Page |1
Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 “Is That All There Is?”
A rabbinical paraphrase of Solomon’s experience is found in this Targum.
When King Solomon was sitting upon the throne of his kingdom, his heart became
greatly elated with riches, and he transgressed the commandment of the Word of God;
and he gathered many houses, and chariots, and riders, and he amassed much gold
and silver, and he married wives from foreign nations. Whereupon the anger of the
Lord was kindled against him, and he sent to him Ashmodai, the king of the demons,
and he drove him from the throne of his kingdom, and took away the ring from his
hand, in order that he should roam and wander about in the world, to reprove it; and he
went about the provincial towns and cities in the land of Israel, weeping and lamenting,
and saying, "I am Coheleth, whose name was formerly called Solomon, who was King
over Israel in Jerusalem."
In Solomon’s pursuit for the meaning of life he now leaves the vain fields of knowledge.
We will now see him enjoying various physical pleasures (2:1–3), accomplishing great
and costly works (2:4–6), and accumulating great possessions (2:7–10) only to
discover that all of it was only “vanity and grasping for the wind” (v. 14)
PRAY
I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore
enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter—“Madness!”;
and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” 3 I searched in my heart how to gratify
my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on
folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the
days of their lives. 4 I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted
myself vineyards. 5 I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of
fruit trees in them. 6 I made myself water pools from which to water the growing
trees of the grove. 7 I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in
my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in
Jerusalem before me. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special
treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the
delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments[a] of all kinds. 9 So I became
great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my
Page |2
wisdom remained with me. 10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from
them.
I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,
For my heart rejoiced in all
my labor;
And this was my reward from all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all the
works that my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled; And
indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth (Sim-Khaw)
; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity.
Remember, Solomon had cash to flash oh yes he had dough to blow. Just
in gold alone he brought in over 1.3 billion a year.
How Much is Enough?
John D. Rockefeller was presented with that question at the height of his incredible
personal wealth in the oil industry.
Most Americans today are richer than most people in the history of the world. Yet
in spite of our material prosperity – or maybe because of it – we still suffer from
poverty of the soul.
Ecclesiastes 2 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore
enjoy
”; but surely, this also was vanity.
As noted by Ryken… Every term in this short statement is important. The word
“test” indicates that what follows is an experiment, a deliberate attempt to
learn something from personal experience. The word “
” shows
what he wants to experience – the pleasures of life. He is like “The
Wanderer” in the song on Ecclesiastes that U2 wrote, featuring Johnny Cash
on lead vocals: “I went out there / In search of experience / To taste and to
touch and to feel as much / As a man can before he repents.”
Page |3
You cannot read his words without being confronted by who is the most important
person in this quest, “I”. Seeking pleasure for the sake of pleasure is always “self
centered”.
Our Hebrew becomes a
. Solomon tries to find meaning in
pleasure. He becomes a "party animal". He "Grabs for all the
gusto" -"
." Solomon puts on his Reebok’s and lives
their mad motto: "Life is short- play hard" and wow, did Solomon play
hard… Solomon's palace in Jerusalem was a perpetual party.
Pleasure did not satisfy the soul any more than
wisdom did. Pleasure seemed to hold out the promise of purpose of life, but it didn‟t last.
Chasing soap bubbles… [Poof it‟s gone.]
Solomon partied hearty, but he found
in his sensuality,
, no satisfaction
.
WOW is that ever America in 2014! We are truly a pleasure-crazed
society. According to Sandy Adam’s research "Every week in the United
States:
12 million golfers vie for tee-times…
9 million tennis players compete across the nets…
4 million skiers glide down the slopes…
and each year 23 million hunters and fisherman comb the woods and fish the creeks.
Many people are doing so trying to fill an emptiness inside… trying to find a
reason for living in the pursuit of pleasure! Here’s a nutshell analysis of
today’s world,
Now in verses 2-8 he lists all of the pleasures he tried, followed in verses 9-11… what he
learned.
Verse 2 I said of laughter—“Madness!”; and of mirth or pleasure, “What does it
accomplish?” I think Robin Williams would have to agree. Here “Madness” does not
refer to being out of one‟s mind, the way we might use the word today, but to something
Page |4
sinful. According to Derek Kidner, it indicates “moral perversity rather than mental oddity.”
Life without Jesus is no laughing matter. Some people laugh all their way
to the grave, but there is nothing funny about the deathbed of someone who dies without Christ.
