Daily Devotional For Friday, June 5, 2026
Good morning and good day Southside. Our devotional for today comes from Ecclesiastes 1:2-3:
“Everything is meaningless," says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!” (3) What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?” (NLT).
Ecclesiastes was written by the same author of Proverbs – Solomon. Yet, as you compare the two books almost seem to come from two different authors. For example, compare Proverbs 16:9, “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps” (NLT). The Ecclesiastes’ passage seems very hopeless. The Proverbs’ passages seem full of hope. Or, compare the Ecclesiastes’ passage above to Proverbs 19:21, “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail” (NLT). Same author, but totally two different attitudes. Do you see it? Pessimism and hopelessness is a prevalent theme of our culture today also. Sociologist Jonathan Kozol wrote about this true story in his book:
“I met Mrs. Washington in the South Bronx. She and her young son, David, were living at a homeless hotel close to East Tremont Avenue, in a first-floor room with three steel locks on the door. Mrs. Washington was dying, and each time Kozol came for a visit, she was visibly weaker. But, oh, the stories she could tell about life on the underside of urban America—stories about poverty and injustice, drugs, violence, and rape. Mrs. Washington told Kozol about children in her building born with AIDS and about the twelve-year-old at the bus stop who was hit by stray gunfire and paralyzed. She told him about the physical abuse she had suffered from Mr. Washington and about all the difficulties poor people had getting medical care in the city. The woman and her son also talked about spiritual things. “I wonder how powerful God is,” David admitted in one interview. “He must be wise and powerful to make the animals and trees and give man organs and a brain to build complex machineries, but he is not powerful enough to stop the evil on the earth, to change the hearts of people.” On a subsequent visit Kozol looked down and saw that Mrs. Washington’s Bible was open on the quilt next to her. So he asked what part of the Bible she liked to read. “Ecclesiastes,” she said. “If you want to know what’s happening these days, it’s all right there” (Source: Jonathan Kozol, Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation, pp. 23, 44).
A lot of people have questioned, “Why read the Book of Ecclesiastes since it is so gloomy, depressing and drenching in hopelessness.” In 1998, a leading Rabbi by the name of Rabbi Tanhum wrote these words about Ecclesiastes:
“O Solomon, where is your wisdom? Not only do your words contradict the words of your father, David; they even contradict themselves” (Source: Rabbi Tanhum, Mishnah Shabbat, quoted in Tremper Longman III, The Book of Ecclesiastes, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, p. 27).
I believe that Ecclesiastes is the inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God and is worthy of our studying it. Ecclesiastes is a mirror of our modern day world. It is truthful about our modern day troubles, stresses and frustrations. Ecclesiastes presents the futility and frustration of living in a fallen world where injustice seems to win and reign and where the righteous and good people suffer. It presents evil honestly and to some, that is too much for them. To Solomon, pleasures were a waste of time because they failed to satisfy.
I read that one scholar said that Ecclesiastes must have been written on a Monday morning. I believe there are good reasons to read it. First, it helps us be honest with God with our anger, frustration and anxiety over the evil in our world. A second reason to read it is it shows us what happens to those who choose to live their way and not God’s way. It helps us reject what the world offers us because we have a picture of what will. A third reason, it shows us how to live for the Lord and not ourselves. A fourth reason, I see it as a “back door” to skeptics, agnostics and even atheists, who raise the same question we do: “How can an all-powerful God allow evil to win?”
In verse 2, the Hebrew word translated as “meaningless” is [הֶבֶל, havel]. This word itself is a mystery. This word is used in other verses in the Hebrew Bible and in some of those, it is translated differently due to the context of that passage. It can be translated as “vapor” or “breath,” as in Isaiah 57:13, “Let’s see if your idols can save you when you cry to them for help. Why, a puff of wind can knock them down! If you just breathe (havel) on them, they fall over! But whoever trusts in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain” (NLT). So, it could refer to something transitory and insubstantial. We see this in Psalm 144:4, “For they are like a breath (havel) of air; their days are like a passing shadow” (NLT). We see the same use in James 4:14.
In other Old Testament passages it is used for something deceitful and ineffectual, such as false gods. We see this in Jeremiah 16:19, “O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, To You the nations will come, From the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, Futility (havel) and things of no profit” (NASB). Most of the time this Hebrew word is used to stress how useless, meaningless, and a waste of time it is to pursue the world’s way rather than the Lord’s way.
Ecclesiastes 1:2 is saying, “Everything is transitory and therefore has no lasting value. People are caught in the trap, even God’s people, of the absurd and pursue empty pleasures.” They build their lives on lies. Solomon says that the whole of life is meaningless and then he takes the next 12 chapters to prove it.
This is coming from a man who had it all. Solomon was the most powerful ruler ever, the wealthiest ruler ever, the most wise ruler ever, and the most blessed ruler by God ever. Solomon wrote this in Ecclesiastes 1:18, “Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain” (NLT). The wisest man ever (excluding Jesus) said this and he still concludes with this, “Life itself is meaningless, a waste.” Don’t you feel encouraged and joyful now? Solomon’s point is outside of God, there is no joy, purpose, happiness and meaning to life.
Reflection Assignment: Do you agree with Mrs. Washington in our story above? Do you agree with Solomon? Has the problem and challenge of evil ever caused you to question God, your relationship to Him? If you lost friends were to come to you and ask you, “You believe God is all-powerful and since you believe that, why does your God not stop evil?” How would you respond to them?
Scripture To Meditate On: Ecclesiastes 2:23, “Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, help me not to become soured and hopeless by the evil in this world. I want to show people, especially lost people, that it is possible to have hope and joy in this evil world. Please use me to do that. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly