
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 thisthe problem of evil.
We look around and see evil in theworld around us and we pray to God and
it's not God's timing to do anythingabout it then, or at least we don't
see God doing anything about it.
And we get discouraged.
(27:42):
We get dismayed.
And Solomon is saying, that's what I felt.
I felt empty on the inside, butI want you to notice a few other
things here in chapter four.
He talks about the unfairnessof envy in this life.
Look at chapter four verse four.
“Again, I saw that for all toil andevery skillful work, a man is envied by
(28:03):
his neighbor.” Solomon says, if you doanything 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 wouldbe glad that you've done something
or that you have something good.
But he said mark it down (28:21):
anytime you do anything good in life,
somebody will be jealous of you.
Here's something else in chapterfour 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.
(28:42):
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.
(29:02):
And not only that, but Solomonsays, “nor is his eye satisfied
with riches.” He's got money, buthe doesn't know what to do with it.
He doesn't enjoy it.
He's not satisfied with it, andyet he just keeps on working.
And Solomon says I don'treally understand that.
He says this man that he's talkingabout never asks, “For whom do
I toil and deprive myself ofgood?” I could be enjoying this.
(29:26):
But he never asks himself that question.
He never thinks about that.
And Solomon says, “This is vanity anda 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 waythat Solomon is laying this out.
He is presenting the problem right now.
He is going to talk abouthow you're to deal with that.
(29:48):
But before he does that, he paints thepicture very darkly, and then later he's
going to put the bright spots in there.
And so I would encourage you to read thebook of Ecclesiastes or to listen to it
from beginning to end as many times as youcan as we go through it in this series.
Thank you for listeningto My God and My Neighbor.
(30:08):
Stay connected with our podcast on ourwebsite and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or wherever fine podcasts are distributed.
Tennessee Bible College, providingChristian education since 1975
in Cookeville, Tennessee, offersundergraduate and graduate programs.
Study at your level.
Aim higher and get in touch with us today.
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