Ecclesiastes 1-2, What’s the Use?

Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and 2 Hear the word of the Lord The words of the preacher the son of David King in Jerusalem Vanity of vanities says the preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity

What does a man gain by the toil at which he toils under the Sun? Generation goes and generation comes but the earth remains forever

The Sun rises and the Sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north around and around goes the wind

And on its circuits the wind returns all streams run to the sea But the sea is not full to the place where the streams flow where they flow again

All things are full of weariness a man cannot utter it The eye is not satisfied with seeing or the ear filled with hearing

What has been is what will be and what has been done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the sun

Is there a thing of which it is said see this is new It has been already in the ages long before us

There is no remembrance of former things Nor will there be any remembrance of latter things yet to be among those who come after I the preacher have been king over israel in jerusalem and I applied my heart to seek

And to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven It is an unhappy business that god has given to the children of man to be busy with I've seen everything that is done under the sun and behold all is vanity and is striving after wind

What is crooked cannot be made straight what is Lacking cannot be counted

I said in my heart I have acquired great wisdom surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge and I applied my heart

To know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind

For much wisdom is much fixation And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow

I said in my heart come now. I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself But behold this also is vanity.

I said of laughter. It is mad and a pleasure. What use is it? I've searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine my heart still guiding me with wisdom

And how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do Under heaven during the few days of their life.

I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself I made myself gardens and parks and planted in in them all kinds of fruit trees

I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house

I had also great possessions of herds and flocks more than all who had been before me in jerusalem

I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces I got singers both men and women and many concubines the delight of the children of man

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in jerusalem Also, my wisdom remained with me

And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep From them. I kept my heart from no pleasure for my heart found pleasure in all my toil

And this was my reward for all my toil Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil

I had expended in doing it and behold All was vanity and a striving after wind

And there was nothing to be gained under the sun So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly

For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done

Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly as there is more gain in light than in darkness

The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness And yet I perceive that the same event happens to all of them

Then I said in my heart what happens to the fool will happen to me Also Why then have

I been so very wise? And I said in my heart that this also is vanity

For of the wise is of the fool. There is no enduring Remembrance saying that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten

How the wise dies just like the fool So I hated life Because what is done under the sun was grievous to me

For all is vanity And a striving after wind I hated all my toil in which

I toil under the sun saying that I must leave it to the man who will come after me And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool

Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun This also is vanity

So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun

Because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil

For it this also is vanity and a great evil What is a man? From all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun

For all his days are full of sorrow and his work is a vexation Even in the night his heart does not rest

This also is vanity There is nothing better for a person than he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil

This also I saw is from the hand of god for apart from him Who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

For to the one who pleases him god gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to the sinner

He has given the business of gathering and collecting only to give to one who pleases god. This also is vanity

And a striving after wind May the lord have his blessings to the reading of his holy word

Well, are you a driven person I bet you are what other kind of people go to a gym and sing psalms and listen to long sermons on the bible

And if you just wanted to play church, you'd go to a decent looking sanctuary and you'd sing your old favorites

Or maybe the newest hits And you'd hear a peppy brief motivational speech and be home early

Driven people they're focused. They're ambitious. They're determined. They're intense.

They're not wanting to waste a second Singapore is full of driven people always on the go filling the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run

And singapore escalators aren't just for riding for example, you know, they're for making your stair climbing faster

Many people walk up the escalator as it's moving there Escalators even have a yellow line right down the middle of it for those lazy people

They got some lazy people in singapore for the lazy ones who stand and ride and they on the right side And we escalator walkers notice.

I say we we escalator walkers passing on the left And that one way that one way

I fit into singapore pretty well Well, I may be the only westerner ever to tell a singaporean to move

As he was standing in the middle of the escalator as I was trying to get walking up move

Life's too short just to ride the escalator. Well, some of you have succeeded in business because you're driven people

You might have come from china incurring debt to get here Maybe then another debt to buy or open a restaurant and then you resolved

To pay off that debt and then help support people back home your family there Driven by the weight that it is all on you and so you work 14 hours a day seven days a week

No days off other than maybe thanksgiving once a year because no one goes out to restaurants on thanksgiving

Now understand most of us here sunday's a day off anyway So no sacrifice in coming to church on sunday for at least a couple others here

Three others their business can be open on sunday. They own it themselves So being here closing down or having to have somebody else to work.

