This morning we return to our Ecclesiastes study, which is probably the most puzzling book in all the Bible for most people, and presents what seems to many to be a rather pessimistic view of life and contains statements that are contradictory to other statements in scripture. And so it's quite a chore to work through a book like this and to understand exactly why God included it in the Bible and what specifically it is truly saying to us. Part of the difficulty is, no doubt, because the book is only partially understood, which is to say that it is partially misunderstood as well. And some of that, perhaps a great deal of it, begins almost at the beginning of the book because of the misleading translation of that word, which in our Bible is translated vanity, which appears nearly 40 times in the book. And when we understand that as meaning unfulfilling or useless or hopeless, then of course that casts a pall, a shade over everything else that is said in the book. When the preacher says, vanity of vanity, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. And if that's talking about useless, useless, says the preacher, everything is useless, then of course that really does put a damper on what follows. But that, as I pointed out last Sunday, is probably not the best translation of that Hebrew word. Vanity is a Hebrew word that means breath. fog, vapor, mist, several other synonyms. And, therefore, the meaning as it's translated is derived from what the translators think is being communicated by those particular words. And, of course, if those words are to be translated as empty, as nothing, then, of course, vanity very much comes to the forefront. But if instead that word should be understood as transient, temporary, then that takes on a little bit different meaning. If using the concept of fog or mist, it takes on the idea of puzzling, that which is difficult to see clearly through, then that takes on yet another meaning. And I think probably all three of those ideas are employed at various times in the book and the context will help us to understand. So it is not that the idea of useless is totally absent from the book, but it's not found in every corner of the book either, as sometimes we suppose. And if we'll keep that in mind, I think that will be very helpful to us. Last week we embarked on an introduction, an overview of the entire book very briefly. And we learned, I trust, that the primary purpose of the book is to investigate the meaning of life. That is, life here in this world. Life as we know it, the human life which we have now before we go to the grave. And to discover what contributes to a meaningful life upon the earth. That second phrase, under the sun, is the emphasis upon what's on earth, what's here and now, what pertains to this life, what is under the sun. And we are therefore led by the author of this book to discover what contributes to a meaningful life here and now and also hopefully to identify what is harmful to a meaningful life here and now upon the earth. And, in all of it, as we see when we come to the end and get to the conclusion, to learn to bring every aspect of life into a God-centered focus. And that's where the author is taking us. He's not taking us by a direct route, as we're accustomed to. We want everything right now. Throw it in the microwave, give it to me in ten seconds, and let me move on to something else. But Solomon, the author of this book, guided by the Holy Spirit, did not go about it that way. And he even tells us why he didn't go about it that way. And so we are left to learn these things. So back now to chapter one. You recall that I divide chapter one into three parts. And let's give them different names than we did last Lord's Day. If this were a modern book, I think verse one would be the title page. The words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. You can just see that. Open the book and there's a title page, and that's what you find. There we learn that the author identifies himself as the preacher, but we picked up the identifying clues scattered throughout the book last Lord's Day, and I trust you came to the same conclusion I did, that there can really be no strong contender to identify the author beyond that of Solomon. All of the identifying factors point in that direction as far as I'm concerned. You might also remember that the word Ecclesiastes is basically the Latin form of the word preacher. So you've got the same thing there. What is this book? This is the book of the preacher, Ecclesiastes. The one who assembles the people together and addresses them, the preacher. And then he identifies himself by that very term, the words of the preacher. And there you've got the Hebrew word, Koheleth. And that's exactly the same thing. The preacher, the one who assembles people together. So the author is Solomon. And in this particular book, he is acting in capacity as the primary preacher to the nation of Israel. He's been given that responsibility and he takes it very seriously. The second thing we find as we turn the pages of this book, if it were in modern format, is the preface. The preface is verses 2 through 11, an opening discourse. It is a poem, a Hebrew poem, and it is in the third person, which sets it off from basically all the rest of the book. That's why we realize it is something distinct. We could call it the preface. It sets the stage for what is to follow. And here we're introduced to that concept of vanity and the concept of being under the sun. And that opening question, which is to Proudus in verse three, what prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? Now, if you see that statement under the cloud of emptiness, emptiness, all is emptiness, it sounds very bleak and pessimistic indeed. But I think more likely this is one of those goads we read about in chapter 12. Remember in verse 11 that the wise man goads us, prods us into thinking and also fastens thoughts to our minds with nails. And that evidently is what Solomon is doing. And this particular question is to prod us into thinking about the meaning of life. What indeed does a man gain from all his labor under the