For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Eccles 2:1-11

1 I said to myself, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.’ But that also proved to be meaningless. 2 ‘Laughter,’ I said, ‘is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?’ 3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly – my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well – the delights of a man’s heart. 9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labour,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun.

A. Find out :

1. What was the next thing Solomon tested? v.1
2. How did he do this? v.2,3
3. To what extent did he do this? v.10a
4. What did he then turn to doing? v.4-8
5. What did he achieve? v.9
6. How did he go about all this? v.3b,9b

B. Think:

1. What two things in this passage did Solomon do to try to find meaning in life?
2. What governed or dictated what he would do?
3. What was his feeling about it all?

C. Comment:

Now, in his search for meaning, Solomon turns purposely to see what lasting benefits pleasure brings (v.1). As king he had access to much food, drink and leisure activities and these he used to the full, only to conclude that it didn’t bring him what he was searching for (v.11).

Next he turned in his search, to achieving great things by setting himself great goals and working to achieve them, great projects (v.4-6). In that, humanly speaking, he was very successful and became richer and more powerful than any before him (v.7-9). Yet in all that, he is left with the feeling that it was all meaningless.

What we should note is the way he went about it. He let his mind guide him (v.3), he carefully thought out and thought about everything he did. His failure in all this was that he was being self-centred, it was all that HE was trying to achieve.

It was centuries later that Jesus declared the truth: “whoever loves his life looses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25). It is when you stop trying to get meaning out of life on this world and start living in the light of God’s love, that you start finding meaning and purpose and fulfilment.

D. Application?

1. Meaning cannot be found in leisure activities or achieving great goals; they simply cover up the emptiness.
2. Death to self brings awareness of real life.

Passage: Eccles 2:12-16 

12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
    and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
    than what has already been done?
13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
    just as light is better than darkness.
14 The wise have eyes in their heads,
    while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realise
    that the same fate overtakes them both.

15 Then I said to myself,

‘The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?’
I said to myself,
    ‘This too is meaningless.’
16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!

A. Find out :

1. What subject did Solomon next consider? v.12a
2. What question did he consider? v.12b
3. In what way is wisdom better than folly? v.13
4. How do the wise and the foolish differ? v.14a
5. But what happens to the wise and foolish? v.14b,16
6. What question did that raise in his mind? v.15

B. Think:

1. Why IS wisdom better than foolishness?
2. Why isn’t one better than the other?
3. What conclusions should we draw from this?

C. Comment:

Moving on from pleasure pursuits and project building, Solomon turns to the general question of striving for wisdom (v.12a). Note also he includes in this search thinking about madness (being out of one’s mind) and folly (thinking stupidly) as alterantvies to wisdom – i.e. he wanted to check out all possibilities. What is the point? Will it lead to better lives for those who follow us? (v.12b)  Will they be able to do any more than we have done?  Why strive for it?

The answer he comes up with is that wisdom is naturally better than foolishness in the same way that light is better than darkness (v.13).  In the light you can see what you are doing and where you are going and the same is true of wisdom. The wise man uses his eyes to see life around him, and the foolish man doesn’t take it in (v.14).

But then he considers further and realises that though this is true while we are alive, the wise and the foolish both eventually die (v.14b,15) and nothing can change that!  Further on in history both the wise and the foolish will suffer the same fate: they will be forgotten! (v.16)

The end conclusion of the whole thing must surely be that wisdom is certainly more preferable than foolishness because it helps us in our daily lives, but if we elevate it to esteem ourselves, that becomes foolishness for wisdom cannot help us in eternity. Wisdom is to be sought after but it is NOT the key issue in life, knowing God is!

D. Application?

1.  Wisdom brings with it understanding and revelation and enables us to walk more surely through life.
2. Wisdom that does not acknowledge God is in fact mere foolishness.

Passage: Eccles 2:17-26

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labour under the sun. 21 For a person may labour with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labour under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

A. Find out :

1. Why had he hated work? v.18
2. What did he find a frustrating thought? v.19-21
3. Why was night time as bad as day? v.23
4. What did he conclude? v.24a
5. From where does this come? v.24b,25
6. What does God give? v.26

B. Think:

1. How does this passage naturally flow on from the previous one?
2. What is Solomon’s point about the meaninglessness of work?
3. How does he say that can only be changed?

C. Comment

Having just been thinking about both the wise and foolish having to die, Solomon naturally flows on in his thinking to consider other aspects of death.

Consider, he says, after death all that you have worked for so many years is just passed on to someone else who has not lifted a hand for it – and they may be a fool (v.18,19)! What do you actually get doing work? Just stress or strain as you work v.22), and anxiety as you think about it at night (v.23), and that is just pointless!   Is that all that life is about?

Having given this, obviously, a lot of thought, Solomon’s conclusion bears some consideration: the best you can hope for is to just get on with it and look to God to give you satisfaction in what you do (v.24,25).  We have to work to provide food, shelter and clothing for ourselves and our families. That cannot be avoided but, he says, God can give wisdom, knowledge and happiness in what we do (v.26).

Here is that same thought again, that without God, life (work) is meaningless and a drudgery, but with the Lord it can be transformed into something meaningful and fulfilling.

D. Application?

1. Whatever your work is, offer it to the Lord and ask Him to bless it and give you a real sense of fulfilment and joy in it.
2. God is concerned with EVERY aspect of our lives.