Life Under the Sun: The Unexpectedly Good News of EcclesiastesНамуна

The next step in our study of Ecclesiastes is to identify its overarching themes and repeated symbols. Today we’ll look at the central image of life as a vapor.

Thankfully, Ecclesiastes puts its central theme and main metaphor at the beginning of the book when the Teacher says everything is futile.

The word futile is repeated throughout Ecclesiastes nearly forty times. Some Bible versions translate this phrase as vanity (ESV, KJV) or meaningless (NIV), but none of these English words quite capture the depth of the original Hebrew word hevel. Literally translated, hevel means vapor or smoke. It describes the way mist hovers in the lowlands on cool mornings and burns away as the sun rises.

While the imagery of vapor illustrates the brevity of life under the sun, it also hints to the Source of our life—a Source that might just provide the purpose and meaning we seek.

Scripture often uses the image of a vapor or mist to describe the brief, enigmatic nature of our lives. Our days on earth float away from us before we have a chance to make sense of them. This reality has curious parallels to how Genesis 2 describes the beginning of human existence. How did the life that began with the “breath of God” somehow become characterized as a vapor that flies away? And how does the use of hevel in Ecclesiastes point us back to God?

Part of the answer lies in the first use of hevel which occurs in Genesis 4 only two chapters after God breathes life into mankind. Thematically, the events of Genesis 4 happen outside the Garden in a world marked by toil, sweat, and chaos. It’s there, “east of Eden” that we meet someone whose tragic existence represents all the futility and pain that life under the sun has to offer.

The Hebrew word hevel can also be transliterated hebel or even, Abel. That’s right. The word that Ecclesiastes uses to describe our brief, confusing life under the sun is the name of Adam and Eve’s second son. Why is this significant? Abel’s time under the sun was short and tragic. He did what was right but still suffered. His own brother, Cain, murdered him out of sheer jealousy. Abel’s life and name are both hevel. Futile. Empty. Meaningless.

But that’s not the whole story. Because when God confronted Cain, God said Abel’s blood “cries out to me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10). And there it is: our hope in the midst of a life of futile suffering. Just like mist and smoke ascend to heaven, so too do our cries. God hears, and He responds.

Read Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, and read Genesis 2:6-7, and ask yourself: How has God shown you He is not untouched by what you are experiencing in this life?