Articles
Your Vain Life
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Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun. (Eccl. 9:9)
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Ecclesiastes has earned a reputation as one of the strangest books in the Bible. While it has none of the bizarre imagery of Daniel or Revelation, the gloomy theme of “vanity” (futility, meaninglessness) that permeate its pages leaves people shaking their heads. Unlike Proverbs, which highlights the cause-and-effect orderliness of this world, the author of Ecclesiastes is obsessed with its brokenness—the injustices, the tragedies, the inexplicable twists and turns that cause us to question if anyone is in charge.
Death plays a major role in this book. No matter what we may accomplish or how good we try to be, we all end up in the same place: dead (3:18-21; 6:3-6; 9:2-6). The author tries to put a positive spin on this dreary reality, but it comes across almost as an "eat, drink, and be merry" kind of fatalism (2:24-26; 3:22; 5:18; 8:15). What is the point of life anyway?
The pessimistic message of Ecclesiastes leaves the casual reader cold. Why is this book even in the Bible?
First, Ecclesiastes speaks directly to the hopelessness of a deeply secular culture. Ours is not the first culture to lose its reason for existing. As belief in God and religion declines in our society, the growing rates of mental illness and suicide that replace it validate the book's depressing message. When we try to live our life without God, we lose any grounds for enjoying it. Ecclesiastes is a book for our time, a fitting starting point for someone grasping for meaning in their lives.
But the book does not leave us dangling in midair. In the closing chapter, the author ties all the loose ends together in a single burst of intellectual clarity: "Remember your Creator" (12:1). This life under the sun, with all its messiness and joylessness, is not all there is. "God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil" (12:14). Everything I say and do in this life--everything!--echoes in eternity. I have a compelling reason, therefore, to make every moment count.
My life matters. It is not vain, so long as I keep my sight fixed on the goal before me.
--David
