Meaningless, Meaningless, Everything is Meaningless

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil–this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Another word that Solomon uses to describe the many things from which man seeks meaning is “meaningless”. While there is a time for everything, there is nothing new – whatever is has already been done, and what will be has been done before; and God will call the past to account. Wickedness was there in place of judgment and justice, but God will bring judgment on both the righteous and the wicked. Man’s efforts to make his life meaningful is futile, it is meaningless. Everything is meaningless. If this is the case, man is in sad shape. Who will save man and give him the meaning in life he so desires?