Ecclesiastes 1:4 - Meaning and Application

Solomon shows here why everything under the sun is empty and unable to make us truly happy. First, our time of enjoying these things is very short, only as long as a hired worker gets through his day. We stay in the world for only one generation, and that generation keeps passing away to make room for the next. Our earthly goods came to us very recently from others, and we will soon leave them to others, so they are empty and unable to last. They can be no more solid than the life that holds them, and life itself is only a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.

As human life keeps flowing on, like a stream, each person gets only a small share of its pleasant banks. We can thank God for the steady rise and fall of generations, since he has kept the world going this way until now, out of his patience with sinful people and his power in preserving dying people. This should also stir us to do the work of our own generation faithfully, because our time will soon be over. And if we care about mankind as a whole, we should seek the good of the generations that come after us. But we should not expect our own happiness to fit inside such narrow limits. We must look for an eternal rest and lasting stability.

Second, when we leave this world, we leave the earth behind. The earth remains where it is, and so earthly things cannot help us in the life to come. It is good for mankind in general that the earth endures until the end of time, when it and all its works will be burned up. But that does not help any one person when he passes into the world of spirits.

Third, man’s condition is, in this respect, worse than that of the lower creatures. The earth remains, but man stays on it only a little while. The sun goes down every night, but it rises again in the morning, just as bright as before. The winds, though they change direction, still keep moving somewhere. The waters that go to the sea above ground return from it below ground. But man lies down and does not rise again in this life (Job 14:7, Job 14:12).

Fourth, everything in this world is moving and changing, always at work and never at rest. Nothing is steady except its lack of steadiness. The sun is always going, never stopping. It rises only to hurry toward setting, and when it sets, it hurries back to rise again (Ecclesiastes 1:5). The winds keep shifting about (Ecclesiastes 1:6), and the waters move in a constant cycle (Ecclesiastes 1:7). It would be just as harmful for them to stand still as for blood to stop flowing in the body. So can we expect rest in a world where everything is full of labor (Ecclesiastes 1:8), on a sea that is always rising and falling, with waves forever rolling?

Fifth, though everything keeps moving, it still ends up where it started. The sun goes around, but it returns to the same place. The wind turns until it comes back to the same place, and the waters return to the place they came from. In the same way, a person may spend great effort looking for satisfaction in created things, and yet end up no nearer to happiness than before. The human mind is as restless in its searching as the sun, winds, and rivers, but it is never satisfied or content. The more of the world it has, the more it wants. It is no sooner filled with outward prosperity, with streams of comfort and abundance (Job 20:17), than the sea is filled by the rivers that run into it. It remains what it was, a troubled sea that cannot rest.

Sixth, things in this world continue as they have from the beginning of creation (2 Peter 3:4). The earth stays where it was. The sun, winds, and rivers keep the same course they always have. So if they have never been enough to make a person happy, they are not likely to become enough now, because they can only give the same kind of comfort they always have. We must therefore look above the sun for real satisfaction, and for a new world.

Seventh, this world is, at its best, a weary place. Everything is vanity, because everything is full of labor. The whole creation has been subject to this frustration ever since man was sentenced to eat bread by the sweat of his brow. If we look over all creation, we see that everything is busy. Everything has enough to do just to handle its own place. Nothing here can be a person’s true portion or happiness. All things work to serve man, but none of them can be a fitting companion for him. No one can fully describe how full of labor everything is, or count all that is laborious, or measure all its toil.

Eighth, our senses are never fully satisfied, and the things that please them do not satisfy either. Solomon names those senses that are easiest to enjoy and least tiring to use. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, but grows weary of the same sight and wants new things and variety. The ear is glad at first to hear a pleasant song or tune, but soon tires of it and must have something else. Both senses are overfilled, but neither is content. What was once pleasing becomes tiresome. Curiosity keeps asking because it is still unsatisfied, and the more it is indulged, the more demanding and hard to please it becomes, always crying, “Give me more.”