#DailyDevotion Apart From God In Christ, Life Seems To Vanity

Ecc 1:2  Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity…12-14  I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.  (13)  And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.  (14)  I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Well that doesn’t sound too good now does it? Not just vanity but vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Such is the conclusion of Solomon as he applied his heart to seek and search all that is done under heaven by wisdom. He is not the only one who has ever come up with this conclusion. Many a philosopher has come up with the same conclusions. Many a man has come to this point in their lives and some have decided to end it all.

The Preacher sees that it is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of men to be busy with. No doubt it is a business given to men who have been free time to think on such things to keep them from troubling others. Most people are too busy just trying to live or resting from making a living to think about such things. But for those whom God gives leisure thinking about the operations of here below can keep them from interfering too much in the affairs of other people.

We can note that the Preacher is applying wisdom, human wisdom to his endeavor. Now wisdom can have its place in the affairs of men and can bring order to what seems to be chaos sometimes. It may guide our steps as we deal with one another. Yet it is human wisdom. Concerning human wisdom Paul writes, 1Co 1:19-21 “’I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’”  (20)  Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  (21)  For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” God has given the task of employing wisdom seeking out all that is done under heaven so man can come to realize that it is not by that wisdom they can come to know God.

The Preacher uses the term ‘under the sun’ often in this book he has written. It means something to the effect of dealing with things without God, without the things above. If there is no God, if God has not revealed something better for us, if God has no plan for us beyond what we can see with our eyes, then yes, everything is vanity and striving after the wind. You can never catch the wind.

But there is a God, a God who cares. There is a God who has a plan and a plan for you in Christ Jesus. God’s plan is to redeem humankind by becoming one of them, redeeming them from this veil of tears, joining man to himself by becoming man and giving us his kingdom, giving us himself. God is working in and through all things to bring you to this point of salvation and to bring others to this point in salvation. So indeed, apart from God all is vanity. But with God we find our ultimate meaning in Jesus who has revealed God and his attitude and feelings toward us. So we may know with Paul, 1Co 1:30 “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,…” Christ Jesus is God’s wisdom in which everything is not vanity or a striving after the wind.

Heavenly Father, as we seek out the things of the world we too may discover that apart from your love for us in Christ Jesus all is vanity. Always give us Christ Jesus who is our wisdom that we may truly see you as you are and your purpose and plan for in this world in all we do to draw us closer to yourself and to conform us to Christ’s image and likeness. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.