what does the bible say about emptiness?

Answer 1

Have a look at the book of Ecclesiastes. It has great wisdom on the emptiness and meaningless of life without God. Link below.

What does man gain for his labour that he toils under the sun? (1:3)

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. (2:11)

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. (2:18-20)

These are just a few glimpses. If you take some time to think about everything we strive for in life. Sometimes it's meaningless and gives us an empty feeling. We work so hard that we become like slaves to our job. Why? Make money. Why? To eat, buy things. Why all these possession? Because it makes my life easier.

So we spend all our times buying things we don't have time to enjoy?

We grow up, get married, have kids, get old, and die, leaving all that we bought to other people. What does we leave with?

"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand." (Ecc. 5:15)

Sometimes we go for power or fame. Celebrities try so hard to be famous, then demand privacy and wonder why papprazzi are obsessed with their lives. Isn't that also meaningless? Is it so important who remembers who in history? Of the billions of the years passed, how many are truly remembered? And for what?

The wise teacher in Ecclesiastes calls us to "Remember the creator in the days of your youth." (12:1) It is God who controls all, and only by fulfilling our lives' purposes, as planned by God even before we are born, do we truly find satisfaction and purpose in each of our days.

For "Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4). The bible is to be our source of sustainance and strength also.

Jesus also puts it this way in John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Are we satisfied with a life of emptiness? Know that there's a God shaped hole in our hearts that only God alone can fill. Blessings to you.

Answer 2

The word “vain” in the Bible usually means “empty" and the word “vanity” 33 times meaning “emptiness.”

Christians live in the energy of the flesh instead of the energy of the Holy Spirit.

Here are some things that result in an empty life:

Religion without Redemption leads to an empty life.

Talent without the touch of God leads to an empty life.

Service without Spirit leads to an empty life.

Prayer without power leads to an empty life.

Worship without works leads to an empty life.

Answer 3

Isaiah 34:11 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain

11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.

Answer 4

Jesus said, drink of this water and you shall never thirst again. He also said I am the life and the way.

Answer 5

Do a search on "poured out" in www.biblegateway.com...

1 Samuel 1:14-16 (King James Version)
14And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.
15And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.
16Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.

Job 3:23-25 (King James Version)
23Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
24For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
25For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.


Job 30:15-17 (King James Version)
15Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.
16And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
17My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

Psalm 22:13-15 (King James Version)
13They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.