Pursuing the Wind - Ecclesiastes 2
Read: Ecclesiastes 2
Listen: A Song - “Vapor” by The Liturgists
Listen: A Meditation – “Vapor Meditation” by The Liturgists
“Born to Die” – this was a bumper sticker on a red Volkswagen I followed earlier this week. The saying struck a chord, especially since I have been studying in Ecclesiastes. We are born, we live, and we die. Nothing particularly changes in this cycle of life. Just as the sun rises and sets every day, the wind swirls around the world endlessly, and the rivers continually fill the sieve of the ocean. Nothing changes and we all have the same fate awaiting us. We were born, so, of course, we will die. Our clock starts ticking down the moment we are conceived. So, what’s the point of this life?
Qoheleth, the Preacher, memorably states, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind” (Ecc. 1:14). The Preacher knows what he’s talking about. In Ecclesiastes 2, the Preacher tells us of his own “pursuit of the wind” – an investigation into what makes life worth living.
First, he indulges in every form of pleasure, laughter, and wine. He tried it all and said, “…it turned out to be futile” (2:1a). Then, he continued his investigation by turning to possessions, and he was a man who truly had it all. Qoheleth lived in a time that describes silver as worthless since even eating utensils were made of gold (1 Kings 10:21). He had extravagant palaces, Edenic gardens, servants, livestock, treasures, and women. The Preacher says, “All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure…” (Ecc. 2:10a). He took hedonism to a whole new extreme. Ultimately, though, he determined it was all futile, a pursuit of the wind.
Next, the Preacher turns to wisdom and folly. Yet again he finds even wisdom, though preferable to foolishness, to be futile “[f]or; just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies just like the fool” (2:16). We are all born to die – regardless of how wise or foolish, rich or poor, accomplished or useless we are.
Finally, Qoheleth turns to work. He likely made the worst workaholic look lazy with this experiment, and he concludes, “When there is a person whose work was done with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and he must give his portion to a person who has not worked for it, this too is futile and a great wrong” (2:21). No matter the time and effort we put into our work under the sun, it is ultimately pointless. We cannot take anything we have done or earned with us when we die, and in fact, it will simply go to someone who did not earn it and who will likely use it foolishly.
Every avenue Qoheleth explored was shot down as making life worth living. Pleasure, possession, wisdom, work – all of these things under the sun were merely a pursuit of the wind.
If you have not yet read Ecclesiastes 1-2, it is at this point that I highly encourage you do so because I want you to notice some repetition. Anytime something gets repeated, you want to pay attention to it as it emphasizes an important idea to the text. In these two chapters several words and phrases get repeated – “futile,” “under the sun,” and “pursuit of the wind.” “Pursuit of the wind” is a phrase that means the same as futile – it is something empty, meaningless, and pointless. “Under the sun,” though, is essential to our understanding of the entire book of Ecclesiastes.
I believe “under the sun” is repeated some 25 times throughout the entire book. It first shows up in Ecclesiastes 1:3: “What does a person gain for all his efforts that he labors at under the sun?” You will find it again in Ecclesiastes 1:9, 1:14, 2:11, 2:17, 2:20, 2:22, and a similar idea “under heaven” in 2:3, not to mention all the other chapters to come. So, what does “under the sun” mean? In short, it means every part of life that humans engage in that is limited by our human perspective. Philip Graham Ryken, in Ecclesiastes – Why Everything Matters, a part of the Preaching the Word series, writes:
“…this is what life is like when we view if from a merely human perspective, when we limit our gaze to this solar system, without ever lifting our eyes to see the beauty and glory of God in Heaven. If that is all we see, then life will leave us empty and unhappy. But when we look to God with reverence and awe, we are able to see the meaning of life, and the beauty of its pleasures, and the eternal significance of everything we do, including the little things of everyday life. Only then can we discover why everything matters.” (21)
When we use a merely human perspective when considering life, we will see it all as pointless and meaningless. It is only when we turn our focus to God that we start to see things differently. Qoheleth purposely shows us how he has pursued every avenue of life searching for meaning but finding futility in all his efforts.
Thus, we find one of our puzzle pieces. Are we looking at life through the lens of fallen, sinful humanity, or are we looking at life through God’s eyes? What we should realize by looking at life from the broken human perspective is that there is something more out there awaiting us. We cannot find fulfillment in life through our own efforts. The Preacher wraps up chapter 2 by stating, “There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand, because who can eat and who can enjoy life apart from him?” (2:24-25). The answer is no one. Christ alone makes our life worth living.
Join me again next week as we journey into Ecclesiastes 3 to find yet more proof that life is a pursuit of the wind apart from Christ.
