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The Search for Satisfaction
1:12 to 2:26

The opening to Ecclesiastes has set the tone of the book by its motto-theme: Pointless! Pointless! – says the Teacher – everything is pointless (to see link click Cd – The Failure of Earthly Things), and by its picture of a world endlessly busy and hopelessly frustrating. Now the focus sharpens. We turn from analogies and impressions to what we can know directly from experience. We are to scan the great spread of human pursuits, to ask whether anything on earth can be found which has any lasting value. Solomon gets across to us the urgency of the search: we find ourselves involved in it. Along with the king, our search will be no restricted or tentative affair, but royal, exploring of whatever the world can offer to a man of unlimited wisdom and wealth.242 After a brief reflection on his search, Solomon narrates how he looked for meaning in pleasure, wisdom, and folly, as well as in his work. Nonetheless, the specter of death hangs over his head, making his achievements and successes meaningless. At the end, he concludes that if this life offers anything at all, it is in the occasional moments of joy in the simple pleasures of life.243