Ecclesiastes 2:11, “Then I looked on all the works that my
hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had labored to do: and, behold, all
was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”
This is what I call the “I” chapter of the
Bible. Solomon uses the personal pronoun
“I” some 34 times in this one chapter alone.
A quick overview of Solomon’s “I” reveals his
self-centeredness. I said, I sought, I
made, I got, I gathered, I was great; but then he comes to verse 11, “Then I
looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had
laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there
was no profit under the sun.”
There is no joy or peace in “I.” Only what’s done for Christ will last.
Our Daily Bread records the following:
“Tennis star Boris Becker was at the very top of the tennis world – yet he was
on the brink of suicide. He said, ‘I had
won
“Becker is not the only one to feel that sense of
emptiness. The echoes of a hollow life
pervade our culture. One doesn’t have to
read many contemporary biographies to find the same frustration and
disappointment. Jack Higgens, author of
such successful novels as The Eagle Has Landed, was asked what he would
like to have known as a boy. His answer:
‘That when you get to the top, there’s nothing there.’”
Maybe that’s the reason Solomon said, “For God giveth to a man that is good in his
[God’s] sight wisdom, and knowledge, and
joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may
give to him that is good before God. This
also is vanity and vexation of spirit” (not what God gives, but what man
attains).
✞ If your life is focused on “I” you are going the wrong way.
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