Day 161 - Chasing After the Wind

Daily Reading:  Ecclesiastes 1-3

Meaningless! Meaningless!

says the Teacher.

Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.

1:2

Footnote:  

Solomon had a purpose for writing skeptically and pessimistically.  Near the end of his life, he looked back over everything he had done, and most of it seemed meaningless.  A common belief was that only good people prospered and that only the wicked suffered, but that hadn't proven true in his experience.  Solomon wrote this book after he had tried everything and achieved much, only to find that nothing apart from God made him happy.  He wanted his readers to avoid these same senseless pursuits.  If we try to find meaning in our accomplishments rather than in God, we will never be satisfied, and everything we pursue will become wearisome.

Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.  For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.  1:17-18

Footnote:  

The more you understand, the more pain and difficulty you experience.  For example, the more you know, the more imperfection you see around you; and the more you observe, the more evil becomes evident.  As you set out with Solomon to find the meaning of life, you must be ready to feel more, think more, question more, hurt more, and do more.  Are you ready to pay the price for wisdom?

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.  2:11

Footnote:  

Solomon summarized all his attempts at finding life's meaning as "chasing after the wind."  We feel the wind as it passes, but we can't catch hold of it or keep it.  In all our accomplishments, even the big ones, our good feelings are only temporary.  Security and self-worth are not found in these accomplishments, but far beyond them in the love of God.  Think about what you consider worthwhile in your life -- where you place your time, energy, and money.  Will you one day look back and decide that these, too, were a "chasing after the wind?"

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All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV