My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. – Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 ESV

Warrior;

This is how the book of Ecclesiastes ends.  Here is how it begins: The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? (ibid 1:1-3) King Solomon was the richest, wisest man in the history of the world.  Jewish historian Josephus says this about Solomon; “God also gave him riches, and great abundance of other things, as ever any other king had enjoyed before him; and these he enjoyed all his life. Yet when he was fallen into years, he was corrupted by women… and he forsook the conduct of his life according to the rules of virtue.” (Antiquities of the Jews) Solomon was so wise because He asked God for wisdom, when He could have had anything. It is written; At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. (1 Kings 3:5,11-13) Solomon had every lust, every desire, every want filled with lavishness- all the days of his life.  As Solomon himself says in this powerful epistle; “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure… yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done… everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)

Leader, vanity, vanity it is all vanity.  These words sum up the message of the whole book. The word vanity means: “the fact of being unimportant, especially compared with other things that are important.” It can be synonymously replaced with the words futile, or meaningless. If you go back to the original text, the Masoretic text, we can better understand the message from Solomon. The Hebrew word (hevel) literally means vapor, breath, mist. It communicates something fleeting, insubstantial, impossible to grasp, and therefore ultimately unable to bear the weight of meaning.  Is that what God created you for, is this why He saved you and then still kept you on this planet? The Word vanity, or futility occurs in this book 35 times.  Again, the thrust of the word is breath or vapor, a concrete image for the brevity, the emptiness and the futility of this life apart from serving God. Anything humans undertake apart from God- the wisest man who ever lived, at the end of that life wrote is a waste of your time eternally! ‘Under the sun’ is a key phrase, used almost 30 times in this book.  Under the sun means EVERYTHING, and the phrase refers to the limitations of this world. This hard hitting book answers the existential question, “What is the meaning of life?” Solomon came to the answer and it unsettled him at the end of his life. Solomon posits, from his rich and varied life that the answers to this existential question that most who live “Under the Sun’ give, are mere failures and a waste of the God breathed breaths that we have. 

Conduit; Materialists seek to find life’s meaning through the abundance of possessions and achievements. Sensualists seek to discover meaning in physical pleasure (things like sex, personal adulation, food, excitement, trips, adventure), Scholars\Academia seek to find purpose through intellectual inquiry with the acquiring of more knowledge and wisdom. However, through Solomons vast experience we can easily understand that all attempts at a purpose-driven and purpose-fulfilled incarnate journey are futile, meaningless. If you want to know what is important to someone check their daily schedule and their bank account.  Those are the 2 greatest commodities we possess: Time and Resources. What are you investing your time and resources in?  Time is short, and on the eschatological clock it is winding down to that Kairos time of Jacob’s Trouble and the ‘Harpazo’. “Leader, vanity, vanity, it is all vanity” captures this book of Ecclesiastes’ thesis.  Solomon, the author of Proverbs and the Song of Songs, wrote this final book near the end of His life, when He had the chance to do some “lookback” learning.  Remember, ‘Hindsight is 20/20! In other words the wisest man who ever lived said, anything not rooted in God evaporates. It is written: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21) Today as you ask Abba Father what He is doing in your life, also ask Him how can you be a part of it. We are called to live with a connection to the source, John 15, and Solomon whole-heartedly wants us to understand; “LIFE’s meaning cannot be discovered; it is only revealed by, and through God”!