sun? It's a rhetorical question, it's hanging in the air, and actually it's not answered immediately. Though there are some links to it that immediately follow, but to give a clear and direct answer to that question, you're going to have to come to some statements later on in the book, and we'll look at them as we get to them. But Solomon just puts the question out there, think about this. In other words, another way of saying, what is the meaning of life? What do you hope to accomplish with your life? What are you working for? What are you striving for? What are you doing and why are you doing it? Those are important questions or an important question to consider. And that's followed by that foundational observation in verse 4 about the brevity of life. One generation passes away and another generation comes, but the Earth abides forever. On the one hand, human life is relatively brief. cycles of human life. One generation arises, another passes, arises, passes, arises, and passes. Human life is measured in decades, but on the other hand, there's the earth, and how do you measure the endurance of the earth? Well, you measure that in millennium instead of in decades, and so that's a big contrast that he then expands upon in verses 5, 6, and 7, where he gives three examples of the earth's endurance. First of all, the sun. Second, the wind. Third, water. The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south and turns around to the north and whirls about continually and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place from which the rivers came, there they return again. Now, once again, how you're going to understand those three verses depends very much on how you understand that word vanity. And if you see vanity as being emptiness and meaningless cycles, then you make a parallel here instead of a contrast. On the one hand, the life of man is just meaningless cycle after meaningless cycle. One generation rises, the other one passes, and man's humanity, the human race, just goes through endless cycles, birth, death, birth, death, birth, death, like the Earth that goes through its cycles. The sun rises and sets. The winds go on their circuits and return again and come back again and go around again. The water, likewise, it goes into the sea and returns to its source and comes back again endlessly. Or, and I think in the context and with a different understanding of the word vanity, Solomon is not talking in verses 5 through 7 about the futility of life, but the abiding nature of the earth. In contrast to man's brief existence upon the Earth, notice how the Earth itself just endures, endures, endures. It just keeps going on seemingly without end, forever, as far as our observation is concerned. The sun rises, the sun sets. Yes, it was doing that in my grandfather's time, in my great-grandfather's time, in Abraham's time, in Noah's time, in Adam's time. That's been going on. Nothing has changed. Likewise with the wind circuits. Likewise with the water cycles. Just enduringly goes on and on and on and on. Man lives a brief moment, gone. Earth goes on and on and on and the contrast is set before us for us to think about the meaning of that and how we are going to live in the light of that. Solomon goes on in chapter 1 and verse 8 to tell us that it's impossible to understand and describe Earth's mysteries. All things are full of labor. But that word things can also be translated words and I think that probably fits the context better. All words are full of labor. Man cannot express it. Express what? What he's just been talking about. The sun rises and the sun sets. But man's unable to fully comprehend that and to describe it adequately. Likewise with the wind circuits and the water cycles. We can understand that to a point, but it's also true that when it comes to the physical elements of this universe, so marvelously and intricately created by God, the more we study, the more we learn, and the more we learn, the more we understand we don't know, and it becomes impossible to fully and completely describe it. We just keep adding a little bit more to the description, and a little bit more, and a little bit more, and a little bit more, but we never get to the end of it. It's impossible to fully describe all of Earth's mysteries. Human knowledge is not capable of understanding it, and human language is not capable of describing it. And then in verses nine through 11, back to the repetitious nature of human experience, when he says, nothing really is new, And we look at that statement and we wonder, how can that be? Because new gadgets are coming out all the time. Why, it hasn't been that long ago that there was no such thing as an iPhone. And now look, we're at number seven. A lot of new things, right? Solomon was aware that new inventions come along. We find some of those described in the Old Testament. How that there are new inventions of military machinery and so forth that hadn't existed before. So Solomon is not unmindful of that. He's the king. He's aware of all of these things. But what he's talking about are ideas, philosophies, insights, understandings about life. And the truth of the matter is that all these ideas have been around before and they just endlessly cycle. Sometimes we act like in America that democracy was our idea. Did you never study Greek history? Didn't you understand that democracy is hundreds, yes, thousands of years old? That's not new. And likewise, all of the ideas and insights into life, really, if you know where to go and look to find them, you will discover before long that that's been here before, that's been here before, that's been here before, that really isn't new. Well then, why does it seem like it's new? Ah, verse 11. There is no remembrance of former things, Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who come after. What is the reason why things seem new when they really aren't? Because human beings are very poor about remembering what went before. And what we are dealing with today, the people who come after us will totally forget what we were thinking and saying. You say, well, there's some scholars that delve into that and