It's a sacrifice for them Understand because normally they just work work and work or work because they got to make money

But they don't well, but that's that's their life. This is just work. There's no vacations There's nothing but work for years.

I'm not talking about a couple years. I'm done but decades living simply It takes drive and discipline a will of steel all with the hope that one day

You'll be able to afford something better That the debts will be paid off the family back home will be taken care of and maybe

You haven't missed too much of your kids lives So that eventually you'll be able to relax and you'll get a nice house and see your kids succeed

You're driven There's good news for driven people and ecclesiastes You can relax now

Enjoy life Enjoy now 20 years ago I was depressed

I was 37 years old living in a nice home in kentucky Just a couple of months earlier. I thought

I was set for the life I had been working hard so hard for I was the type of guy who told singaporeans to move

I bulldozed my way through a phd program while while working walking outside in 30 degree below weather in chicago

Writing academic papers hunched over in my car at 3 a .m I had arrived finally

I thought To where everything i've been working for to get it a church academics success

But it all turned to nothing And so I sat in the recliner staring out the window

Staring at nothing really with a tv on but not really watching A freezer full of ice cream, which

I didn't eat because I didn't care and I thought What's the use

There's good news For depressed people and ecclesiastes first You're right

What is the use? But you might as well enjoy yourself Ecclesiastes is perhaps the strangest book in the bible stranger than the song of solomon, which is not an allegory

Even stranger than revelation with beasts coming out of the sea with tin heads and seven horns, which is an allegory

Ecclesiastes is the only book in the bible in which a fundamentalist Graduate of bob jones university who would swear he believes in the inerrancy of scripture would say

I don't like that book It's worldly that literally happened I guess i'm more fundamentalist than the fundamentalist because I believe even ecclesiastes is inspired and indeed

That ecclesiastes is in the bible is proof of the inspiration of the bible that god put the bible together

Not just a bunch of religious people because religious people would never have considered ecclesiastes For a book they put together they had a committee of religious people

We're going to put together a bible and you send an ecclesiastes here. Here's my submission consider this for your bible

Hey, look at that. Sorry. No way Go away. We don't want this not for our book Thankfully god did include it.

I love ecclesiastes because it's good news for driven people like me good news for people Like me or you so driven you walk up escalators

People are so sure that you can make something of yourself make a name a career a fortune a family

People like me who might be driven to despair when finally you stare out the window and you realize you've made nothing

There's good news for you When you realize that I think my usual way of preaching is not right for ecclesiastes.

This is a fit standing behind the puppet like this formal and focused

Like a laser beam getting the message across the message of the passage across to you intense driven

Kind of the mood of my usual style It's unfit ecclesiastes Does it you know,

I should be Even consider this I should be sitting down here on the platform On the edge of the platform kind of looking out sideways

Toward the wall over there. You're not even looking your eye. That's too intense leaning back against the pulpit legs crossed

There's a cup of something tasty in one hand and a cigarette in the other I don't smoke.

I never have You know, it's bad for your health after all, but I got a feeling what the preacher would say He'd say well if you like it, don't worry about it.

You're gonna die. Anyway, might as well. Enjoy yourself I'm, probably not the best one to speak on ecclesiastes

I should be able to sit back the bible in my lap blowing smoke in between saying dude

It's all meaningless. Anyway, chill That didn't come naturally to me which is why

I need ecclesiastes Well here we see the good news for driven or depressed people

What's the use they think when life doesn't turn out? Like they think

We see that here in five parts first facts second philosophy third fun fourth forgotten and finally futility and oh the joy of alliteration

First the facts what's the facts you driven or depressed people? The preacher tells us the hebrew word comes from the preacher here translated comes from the word for assembly or gathering

It means the one over in assembly the assembler The preacher the teacher the speaker maybe the president it could be perhaps the professor

He says he's the son of david king in jerusalem. He's the philosopher king the wise man

And he's going to tell us the facts the facts are Vanity of vanities

The word literally means vapor It's like a puff of wind, you know, like that mist stuff comes from vaping

Right, you've seen that it kind of disappears You see it for a few seconds just dissipates everything under the sun

Is like that except it gets worse It's not just vapor It's vapor of vapor if vapor

Could produce vapor Well, that's it If the whole universe were vapor

And in that vapor universe There was his own vapor That's what everything is like under the sun

And notice under the sun. That's the qualifier A specifying of what exactly?

