Futility of Works

Random Chapter Night!

Ecclesiastes 2:10-16
Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.
I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,
For my heart rejoiced in all my labor;
And this was my reward from all my labor.
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled;
And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun.
Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;
For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
Only what he has already done.
Then I saw that wisdom excels folly
As light excels darkness.
The wise man’s eyes are in his head,
But the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived
That the same event happens to them all.

So I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool,
It also happens to me,
And why was I then more wise?”
Then I said in my heart,
“ This also is vanity.”
For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
And how does a wise man die?
As the fool!

So in these passage, Solomon is talking about all of his works. At first he was pretty happy about them, but then he realizes that it’s all vanity. Vanity in this case means futile. All of his works were futile, he realized, because they didn't change the inevitable: he was going to die, and others would eventually forget about him.

It’s Solomon, so there’s some pretty good advice and revelations here. The same thing happens to everybody, but the wise man will watch what he’s doing, while the fool has no clue. We’ll all die eventually, and neither wise men or fools will be remembered (by men) forever.

Have a great week in the world God created for us.
In His Service,
Joyce