I recently finished teaching through the book of Ecclesiastes for the third time this spring. I worked through the book with the 11th graders earlier this spring, then the 12th graders while simultaneously teaching it to a group of adults at my church. After all that time spent in Solomon's masterpiece, all I can say is, "What a book!"
What I would like to do in this post is offer a summation of the book as I have come to understand it over these past months. In doing so, I do not suggest that I have mastered it. Far from it! This is a book that demands a lifetime. I have only scratched its surface.
In many ways, Ecclesiastes is unlike any other book in the Bible. Written by Solomon probably toward the end of his life, it is a mix of autobiographical narrative combined with proverbial statements that present the reader with a worldview proposal. The book is then an invitation to accept and integrate this worldview into one's life, and in doing so, offer the hope of meaning and purpose in an otherwise meaningless and purposeless existence.
The main idea of the book, which I will come to in a moment, flows out of a question posed in 1:3: "What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?" (NASB). In posing this question, Solomon is asking the question that most people at one time or another ask as well: what is the point of this existence? We are born, we live, we die, but what is the point? Is there any profit for a man for all his labor? Is there anything that carries over once we have lived our life? Is there any surplus? As I said, at some point in time, we all ask this question, or at the very least, we come right up to the point of asking this question (whether we actually do or not depends on whether we want to actually discover the answer).
For Solomon, as for us, what is painfully obvious about life is that it is always changing. The only certainty is that there is little that we can be certain of. Everything changes; nothing is permanent. In fact, some interpreters have argued that is precisely what Solomon is saying when he ascribes life to "vanity," a Hebrew word which means "vapor" or "breath." In this view, Solomon's employment of this word, repeated twenty-two times throughout the book, forces us to recognize the temporary nature of life. Like the vapor exhaled on a cold winter's day dissipates and drifts away, so too does life. It is as though Solomon looks at life, with all it's changes and insecurities and declares it for what it is: transient and temporary. This is its nature. And because it is temporary in nature , it is a poor source for meaning and purpose, the very thing man so desperately seeks.
And in this transient world where there is little solid ground upon which to settle ourselves and begin to answer the opening question of the book, the very hope of finding an answer begins to diminish, to dissolve away like the very vapor Solomon compares it to. Ecclesiastes reaches into the chest of its reader and begins to squeeze his heart with this terrible revelation: he can't find what he so desperately seeks. Meaning, purpose, satisfaction, these are all beyond his reach. The desire is there, for God Himself has implanted that desire within the heart of man (3:11b), yet the ability to find it lies beyond reach (3:11c). For all the incredible things man can accomplish, he cannot find the answer to this most basic of questions. And why is this so? God has so designed it so that man will only find meaning, satisfaction, and purpose when he comes to understand that such things are only found in God. It is God who has given life as a gift to be enjoyed (2:24), who purposes every event under the sun (3:1), and who ultimately is the source of joy (6:20). In short, Ecclesiastes is a call to live life by faith in the God who alone can answer man's most pressing question: what is the point?
And this brings me to the big idea of the book. If we will apply this wisdom--to live a life of faith in the sovereign God who is Lord over time and the events that occur in it, who gives life as a gift, and especially if we begin to do so in our youth (12:1), at the end of life we will be able to look back and say, "There was meaning and purpose to my life, and even though there were some hard times, all in all it was a satisfying life. And the future has meaning as well, because there is everlasting profit to be enjoyed once this life is complete." Meaning and purpose in the day-to-day, and the promise of surplus for tomorrow, are available to the Christian who walks in faith with the Lord of meaning and purpose. That is the main idea of Ecclesiastes.
The Apostle Paul lived his life this way. In Acts 20:24, when he was addressing the Ephesian elders before he went to Jerusalem, he said this: "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God." This was his worldview, his philosophy of life. It was meaningful, satisfying and joy-filled. It wasn't always pleasant, and at times to someone looking in from the outside it may have seemed as though some of the terrible experiences of his life argued against his worldview and the worldview of Ecclesiastes.
But Paul never let the anomalies and apparent contradictions deconstruct what he knew to be true: God had a plan and a purpose for Paul, and that plan and purpose extended from this life into the next. For Paul, his responsibility was simple: "Fear God and keep His commandments" (Eccl.12:13). And the result of living this worldview? Paul himself summarizes it in his second letter Timothy: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing" (2 Tim.4:7-8; Eccl.12:14).
These are the words of a man who had grasped the message of Ecclesiastes. In a world that is ever-changing and seems to provide little in the way of solid ground upon which to find our footing, there is hope. Hope that, when the curtain of this life begins to close, we too can look back over however many years the Lord has given us and conclude with Solomon, Paul and the countless others who have faithfully walked with Jesus on the mountaintops as well as in the valleys: "It was a meaningful life. I am satisfied. And now comes the profit and surplus of eternity in the presence of the Savior Himself. Joy beyond anything I can imagine!"
Compared to this, everything else is just vanity and grasping after wind.
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