Is vapor what's vanity? What's meaningless? What's empty? What's unsubstantial? What's useless not everything but everything under the sun

What is under the sun is the world we can see that we can Observe the horizons of this world the things we look at we hear we touch we taste

The work we can do the things we can achieve with our bodies our minds. That's the stuff

That is vanity this vapor It's meaningless It's for nothing Of course for most people that's their whole lives

They live constantly for what is under the sun and so for them Yes, everything is meaningless and they don't know it and if they find out without god's word

They're going to be very depressed They're going to start staring out the window and thinking

What's the use? The fact is that under the sun you're getting nowhere 16 tons and what do you get another day older and deeper in debt?

What's the gain if you work for 14 hours a day seven days a week for years to make a life for you? and for your family

And your family doesn't care I know a couple who did that who worked those long hours

Even kept the kids out of church so that they could work on sunday for them keep the business open Who grew a successful business were able to branch out to two restaurants?

They were then after a while. They acquired enough money able to buy a nice house near a golf course And at least one daughter grows up and goes away and never wants to visit again

What did the man gain from all his toil verse three gain It means profit you end up with more than you began with your work has gained you this

Something you can point to a house a bank account a car a family

Under the sun in this life people think that they gained if they end up with more money than and more stuff

Than they started with then they were raised with he who dies with the most toys wins, right? That's what they think

Except they don't really think at all Or they'd see that here under the sun. No one gains because everyone ends up with exactly what they came with Nothing hearses don't pull u -hauls after all no trailers pulling their stuff up to heaven when they're done

You can't transfer money to the dead I mean the chinese try

It doesn't work They even have this paper money stuff and they have this idea that if you in a funeral you burn it

It somehow gets transferred to the dead. Of course, it doesn't work This it goes nowhere

At mary's father's funeral back like I think in 92 around that time They stack to this paper money stuff, right stacked up there ready ready and they're gonna burn it and it's supposed to go to him

Wherever he is so he can spend it. Of course, it's fake stuff some printer prints out they buy it

But it's supposed to be transferred and somehow it becomes real money over there I think if it's burned if it's fake here, it's gonna be fake over there, even if it gets there

Anyway, i'm looking at this stuff. I guess she's my sister -in -law, too She's mary's brother's wife

Comes up to me and and she says yeah, we burn this With the father so he'll get the money, you know, normally at a funeral.

I would try to be respectful To what are the beliefs of the people but i'm figuring i'm dressing black just like she is i'm just as much a relative

To the deceased as she is and so I just say it doesn't go anywhere. It just burns up Come smoke vapor nothing

You can't transfer money to the dead so we all end up as empty -handed as when we started so What's the use?

Generation goes and new generation comes but the earth remains forever At least it lasts for this age and will outlast all of us

The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises same old same old

The fact is that nothing is changing the wind blows around the water flows into the oceans. It evaporates falls as rain

Circulates again. Everything is going around and around like a merry -go -round. It's getting nowhere like a treadmill

When I ran I hated treadmills. I hate the feeling of exerting yourself But then getting nowhere you just literally you are getting nowhere, but I realized hey

You know if I if I ran my usual course out through the roads Turned left out of my driveway went for six miles my usual course.

I ended up back at my driveway I hadn't gotten anywhere now an optimist would say but you got in shape

Yeah for a while, then I stopped running and I got chubby again all things are Full of weariness he says in verse 8

A man cannot utter it You can't describe how tiresome life is under the sun how it drains you

So that you eventually just shrug your shoulders and mutter What's the use? The fact is we're never satisfied again in verse 8 the eye is not satisfied with seeing or the ear with hearing

You know, you never watch a movie. This is so good I mean that movie is so excellent.

