The Meaningless Life

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

1 These are the words of the Teacher, King David’s son, who ruled in Jerusalem.

2 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

3 What do people get for all their hard work under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. 6 The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. 7 Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea. 8 Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content.

9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.10 Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. 11 We don’t remember what happened in the past, and in future generations, no one will remember what we are doing now.

The teacher woke up on the wrong side of the bed and it went downhill from there.

He starts off in verse 2 with the word hebel which translates into the English word meaningless. Hebel is best translated as useless, unreliable, or meaningless. What is meaningless? The word in verse 2 is kol which means all or everything. The bottom line is that the preacher is struggling to find any meaning in life. Have you ever been there before?

The word work in verse 3 is amal. It doesn't mean honest labor. Rather it has negative connotations such as being tired, troubled, or oppressed. The phrase under the sun means of this world as opposed to heaven. It is the physical world and not the spiritual world.

The teacher is troubled by the world he lives in. He lays his head on the pillow at night and has this feeling deep in his gut that there has got to be more to life than what he is currently experiencing. He longs for satisfaction and contentment (verse 8).

Nothing being new is a theme for verses 9 to 11. Obviously change and invention happens in the physical world, but the writer just sees matter being reorganized. Life to him is predictable and boring. Verse 11 also notes the teacher's feelings of insignificance.

So, if you feel the life is meaningless, you are not alone. If you are tired, troubled, and oppressed, you are not alone. If you long for satisfaction and contentment, you are not alone. If you feel bored and insignificant, you are not alone.

We are all of the above some of the time and some of the above most of the time. The teacher gives us a raw and honest picture of who he is and most likely a decent snapshot of who we are. He longs for meaning, rest, peace, justice, satisfaction, contentment, excitement, and significance. He doesn't find it under the sun. He, and we, should look elsewhere.