The Declaration of Independence reads: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” That final clause is provocative. Every person has the God-given right to life and liberty. We only have the right to pursue happiness. Every person is in the pursuit of happiness.

• Your pursuit may be conscious or unconscious. 
• Your pursuit may be active or passive. 
• Your pursuit may be cheap or expensive. 
• Your pursuit may be moral or immoral. 
• Your pursuit may be worldly or spiritual.  

Everyone pursues happiness. We do not agree on what happiness is or means. We do not agree on where happiness is gained or found. We do not agree on how happiness looks or feels. Yet we all pursue happiness. Blaise Pascal said, “This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” We all want to be happy. But you can’t find happiness looking in the wrong places. That’s the message of Ecclesiastes 2:1-11.

Ecclesiastes 1:3 records the motto of the book: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” In this section of Ecclesiastes, the Preacher moves from subject to subject to prove that life is meaningless without God.

• The end of chapter 1 is about the vanity of wisdom. 
• The beginning of chapter 2 is about the vanity of pleasure. 

John Phillips comments, “Disappointed by the world of thought, Solomon turned next to the world of thrills.” Solomon wanted to know if the meaning of life could be found in happiness. He discovered life is more than the pursuit of happiness. Under divine Inspiration, Solomon journals his experience so we won’t make the same mistakes. You cannot find true happiness if you look for it in all the wrong places. 

What are the wrong places to pursue happiness? Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 shows four wrong places where true happiness cannot be found. 

Happiness is not found in empty pleasures. 

“Pleasure” occurs four times in these eleven verses – twice in verses 1-2; twice in verse 10. God is not anti-pleasure. But 2 Timothy 3:4 condemns “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” Verses 1-3 show us what happens when you love pleasure rather than God.

The Emptiness of Tested Pleasure 

• In Ecclesiastes 1:16, Solomon speaks to his heart about wisdom. 
• In Ecclesiastes 2:1, Solomon speaks to his heart about pleasure.  

Verse 1 records a call to action and a call to attention. 

A Call to Action. Solomon writes, “I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’” Solomon incites his heart to test pleasure. This test was by experience, not observation: “enjoy yourself.” If you were free to do what brings you the most pleasure in life, what would you do? This is the test Solomon gave himself. 

A Call to Attention. Verse 1 says, “But behold, this also was vanity.” Before the test, Solomon gives the grade. Pleasure is empty, meaningless, worthless, unsatisfying, absurd. Why? Verse 2 says of laughter, “It is mad.” Nothing is wrong with good, clean humor. But life is no laughing matter. A man’s character is revealed by what makes him laugh and what makes him cry. John 11:35 says, “Jesus wept.”The Bible does not record Jesus laughing. To laugh at what should make us cry is madness. Verse 8 asks of pleasure, “What use is it?” Hebrews 11:25 says Moses chose to suffer with God’s people rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. Worldly pleasures are temporary. It may appeal to your sense of sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch in the moment. What use is it? What good does it do? What difference does it make? 

The Enjoyment of Tasted Pleasure.Verses 1-2 address pleasure in general. Verse 3 is a concrete example: “I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine.” What verse 1 calls a test, verse 3 calls a search. Solomon sought to find out if happiness can be found in a liquor bottle. “Wine” is a stand-in here for all types of intoxicants. Solomon wanted to know if what he ate, drank, sniffed, smoked, or shot up brought happiness. Yet he says his heart was guiding him with wisdom. Solomon was no drunk in a nightclub, who the bartender cuts off, takes his keys, and calls him an Uber. He was a connoisseur of fine wines on a taste-testing excursion to Napa Valley. He did not spend all his money on alcohol. He has been paid by a wine company to post a picture of him holding a glass of their finest on social media.