You know, you'll never see a better one. And so you're satisfied I'll never need to see another movie again You never hear a song.

It's just so fulfilling That you're happy. I never need to hear another song again It's addiction

And now with our phones we can feed that addiction all the time constantly staring down Sometimes people walking around looking at their phones looking at something listening

To something and we never have enough of it and we never learn that we'll never have enough of it

The fact is that we're not really going anywhere under the sun in verse 9 What has been is what will be and what has been done is what will be done

The more things change the more they stay the same in verse 10. Is there anything that is really new?

Ah, we might say, you know living in this age of rapid innovation. Well, the iphone is new. Yeah, this is new in it

The internet's new Maybe but what we do with it is the same nonsense looking at cat videos ranting about politics somebody else

Porn Archaeologists have you know, they dig up pornographic engravings from pompeii or from the canaanites

And our with our smartphones We're conveying the same content nothing's changed same song different verse

It has been already in ages before in verse 10 Maybe well

I'll make a difference I'll write a book or a song or build a building or give the money or be the parent who will be remembered

But how many people do you know from the past? Do you even know your own great -grandparents?

How many of your eight Great grandparents. Can you name and if you're one of those few let's we take out up another great until you start to forget

What makes you think your great -grandchildren will remember you? I don't mean to depress you

Those are just the facts Well next is philosophy starting verse 12

The facts are that everything under the sun is nothing that is going nowhere and try as hard as you can

You won't change that You'll be forgotten just like you forgot your ancestors just like you forgot your great -grandparents

You might think then well, that's brutal But those are the facts what I can do though Is understand it?

I can be Philosophical I could be wise And so with my philosophy

I can transcend the the meaninglessness the vaporness

Of the world By understanding it I can rise above it you might think

Ecclesiastes is after all wisdom literature and you go to wisdom literature like job and proverbs ecclesiastes here to overcome

The illusions of this world to understand and so starting in verse 12

Be a philosopher Now you may think well, I don't have time. I got so much work to do

But a king does he has the time a philosopher came in verse 13 the philosopher

Applied his heart To get wisdom seek and search out. He says he sought he searched out strenuously

He's laboring at wisdom like some of you have labored at the restaurant business He's going to succeed in overcoming the dreariness of life under the sun

He's going to understand it You know where wisdom got him Tells us right here verse 13

It's an unhappy business This life merely under the sun is depressing It makes you want to give up in the matter

What's the use? Crawl in a hole You look at everything in this life business academics sports society

Whatever it is relationships behold in verse 14 look at the fact it's vain it's a vapor it's like chasing the wind

You'll never catch it. And even if you did you've caught nothing He declares in verse 16 i've acquired great wisdom surpassing all who were over me

Over jerusalem before me and my heart has had great experiences of wisdom and knowledge

He had the wisdom and in verse 17 he applied his heart and his mind he worked hard at it To perceive what's going on in the world what life's about under the sun.

What is it? Like what's his conclusion after all his philosophy and straining to understand it's like chasing wind

For in verse 18 In other words because he's explaining why even wisdom under the sun is wind chasing because in much wisdom

That is much keen understanding of the world Is much vexation?

much grief much irritation much anger much sorrow

Because now you see How many people are wasting their lives? on nonsense

Living for things that are nothing heading toward nothingness Your insight into it

Doesn't change it it just makes you sad you stare out the window and you think

What's the use third Let's try some fun starting in chapter 2 philosophy didn't work

It didn't help us make it something meaningful out of this life under the sun. So might as well have fun So let's try every kind of fun.

