Bible Men: King Solomon: Notes On the Meaning of Vanity

All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. Ecc 6:7 

The Peril of a Full Stomach

In the old world there were major feasts and even worship rites surrounding food and fertility. The climax invariably boiled over to some form of debauchery.

To be fat was celebrated. To be thin was frowned upon and even regarded as reactionary, as Shakespeare knew.

CAESAR: Antonius!

ANTONY: Caesar?

            CAESAR: Let me have men about me that are fat;

Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o'nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

ANTONY: Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous;
He is a noble Roman, and well given.

CAESAR: Would he were fatter! But I fear him not:

 My mother used to chide: Humbira nda wahuna! Cover your stomach when you are full. She is a church woman of the Tukundereza fame, and that was her way of shielding us from being vain and falling under the wrath of God. “When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.  Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God…” (Deu 8:10-17).    

A full stomach is a good thing but it is a poor teacher. It makes a man reckless. It dims the mind and lifts the flesh.

Now Solomon was magnificently glorious, even by Christ’s admission. The lilies may have surpassed him in beauty but men (and women) were drawn to him like a moth to the light. His God given wisdom held kings in awe (1Ki 4:34).  

But that also became his snare. It is easier for the world to change a believer than a believer to change the world.  That’s how the king multiplied horses, wives, silver and gold. From there the lure of full stomach came naturally to him. He had to because he had 1000 women to keep happy.

And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, Ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallowdeer, and fatted fowl. 1Ki 4:22-23 

The Burden of “I” “Me” “Mine” and “Myself”

In chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes alone the number of times the letter “I” appears is 36. “Me” appears 12 times. “Mine” appears 4 times. “My” 8 times and “Myself” 3 times. “I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards… So I was great… And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy” (Ecc 2:4-10). 

That is the preamble. But the conclusion is disheartening. “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun…Therefore I hated life…” (Ecc 2:11,17). 

Desire is a good thing, for we wouldn’t be able to wake, breath, and move, without it. So we desire God, and it is then we hunger for him like a deer in a desert.

But some desires can end in tears, like the social media. It is a parade of everything we lack in life, and that’s a race a man cannot win. It is a race especially a believer does well not to be engaged in because he will never be happy that way.

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Rom 8:5-6  

The heart is like a well in a quiet place. Desire is like sand, and when a lot of it falls into the well, that well eventually runs dry.

Solomon choked on his desires. It is that emptiness which informs his raving in Ecclesiastes. The modern man’s reaction is worse. He keeps silent.

The miser in parable of Luke 12 makes an interesting reading. He was rich, and the rich are susceptible to some of the most novel tragedies.

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:  And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?  And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.  And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? Luk 12:16-20  

If you consider it critically, God, in his graciousness, was really saving this man from his impending misery.

Prayer: The Famished Road of Life

Solomon had forgot God. He had become vain. But God in his mercy saved him. “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love” (Son 2:4).  

Should we point a finger at him? no. Because that is where we too were. Like him, we have been saved by grace.

For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Tit 3:3-5 

Solomon became a good teacher, so should we. It is the purpose of life.

Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.  For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.  For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother.  He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. Pro 4:1-4 

In religion it is not by way of a full stomach that we usually reach the mountain top, but more often it is by the famished road of prayer, sweat and tears. If that is where you are right now fellow believer don’t give up. Keep climbing.