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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Ecclesiastes 2:20
Comments
His sense of the vanity of it all was not just an intellectual indulgence which he toyed with, but a realisation which entered deep into his heart and undermined his whole reason for living. Despair entered him which brought his search to an end as he became convinced that the satisfaction that he sought was essentially unobtainable and beyond man’s reach. Life under the sun, he concluded, is without meaning or purpose and subject to a law of vanity which has no exception. All the labour which he had undergone was wasted and there was still no answer to his initial enquiry. This new attitude does not mean that Solomon now found peace in the realisation that he could ‘quietly leave all to an all-wise disposing Providence’, for at this time in his life the conclusion that all was vanity left him with no consolation. On the one hand he had not found meaning in his labours; on the other hand he did not know where else to turn to find peace.
Application
The Christian has the privilege of pointing those who despair of all profit from life to go to Christ. The gospel alone tells us about abiding treasure that does not fade away. He is willing to receive us no matter what we have done. He knows us through and through, but when we come for life, he receives us, ‘and upbraideth not [without reproach]’, and does not turn us away. Though he makes us aware of how much it cost him to save us, he does not ask us to pay anything but reveals his grace to us, and we are overwhelmed by his goodness and lack of vengeance against us.
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