3 I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart
with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the
sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. Alcohol is a lubricant for
laughter, and pleasure seeking. I hate alcohol… it make people something they are not. I think it
sad that many cannot have fun without being inebriated.
“while guiding my heart with wisdom” very interesting phrase. Solomon has
already noted in Proverbs 20:1 “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is
led astray by it is not wise”.
Many scholars believe this phrase means, He was not giving himself over to drunken
debauchery but was drinking in moderation and then soberly and thoughtfully assessing his
experience. “while guiding my heart with wisdom”
I really like T. M. Moore‟s paraphrase of Solomon‟s thoughts: “I
resolved to cheer my body with wine, still seeking after wisdom,
mind you, and to lay hold on revelry in order to see whether this
might yield the good I was seeking. Perhaps, since life is so short,
folly and revelry might be the meaning of it all? But no.”
Look at verse 4 with me… I made my works great, I built myself houses, and
planted myself vineyards. 5 I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all
kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made myself water pools from which to water the
growing trees of the grove. Building the Lord’s temple had taken 7 years. The
construction of Solomon’s own personal palace took 13. The Preacher made “Better Homes
and Gardens” every week! The man was an architect, a builder, and a
developer.
He was skilled in viniculture, the production of wine. He planted many vineyards.
The scope of Solomon‟s grand achievement is indicated by the fact that everything occurs in the
plural –
and
,
and parks, trees and
.
Page |5
It was all for him. How much
need?
do you
Veggie Tales Clip
7 I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. All
these
and
,
parks, trees and
require quite a work force
to maintain them… WE learn in 1 Kings 5:13–18 He had 2 kinds of slaves: those he purchased
and those born in his household. We know of 30,000 Jewish men he “drafted” to work on various
projects. Can you imagine the cost of workman’s comp. insurance?
Verse 7 continues… Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who
were in Jerusalem before me. According to (1 Kings 4:23). He also had so many animals
that every day the chefs in his royal kitchen would prepare “ten fat oxen, and twenty pasturefed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.”
8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and
of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of
men, and musical instruments of all kinds. Music was a rare pleasure in those days, but
the richest man in the world could afford the very best…
He could afford to have Johannes Sebastian Bach one night and Elvis Presley
the next. Followed by The
throwing in
for
flavor. Why not a night with
and mix it up with Fred Astaire.
In the mood for James Brown How about a little Bing Crosby (Some song and
dance). He had Bob Hope and Tim Hawkings come and make him laugh. He let
his grandkids talk him into
and he had to say no to Barney.
With 700 hundred wives and 300 hundred concubines… He had more opportunities for sexual
pleasure than Hugh Heffner…
Wine, women and song!
“I deserve it,” he would tell himself, “as the reward for all my hard work.”
Don‟t you find it hard not to envy the man? Wouldn‟t you like to live like a king?
Page |6
Verse 9 So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in
Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 Whatever my eyes desired I did
not keep from them. It was said of Saddam Husain if he was looking out his
window and saw a woman he wanted they went and got her… she became his
slave. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in
all my labor;
And this was my reward from all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all
the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And
indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the
sun.
The verb “looked” (Hebrew pana) literally means “to face,” to look someone or
something right in the eye. Literally, Then I turned (to consider): he stopped in the midst of his
sensuous indulgence to take stock of the results. it is a vexation of spirit”: or better, they are as
useless as “chasing after the wind;” a graphic picture of effort expended with no results gained.
Solomon used this phrase 9 times, all in the first half of the book.
The Bible warns against “the lush of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1
John 2:16).
Solomon lived the lifestyle of the rich and foolish.
Peggy Lee….When I was 12 years old, my father took
me to a circus, the greatest show on earth. There were clowns and
elephants and dancing bears, and a beautiful lady in pink tights flew
high above our heads. And so I sat there watching thee marvelous
spectacle. I had the feeling that something was missing. I didn‟t know
what, but when it was over, I said to myself, “Is that all there is to a
circus?”
Then Peggy Lee croons her famous refrain: “Is that all there is? Is that all there is?
If that‟s all there is, my friends, then let‟s keep dancing.” Let‟s break out the booze
and have a ball, if that‟s all there is.” Paul
said almost the same thing in
1
Page |7
Corinthians 15:32 if there is no hope of eternal life, “Let us eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die!”
