The Ten Commandments
an Indispensable Old Testament Guide

The book of Ecclesiastes is a report of Solomon’s search for happiness. He records his quest for happiness in the riches of the world. He built magnificent houses, planted productive vineyards, beautiful gardens, and orchards of luscious fruit. He multiplied servants. He found himself surrounded with every material thing a person could desire. But finally his “bubble burst.” He said,

“When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
—Ecclesiastes 2:11.

Solomon then turned to searching out the pleasures of this world in hope of finding happiness. He was taken in by wine, women, and song. Upon reaching the end of this rainbow he found no pot of gold. His conclusion:

“This too is meaningless.”
—Verse 23.

Turning down one dead-end street after another, Solomon finally decided that he had made a mistake in seeing phantoms as a reality, and he declared:

“Meaningless! Meaningless! . . . Everything is meaningless!”
—Ecclesiastes 12:8.

Solomon had once tasted and seen that the Lord is good. As he compared his early life of obedience to God with his determined and reckless chase for happiness in the things of sin, he came up with this verdict:

“Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
—Ecclesiastes 12:13.

Solomon felt he could find a shortcut to happiness in a reckless life. Toward the close of his life, he was man enough to admit his error; and Solomon published his failure to the world in the hope that, by reviewing his experience, he could save others from the same error. Solomon admonishes:

“He that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
—Proverbs 29:18, KJV.