Vanity I

 The words "vanity" and "vanities" occurs 99 times in the Bible (KJB). The Preacher, Solomon, concluded that "all is vanity." Ecclesiastes 1:2 (KJB). Solomon enjoyed every pleasure that a man could wish for, and yet, his life became jaded and empty.

The word "vanity" in the Old Testament usually referred directly or indirectly to idol worship. Jeremiah 18:15; Zechariah 10:2 (KJB). But by extension and implication, it meant any pursuit in life that is not of God. Deuteronomy 32:20-21 (KJB). When humans seek to abandon the good life that God has given them, and the worship and obedience due to God alone, then they actually pursue vanity which is emptiness. Proverbs 22:8 (KJB). People worship idols because they believe these false gods will give them prosperity and health. Proverbs 13:11 (KJB). In other words, those who practice vanity seek a self-created life independent of their good life that God has given them. Solomon believed in God, but he sought to enjoy a self-indulgent life independent of his good life that God had given him, and he finally concluded that it "all is vanity." Ecclesiastes 1:2 (KJB). His final conclusion though was that humans should return to the good life that God has given them and fear God and worship Him. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (KJB). Idol worship was but one manifestation of the human desire to have a self-created life independent from the good life that God created them to be. Genesis 1:31; Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:4-5 (KJB).

The words for "vanity" in the entire Bible means that which is empty, useless, and depraved. The worship of idols which symbolizes the human desire for a life independent from the good life given by God always turned out to be empty, useless, and depraved. If a person desires to be his own god, then he has the free will to use his powers to obtain his wealth and pleasures by any means necessary. He becomes depraved.

But since God is real, and His Love is Almighty, then He would create only that which is real; that is, that which is useful, beneficial, and beautiful. Genesis 1:31 (KJB). For this reason, God turned emptiness into the real and useful idea of nothing which idea He gave to His intelligent humans for them to use to identify emptiness and vanity whenever they encountered it. God formed His universe out of His ideas of a real something and a real nothing. Genesis 1:1 (KJB).

Every idea, every feeling, every useful invention of humans, every plan made by the use of logic and mathematics, every useful system from the wheel to a spacecraft, comprises only those elements that are real. Human intelligence can use the real idea of nothing to identify that which proves to be empty and useless so that it can be usefully discarded from human reality. Ideas cannot be discarded from reality, but the useless systems that they form can be. Intelligence gets them out of the way.