The Book of Ecclesiastics is one of the most powerful sources for describing the world in which we live. The word for vanity is the Hebrew, Hevel, the word for mere breath or vapor. The point is it is rapidly dissipated and it cannot be caught.
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The book argues at its very beginning that there is great design in the world in which we live:
The sun rises and the suns sets… every day
The rivers flow into the sea but the sea is not filled
The seasons follow one after another with regularity
The winds move in circuits and return to their place, regularly
Natures shows there is design in the world around us and yet there is no apparent purpose or meaning to the world so far as natural man can understand. The design is indeed extraordinary, the meaning is apparently empty.
“All dressed up and nowhere to go.” It’s about as meaningful as the halftime frenzy of the Superbowl.
This is the great danger to the natural man’s reasoning. With no discernible purpose to it, the world appears to be empty and devoid of meaning. That embitters the natural man and tends to “atheize.” This is exactly what the Greek philosophers satirized and mocked. And so does the modern humanist and Marxist. EVERY philosophical and religious movement- apart from the Christian faith- impales themselves upon this truth, not realizing God has foreordained the apparent vanity of the world (cf. Romans 8:19 &20) for a powerful and necessary lesson for which His people are called to take advantage.
God has established the world like the props on a stage, ready to be used according to the “script” He has ordained. But if you didn’t know the script, and all you could do is look at the stage with all the wonderful props, you might try and guess what theatrical play would be performed, but you have no way of verifying it. That’s man.
The vanity is even if somehow the elements of nature could speak for themselves, and you were to ask them, ‘WHY are you here?’ WHAT is the meaning of purpose of your existence… they would unanimously testify “we don’t know?”
In Acts 28 the vanity of the world in contrast with the purposeful explanation by Scripture are set in contrast. Note, the Apostle Paul is bitten by a deadly viper. The “barbarians” on the Island of Malta conclude he is about to die; therefore, he must have been a murderer. The stage is set for what happens next and what happens next, no one could have possibly predicted. Not only does God open up a door for the Gospel on Malta, but one of the most powerful truths we need in the era upon us now, is set before us in this 2nd half of the last chapter of Acts 28, because it is here, that Paul teaches the Church the use of one of the most powerful truths concerning the Congregation of the Lord.
Listen to this surprising turn of events describe in both the 1st and 2nd half of Acts 28.
