The Vanity of Pleasure

"I said to my heart 'Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.' But behold, this was also vanity." Ecclesiastes 2:1

In the first verse here we see what has become a traditional view of how to live life. Enjoy yourself, deny no pleasure, and surely this will satisfy you. Solomon, in his life, enjoyed pleasures that we may never dream of. But behold, it was also vanity. It was meaningless. A chasing after the wind. "I said of laughter 'It is mad,' and of pleasure 'What use is it?" Laughter brings joy and merriment for a moment, then it ends and silence pours back in. Pleasure may fill that gaping hole inside of us for a moment, but then it recedes and we are left alone with our emptiness that has now grown deeper. "I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine." This is a verse I can get behind. Of course this just brings up the same old problem of nothing good coming from it, and only a temporary feeling of satisfaction that is fleeting and turns into a feeling of foolish shame. He goes on to talk of great works he accomplished to bring him pleasure. Great gardens grown. Slaves owned. Herds and flocks, more so than any who had come before him. Silver and gold and the treasures of princes and provinces. Singers and concubines "the delight of the children of men."
"So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem." -2:9
"Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept from my heart no pleasure." -2:10
But for all of that he finds this in verse 11: "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 the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun."
I think of all the things I want to do that I do not do because they are sins. Now there is a part of me that still strongly desires to do them. Not the whole of me, for there is a part of me that wants to do only good and obey the Lord and keep His laws that I know are good (see Romans 7). But at the same time the temptations are still there. But look at Solomon. He lived it. He had the sex, the booze, the money, the power, the fame. He had it all. Everything there is in this world that men tend to put ahead of God. And what did he find in the end? He looked over it all and realized that none of it was worth anything. It was vanity. Useless. A chasing after the wind. It is sad sometimes that we don't take other peoples' word for things. like if we listened to this maybe we would recognize that no amount of perceived pleasure is ever going to mean a thing without God. God is the only thing in this life that satisfies.
So I need to look at my own life through that lens. There are lots of things I think I want. But having a new car, while it might make me worry less, it is not going to satisfy me. Having a job is not going to satisfy. Having more money isn't going to do anything. Finding a date or a girlfriend is not going to bring me any real joy. None of these things, in and of themselves, are going to make me happy. I feel like they might. I feel like I want them so badly that I hate it. It doesn't mean that they are bad things. It doesn't mean that my desire for them is necessarily bad. But if they are the things I am seeking first, then they are. Because all they will amount to is nothing. They are useless, like chasing the wind. Instead I must learn to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Not, of course, a promise that I will get everything I want. But a promise that God will provide me with exactly what I need, and also provide me with the heart to want those things, and so my desires will then be met, because they are His desires for me. Not sure if that made sense. But I like it.
Pleasure is vanity. Nothing matters if we do not first seek God. Fear God and keep His commands. This is the whole duty of man. Amen.