Ecclesiastes 1-4

July 17

Ecclesiastes 1-4

How do we find meaning in our lives? As people age, they tend to look back over the years that have gone by and do an inventory of their lives. What achievements have they made? What difference have they made through the life they have lived? Solomon looked over his life. He was the richest man to have lived and also the wisest. But as he looked back over his many successes. He had denied himself nothing. He had the finest horses, the best chariots, seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. He had ships that sailed the known world bringing back everything imaginable including apes and baboons. Solomon had it all.

When we read Ecclesiastes, we get a glimpse of Solomon’s heart later in life. He is talking an inventory of his life. "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, NIV)

All the riches, all the stuff, none of it matters when you look back over your life. When you near the end the material goods are not what make a difference. All the goods stay when you die. What you work so hard to accumulate goes into someone else’s treasury after you die. They either take it as their own, or sell it at a yard sale, or throw it in the dump.

Why do we accumulate so much stuff? We are trying to fill a desire. Each time we get something else, each time we accomplish a goal we get a rush for a little while, but it is not enough to bring true satisfaction. We each have a God shaped hole in our hearts and the only way to fill that hole is to have a loving, living relationship with Jesus.