The Preacher sought meaning in wisdom and came up empty handed (Ecc. 1:12-18). He looked for significance in pleasure and found it severely lacking (Ecc. 2:1-11). Next, he looked for importance in work and realized there wasn’t anything to be gained from all of his hard work (Ecc. 2:17-26). Whether it was wisdom, work, wealth, or pleasure, it was all considered to be meaningless.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, what is the end of it all? It is to fear God and keep his commandments (Ecc.12:13-14). Whatever God does endures forever, nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken away from it (Ecc. 3:14). God has placed eternity within the heart of man (Ecc. 3:10). The issue is that man attempts to fill it with pleasure, wisdom, toil, relationships, the pursuit of wealth, and education and yet it leaves him empty. It is vanity of vanities! Meaningless! A striving after wind.
Thankfully we aren’t left to our own devices. A greater than Solomon appears in the New Testament (Matt. 12:42). Jesus, the Son of David, Who is the image of the invisible God, the Creator of heaven and earth. He is the ultimate Son of David. He speaks in parables, proverbs, and even with a little cynicism: “What does it profit a man if he gains the world and loses His soul?” It was this preacher, who looked at a woman who simply came to draw water for her thirst who had been with five men, whom she called husbands, Jesus tells her, with an echo of Ecclesiastes: “If you drink of this water you will thirst again. But if you drink from the living water you will never thirst.” When you drink from the world’s pleasure, you will still be in thirst. The temporal striving under the sun that she lost a lifetime to, could be replaced with an eternal thirst quencher. The vapor of ruined relationships would be replenished with Living Water. Jesus wasn’t offering a vapor, He was offering the substance.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus wants you to stop chasing vapors, and instead drink from the Substance. The end of the matter is fear God and obey his commandments. The meaningless fades with the wind and is replaced with divine purpose.