Vanity

Ecclesiastes 6:9 

⁹ Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire.
This also is vanity and striving after the wind.

All is Vanity

 

Ecclesiastes 1:1-2 (NKJV)

The Vanities of Life

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher;

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

King Solomon in all his wisdom came to understand that in life man/woman is a vain creature and that he toils his entire existence on satisfying his lustful appetites on futility and self-gratification. While ignoring the importance of the spiritual aspects of the matters of his/her soul, his/her true understanding goes unchallenged and ultimately at the peak or twilight of life he/she comes to realize or not, the time wasted on trivialities has cost him/her true peace of mind in their life. 

 

What hast thou learned?

Ecclesiastes 1:3-4

3 What profit has a man from all his labor

In which he toils under the sun?

4 One generation passes away, and another generation comes;

But the earth abides forever.

As we seek to satisfy the lusts of the flesh, is there really a complete true happiness of the things we hold a worldly value to, such as excessive wealth, material gain, false sensual affection, ill-gotten riches, vain personal status based on narcissistic values?

Ecclesiastes 1:8-11

8 All things are full of labor;

Man cannot express it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing,

Nor the ear filled with hearing.

9 That which has been is what will be,

That which is done is what will be done,

And there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which it may be said,

“See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us.

11 There is no remembrance of former things,

Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come

By those who will come after.

According to the above scriptures every generation has done what the generation before has done and still history repeats itself over and over and nothing changes because man has not learned or considered the paths or lessons of those who have come before them. 

Such an example is King Solomon.

Solomon asked Yah for wisdom so that he may lead his people.

2 Chronicles 1:8-12

8 And Solomon said to Yah: “You have shown great mercy to David my father, and have made me king in his place. 9 Now, O Most High Yah, let Your promise to David my father be established, for You have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. 10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?”

11 Then Yah said to Solomon: “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches or wealth or honor or the life of your enemies, nor have you asked long life—but have asked wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge My people over whom I have made you king— 12 wisdom and knowledge are granted to you; and I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had who were before you, nor shall any after you have the like.”

Yah granted Solomon what he asked for and was pleased with Solomon because all the things he could have asked for he chose to do the will of Yah. His heart was for the wise judgment and council of Yah’s people. Not only did Yah grant Solomon wisdom but he added riches, wealth and honor to him.

Yah visited Solomon again after he built the temple and completed all Yah had asked of him.

Chronicles 7:17-22

17 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 18 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’

19 “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, 20 then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

 21 “And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the The Most High done thus to this land and this house?’ 22 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’”

 

And for a time Solomon was a righteous, faithful and noble king until he allowed his lusts for foreign women to take him away from the will of Yah.

1 Kings 11:1-4(KJV)

1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites:

2 Of the nations concerning which The Most High said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.

3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

4 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with The Most High his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Using Solomon’s example we can see King Solomon began with the will to please Yah, but allowed his lust to lead him out of Yah’s will. It is a very common attribute of man/woman to feed the lust of the flesh rather than do what is required according to the will of Yah.

Romans 7:21-25

21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of Yah according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank Yah—through Yahushua, Messiah our Savior!

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of Yah, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Yet with the spirit of Yah----through Yahushua it is possible. 

In our weakness to please ourselves we are in a constant quest to fill a void we believe is a need, but it is only the superficial pleasures of the flesh and it leads to all the wicked temptations of the world. These trappings and snares consume the soul leading us further away from the true spiritual satisfaction we are unknowingly seeking. It is inevitable because we are a part of a world that seduces the lusts of the flesh.

Solomon goes on to say in his later years with regret.

Ecclesiastes 2:12-16

The End of the Wise and the Fool

12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;

For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—

Only what he has already done.

13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly

As light excels darkness.

14 The wise man’s eyes are in his head,

But the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I myself perceived

That the same event happens to them all.

15 So I said in my heart,

“As it happens to the fool,

It also happens to me,

And why was I then more wise?”

Then I said in my heart,

“This also is vanity.”

16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,

Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.

And how does a wise man die?

As the fool!

King Solomon found out too late what all his sins, vanity and self-gratification had cost him. Is the price of futility and self-gratification worth the loss of your soul? This is really the true knowledge that man/woman is meant to gain in our lifetime, the pathway back to the will of Yah.

Definition: vanity~ the quality of being worthless or futile.

    "the vanity of human wishes"

Definition: self-gratification~the indulgence or satisfaction of one's own desires.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear Yah and keep His commandments,

For this is man’s all.

14 For Yah will bring every work into judgment,

Including every secret thing,

Whether good or evil.

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV)

33 But seek first the kingdom of Yah and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

~shalom~