probably can do it. Yeah, some probably do to some extent. But the bulk of human beings really just pay no attention. And something comes down the pike and, oh, isn't this great? Isn't this wonderful? Isn't this new? Isn't this a marvelous new thought? No. That was circulating 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 500 years ago, 1,000 years ago. There's nothing new. It's just because you aren't paying attention. We aren't paying attention. We aren't paying close attention to what went before. Now that brings us to the end of the, what I've called the preface and to the introduction, which is verses 12 through 18 of chapter one. And here we know there's a change because Solomon shifts from the third person to the first person. In verses 2 through 11, he's talking in terms of third person. Vanity of vanity says the preacher. All is vanity. It's almost like someone else is describing this. Someone else wrote the preface. Though in fact, I'm sure it was Solomon who wrote it, but he's writing it from the vantage point of someone else who's describing what the preacher said. But now when he comes to verse 12, he says, I, the preacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem, and I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done. He describes things in terms of first person, himself, what he said, what he did, and that's the position that he follows throughout the remainder of the book. And so now in this introduction in verses 12 through 18, which also is helping to set the foundation for our understanding of the rest of the book, what does Solomon tell us? Well, we've got the preacher's investigations in verses 12 13 and 16, and then his conclusions in verses 14 through 18. First of all, the preacher's investigations. And he begins by giving us his credentials. If we're going to pay any attention to what this particular preacher is going to tell us about life, then it might be important to know what his credentials are and why we should pay attention to what he has to say. And so he tells us, I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. Pretty hard to find someone else that fits that description, particularly when he has already told us he was the son of David. Because after Solomon, you remember, the kingdom divided. And no one was king over all of Israel after that. There were only three kings that were kings over all of Israel. Saul, David, and Solomon. So only three possibilities and only two of those were in the Davidic line, David and Solomon. So it really narrows it down if you're going to take his words at face value. But he said in verse 13, I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven. This burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised." Verse 16, "...I communed with my heart, saying, Look, I have attained greatness." Who could doubt that statement? "...and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem." Who could that be describing but Solomon? Now this is one of the phrases that some have taken to say, well it can't be Solomon because It sounds like he's talking about a long list of kings before him in Jerusalem. And of course, in the case of Solomon, there were only a few. Well, it might sound that way, but it doesn't specifically say that. But it's also possible that he's thinking not only about kings of Israel, but the kings of the Jebusites and others who went before him in Jerusalem. We don't know exactly who Solomon has in mind here, but that rather vague statement I don't think can be used to cancel out the very clear other statements. So I don't find that significant enough to move me off my confidence that Solomon is writing this. And so he says, back to verse 16, I communed with my heart saying, look, I have attained greatness and gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge. And we agree, we know and agree that Solomon had a reputation of being the wisest man who ever lived. And others came from other countries all over the world to come and to seek wisdom from Solomon. So he lays out his credentials rather briefly and not I think pretty modestly but truthfully telling us what is the case. But he also not only gives us his credentials but he gives us his task. Back to verse 13, I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven. This is what he's doing. We talked about that last Sunday. He's going to investigate all the different significant areas of life and see what they contribute to the meaning of life upon earth or what they do to sidetrack us from understanding and finding the true meaning of life upon the earth. So, I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven, a parallel phrase to under the sun. And then this, very interesting, this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised." So he tells us his task is to examine all areas of human life and to do so in spite of the enormity of the task, which he admits is a huge task and very difficult for anyone, but he also makes it clear that this is a God-given task. He's doing it not just because he was curious, but because he believes God has assigned him this task, but not just him. This is the burdensome task that God has given to everybody. And Solomon, therefore, sees himself as a leader to lead all men and women into this God-given task of investigating the various areas of life in order to arrive at a proper conclusion of what is meaningful in life and what is detrimental to the meaning of life. In other words, among other things, it's a God-given task for us to study this troubling, difficult, puzzling, and burdensome book of Ecclesiastes and not to pass it off because it is so difficult. So what? God gave us the task to study it. So, put your head to the wind and shoulder forward, plow through, stay with us. Yes, there are some difficult things, but that's what God has given us to do. Now his conclusion is given in the final verses of chapter 1 verses 14 through 18. He tells us in verse 14 everything is vanity. Again what does that mean? Everything is futile, everything is useless or is he saying everything is transient, it's very temporary as far as human life is concerned and