The Unquenchable Search for Meaning
The search for meaning begins early in life, continues until death, and is an unquenchable quest for most people. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote the Bible book of Ecclesiastes, about the quest for the meaning of life. He experienced more than most could ever experience in his determination to find some purpose in life. At the end of his life, he realized that none of his accomplishments or riches brought satisfaction, and his final effort was to convince others not to make the same mistakes.
The question in the mind of Soloman is the same that many are asking today: Is this all there is to life? His conclusion: “If this were all there is to life, would it be enough to make my life meaningful? Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?” Ecclesiastes 1:2–3. First, in this article, we will look at what Solomon said would not bring meaning to life before we learn how to find that one thing that does. Solomon in his search tried everything to bring sense to life and concluded that it was all vanity.
Solomon’s quest to find meaning in life.
Finding the right career: Surely, Solomon’s career was fulfilling as King over the nation of Israel but not according to his own words. “I hated all the fruit my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity,” (Ecclesiastes 2:18–19)
When you consider all the things Solomon did in his lifetime, it is enormous. His greatest accomplishment was the building of Solomon’s temple, which was probably the most expensive building ever built. The total cost, including the cost of labor (153,000 forced laborers) would have been well over half a billion dollars in that day, which would amount to a mind-blowing amount today, and it took over seven years to build. It stood for nearly half a century until Nebuchadnezzar’s army came and destroyed it in 586 B.C.
No matter what we build in life or how great it may be, it will not last. Things in this world are transitory and cannot survive. Solomon built a great kingdom that fell apart shortly after his death. His predecessor wasted no time, causing the kingdom to be divided between the north and south. The northern kingdom had 10 tribes while the southern kingdom had two tribes. It was the result of the stupidity of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. Rehoboam was apparently the fool Solomon mentioned in verse 19 above.
The people of Israel requested that Rehoboam relieve them of the heavy burdens Solomon had levied on them. So, Rehoboam went to the elders who served with his father with a question: “How do you counsel me to answer this people?” 7Then they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” 1 Kings 12:6b-7.
Instead of following the advice of the elders of Israel, Rehoboam then went to the young men of the kingdom and asked them the same question:So he said to them, “What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?” 10The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!’ But you shall speak to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins! 11Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions,” 1 Kings 12:9-11.
After Rehoboam spoke roughly to Israel, Israel rebelled: “So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day. 20And it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him King over all Israel: none followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only,”1 Kings 12:20. Rehoboam led Judah away from worshiping the Lord and Jeroboam led the northern ten tribes into idolatry. God judged the northern kingdom, and they were carried into Assyrian captivity, dispersed, and never again became a kingdom. Judah went into Babylonian captivity for 70 years before it returned to its own land but did not become an autonomous nation until 1948, some 2000 years later. There is no guarantee that whatever we accomplish on earth will last; that is up to the next generation.
Solomon wrote the Bible book of Ecclesiastes with a list of things that fail to bring meaning to life. He had a vast experience from which to draw information. He was King of Israel for forty years. He accumulated the most incredible wealth, power, and prestige of anyone of his time. He had everything a person could desire. He was a prolific author of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. His search for meaning in life extended over his lifetime.
Finding Happiness: For Solomon, happinesswas only a fading dream because of life’s reality. “So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. 2Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive. 3Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun,” Ecclesiastes 4:1-3.
Setting goals and having dreams: The evil in the world is enough to dampen the dream of ever finding meaning in life. “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:” Ecclesiastes 6:1. At this point, Solomon is talking about the evil in the world. Yesterday in Highland Park, near Chicago, a shooter killed seven people and injured twenty-four others in a parade celebrating the fourth of July. Shootings in this country have become regular occurrences, and there seem to be no solutions. According to statistics, “Before the year 2000, there were about three mass shootings a year in the United States. In the first six months of 2022, there have been more than 240. And while U.S. school shootings soared to about one a month in recent years, they have escalated to the point where one occurs about once a week.” [1] We have to mentally deal with all the evil that is going on around us before we can find meaning, and it takes more than just thinking positive.
Finding things to do that you enjoy: Solomon lists another thing that is commonly believed to add meaning to life, which he tried.“All that my eyes desired, I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor, and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun,” Ecclesiastes 2:10–11. According to Solomon, you can do the things you enjoy for the rest of your life and still not find meaning. People today build large mansions to find meaning. So did Solomon. He made himself a palace, Ecclesiastics 2:4. He collected properties and wealth, verses 5-8. He married many wives, a thousand including concubines, 1 Kings 11. He responds by saying there was “no profit under the sun.” Fleeting pleasures do not bring meaning to life.
