Human beings are slaves to desire. Abraham Maslow captured well the substance of human life with his pyramid of needs. When I compare my master goal list of things to do before I die, I see in it all those categories in the pyramid: things I want to buy, places I want to visit, adventures I want to try.
Our life in the human world seems to be built of extensive study to gain knowledge, hard work to gain wealth, eating, drinking and being merry; not because we may die tomorrow, but because we think we may live on this earth yet longer.
It is my dream to either have great wealth, or power, or respect, or knowledge. If not to enjoy it, at least to find out: what would it be like?
The Bible presents an example of a man we all dream of becoming (gender notwithstanding) and work towards: Solomon.
Money, power, prestige - he had it all. Yet at the end of it, what did he have to say for himself? Ecc 12:8-14 sums his life up well with the famous "all is vanity" phrase.
Here is a man who preached sticking to God's word (v11), while at the same time condemning the uselessness of writing books and studying (v12). None of what we do is of any use. None of it will ever make us happy. Because human nature was made for one thing and one thing alone: to obey God's word.
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