The Vanity of Life

Reading this morning in Ecclesiastes 1-3 in the New King James Version. Reference is made to its annotation. Reference is also made to the Nelson’s Student Bible Dictionary.

The Preacher says “vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What is vanity or vanities? Here in the Book of Ecclesiastes it might express “the ultimate obsurdity” or “utter emptiness.” The book clearly says that life itself is “vanity of vanities.” The word vanity means “breath” or “vapor,” and thus speaks of life as “quickly passing.” Wherever we read the word vanity in Ecclesiastes, we should think not what is “meaningless,” but what is “quickly passing.” The teaching of the Preacher is to realize that life is a fleeting thing that needs to be savored and enjoyed as a gift from God.

In 2:24, “Nothing is better for a man than he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor.” This means that eating, drinking, and even earning a paycheck are gifts from God.

2:26-“For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.”

When vanity is applied to persons, it means emptiness or futility of natural human life. When applied to things, vanity is especially used to describe idols, because there is no spiritual reality to them. believers are urged to stay way from vain things and to live their lives in the reality of their relationship to Christ. Anything short of God Himself that people trust to meet their deepest needs is vanity.

Everything has its time, and “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” (3:11)

3:21-“Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of an animal, which goes down to the earth? 22So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For what can bring him to see what will happen after him?”

Both humans and beasts die and go to their graves. But humans and animals differ: Their bodies go back to dust, but the human spirit is immortal. For what is his heritage? The allotment God has designated may include material possessions or the pleasures that come from them.

With the help of Holy Spirit I have realized that life is not vain. It is neither empty nor useless. To live a life praising God and working for the advancement of his kingdom for his glory brings us a joyful and abundant life here on earth, and hereafter eternal life in heaven.