Our 39th Word is Meaningless

The simple definition of meaningless is vain, fleeting, worthless.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

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People who complain that the Bible is uninteresting and irrelevant are like the guy who stares at Michelangelo’s David and grumbles, “I don’t see what all the fuss is about, it’s just a big hunk of marble.” for the record, these kinds of statements say more about the one commenting than they do about the thing being discussed.

Before you dismiss the Bible in such a superficial and cavalier way, you should take a few minutes to read the book of Ecclesiastes. It will or should change your mind because it is something else! Many scholars attribute this ancient writing to Solomon and speculate that he composed it late in his life.

In brief, Ecclesiastes reads like the journal of a depressed billionaire in full midlife crisis mode. Solomon talks candidly about using his vast wealth and power in a no-holds-barred search for happiness and meaning.

“Work, wealth, wine, women, I tried it all,” Solomon basically confesses. “Nothing worked. Everything about my life under the sun felt meaningless.”

The Hebrew word translated “meaningless” here is hebel. It’s rendered as “worthless” or “vanity” in other Bible versions. Interestingly, about half of the seventy or so uses of this word in the Old Testament are found in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Hebel literally means “breath” or “wind.” Something that’s hebel is here, then, poof, it’s gone, like vapor. The thought is that there’s nothing substantive or enduring about it. To put too much stock or hope in such a fleeting thing is vain at best, insane at worst.

Who among us can’t relate, at multiple points in life, to Solomon’s bitter disappointment? We don’t need immense assets or lofty connections to realize the truth’s he discovered: that the world can give us short-term thrills, but never the kind of joy that remains. Earthly things and pleasures might be able to distract us briefly from our deepest longings; they cannot satisfy them.

At the end of his unflinching look at life “under the sun,” Solomon concludes, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

This is what C.S. Lewis was getting at when he speculated that the world’s inability to give us ultimate joy suggests that we were made for another world. And this is precisely the message of Ecclesiastes, and of the whole Bible. When we find ourselves dissatisfied by meaningless acquisitions and vain activities, none of which ever come close to filling our empty, aching souls, it’s time to look up.

Anyone who says Solomon’s admissions here are uninteresting and irrelevant is just not paying any attention at all.

Questions to Ponder

1. Have you ever read Ecclesiastes? If so, what’s your opinion on it?
2. What is the key to a meaningful life? (No “church answers” don’t say what you think you’re supposed to say, say what you really think)?