BLOWING IN THE WIND
Opening Prayer
Lord God, thank you for the assurance of grace and salvation found in your Word. Holy Spirit, thank you for planting the truth of the gospel in me and continuing to increase my understanding of it.
Read ECCLESIASTES 1
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Everything Is Meaningless
1 The words of the Teacher,[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.
Wisdom Is Meaningless
12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.
16 I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 1:1 Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 2 and 12
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.’1
Think Further
The book of Ecclesiastes is probably most famous for the Teacher’s opening words: ‘Everything is meaningless’ (v. 2). It is difficult to hear this from Scripture, as we long to hear from God that our lives have meaning and purpose. It is not until verse 13 that we find out why the Teacher makes this statement. He is on a quest, beginning with the idea that God has given mankind a heavy burden. Throughout the book, this theme makes Ecclesiastes very relatable. The Teacher understands, as we do, that life is hard.
The literal meaning of the Hebrew word havel, here translated ‘meaningless,’ is ‘vapor/wind/air that goes up.’ The Teacher is saying everything is like vapor, impossible to hold and to grasp. It is why we see, at the end of the chapter and throughout the book, the phrase ‘chasing after the wind’ (v. 17). This chapter reminds us about our limitations as human beings. In his first poem (vv. 2–11) the Teacher uses the cycles of nature and time to remind us of our insignificance. He speaks of the ancient natural patterns of the world, to show us that we are not special in the grand scheme of things. In verses 14–18, he shows that we are incapable of understanding everything; even gaining in wisdom does not tell us the meaning of life.
The challenge of Ecclesiastes is to hold this alongside the idea of a creating, redeeming, and caring God. Yes, life is hard. Yes, we are limited and insignificant as human beings. Yes, sometimes it feels as if life has no meaning. Yet, the Christ of the cross understands our struggles. The God who created the universe loves us and gives us worth. In God we find meaning, even if we can’t understand everything that’s going on.
Apply
Pray for those who are finding life hard and meaningless at the moment, that God will meet them.
Closing prayer
In what feel like the hard or seeming meaningless times of my life, Lord God, help me to trust in your purposes, to know that you are at work, and my hope is in you.
1 Isa 40:7,8
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