The Futility of Knowledge (Ecc 1:12–18)

The Preacher, King Solomon, has made a statement that life is futile. He is looking for something that will last, something that will impact the future and leave his mark. He wants to fill the void in his life with something that promises fulfillment.
He turns first to knowledge and learning. As a king, he had access to the best teachers and all the learning that day had to offer. Imagine a full-ride scholarship to any university in the country! Anything that Solomon wanted to learn, he had only to give the word, and the best instructors in that discipline would come to teach him. So the Preacher “gave his heart to search out wisdom” (1:13). He studied everything available to him, but it did not satisfy.
His conclusion was that knowledge and education are “vanity and vexation of spirit” (1:14). Learning did not satisfy. Simply learning about man’s problems and being able to categorize and label them did not fix anything (1:15). Education accomplishes nothing by itself. Learning without application to life is entirely futile.
It was not that the Preacher wasn’t smart— he was! His knowledge superseded all who had gone before him (1:16). He was quite literally the smartest man in the world (cf. 1 Kgs 3:11–12). His conclusion was that learning is a never-ending endeavor: there is no end to knowledge. Education is a “vexation of spirit,” or better, striving after wind. Never in our lives will we attain to the vast storehouse of knowledge (1:17). Furthermore, the more we know, the more we see the problems of ourselves and others.
Education and knowledge was not the answer to the Preacher’s quest for life’s meaning. We, too, cannot solve the riddle of life’s purpose by learning more and more things. There must be a purpose to that learning, or else it is a futile endeavor.

What’s the Use? (Ecc 1:1–13)

Have you ever wondered what the point of life is? Why are we here on earth? What purpose do we serve? These are serious questions that men have asked for centuries. The book of Ecclesiastes asks and answers these questions.
The book opens with the “words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (1:1). Although he does not give his name, we know David’s son, Solomon, was king after him in Jerusalem. He calls himself “the Preacher,” and in this book, he reflects back on his life and the meaning of life itself. He begins by saying, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (1:2). All of life is confusing, frustrating, even mysterious. It just doesn’t make sense. Perhaps you have felt this way about life, your friends, your family, or school. What’s the use?
Life goes on (1:3). Generations pass (1:4), days come and go, sun up to sundown (1:5). Clouds gather, rain falls, the water runs back to the oceans and the cycle starts all over (1:6–7). Life is like a giant wheel, going around and around, history repeating itself over and over (1:8–9). Nothing is really new; it is just a rehashing or repackaging of old things (1:10). We ignore history, and someday, those of the future will ignore and forget about us (1:11).
What a depressing picture! Do you ever feel like that? Maybe on a gloomy, gray day you feel like your life is very insignificant and pointless. The world around us is full of cynicism and hopelessness. Popular music sings of the futility of life. Perhaps some of your friends are obsessed with death, since there is no point in life. Others may turn to alcohol or drugs to fill the emptiness they feel.
The Preacher is going to explore a lot of options before he comes to his conclusion (at the end of the book), but he sets the scene: life seems pointless. What can give life meaning? The Preacher attempts to fill the void in his life with many different things. Next week we’ll begin looking at some things that promise fulfillment.