Man’s ultimate longing…

Man ever repeats Solomon’s quest. “I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven… I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly… I explored with my heart how to stimulate my body… how to take hold of folly… I enlarged my works… I collected for myself silver and gold… All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure…” Ecclesiastes 1:13, 17; 2:3, 4, 8, 10

All comes to an end. “What advantages does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes… I have seen all the works which have been done… behold, all is vanity and striving after wind… In much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain… For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as the fool… And how the wise man and the fool alike die!” Ecclesiastes 1:3, 4, 14, 18; 2:16

All comes to an end. “So I hated life… because everything is futility… I hated all the fruit of my labor… for I must leave it to the man who will come after me… All his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 2:17, 18, 23

All comes to an end. To dust we return leaving everything behind. No guarantee our plans will be completed (James 4:13, 14). Rich farmer unexpectedly died (Luke 12:16-20). “We have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.” (1 Timothy 6:17)

Man longs for resurrection. Creation longs to be set free from futility, slavery and corruption (Romans 8:19-22). Eagerly groaning for “the redemption of our body” (v. 23) We long for mortality to “be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). A promise of a heavenly tent, a heavenly clothing (vs. 1-3)

Man longs for resurrection. The only hope of rescue from death and Hades is resurrection. The Almighty’s testimony that it will happen (1 Corinthians 15:20-22) All the dead will put on imperishable immortality, clothed with a spiritual body to exist for eternity (1 Corinthians 15:44, 51-54).

“… an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil to a resurrection of judgment.” John 5:28, 29