Ecclesiastes 1

Verses 1-11

• King Solomon begins Ecclesiastes with a statement that is made throughout the book and summarizes its teaching: Everything is vain, meaningless, and redundant...nothing matters. Solomon is specifically speaking of all that is done “under the sun”, meaning every physical or material thing that we experience here on earth.

  • In the features of nature, there is no progress, but only an endless cycle. The sun and the waters move only to end up exactly where they started. In the same way, human life resets, and history repeats itself. 

  • For us humans, no physical work is profitable because everything we gain is lost in death, new generations replace our own, and our works are forgotten. Again, there is no real progress.

• Our physical works are trivial labor and meaningless because they produce no satisfaction. Everything we see and hear does not satisfy—we're always wanting more (Proverbs 27:20).

  • Satisfaction would mean progress; but we know we're not making progress because we're not satisfied. Most see one beautiful thing only to wish for the next beautiful thing. Most hear one pleasant sound, only to wish for the next. People keep looking for more because they are not satisfied! 

  • Our efforts are so meaningless and tiresome, in fact, that “man cannot express it” (verse 9)! We don't even know how meaningless things are!

• The point? Nothing on earth will truly satisfy you, so don't make pursuing physical things your dream, nor your purpose. Physical things possess no ability to satisfy because everything physical is part of a repetitive cycle that ends only in death.

Verses 12-15

• Solomon teaches here that the desire to understand the point of life in the physical world is a desire given to us by God, and it's meant to afflict us (the Hebrew word for “exercised” in verse 13 means to be afflicted). 

  • Many have undergone exercises of philosophical thinking to only be burdened and troubled by the frivolity of physical life. This affliction is meant to bring us to God and find our meaning in Him.

• Secondly, Solomon expresses that one of the reasons why physical works are so meaningless is because we live in a crooked and lacking world. How could we ever find satisfaction in a world that is fallen? 

  • So, again, don't look for satisfaction in the physical world. It cannot satisfy because it is crooked and cannot be straightened.

  • Many are trying to fix what is broken by inventing, medicating, or monetizing, only to find that it cannot be fixed by man. We try to escape the labor inflicted by sin, but we cannot, because sin endures. 

Verses 16-18

• One might ask, “Well then, if the physical is meaningless, is our purpose then to pursue the philosophical?” Education—gaining even great wisdom and knowledge of how things work in the physical world—is still not our purpose, nor our means of satisfaction. Why? “In much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (verse 18). 

  • Remember from the previous verses (verses 12-15) that the desire to understand the meaning of life in the physical world is only an affliction. Therefore, the wiser a person becomes in such a matter, the more afflicted they will be.

• Those who don't derive meaning from what they can do with their body might look for it in what they do with their mind. But without the right kind of knowledge, the exercise of the mind is also meaningless. 

• Therefore, do not think that intelligence and education are the point of life, nor overemphasize knowledge. More knowledge will mean more sorrow, so don't seek knowledge that isn't important.