by Read Ecclesiastes 1 — the preacher comes across as a pessimist. In 1:2-4, everything is empty and worthless, life is meaningless and without hope or purpose. In 1:5-7, everything in nature continues, century after century, while man is here for just a brief time. The preacher paints a bleak picture for people trying desperately to find meaning in life, looking for some thread of security to place their hope in. By 1:8, the preacher seems to conclude that all of life equals a big fat zero. Since life is so short and man is so insignificant, why bother living at all?
This chapter comes across depressing—if we neglect the audience. The preacher is writing to those who foolishly wasted their lives, including himself. As with many today, they believed wisdom, wealth, materialism, education, and religion made life worth living. The Preacher tried each of these in turn, finding that none of them worked, concluding, “vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3).
According to Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, history is prophetic, just as the preacher states in 3:15, “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.” Thus, we have more history today making us more accountable than any past generation. God holds us accountable because history forewarns us how to be ready as we step into this New Year and the life to come. Solomon did not write Ecclesiastes as a pessimist nor an optimist, but as guided by the Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). God chose what He wanted us to have in His Word, not to dash our hopes, but to give us meaning and purpose in the New Year.
Let’s step into the New Year, not as a pessimist (with half-empty hope), nor an optimist (with half-full hope), but as the realist (where hope is always accessible). Romans 15:13-14 teaches that through the God of hope we can be filled today with joy and peace if we live in godliness and knowledge. This is praiseworthy, that we are saved from Hell, free from sin’s penalty, with the blessed privilege to be spiritually profitable servants of Almighty God in this New Year and in the life to come (1 Timothy 4:8). Let’s live up to God’s expectations of us in 2026.
