This book is entirely different. It is the experience of a man who is very wise and then decides that he will experiment with everything on the earth. The words he uses are “under the sun” and he uses it about 28 times in this book. He wants to find out if anything will make him happy. The writer is King Solomon and he lacks nothing to be able to find the answer. So he tries. Sometimes he gets near the truth but at other times he is far from it (Eccl. 3:18-22; 7:16-17). But divine teaching is in the last two verses of the book. They give the answer to the searchings in Eccl. 1:13 and 2:3. Pleasure, being “good,” learning lots, riches and on and on, cannot bring happiness. Why? Because evil is only in this world. Remember that Solomon didn’t know about the Lord Jesus. He was searching for satisfaction down here, but we have found joy and peace in a heavenly Man. It is important to realize also, that the more a person tries to find happiness down here, the more unhappy he becomes.
V.1 In this book “God” is used because it is man’s experience on earth before God, without knowing Him as Lord.
V.4-11 Work, work, work, never ending, never satisfied, so goes all creation on earth. Genesis 3:17-19 tell us why this is so.
V.12-18 Something to think about, for any who would go after “much wisdom and knowledge” about everything on earth. The man who had more learning than any other man on earth — except Christ, of course — tells us in verse 14 what he discovered.