Know Vanity

"Know Vanity" - Ecclesiastes 1:1-8 This is the vanity, transience (which flees and disappears quickly, short-lived) of life. Vanity = presumption, conceit, and arrogance, "quality of vainness. When human beings overvalue their own abilities, attributes, and knowledge and consequently (inevitably and forcibly of another), they develop such an exaggerated concept of themselves that they believe themselves superior to others and boast, often boast "in front of others." Hence why a vain person "is considered conceited (proud) and even arrogant." The worst thing in a person is vanity. He trusts his whole life in material things.

I. He who calls a meeting and speaks amid the assembly.

A. A preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem.

1. Preacher "one who calls or gathers," "calls an assembly."

2. If it is when he was old and has repented of his sins, then he calls for an assembly.

3. It may be that Solomon, disillusioned and repentant of his apostasy (he turned away from God) is gathered here and preaching to others who may have gone astray as he went astray.

4. The Holy Spirit led him to write, and he let God's forgiveness be seen.

5. Son of David, he encouraged him to repent and hope for mercy, David too had fallen into sin, but he had repented and from him his son took example to find mercy as his father had found it.

6. King of Jerusalem.

7. God had done much for him by elevating him to the throne of Israel, but he had behaved very badly toward God.

8. As king, it was not humiliating for him to present himself in the assembly as a preacher, for he was better known as a preacher.

9. Solomon spoke of the vanity of all things in this world, and therefore how little we can expect from them.

10. That all (2) are vanity, not in the sense of vainglory as it is now commonly understood, but empty or unimportant.

11. He says that they are vanity of vanity, i.e., an emptiness (vacuity), unity is out of the ordinary, with a maximum degree.

12. Solomon gets straight to the point; he doesn't make us wait until the last chapter.

13. The result of all Solomon's research and pursuit is that "all is vanity."

14. Life is transitory, brief, empty.

15. Nothing on this earth offers a valid goal for existence.

16. If there is nothing but this life, if death draws the last curtain on human existence, then life is but mist, without substance (matter), "disappearing at last."

17. All is vanity under the sun.

18. (3) Man's frail life is full of work and activity.

19. We live in silent despair.

20. (4) Man's transience (duration) contrasts with the apparent permanence of his natural environment.

21. One "generation" succeeds (after someone passing or occupying the position) another with irresistible speed.

22. That's life under the sun.

23. Everyone dreams of remaining forever, how soon it takes for that absent face to be!"

24. The earth always remains.

25. The sun rises in the east, hangs (suspended in the air) above the earth until it sets in the west and then it is not forever, limited "rushes" around the other side of the world to rise again in the east.

26. This seemingly endless routine, century after century, makes man realize that he is but a passing shadow.

27. Solomon is not mistaken that it is the earth that moves, he was only using the language of human appearance.

28. The sun seems to rise and set.

29. (6) The behavior of the wind changes with the same regularity with the seasons of the year.

30. In winter, the north winds descend on Israel to the Negev, the southern desert.

31. When summer arrives, the southerly winds carry heat with them as they blow northward.

32. Just like that, we can see that we are simply passing winds to believe that we don't need the Creator.

33. With almost heavy monotony they follow this turn, and then, with total indifference to the world of men, they pass from the scene.

34. (7) Not only the earth, the sun, and the wind, but also the water follows the same monotonous routine throughout the ages.

35. The rivers all go into the sea, but they never reach the point of overflowing the oceans, because the sun evaporates huge amounts of water.

36. In turn, clouds rush across the sky and spill water onto the earth in the form of rain, snow, or hail.

37. And the rivers teeming with activity "nature remind man of his own never-ending labor."

38. (8) For this reason, life confined to this earth is full of weariness.

39. Man is never "satisfied".

40. All He needs is to rise above the sun to the One who "satisfies the needy soul and fills the hungry soul with good. Amen.