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.
Comment: This is a passage which is easy to skip over, but upon thinking it contains a lot! He was honest and it seems neither overly proud nor shrinking from his acclaimed success. He had enjoyed doing the various things and was delighted at his success. But when he sat and thought about it, he had to say ‘but I’m taking not a drop of it all with me when I die.’ It will flee away as if blown by the wind! And like the end that awaits all of us he did die! He keeps using the phrase ‘under the sun’. I wonder if he is questioning if there is something ‘above the sun’? I guess that we will have to wait until we get to the end of his treatise, to find out his final thoughts!
Prayer: Thank you that I am more than a conglomeration of atoms. Help me to find what I should do, and whom I should be!
As I read it! 