There is in chapter 2 verses 1 to 11 first laugh Go to some comedy club or you can stay home and stream jim gaffigan now, he's hilarious

Still in verse 2 it's ridiculous in both senses of the word Let's drink then

So have all the best wine or maybe beer or liquor if that's your thing If you still have wisdom and don't get fooled by the intoxication you'll realize

That didn't turn out to be anything How about just fooling around? Folly he calls it in verse 3 video games laser tag paintball go karts bowling

How about roll a large ball with some little? Holes drilled into it for your fingers down a narrow wooden floor to knock over some wooden things

I don't know why they call them pins. They don't pin anything Wooden things knock them down and then set them back up again and knock them down again and do that over and over roller skating going in circles with wheels on your shoes axe throwing

Tubing a rafting down a river ziplines skiing paragliding

Surfing amusement parks with roller coasters Bolling that's what I got a gym for cards mahjong wordle

Pool, we got a pool table out here ping pong Back right back there, whatever There's nothing wrong with all that stuff

You're not sinning by doing them But what do you think they'll be worth in the end

No, that didn't do it. What about instead of wasting my time on all that stuff? I grow up and I make something something big the fun of accomplishment

Most of us don't have the resources to make great works in verse 4 because most of us aren't kings here And so we think if only

I had billions of dollars, then I could have a meaningful life That's the only thing between me and meaningful life is those billions of dollars

I could build mansions like the biltmore the breakers the hearst castle tara xanadu Maybe don't be so selfish not just to build something for yourself

Have a building built at your alma mater and have your name on it Carpenter hall right there in the middle of samford university.

Wouldn't that be great? That doesn't work. Maybe resorts in verse 5 gardens and parks irrigating pools

Congratulate yourself that you're good for the environment Still not working Maybe be a business giant a tycoon oligarch

With employees depending on you for their livelihood verse 7. I got mouths to food feed you tell people

Your life isn't for nothing because others lives depend on you we can tell you somebody because of all the checks you sign and your vast possessions warehouses full of stuff managers to keep inventory

Not just a restaurant, but you're the ceo of a worldwide chain china dragon first taste great wall international

Incorporated with thousands of franchises all over the world you take in your private jet to them all over the world bigger than mcdonald's

You'd be somebody big then wouldn't you? Maybe you just want cash

A huge bank account in verse 8 like elon musk who just this past week Sold 7 billion dollars in stock so he'd have the cash on hand to buy twitter

Wouldn't you like to have 7 billion dollars of cash on hand write a check for 7 billion dollars if you need to? Don't like social media.

We'll just buy twitter or facebook or whatever. You've caught the wind then haven't you? Well, maybe it's entertainment that you need

You know rush limbaugh once hired elton john for 1 million dollars to play at his wedding reception

Of course, what do men like? What is the delight of the sons and literally specifically sons at the end of verse 8 unlike the esv?

I read here not the generic children the sons. What is the light of the sons of men?

In other words, what do men what? Literally in hebrew at the end of verse 8. It's a concubine and concubines

Girls girls girls. Ah now we're talking fun And so you're having all the fun in the world

You're somebody big Whatever you want you can have in verse 10, whatever my eyes desired.

I did not keep from them You even enjoyed your work love your job and you'll never work a day in your life was your philosophy

And then you sit back in your recliner With your concubines waiting on you hand and foot your freezer stock full of haagen -dazs elton john playing for you personally and you stare out the window and think

What's the use verse 11 behold Look at all this

For all that money all that work all those good times still

All was vanity vapor And a striving after wind

And there was nothing To be gained under the sun fourth part

Forgotten So starting in chapter 2 verse 12 because fun doesn't work consider wisdom madness and folly

Which is better? To be to be wise or to be foolish You won't be able to outdo this philosopher king for wisdom

You won't have the wisdom that he has and you won't be able to have the vast experiences that he had

So what's the conclusion? tell us philosopher king In verse 13, it's better to be wise than foolish

Just like it's better to be able To be in the light than in the dark If you're wise

Like if you're in the light You can see what's happening. You can see where you're going The wise can see he has eyes in his head.

He says in verse 14. Well, the fool is stumbling in the darkness Can't figure out why you're smoking at least a lung cancer or you know this kind of stuff

But but seeing so the wise still isn't able to avoid death It's not like being able to see he's able then to dodge that ditch of death and he'd never fall in Maybe he can live a little longer

Maybe he can live a little more comfortably He sees what makes life easier He sees that smoking is dangerous.

The drunkenness destroys the liver and probably the family And if he or she has to while young wants to have a comfortable old age provide for the kids

To live a better life. He or she will have to hunker down and work 14 hours a day every day Hopefully making time for church for years

Maybe a couple decades Sure, that's wisdom But what's the gain in the end?

