Is All Vanity? The Puzzle of Ecclesiastes

The opening sentences of Ecclesiastes are probably among the most depressing opening sentences of any work of literature, ancient or otherwise. “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2). There doesn’t seem to be too much of a point to anything and one wonders how that opening line can entice someone to read beyond the first page. But the Christian knows that God inspired the words of the Preacher. So, what does God intend for us to learn from Ecclesiastes? Let’s see how Doug O’Donnell wrestles with the puzzling message of Ecclesiastes in the Reformed Expository Series.

The Message of Ecclesiastes

It is true that if you look at all the separate parts of Ecclesiastes, the book is an enigma. It is confusing. Ecclesiastes is like a thousand-piece puzzle taken from the box, thrown on the floor, and kicked around by the kids. But if you discipline the children, quiet the house and your heart, start to lift the scattered pieces from the ground, lay them on a clean table, and slowly, humbly, and prayerfully (as one should always approach God and his Word) piece the pieces together, a clear picture emerges.

The obvious edge pieces are all filled with the unmistakable and undesirable word vanity. In Hebrew it is the word hebel, which is the same Hebrew spelling as the name of the first man to die, Abel (Gen. 4:8), and it is an example of an onomatopoeic word! As Daniel Fredericks notes: “One must aspirate twice with the initial he-sound, then again with the soft bet, pronounced as ‘-vel’. So the speaker illustrates what the nature of a breath is simply by saying the word.” This word is found thirty-eight times throughout the book, most prominently at the bookends—“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2; cf. 12:8). This word is translated in various ways, including “temporary,” “transitory,” “meaningless,” “senseless,” “futile,” “ephemeral,” “contingent,” “incomprehensible,” “incongruous,” “absurd,” “empty,” and more visually as “a striving after wind,” “a bubble,” “smoke that curls up into the air,” “mist,” or “breath”/”mere breath.”

Man is like a breath [hebel]; his days are like a passing shadow. (Ps. 144:4)

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath [hebel]! (Ps. 39:5)

However we are to translate hebel (in most contexts, I like “breath” best), listen to a short list of Solomon’s long list of mist. What is like your hot breath on a cold day disappearing into the air?

• Every effort 1:14; 2:11, 17, 19
• Any fruit of our labors 2:15, 21, 26
• Pleasure 2:1
• Life 3:19; 6:4, 12; 7:15; 9:9
• Youth 11:10
• Success 4:4
• Wealth 4:7–8; 5:10; 6:2
• Desire 6:9
• Frivolity 7:6
• Popularity 4:16; 8:10
• Injustice 8:14
• All future events 11:8
• Everything! 1:2; 12:8

Look again at Ecclesiastes 1:2, and let this ash-in-your-mouth, curse-filled concept fill your imagination. It reads, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” In Hebrew, as in English, there is a nice wordplay on this superlative genitive: vanity of vanities (English) or hăbēl hăbālîm (Hebrew). As “the Song of Songs” is the best of all songs, “the God of gods” is the greatest or the only God, and “the heaven of heavens” is the highest heaven, so Solomon sounds this sad and sober message of “vanity of vanities”—everything is utterly futile. Put differently, because of God’s curse on creation (the consequences of the fall recorded in Genesis 3:14–19 are assumed throughout), in all our endeavors we cannot find much meaning or sustainable joy in this world or present age. It’s vanity. Vanity. Vanity. Vanity. Vanity. It’s all vanity.

These are dark pieces to the puzzle. They constitute the black border that connects to the dark gray pieces of death, injustice, and other bleak realities. And yet like a Rembrandt painting, in which darkness and light play off each other and blend together in seemingly inexplicable ways, those gray pieces of Ecclesiastes do eventually connect with God, who is at the center of the picture and is bright in all his incompressible glory and wisdom.

This God of glory and wisdom is touched, if you will stay with my puzzle analogy, only through the fear of God. This is the central concept of biblical wisdom literature, and we will explore its meaning and significance in the chapters to come. For now, I’ll summarize this central concept as trembling trust. Those who, in the midst of all the hard truths and awful troubles of this fallen world, come before the Lord with trembling trust are given by him the gift of grateful obedience, steady contentment, and surprising joy. The puzzle of Ecclesiastes includes the black border, the seemingly random gray pieces, the white, bright center, and the multicolored blessings given to those who have given themselves to God. “The fear of God . . . is not only the beginning of wisdom; it is also the beginning of . . . purposeful life.”

Another way to get at the unified message is to answer the key questions raised by Pastor Solomon. The first key question is the one raised in Ecclesiastes 1:3, “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” The implied answer is “nothing.” Death makes all human work and wisdom and wealth and pleasure “vain.” From a mere observation of this world and its workings, human work, wisdom, wealth, and pleasure appear to be of no eternal value or significance.

The second key question follows that blunt and realistic reality: “In light of such vanity—the fact that our work and knowledge and pleasures and possessions are ultimately made futile by death—how, then, should we live this temporary life under the sun?” The answer to that riddle is simple. We are to live our earthly lives by abandoning human “illusions of self-importance” and “all pretense of pride” and by embracing divine wisdom. This is done, according to Ecclesiastes, by trusting the Lord and doing what he says: “[This is] the end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl. 12:13). Obedient trust—that is the end (or goal) of Ecclesiastes.

Vanity in Light of the Crucified, Risen, and Returning Christ

While Ecclesiastes contains no obvious messianic prophecy or promise, and while the New Testament rarely quotes from or alludes to the book, my ultimate concern as a Christian preacher is to preach the words of “the Preacher” in light of the words and works of the Word incarnate. This is not a concern or commission laid upon me by my local church or the denomination in which I am ordained, but by Jesus himself. Our Lord taught us to read our Old Testaments with him in mind—“everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” (Luke 24:44). Even “the Psalms” (or “the Writings”), which includes Ecclesiastes, bear witness to him (John 5:39) and can “make [us] wise for salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15). So woe to me if I teach through Ecclesiastes as though Jesus had never touched his feet on this vain earth!

Jesus Christ redeemed us from the vanity that Pastor Solomon so wrestled with and suffered under by subjecting himself to our temporary, meaningless, futile, incomprehensible, incongruous, absurd, smoke-curling-up-into-the-air, mere-breath, vain life. He was born under the sun. He toiled under the sun. He suffered under the sun. He died under the sun. But in his subjection to the curse of death by his own death on the cross, this Son of God “redeemed us from the curse” (Gal. 3:13). By his resurrection, he restored meaning to our toil. And by his return, he will exact every injustice and elucidate every absurdity as he ushers those who fear the Lord into the glorious presence of our all-wise, never-completely-comprehensible God.

Get the Reformed Expository Commentary

Do you see how you can benefit from such solid expositions of the Bible like the content above from the Reformed Expository Commentary? This excellent series is written by pastors dedicated to communicating the life-transforming truths of God’s Word no matter how difficult the passage. Get this series today and start learning from their labors!