puzzling It's mysterious to us in so many aspects. We really can't understand it all and get to the bottom of it all. And of little substance. Not no substance, but little substance. Everything in some respects is like grasping after wind. So there's not a lot of substance there, but there is some and we need to find what it is. Furthermore, he tells us in verse 15 that life is filled with disappointments and questions. What is crooked cannot be made straight. What is lacking cannot be numbered. We really need to understand this. What Solomon is telling us is this, there are a lot of things wrong with life. A lot of things wrong with life as we know it, on earth, under the sun, now, as it exists. I think there are indications in this book that Solomon is fully aware that the world as it now exists is not the way that it was created and that we are laboring under the curse of God because of Adam's sin in the garden and he's taking all of that into account and in that condition Earth has many, many questions and puzzling things that it is impossible to answer and it is impossible to fix. You say, that's pretty pessimistic, but it's a truth. And the reason is because man as a sinner is not capable of fixing it. I don't know that if these things were wrong with earth before Adam sinned, which they weren't, if Adam would have been capable of fixing them, really only God's capable of fixing them. And that's one of the conclusions he's driving us to. When you are too dependent, too enamored with man's ability, man's wisdom to fix everything that's wrong, then you are going to be continually frustrated because it can't happen, it won't happen, it's impossible. Can I step outside my pulpit for a second and make a political application here? This is why liberals are going to always be frustrated because they think it's their task in life to fix everything. And it can't be done. I saw one yesterday with their t-shirt, save the planet, save the planet. Sorry, you can't do it. Only God can. Eliminate poverty. Sorry, you can't do it. Only God can. The poor are with you always. Eliminate all diseases. Sorry, you can't do it. God brought that with the curse. That's not to say we shouldn't work on these things. We shouldn't be mindful of these things and try to help people in these things. Of course we should. Of course we should. And we're thankful for all of the advances in modern medicine that are able to cure diseases that in generations gone by were incurable. Thank God for that. a thankful recipient of much of that modern medicine. I should have been dead years ago, as many of you know, but God in his mercy used modern medicine to keep me alive. But it's also true that as soon as we cure, find a cure for something, something new comes along and here we go again. When are we going to get to the end of it? When Jesus comes. But not until. Now if you don't understand that reality, you're in trouble. You are going to wear yourself out trying to fix everything. That's unfixable. You don't even understand truly what's wrong with many things, and you are certain that there is potential, that with human wisdom, education, knowledge, and understanding, we're smart enough to figure this out and fix it. Wrong! You're not! And that's one of the reasons that this book is given, to show us that, to remind us that. What is crooked cannot be made straight. And the things that are lacking can't be numbered. There's so many of them that who can number them? Kind of like the stars of heaven. Who can number all the stars of heaven? All the things that are wrong in this world, who can even count them, let alone fix them? Life is filled with disappointments and questions. But then the final verses of this chapter tell us that human wisdom and knowledge are ultimately disappointing. Verse 17, I set my heart to know wisdom. We already know he did that, he told us. And to know madness and folly. He decided at some point in his investigation to contrast these two. All right, I've been given wisdom by God. It's my ability and responsibility to explore human wisdom and knowledge as far as it's possible for a man to explore it. And evidently, he had the ability to explore it farther than anybody else. And I've come to the conclusion that it's lacking, that there isn't enough wisdom and knowledge in man anywhere to make everything crooked straight and to even count up all the things that are wrong. So I thought then I would contrast wisdom with folly. And he said, I came to an interesting conclusion. I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. You don't get much more, and here's the point, You don't get much more satisfaction out of life by attaining great wisdom than you do in just ignoring it and living like a fool. Now that's a jarring thought. Solomon is not saying that wisdom is not better than folly because he goes on later to say that it is and that's one of those statements that seems to be contradictory. Here he seems to say there's no difference and later he says oh there's a lot of difference. But as far as its ability to bring meaning and satisfaction to life, sorry, human wisdom isn't any better at it than human folly. And he goes on and gives us one of the reasons why this is so in the final verse. when he tells us, because increased wisdom produces increased grief and pain. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. The more you know, the more you become frustrated with what's wrong, with more things that you now know about that you didn't know about before. Sometimes it's just a whole lot more peaceful in life to know nothing. You're not disturbed by as many things if you don't know as many things. So, even though folly, lack of wisdom, is not recommended and preferable, please understand that there are some advantages to it. It sure makes life simpler. And the more you know, the more burdened you become and the more frustrated you become. A lot of young people who start out with the ideal that I'm going to increase my knowledge and understand everything. I was talking to Felipe last night. He's a sophomore. I said, do you remember what a sophomore is? No, he didn't know. A sophomore means a wise fool. That's what a lot of young people are. They're wise fools. They think they know more than they do. And they start out, and they've got all the answers, and they're going to solve all the problems. And then talk to them again when they're 65, 70 years of age, and you'll find out. Now they know more than they did then, but their confidence in what is achievable with all that knowledge has gone down to about zero. Yep, I know a lot. And frankly, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans. You say, well that's pretty pessimistic. Yep. And ought to be until you are willing to let divine revelation guide and inform all of your human knowledge. And if you're not willing to do that, yep, it is pretty Futile. It's pretty pessimistic. It's pretty empty. It amounts to a whole lot of nothing. Spend your whole life learning, learning, learning, learning, and gain the reputation of being somebody who's a really smart person, well-educated, knowledgeable. And as far as the satisfaction that brings you in life, you'll find out eventually, not early on, but you'll find out eventually, that really amounts to a whole lot of nothing. Now let's pick up a few more memorable statements out of chapter 1. I first would like to touch lightly on the scientifically insightful statements back to the cycles of sun and wind and water in verses 5, 6, and 7. I'm going to skip the sun for the moment, except just to say that this description of the sun rising and setting, hastening to the place where it rises again, is obviously not a scientific description, but it's not scientifically inaccurate, or maybe I should put it this way, we can hardly charge it with being wrong because that's the way all of us talk. We all talk about beautiful sunrises and beautiful sunsets, even though we know full well that that's not really what's happening. Have you ever gone out in the evening and said, oh, what a glorious earth rotation? Okay, enough said. Now we move on to the wind circuits. It strikes me that this is pretty insightful for someone who lived a thousand years before Christ, back when they weren't supposed to know anything about science and the operations of the earth, and Solomon describes wind cycles, wind circuits, as well as we could describe them today. The wind goes toward the south, turns around to the north, the wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. Well, I don't know who first scientifically described that, but that would have to be within the last couple hundred years, I'm sure, at best. And here's Solomon describing that 3,000 years ago. It's not a detailed technical description, but it's scientifically accurate. How did he know that? How did he know that the winds go in circuits like that? And then the next one is even clearer, the water cycles. All the rivers run to the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place from which the rivers came, there they return again." That sounds an awful lot like our understanding of the water cycles, where the water evaporates, turns into vapor, rises through the atmosphere, comes back to the source, falls as rain replenishes the streams and the rivers and runs to the sea again. And that's why even though the rivers are continually running into the sea, they don't get fuller. They don't. And again, who first described that scientifically and technically? And when was that? I'm sure that's only been in the last couple hundred years at best. And yet here's Solomon describing it 3,000 years ago, and though it's not a technical, scientific description, it's part of his poem, a poetic description, but it is exactly accurate, and it's hard to understand. How could he know that? But he did. And then we remember, but of course Solomon, in writing this, was guided by the Spirit of God. We don't have any difficulty understanding how God knew this. He made it. But isn't that amazing? Scientifically insightful statements. Philosophically insightful statements in verses 9 through 11. This idea of nothing new. Let's go back to that again. That which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done. There's nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, see this is new? It has already been in ancient times before us. There's no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. Old ideas, insights into life, and philosophies are not new. They seem new only because we forget, because we fail to study, because some of us don't even like to study history. That's the only way you're going to know these things have been around before. Though Solomon doesn't say it in so many words, I think he's saying you ought to study history. You can't really understand the present if you're not willing to understand the past. The reason why people are deceived by what they think are new things is because they're unwilling to do the hard work. That seems so dry and boring and tedious and dull and had to do with people of a former generation and what do I care? Okay. Be ignorant. But you really shouldn't be. Because God has given us the task of studying and investigating these things. I can't tell you how many times when I've been studying things that pertain to church history that I've said, oh, you mean people were wrestling with that doctrine clear back then? I thought that was just something in our day. Nope. Been through it before. It's not new. You say, where did all this Calvinism stuff come from? Well, you can go way back in history. I was just reading a statement by Augustine. this morning or yesterday. I think it was this morning. It came from my friend Brent Sechrist from Richwood, West Virginia, who sends out a communication every Sunday. It's got good quotations on it. He had one there by Augustine. It was about the will of man and how the will of man It seems like it's free because he's free to make decisions, but what we don't understand is that his decisions are always linked to his inclinations, his heart. I can't remember exactly what the statement was, but that goes back to Augustine, back to the 300s. This isn't new. These debates aren't new. These ideas aren't new. They've been before. I don't want to