And understand the end isn't retirement In a nice house. That's not the end The end is the grave and when you go there you'll have exactly what you started with when you came out of the womb

No game You'll have exactly what the fool ends with who smoked and drank too much and didn't study and didn't work hard And you end just like him

And so if you're wise you'll say to yourself is at the end of verse 15. This also

Is vanity It's a vapor It's nothing Indeed, you'll be forgotten

Like most of you if you've forgotten your great grandparents Maybe a name on a genealogy somewhere

But you don't really know them Now chinese try to beat this with ancestor veneration I've seen and been in their temples with hundreds or thousands of photos of ancestors on this altar

And people come and they kneel there before it and they offer their jaw sticks, but it doesn't work even for them

It doesn't go back the remembrance of their ancestors. Let's go back more than a few generations Then even in ancestor worship that the people are forgotten

Even if there's maybe there's names recorded somewhere. No one who knows who these names are anymore So whether you're wise or you're foolish, you'll be forgotten

No enduring remembrance in verse 16. Maybe at best You'll be a name on someone's genealogy and so everything you work for you sacrifice for every hour of it under the sun will be

Will be for nothing And if you have any wisdom You'll hate that It's grievous

It causes grief. It causes you to stare out the window depressed thinking. What's the use?

Again in verse 17 It's all vain vapor -like Like chasing wind final part

Futility you're wise so you can see where all this ends up starting verse 18

Do you know what that does to you? Being able to see If you're blind, you don't know you're heading into a ditch ignorance is bliss

They say but if you're wise you're not ignorant and so you don't have bliss I hated all my toil in which

I toiled under the sun All that hard work all those long days

All that miss sleep that time when you could have been relaxing you've been watching your favorite shows

Instead you drove yourself for For what? You'll learn a bunch of stuff

And you'll leave to someone Who might be wise like you or might be foolish he or she will be the owner of it all this also in verse 19 is

Vanity it's futile The futility of it all leads to despair in verse 20

To sitting in a recliner with the tv on but you're not watching staring out the window So empty of all enjoyment that even the ice cream you normally love doesn't interest you you think

I work so hard I'll leave it to people Who didn't work for it and who don't care about me?

this also Is vanity in verse 21 And a great evil

What are you going to get for all your hard work? Your 14 hour days years without a vacation penny pinching

You're striving of heart Anxiety and stress you put yourself through in verse 22

You're depriving yourself full of sorrow your work is a burden even at night you toss and turn Because you're worried about money you're worried about the business about the government shutting you down the health inspection

Your family back home you miss meals and birthdays and holidays and weddings and funerals for what?

You think in your depression What's the use? It's all futile

Well, there's good news for depressed people and ecclesiastes You're right

Everything under the sun is futile. That should be some consolation that you're right If you're depressed

But you might as well in verse 24 eat and enjoy your work eat and drink. Enjoy yourself

Enjoy your rest. Enjoy your fun when you can have it this also

Also notice that that is the might as well enjoy yourself attitude and the futility both

Is from the hand of god The bondage to futility that this world Under the sun is in We saw remember that romans chapter 8 verse 20 is from the hand of god

Creation what's under the sun was subject to futility because god reached down and subjected it

So if you're wise You'd know that all your work Is futile like chasing wind

So what then? Don't work Just give up Sit in that recliner stare out the window

Nah You might as well work and play And enjoy yourself.

Enjoy your job and your treats I mean what good is it to stare out a window and Not eat your ice cream

What good is that? There's good news for driven people and ecclesiastes You can relax

God Subjected everything under the sun to futility in hope that you'd start looking for what is not under the sun

God is not under the sun And apart from him in verse 25

You can't eat or enjoy anything so Stop being apart from him

Please god By not living just for what's under the sun

Get wisdom and knowledge and joy in verse 26

Get a life that's not just a vapor. It's not just chasing after wind Everything under the sun is in bondage to futility so What's the use?

The use Of putting everything in bondage to futility was so that you would stop living

Just for what's under the sun And have the freedom of the glory of the children of god through jesus christ