Army ant colonies spend their lives on the move foraging for food. A few simple habits help them do what they do. For example, each ant follows a trail of pheromones left by the one ahead. Occasionally, the trail is disrupted and sends a group of ants off course.
An ant veering off course may loop back around and find the trail once more. Unfortunately, now a new trail has been laid that can eventually lead thousands of ants to follow an endless circle ending in death by exhaustion in what is called an ant mill. Thousands of ants going with the flow, following the crowd, working themselves to death without ever realizing there is a problem.
In Ecclesiastes we are confronted with a life on this earth apart from God. This life ‘under the sun,’ is a vain life and a meaningless life. The third verse says “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” In truth, apart from God we are all just going round and round till death without accomplishing any lasting purpose. Like ants, ‘under the sun’ we are blind to God’s ways and unknowingly stuck in an ant mill along with the rest of the world. We may work hard and have a following or we may find a path of ease but ‘under the sun’ and without God it is all meaningless. There is no hope for an ant stuck in an ant mill, but God calls to us through His word warning us of the danger we are in. In love, He sends His word to show us a path of purpose and meaning. We are not made for the ant mill.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 says “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”