Solomon laments often that one can work and gain lots for himself but then will just die and not be able to take it with him. He thinks this is just awful. He’s thinking of himself in this. He’s realizing he’s labored to gain all this wealth and accomplish so much, but he’s just going to die and leave it all behind. That should have gotten him to invest in teaching his son wisdom! His son lost most of what Solomon had.

This is a pretty depressing chapter. It’s short and its point is that life is vain. So, let’s talk about the vanity of life.

Do you ever wake up and do the same thing again and think I’m going to do the same thing tomorrow? It just goes round and round. Is there a point? Without God, I’m sure it can be hard to find any meaning in life. People hold onto the idea of making the world better for their kids and grandkids, of making some lasting impact. Ben Franklin advised that if you want to be remembered, write something worth reading or do something worth writing about. People try to make their lives have meaning, to have some impact on the world. Even if they manage to do so, like Franklin, the world itself is passing away. All his “impact” will be destroyed with the earth. None of it is eternal. The only things of eternal value are eternal things.

Everything of this world is temporal. It’s temporary. It’s passing away. The things of the Spirit are eternal. The things the Spirit accomplishes through you have eternal value, even if it looks temporal, like offering a cup of water to someone who is thirsty. It may seem of little value beyond that moment, but God’s ways are much bigger than ours. He can take a simple act and make it matter for eternity because the Lord’s work is happening unseen. It happens in hearts.