Likewise, Solomon wanted to “lay hold of folly.” “Folly” here is not moral mistakes. It is harmless fun. Solomon wanted a good life with good times and good people. Like the Prodigal Son, he enjoyed the far country, not knowing you can’t have your cake and eat it too. How long did Solomon search? Verse 3 answers: “till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.” Solomon desired to see what was good or best – for sinful people in a fallen world to do with their brief lives. Notice that he does not describe life in terms of “days,” not months or years. You cannot live wisely if you do not recognize the brevity of life. Psalm 90:12 says, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” 

Happiness is not found in worldly pursuits. 

Solomon’s pursued happiness through enjoyment and employment. If verse 3 warns of the dangers of alcoholism, verses 4-6 warn of the dangers of workaholism. Let’s consider these three verses from two perspectives. 

The Resume of a Successful Life. Verses 4-6 report Solomon’s career accomplishments. 

The Summary. Verse 4 says, “I made great works.” Let’s diagram this four-word sentence. 

• The subject: “I.” 
• The verb: “made.” 
• The adjective: “great.” 
• The object: “works.” 

In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar was turned into a wild beast for talking this way. Yet Solomon got away with this proud boast. To be fair, this is how ancient kings spoke and wrote. Their title did not prove their greatness. Military victories abroad and building projects at home did. Solomon was a peacetime king who “made great works” during his forty-year reign. 

The Specifics. What were the great works Solomon made? Verse 4 says Solomon built “houses.” 1 Kings 7:1 says it took thirteen years to build his royal palace. It is one of many houses Solomon built. He also “planted vineyards.” The “wine” Solomon drank was not imported. He produced wine from his own vineyard. Verse 5 says Solomon made “gardens.”

William Brown wrote, “Any king worth his salt had to excel in handling a sword in one hand and a garden spade in the other.” Solomon arrayed his lavish homes with lush gardens. He made “parks,” the Hebrew word for “paradise.” He planted “all kinds of fruit trees” and enjoyed their harvest. Verse 6 says he made “pools.” Three ancient reservoirs near Bethlehem are called “Solomon’s Pools.” These pools irrigated his “forest of growing trees.” “Trees” are mentioned in verses 5-6. 

• Trees for fruit in verse 5. 
• Trees for lumber in verse 6. 

Solomon made great works. 

The Reality of a Selfish Life. To discover if you are going in the right direction in life, ask, Why? You lose your why, you lose your way. Solomon lost his way. He made great works for the wrong reasons. 

Led by Marcus Junius Brutus, the Roman Senate assassinated Julus Ceasor in cold blood on the Ides of March. Rather than celebrating the death of a tyrant, Roman citizens rioted and ran the senators off of town. The people loved the dictator for the multiple public works he produced for their benefit. 

Solomon was a better man than Caesar. But Solomon lost his way. The great works he made were not for the glory of God or the good of Israel. Solomon’s repeated use of the singular personal pronoun “I” is not just autobiographical; it’s egotistical. Solomon keeps saying that he did what he did “for myself.”Solomon uses a cluster of words that Moses uses to describe creation in Genesis 1-2. Solomon did not merely build a royal estate. He sought to build his own Garden of Eden. This text has been rightly called “the gospel of selfishness.” Luke 12:13-21 is the Parable of the Rich Fool. 

• He thought about his body, not his soul. 
• He thought of himself, not others. 
• He thought about now, not eternity. 

   Luke 12:21 says, “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”   

Happiness is not found in material possessions. 

Solomon is called the wisest man in the Bible. He is arguably the wealthiest man in the Bible also. 1 Kings 10:4-5 says that when the Queen of Sheba toured Solomon’s vast estate, it took her breath away. Verses 7-8 catalog Solomon’s vast financial resources. 

I bought servants. Verses 4-6 describe Solomon’s massive real estate portfolio. The upkeep of his property would require a multitude of servants to cook, clean, and care for the estate. So verse 7 says, “I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house.” Solomon had two types of slaves in his household:        

• Slaves that he bought from abroad. 
• Slaves that were born in his house. 

Solomon’s riches are reflected in how many servants he paid to work for him.