Surround yourself with people who make you feel good and ignore those who make you feel bad: “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.…A poor yet wise lad is better than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to receive instruction.…I have seen all the living under the sun throng to the side of the second lad who replaces him. There is no end to all the people, to all who were before them, and even the ones who will come later will not be happy with him, for this too is vanity and striving after wind,” Ecclesiastes 4:9-16.
It sounds as if Solomon commends good relationships as conventional wisdom. We would agree that it is better to spend life with a friend than alone, and kings or political leaders should have advisors to help them make crucial decisions. But he adds that this also is fleeting. Some are counted great for a while, and others make them feel good about their fame. But they are soon forgotten and are seldom remembered after death. It might make you feel good to have friends who adore you, but that alone does not give meaning to life.
Becoming Successful: Success does not mean that you have found meaning in life. “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them,” Ecclesiastes 5:19. “The reason possessions, pleasure, prestige, popularity, promotion, power, and performance cannot satisfy our longings in this world is that they were never meant to do so,” – C.S. Lewis.
Solomon made good plans and put a lot of effort into becoming successful in all that he did. He became very wealthy; he had power and prestige. He met his goals and accomplished the things he set out to accomplish, but all that he did fail to bring the meaning for which he searched, and he lacked the power to enjoy the things he gained and the things he accomplished because that is an ability that comes from God.
It is the nature of human beings always to want something more and better, more money, more success, more fame and recognition, and more power, but regardless of how much we get, it will fail to add meaning to life: According to the Bible, “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity,” Ecclesiastes 5:10.
Do things to help others: “I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness,” Ecclesiastes 7:15. I think we all would agree that helping others is a virtue to be admired and a primary purpose for being alive, but behold, helping others by itself still does not bring satisfaction and meaning to life.
Meaning in life, according to Solomon
Solomon’s conclusion when all is said and done: “Fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person,” Ecclesiastes 12:13. It is good to learn that all is not hopeless. Perhaps it is “under the sun,” but Solomon goes beyond it to show us where true meaning is found.
We cannot find meaning in anything under the sun because God designed us to only find satisfaction in Him alone, and no matter what we do, we can never find meaning anywhere else. God moved out and a vacuum occurred inside Adam and Eve when sin entered the human family in the Garden of Edin, and that vacuum is passed ang to each person at birth; nothing but God’s return to the human heart can fill that vacuum. God loves us and does not want us to settle for anything less than a relationship with Him. At the end of the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, the last two verses, we see Solomon’s final word after every attempt to find meaning has been exhausted: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil,” Ecclesiastes 12:13.
According to Solomon, only two guiding principles bring true meaning to life.
First, we must fear God, love and worship Him, and put all those things we thought gave meaning to life in their proper perspective. To fear God means to respect Him as God and to worship Him. When we love God and commit ourselves to Him, we will have a desire to please Him by keeping His commandments. “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous,” 1 John 5:3.
Oddly enough, man is pleased with the dirty unfulfilling things of life, illicit sex, drinking, and selfish ambition when he could be enjoying utopia with God. God designed us so that we only find satisfaction and meaning in Him. Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly,” John 10:10.
When we come to Jesus and trust Him as Lord and Savior, He transforms us into something brand new: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new,” 2 Corinthians 5:1. God does a marvelous thing: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” Colossians 1:13. We no longer thirst after the things of the world that never satisfy: “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst,” John 6:35.
Second, when we know God, we receive the power from God to enjoy life. We become conscious that every good thing is a gift from God. Then God gives satisfaction with meaning and purpose that only He can give. Solomon said. “I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. 13And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God,” Ecclesiastes 3:12. Solomon starts his quest for the meaning of life by trying all those things that do not give meaning, and now he says some of those very things can be enjoyed. Why the change? After we entrust ourselves to God, He brings meaning and purpose into our lives and the power to enjoy those things that we had no power to enjoy before.
Verses that confirm a life of meaning
- Philippians 4:7, “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
- 1 John 3:16-18, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
- James 1:2-3, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.”
- Romans 5:8-18, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”
- James 4:13-15, “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.15For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”
- Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Conclusion
Outside of God, it is impossible to find true meaning. God provides purpose and meaning to those who honor Him and accept the gift of salvation He offers.
[1] https://www.yahoo.com/news/why-mass-shooters-getting-younger-070004293.html