Ecclesiastes 2: Trying to Find Fulfillment in Worldly Ways

Ecclesiastes is a very difficult book, but this is what Chapter 2 said to me.

Solomon has come to the conclusion that all earthly things that man does is vanity and vexation of spirit. Chapter 1 ended with Solomon recognizing that in much wisdom, and Solomon received from the LORD God more wisdom than anyone, there is much grief.  In knowing and discerning everything around him, this brought much sorrow."

 Chapter 2 Solomon embarks on worldly pleasures and labours but finds that all are vanity.  Mirth, laughter, "what doeth it?"  What good does it do?  No good at all.  Solomon in V3 "I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life."

V4-10 Solomon lists all the things that he did: He made great works; he built houses, he planted vineyards.  He made gardens and orchards.  He made pools of water.  He got servants and maidens for his house.  He had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem.  He gathered silver and gold, and other treasures.  He got men and women singers to entertain him, and musical instruments.  He was great and increased in goods more than all that were before him.  And his wisdom remained with him.  He did not keep anything from him that his eyes desired, he did not withhold himself from any joy.   But then the reality came to him - V11 "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was  vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun."  



But then in V13 Solomon "saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.  God-given wisdom is as light showing the way, while folly is as darkness where man stumbles on, not knowing or caring what will come.

Then Solomon talks about how after the death of the wise man and the fool, "there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool or ever, seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten.  And how dieth the wise man? as the fool."  In earthly terms,  both die and neither will be remembered in the days to come.  Man's heart is not concerned about the past, but only with the present.

Now comes an interesting portion, that being inheritance.  Solomon says that "I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me."  And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?  Yet shall he have rule over all my labour...This is also vanity."    Often my husband has pondered what we are saving our money for.  Some of our children are leading sinful, self-destructive lives while others do not give us the time of day because we are Christians.  What is the point of saving for their inheritance?  Yet we justify saving because we do not know what our future holds, nor what emergencies or other things might come.

Solomon next gets down to saying that on this earth a man should enjoy the fruits of his labour because these things are from the hand of God while he lives on this earth, these are what God has given him.

And finally in chapter 2, Solomon differentiates between the saved and the unsaved:  V26 "God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up...."

About now, anyone reading the book of Ecclesiastes should be asking themselves, am I saved by grace? or am I stumbling on through life not knowing the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, only interested in what I can gain in this world to bring me pleasure, which it will never really do because the unsaved man's heart is far from God and he has no true peace.

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