The two wisest men of all time speak out on life.
We play hard, work hard, and try to live wisely. But what’s the point if it all ends with a graveside ceremony? That’s not a new question. King Solomon, the richest, wisest, and most powerful man of his era, had this to say almost 3,000 years ago about the meaning of life.
The pursuit of pleasure
I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks…. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me…. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces.
I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine… and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure.
But behold, this also was vanity [empty and valueless]. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”
The pursuit of work
My heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind….
I hated all my toil…seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled…. Sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it…. What gain has the worker from his toil?
The pursuit of wise living
I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event [death] happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!
Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.*
The pursuit of things that don’t last forever
Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ summarized God’s perspective on life’s meaning….
The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” And he said, “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’”
But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?
The pursuit of eternal values
Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?.... Do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?”…. your heavenly father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son [to die in our place, for our sins], that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…. Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.**
*Quotes from King Solomon are taken from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 2, 3 and Proverbs 8:14
**Quotes from Jesus are taken from Luke 12:16-18, Matthew 6:19-25,27,31-33; 7:24-25; 16:26 and John 3:16-17,6:37