Introducing Ecclesiastes (2 of 5)
The phrase ‘under the sun’ has to do with a created order subject to the effects of the fall under the ravages of sin. When sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, all that God had made good became warped and tainted by sin. The fall brought about disorder, dysfunction, decay, and death. We see evidence of these things every day, all around us. They fill our prayer list. It is the world in which we live.
The Preacher wants us to take off our rose-colored glasses that we think we need to wear as the people of God. He wants us to take a hard, honest look at life under the sun. What do we see? We see a broken world, with broken relationships, and, as Jeremiah put it, broken cisterns that do not hold water.
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).
A visual for vanity—empty, futile, worthless.
How can we fix things? How can we make the most of our days? Where can we seek significance, satisfaction, and substance? How can we find fulfillment, and a foundation, and a future?
The Preacher gives takes inventory. How about money and possessions? A big house will make us happy, won’t it? A healthy 401k will give us security, won’t it? But the Preacher responds.
“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.” (Eccl. 5:10)
“There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.” (Eccl. 6:1–2)
How about relationships? Or, maybe if we devote ourselves to work? Or, leisure, living for the weekend, looking to retirement? Or, or maybe fitness or beauty? Or, maybe something more spiritual, like devoting ourselves to some cause or getting involved in a good church?
But the Preacher says none of those will work. None will give us real meaning, meaning that endures. For all the options he covers, he pulls out his packet of warning labels from verse 2 and slaps on each one: “vanity of vanities; all is vanity.”
Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
NASB95 refers to Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
For further study see Under the Sun: Redemptive Reality in the Book of Ecclesiastes (Stanley D. Gale, Shepherd Press, 2025, 144 pages)
