Ecclesiastes Week 2: Finding Fulfillment

Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26

What will give us lasting satisfaction in life? What will make life worth living?

People have been trying to answer that question from the beginning of civilization. And frankly, I don’t think a whole lot has changed in the answers. They all seem to be variations of about the same half a dozen things that Solomon mentions. The details might be different but the general ideas are unchanged. And Solomon, by his own account, has tried them all on for size.

Some have looked to the accumulation of knowledge as a source of satisfaction. Solomon sets out to investigate and explore all that goes on in the world.

But it doesn’t take long to realize that this is an impossible task. We are three millennia removed from Solomon, and despite enormous advances in science, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, we are apparently no closer to solving the mysteries of the universe. We’ve certainly learned a lot since Solomon’s time, but the problem is the more you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know.

Next Solomon tried wisdom as a source of satisfaction. Wisdom is not the same thing as knowledge, of course. I think we’ve probably all had the experience of knowing someone who is really knowledgeable but lacked the wisdom of a toaster. As I have heard it explained, knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, not a vegetable. Wisdom is knowing that you still don’t put it in a fruit salad. And philosophy is wondering if ketchup is really a fruit smoothie.

Wisdom in Solomon’s day meant understanding the fundamental principles that govern the world and knowing how to live well. But an important part of wisdom is realizing the shortcomings of our wisdom. No matter how wise we are, we all make foolish choices from time to time. Especially in election years.

Next Solomon tried pleasure as a source of satisfaction. That’s a popular choice, especially among wealthy societies. Live it up. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Or in modern terminology, YOLO: “You only live once.” Solomon, of course, was enormously wealthy, and he had 300 wives and 700 concubines, many of them to cement foreign alliances. It kind of does make you question his wisdom, though. But it’s hard to imagine he lacked in anything pleasurable.

“Not doing anything foolish, I cheered myself with wine,” he says. I guess that’s his way of saying he didn’t lose self-control. But what does it achieve? The quest for pleasure is ultimately self-defeating. The more we have, the more we need. The science of drug addiction teaches us that addicts build up a resistance to the drug so

that over time they need higher and higher doses to achieve a high. The same thing is true of dopamine, the “pleasure chemical” in our brains.

Next Solomon tried to find satisfaction in wealth and achievements. He ruled over the largest kingdom of any of the Old Testament kings, stretching from Egypt to the Euphrates River, including most of modern day Lebanon and Syria, and many of the neighboring nations were subject to him, paying annual tributes. He built palaces surrounded by parks and gardens. That was typical of ancient Near East palaces, that they were surrounded by lush gardens and vineyards and such. The most famous of which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the famed Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Solomon accumulated enormous numbers of slaves, musicians, fruit trees, whatever he desired, and we know that he ruled over the largest and most prosperous territory Israel had in the Old Testament.

But ultimately this led him to a final conclusion: A legacy would also not bring lasting satisfaction. He couldn’t keep it. He had to pass it on to someone else. And what would happen to this enormously wealthy and powerful kingdom he had built? Would it be used well?

I think we are probably all familiar with stories of people who receive a large inheritance and then squander it by their own foolishness. Well, Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, didn’t exactly do a bang up job of taking care of the kingdom he inherited. He despised the wise advice of his father’s counselors, and the kingdom split and fell into civil war. The ten northern tribes revolved, and he lost all the territory that David and Solomon had gained.

Solomon didn’t keep anything he gained. I think of the short story by Leo Tolstoy, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” At the end of the story, the rich man dies, and his servant answers the question, “Just six feet, from his head to his heels.”

Solomon’s conclusion about all these things is that they are like “chasing the wind.” You can never grasp it. There is futility in trying to find meaning and satisfaction in any of these half a dozen things.

But I would also say here that there is something that Solomon never mentions. There is no talk of “doing for others.” There is no talk of devoting one’s life in service to others. All that he speaks of is a rather self-centered enterprise. And I think there’s something important missing from it.