INTRODUCING..... ECCLESIASTES The Pilgrim’s Guide to the Bible No. 34

There is a time for everything,    

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,    

a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal,    

a time to tear down and a time to build, 

a time to weep and a time to laugh,    

a time to mourn and a time to dance, 

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,    

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 

a time to search and a time to give up,    

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,    

a time to be silent and a time to speak, 

a time to love and a time to hate,    

a time for war and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

So goes one of the best known and an often-quoted passage from the Old Testament. The problem that we face, quite simply, is: what does it mean? It may be a beautifully poetic passage, but does it actually teach us anything that we don’t already know? Is this a profound expression of faith, or is it just a meaningless piece of platitude?

Ecclesiastes is a book that poses questions.

The book of Ecclesiastes is credited to Solomon, one of the richest and most influential kings of Israel. His conclusion, as he looks back over a life of abundant prosperity is that nothing – neither power, nor pleasure, nor prestige, nor affluence can fill the God-shaped space in the human psyche, except a living relationship with God Himself.

 ‘Meaningless, meaningless, says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!’ (Or in the King James Bible: Vanity of vanities) Ecclesiastes 1:2.

What is the point of pleasure? It is foolish. What is the point of work? It only brings grief. What is the point of wealth? You’ll only spend it. What is the point of living? You’ll only die at the end of it.

What is the purpose of this book? True, it says some good things about God, but other passages seem to be a gross contradiction of much of what we are normally taught about faith. At one point, it even seems to be saying, ‘You may as well eat, drink and be merry, because nothing else matters’ (5:18-20 – a paraphrase). Is that really the abundant life that Jesus came to tell us about?

To find the answer, we must probe deeper. The Books of Wisdom in the Old Testament, of which this is one, have as their underlying theme the thought that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. They seek to point us towards faith in God. But the book of Ecclesiastes only reaches this conclusion at the very end. It finishes by saying:

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandment, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” (12:13-14)

But it takes the entire book to reach this conclusion. It is hinted at earlier on, but the main approach of the book seems to be coming from the opposite direction. Ecclesiastes sets out to discover how far mankind can get without reference to God. It takes the line of the humanist - the preacher considers the observable world, and only comes to God when all else has failed. What we find in Ecclesiastes is a record of all that human thinking, and natural religion, has been able to discover concerning the meaning and goal of life.

It begins by depicting life as an eternal treadmill. Generations come and go, but the earth remains the same; the sun rises and sets with regularity, but the earth just keeps on spinning; streams keep flowing into the sea, but the sea is never full; nothing is new, and the endeavours of mankind will soon be forgotten.

Pursuit of knowledge is dismissed as ‘chasing after wind’ (1:14). Pursuit of pleasure is folly. Material success leads nowhere. “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). Work, too, is meaningless, leading the Preacher to conclude, “All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless” (2:23). Fatalism, natural religion, wealth, even morality prove to be equally futile.

So the great question that is posed in Ecclesiastes is, “Is life worth living?” And initially, the answer seems to be, “No”. “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” But as we read through the book, it becomes clear that there is a different answer.

It is when we reach the end of the human approach - human endeavour by itself will never be sufficient to provide a full meaning to life - that we come to the reality of God. In Ecclesiastes, we meet God at his most formidable. We are confronted with a God who is not in the least impressed by our chatter, or behaviour. Chapter 5 begins by asserting, “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth; do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few ” (5:1-2).

The main emphasis upon God is focussed in three areas.

God our Creator. “As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things” (11:5). It is God who brings to life, and God who causes the world to be. We are merely His agents upon the face of the earth. “Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?” (7:13).

God is Sovereign. Ultimately, all that we are, and do, is a result of the divine initiative. “I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!” (1:13). A mere man has no power within himself to dictate to God, or to make demands upon Him.

God is unsearchable Wisdom. “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (3:11) God is too great for man to comprehend. The pattern of the created order is beyond our comprehension. The consequence of this is that we are obliged to live in the present, to accept what happens, and leave the wider picture to God. The moral is that we should be aware of our limitations and have faith for what we cannot comprehend. The wisdom of man is but nothing when contrasted with God’s wisdom.

And the ultimate goal?

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: ‘Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.’(12:13-14)

The preacher has been looking around the world. Now, he looks up, sees God, and is satisfied. True happiness and satisfaction, can only be found by turning to God. Without faith in God, there can only be vanity, disappointment, emptiness.

So the warnings are here. Life without God is vanity - it will pass away, and ultimately will be futile. If we ignore God, we may as well just eat, drink and be merry, because there is nothing else to live for. But if we want to discover true satisfaction, and avoid a life of bitterness and meaningless pursuit, then we are called to turn towards God and see Him as our reason for existing.

St. Augustine writing in the 5th century expresses this sentiment well when he says:

‘You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless till it finds its rest in you.’

Let us pray, along with Augustine, that we will find rest in God, our Creator, and our Redeemer.