Ecclesiastes 1:3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

My father quit school at thirteen and went to work for the Canadian Pacific Rail Road for ten cents a day. He never finished school.

He had the hardest work ethic I have ever seen. He was relentless, never stopping. Given that he was born in the depression era it is understandable that he struggled for a long time.

After the war life was a little better but without an education the hard labor he put never led to financial success.

The opening passage means as much today as it did when it was written. We ask ourselves the same questions thousands of years later.

The bible relates to life no matter when we read it, 660 AD or 2026 AD. His word is true for all seasons.

Psalm 9:18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

Philippians 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

Gaining Christ is effortless.

Ecclesiastes 1:2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

I have failed in my attempt to be pithy here. Let me explain.

The Hebrew term hebel, translated vanity or vain, refers concretely to a “mist,” “vapor,” or “mere breath,” and metaphorically to something that is fleeting or elusive (with different nuances depending on the context). It appears five times in this verse and in 29 other verses in Ecclesiastes.

The breath of God is no mere thing. Metaphors try to explain things that are not clearly seen.

Exodus 26:31-33 English Standard Version

31 “And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. 32 And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver. 33 And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.

That veil was a veil of separation. Its appearance kept us from seeing the Most Holy.

Matthew 27:51 And behold, the curtain (veil) of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

Hebrews 10:20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

Only the high priest was permitted to pass through (or enter behind) the veil of the wilderness Tabernacle and enter the Most Holy Place (also called the Holy of Holies), where the Ark of the Covenant resided and God’s presence dwelt.

Allow me my pithy moment here.

His flesh was torn, not to let us into the presence of the Most Holy but rather so that the Most Holy breathes on all of us.