The author of Ecclesiastes did some first-hand research. He was looking for wisdom and knowledge but was getting frustrated. Nothing seemed to satisfy him.
“I built houses and planted vineyards for myself,” he said. “I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man” (Ecclesiastes 2:4-8)
Today, we might call this the cult of “bigger, better, more.” However, the buzz wore off quickly. The lyrics of that Rolling Stone song come to mind: “I can’t get no satisfaction.”
The same is true today. In the words of Craig Groeschel: “We have more stuff—cars, homes, clothes, gadgets, toys—than any other generation in history, yet we long for more.”*
Advertisers know this. Of course they do. We see ads and commercials all day long. The underlying philosophy seems to be that you are incomplete and are missing something in your life. ‘But everything will be better if you buy what we’re selling!’
Ecclesiastes 1-2 is a sober reminder that our identity and purpose is found in God, not in the fleeting pleasures or pressures of the world. You can keep up with the Joneses or you can keep the faith, but you can’t do both. Keeping up with the Joneses is all about what other people are doing. Keeping the faith is all about what God is doing.
When you are tempted to look elsewhere for your life’s purpose, and when you are tempted to fulfil your deepest longings with things that are here today and gone tomorrow…
Resist.
The sparkling things of this world will one day be relegated to the dump heap of history. Job 19:25 famously says: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” Yes, he will. And if you are in Christ, you’ll be right there with him.
Our identity and purpose is found in God, not in the fleeting pleasures or pressures of the world.
Notes:
-*Craig Groeschel, Liking Jesus: Intimacy and Contentment in a Self-Centred World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015), 13.
-“Habits are Coordinates.” Click here to listen or watch on YouTube, or find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify at The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan.
-Bible quotes, ESV.
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