Life Is ‘Less-Meaningless’ When We Live In Obedience To God
Word-of-the-Day: ‘(9) Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. (10) Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.’ (Ecclesiastes 9:9-10)
As we prepare for another onslaught of football, not the global ‘futbol’ we were subjected to over the summer’s World Cup but good old American Football; we find there is much anticipation by the throngs of fans who are ready to root on for their favorite college and professional teams, and dread by many spouses who will be estranged by their husbands for the next several months until the completion of the Super Bowl in mid-February.
I used to be consumed by sports year-round in my youth and into adulthood. I can still recite the starting lineup for the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, who won the World Series that year, and most of the lineup for the 1974 and 1975 Steelers, who won back-to-back Super Bowls those years, as well as some of the players of the 1976 Pitt Panthers, who were the Collegiate Football Champions that year. My interest was still there, but to a lesser degree in the late 1970s, when the Pirates won their last World Series in 1979 and the Steelers winning the Lombardi Trophy again back-to-back in 1978 and 1979, and though I know the main characters, I wasn’t as engrossed as I was a young lad just a few years before.
Now that I’m a seasoned citizen, I find that while I still watch the Steelers when they’re on TV, I’m not such a fanatic that I will buy the packages to watch all their games, and the Pirates have been somewhat replaced by my new hometown Rays, though I don’t watch any of their games as those also require the ‘pay-per-view’ channels that I’m too cheap to subscribe to. Even if I wasn’t such a cheapskate, I’ve found that the effect of sporting events on my life has no impact except for the time taken to watch them – they are, in a word, ‘meaningless’. If I have something needing done, it is better to take the time to do those things that have an impact to my spouse and I, rather than wasting the time on watching sports.
Solomon, in writing Ecclesiastes, may have found himself in a similar position. The book is about Solomon contemplating mortal life, and finding that most of our pursuits are ‘meaningless’, or in the short view, without any general impact to the end result of our lives and the lives around us. It is actually depressing if taken in the tone with which Solomon wrote it. Life is meaningless and without any real purpose except to live it.
However, there is a deeper context that Solomon threads throughout Ecclesiastes. The superficial context is life for everyone is about the same; we are born, we grow from childhood to adulthood, and we all experience (in various timespans, forms and degrees) love, happiness, joy, pain, sorrow, sadness, illness and eventually death. Some will experience great high points and great low points, and everything in between.
Solomon, in his youth and young adulthood, had great interest in ruling Israel, taking the reins from his dad, David when David was old. He was tasked with building the Temple and did so, along with accumulating great wealth and a bevy of concubines and wives, some of whom were foreign. He unfortunately dabbled in the worship of idols and false gods, but by the time he wrote Ecclesiastes, it appears he came back to God and reflected – with great wisdom – on his life in general, and found it to be ‘meaningless’, without God.
In Ecclesiastes 9, Solomon provides there are two types of people who live ‘meaningless’ mortal lives, the Righteous and the wicked. Both live with the superficial context of life of birth, growth, experiences, and then death. For the most part both can be meaningless in terms of the fact that nothing we do can prevent anything outside of our control from happening, including our mortal demise.
But for the wicked, their death ends their lives and their eternity is then ‘meaningless’, forever separated from God. The Righteous, while their own mortal lives are not spared from the consequences of sin, suffering illness and death as everyone else, has their lives redeemed with a purpose, to serve God in eternity by his side, having gained Salvation for their Faith in Christ.
It is up to us, per Ecclesiastes 9:9-10, to do what the Lord has commanded us to do in obedience; love your wife and enjoy the life He has provided you, perform the work you’ve been tasked to do, and do it to the best of your ability – as when death comes, the ability to live life is forever gone. Life is a one-time shot; the decisions and actions we make in the time we have is finite and fleeting. We can waste time with trivial pursuits (like watching football on TV) or try to accomplish things that are meaningful to God, though they may be meaningless to us.
Don’t let Ecclesiastes depress you! All lives contribute to the future generations of humans; we have our children and the legacy we pass down build that future. What the future entails, whether Godly or secular, is built upon our achievements, or lack of them. While our secular careers may not seem to be as impactful as a political figure or a leader of industry, our accomplishments are something the next bubbas or bubbettes will build upon.
Best of all, those of us who live to provide the Gospel of Christ to others, and to carry out His love to those who may not have yet experienced it, is what Jesus intended for us to do, as those first 120 Christians back in Acts 2 had a direct impact in passing the Gospel to us two-thousand years later. Their Faithfulness, despite it perhaps looking meaningless to them, has had meaning for us in Faith today.
What seems meaningless to us may be meaningful to God and to others. Watching the Steelers does nothing except give me temporary enjoyment, but to study His Word, write this Word-of-the-Day, teach a Bible Study, and witness to those who don’t know the Lord, while it may sometimes be toilsome, is meaningful in that it is done for the Lord’s Kingdom building and thus has an eternal purpose.
Solomon concludes in Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 that while it may seem life is meaningless, it is ‘less meaningless’ when we are Righteous when we live for God and in obedience to Him. We will all find ourselves in trivial pursuits of self-satisfaction (like the occasional Steeler game when they’re on TV), but the best pursuits are Godly pursuits that provide for the advancement of the Lord and His Gospel, and the build-up of His Kingdom.