study Augustine. What else? A spiritually insightful statement, verse 13. And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man by which they may be exercised. I already pointed out that Solomon considered it was his God-given task to study these matters and tells us that that God-given task is given to all of us, not just to him. But please note this about it. God knows it's good for people to struggle with hard questions. What is the inclination that we have to, don't give me anything hard, don't give me anything that makes me think, just give me something that makes me feel good, that moves my emotions. I don't really want to think hard. You know what that is? That's sinful mental sloth. I'm sorry, but that's what it is. God has given us the task of wrestling with hard issues and it's good for us to do it. That's part of God's plan for our growing in grace and knowledge. What are some of the abiding lessons that we should take away from this chapter? First of all, let me say some things about scripture. Since this book is so puzzling, and some even wonder could that possibly be an inspired book in the Bible, and yet the Bible tells us that all scripture, all 66 books, are given by inspiration of God and are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. But we need to understand something basic about inspiration. Inspiration certifies the accuracy of the statements that are included in the Bible but not necessarily the truth of the things stated. There's some things in the book of Ecclesiastes as in other parts of the Bible that are not true but the statement is accurately reported. There's where the accuracy and inspiration comes in. As for example when you read I think in the book of Psalms, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. Is the Bible saying there is no God? No. But the Bible is saying there are a lot of fools who have said that. And the Bible is telling us anybody who says that is a fool. That's what's true. The statement itself is entirely false. The biblical record of the statement is entirely accurate and it's there to teach us something. And so are these difficult statements in Ecclesiastes. Is everything that Solomon says in Ecclesiastes divine truth? No. Some of it is human folly put out there to make us think and then to be corrected later when we come to the conclusion of the book. But these are accurate descriptions of the way that men erroneously think. Another thing that we shouldn't understand about scripture is the need for accurate translations. And that is just to remind you that this translation of the Hebrew word that in our English is vanity can be misleading. Now most of the translations render it the same way, I must say. But oftentimes there are words in the scripture that are translated different ways in different translations and that's very helpful. And there's great value in comparing different solid translations and you need to know which are the most accurate ones. Don't fall into the trap that some people have foolishly fallen into, of picking one English translation and saying, that's the only good one, that's the only inspired one. The Bible doesn't claim inspiration for the translations. The Bible claims inspiration for the originals. We don't have the originals yet, but we have an incredible, an incredible, an incredible wealth of testimony pointing to the originals. And we in English have an incredible wealth of translations available to us. And again, do the hard work of making comparisons. It will help you in your study of scripture. And that brings me to the lesson about study and just simply to say that the process of study is beneficial, but the results are mixed. That's what Solomon tells us here. We need to study, we ought to study, we need to wrestle with things, but you aren't going to always arrive at the right conclusion. You may come to a dead end in your studies. So the result of studying is mixed. Its value depends upon what? receiving divine revelation to shed light upon your human studies. But the more you understand humanly, the better you can understand the divine revelation that is given. They go together and it requires study. But my final lesson is about the folly of neglecting God. It's foolish to neglect God in our studies. It leads to frustration. It's foolish to neglect God in all of life's endeavors, and that's really what Solomon is telling us in his book of Ecclesiastes. If you live life without God, you're going to come to frustration and a dead end. It may seem very promising. It will seem very promising at some point. because our sinful hearts and minds deceive us. And we have a lot of things around us that are not based upon God's truth that will deceive us and will hold out allurements to us. And you start going down some of those roads and you think this is going to fulfill you and make you happy, but listen to Solomon, listen to the word of God, just save yourself a lot of trouble and heartache. Just make a shortcut to where you need to go and start right now in your youth Ecclesiastes 12.1, in the days of your youth, start right now to include God at the center of everything you endeavor to do, everything that you endeavor to study, put God at the center, His revelation as the highest pinnacle of all of that, and then all of life will fall into place beautifully, and you will find that it does have meaning, but it's not the ultimate meaning because It's life above the sun that is the ultimate goal and the ultimate meaning. And that, by the saving grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ and by our acknowledgement of our sin and guilt and our going to Him in faith, that's where we want to go, that's where we are going. And if that's not where you are, then you need to come to Christ. Shall we pray? Father, Help us as we study this admittedly difficult book. Guide us by your spirit. Help us to wrestle through the difficulties. Help us to be willing to do the hard work. Help us to be able to think properly and to gain beneficially what you have wisely chosen to include in this book for the good of your people. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.