I owned cattle. A man today can pretend to be wealthy with relative ease. He can surround himself with the trappings of prosperity while he is actually on the verge of bankruptcy. In the ancient world, however, one’s wealth was not hidden in accounts; it was evident in his fields. Solomon says, If you want to know how rich he was, go look at his “great possessions of herds and flocks.”

• “Herds” refers to large animals like cattle and oxen. 
• “Flocks” refers to small animals like sheep and goats. 

  Solomon had more flocks and herds than anyone in the history of Jerusalem.

I earned money. Because the worth of the dollar fluctuates, many invest in precious metals. Verse 8 says that Solomon was flush with the safe-haven assets of silver and gold. 2 Chronicles 1:15 says, “And the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stone.” His income kept growing from “the treasures of kings and provinces.”

• The treasure of kings was the tribute foreign dignitaries gave Solomon. 
• The treasure of provinces was the taxes subjugated territories paid Solomon. 

I hired singers. Verse 8 says Solomon got “singers.” Most of us could not afford to hire our favorite singer to perform a private concert for us. Solomon had a large house band of musicians and singers to play and sing whatever he wanted to hear, whenever he wanted to hear it. The Levites who served in the temple were all men. That Solomon had male and female singers tells us that they played party music, not worship music. 

I had women. Verse 8 says that Solomon had “many concubines.” The Hebrew term is only used here in the Old Testament. Scholars do not agree on how the term should be translated. But the consensus is that it refers to women who fulfilled Solomon’s sexual desires. 1 Kings 11:3 says this quintessential playboy of the ancient world had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Solomon is not boasting and bragging. He warns us that happiness cannot be found in material prosperity. We want it all, and we want it now. Solomon had it all and found that money cannot buy happiness. Luke 12:15 says, “Take care, and be on guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 

• Money can buy a house, not a home. 
• Money can buy a bed, not sleep. 
• Money can buy medicine, not health. 
• Money can buy therapy, not peace. 
• Money can buy an entourage, not friends. 
• Money can buy sex, not intimacy. 
• Money can buy entertainment, not joy. 

Happiness is not found in social prominence. 

Ecclesiastes 1:3 is the probing question that guides and governs the book: “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” Verses 10-11 address this question. 

A Successful Man’s Confession. Solomon was a successful man who lived an excellent and enjoyable life. 

An Excellent Life. 

• Verse 9 says Solomon’s success was “great.”
• It says his status “surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem.”

Reasserting verse 3, verse 9 says, “Also my wisdom remained with me.” Solomon did not plunge headfirst into a hedonistic life of pleasure. He was carefully thinking about whether happiness could be found in one’s success and status. His test led to an excellent life. 

An Enjoyable Life. Solomon’s describes his enjoyable life in terms of his eyes and heart. Verse 10 speaks of his eyes: “And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.” We see many desirable things that we cannot have. Solomon did not deny himself anything his eyes desired. Verse 10 speaks of his heart: “I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.” Solomon pursued happiness. He found it in his toil. Getting things done brought him happiness. The results of his toil became the reward for his toil. Solomon’s lived an excellent and enjoyable life.  

A Sad Man’s Conclusion. The Literary Study Bible notes: “The passage asserts the paradox of hedonism: the more one searches for pleasure, the less of it one finds.” That’s the conclusion Solomon drew from his pursuit of happiness. Verse 11 says, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

Solomon reflected on his pursuit of happiness. He gave a threefold summary of the pursuit of happiness. First, “all was vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:3 says, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity!” Second, it is “a striving after wind.” It is impossible to attain or maintain. Thirdly, “there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:3 asks what a man gains from his toil under the sun. Answer: “Nothing.” Matthew 16:26 says, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

• Happiness is not found in empty pleasures. 
• Happiness is not found in worldly pursuits. 
• Happiness is not found in material possessions. 
• Happiness is not found in social prominence. 

True happiness is only found in Jesus Christ.