Generally speaking, we live in better homes than he did, with better furniture and climate
control. We dine at a larger buffet; when we go to the grocery store, we can buy almost
anything we want, from anywhere in the world. We listen to a much wider variety of music.
And as far as sex is concerned, the Internet offers an endless supply of virtual partners,
providing a vast harem for the imagination.
By every indication, then, we are living in the godless times that Paul described for Timothy,
when people would be “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4).
Everything is offered to us. Nothing is unavailable.
Today we have more of everything… except happiness.
Pleasure, pursued for its own sake, does not and cannot satisfy the soul. Learn this lesson from
Ecclesiastes, or else learn it from sad experience, like the woman whom Rabbi Harold Kushner
writes about in When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough. She married a successful corporate
executive and bought her dream house in the suburbs. But now she “cannot understand why she
goes around every morning saying to herself, ‘Is this all there is to life?’”
without eternal perspective!
Football star Tom Brady was asked this question on 60 Minutes. Brady had
just quarterbacked the New England Patriots to their 3rd Super Bowl. He
said, “Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there‟s
something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people say, „Hey
man, this is what is.‟ I reached my goal, my dream, my life is... Me, I think,
God„ … There‟s got to be more than this.‟
When the interviewer asked, “What‟s the answer?” Brady could only say, “I
wish I knew. I wish I knew.”
If we were able to find lasting satisfaction in earthly pleasure then we could never recognize our
need for God. Solomon "He had it all… but nothing mattered." When the woman at
the well came seeking mere water, Jesus told her, "You'll thirst again". We
ought to turn that into a plaque and hang it over every source of modern
day pleasure: sex, drugs, fame, money, athletics, entertainment
Page |8
This world is like Chinese food… eat it and an hour later your hungry again.
Pleasure without God at best is cotton candy, melts in your mouth and l
Satisfaction only comes in God himself, so that our dissatisfaction may teach us to turn to him.
Again Solomon wants us to feel the emptiness of life apart from God so that emptiness will
Drive us to God.
When we turn back to God, asking him to save us in the name of Jesus Christ, something very
surprising happens: the very pleasures that once failed to satisfy us now help us find even
greater joy in the goodness of God.
Psalm 16:11… You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your
right hand are pleasures forevermore.
We taste God‟s Joy when we receive laughter as a gift from him. We laugh because we know
who we are, why we are here and where we are going. We learn that our life is not futile, our
failures are not fatal and our death will not be final.
Learn to laugh at yourself. If you are like me you will laugh forever. Trip over the crack, look
back, like the crack tripped you. Forever singing in the car as people watch… waving to the
wrong people.
There is pleasure in rewarding work that is done for the glory of God (Col. 3:23).
There is pleasure in every meal we are privileged in eating. (1 Timothy 4:3-4).
There is pleasure in silver and gold that is given for the kingdom of God, with the guarantee
of an eternal return on our investment 1 Timothy 6:17 Command those who are rich in this
present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives
us richly all things to enjoy.
There is pleasure in music that delights the ear and moves our emotions to the worship of God.
There is great pleasure in sex when experienced as God has determined. between one
man and one woman in a marriage relationship.
“If the Lord has given one a wife, one should hold on to her and
enjoy her. (I like to hold on to my wife!) If you want to exceed these limits and add to
this gift which you have in the present, you will get grief and sorrow instead of pleasure.”
Page |9
A marvelous example of knowing the pleasure of God comes from the testimony of a poor
Christian woman. Her name is so long forgotten that now it is known only to God, but
sometime in the eighteenth century she wrote these contented words:
I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul than when I have
been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth,
and hearing no sound but that of my own breath, with God in my soul and
heaven in my eye. I rejoice in being exactly what I am – a creature capable
of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and
look a while out the window. I gaze at the moon and stars, the work of an
Almighty Hand. I think of a grandeur of the universe and then sit down and
think myself one of the happiest beings in it.
Solomon is saying that the gifts of God can’t truly be
enjoyed and appreciated apart from the God who gives the gifts! It’s God
who gives life meaning!
Surrender!!!
I'm giving you all my heart, and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of you my king
I'm giving you my dreams, I'm laying down my rights
I'm giving up my pride for the promise of new life
[Chorus]
And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you
I'm singing you this song, I'm waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing you the glory of your name
To know the lasting joy even sharing in your pain
[Chorus]
And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you
P a g e | 10
Give it all to you,
And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you