What do we get for all our work and activity? The world turns as before - what's the point?
I sought satisfaction in knowledge and wisdom, but it only brought vexation.
2
I sought satisfaction in pleasure and comedy and wealth. It was fun for a while, but it didn't really get me anywhere.
I thought the wise better off than the fool until I realized they both die the same.
I sought satisfaction in work, but who gets it all when I'm gone? How do I know it'll stay put?
Satisfaction only comes in work when God gives it.
3
There are different seasons in life that call for different activities, but God has it all planned beautifully, with a sense of the eternal [a God-shaped hole?] in each human heart.
Injustice and wickedness abounds on earth, and the good and evil both die the same. God will judge it all afterward, though we cannot peer into that realm yet.
How this is about Jesus
Since all things were made through Him and for Him, Colossians 1:16 says, it only makes sense that we aren't satisfied with any created thing without Christ being involved.
One greater than Solomon is here, who is not frustrated with the apparent lack of purpose of life.
Application
This book touches a spot in the mind that almost everyone feels at some point or other: the apparent meaninglessness of life. You get up, go to work, come home, play a bit, go to sleep, and do it all again. Life is a bunch of endless cycles and then you die - what's the point? The book describes this feeling at length, which disconcerts many readers, but there are points of light and answer. 2:24-25 and 3:10-14 are two such spots.
2:24-25:
"There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?"
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