We look at the walls of our bedroom, and we start dreaming. And if we had more of this, or more of that. Now, if we believe that having more will get us anywhere, we ought to study the story of Solomon.

If you’ve ever ridden a stationary bike, you know that no matter how much you pedal, you’re never getting anywhere. And even though we’re riding a technologically advanced bike with a monitor displaying the terrain we’re supposed to be riding, a quick glance around us reminds us that we’re on a machine. And we are in the same place where we started.

That’s what life can sometimes seem like. We’re still trying, but it seems like we’re getting nowhere. Solomon looked at life this way. He wrote: “What advantage does a person have in all his work which he does under the sun? A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. All things are wearisome; no one can tell it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor is the ear filled with hearing” (Ecclesiastes 1:3-4,8 NASB). It’s a dark way to look at life. But throughout Ecclesiastes, Solomon uses an expression that helps us explain his vision: “under the sun”.

Solomon spoke of a horizontal, strictly human life. He rarely looked above the sun for answers. In other words, he wasn’t looking to God. Instead, he looked horizontally. He looked to this planet, to this world, for answers. As a result, Solomon decided to take a crash course on sin. He was willing to try anything down here. He wanted the best entertainment in the world, and the best education money could buy. And he wanted to experience unlimited materialism. Basically, Solomon wanted to experience everything there was to experience.

And that’s where he started his descent. Compromise was the first step toward the downfall of Solomon. As he amassed a fortune, he also began collecting brides. Although the scriptures warn against it, he just couldn’t stop. And one compromise led to another. The devil is certainly evil, but he is also cunning. He doesn’t tell us what he’s doing at first. Rather, it begins with a little seduction. That is exactly what happened to Solomon. His downward spiral started with a simple rationalization, and tragically, he went off the rails.

As with everyone, when someone falls into serious sin, it is because they first made a compromise. In every situation we can think of, that’s how it started. It is very rare for people to turn away from God overnight. It may seem like it, but it’s not. Maybe we knew someone who was still at church, and then they suddenly disappeared. Later we found out they were involved in something they shouldn’t be doing. We thought, “I don’t understand. I have just seen them at the Church”. However, compromise had probably been a part of their lives for a long time, and they finally gave in.

When we live looking only at the world “under the sun,” we also lose our optimism. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9 : “What has been, it is what will be, and what has been done, it is what will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun”. What a contrast to the words of Jeremiah on the same subject: “The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, for His compassions do not fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB). If we live our life without God, even though we have everything this world has to offer, it can be downright depressing. But with God, we wake up each morning knowing there are new opportunities to worship Him, walk with Him, and serve Him.

Solomon had what most people only dream of. But in the end, it turned out to be a nightmare. It reminds us that if we leave God out of the equation when we try to meet the deepest needs in our lives, we will always be empty.