Ecclesiastes

Transcript

So, as you probably know, Ecclesiastes is one of the books in the section of scripture considered the wisdom literature, which generally includes the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Now, I would say obviously the whole canon of scripture is wisdom literature, but those particular books don't fit into any other niche like history, prophecy, or epistles. Ecclesiastes is a Greek word that translates the Hebrew word kohelet, which means an assembler, a lecturer, or a preacher, and Ecclesiastes means member of an assembly or one who assembles. And in fact, that word kohelet is in the first verse and it's translated as preacher or teacher. We have that there in Ecclesiastes 1 verse 1, the words of kohelet, the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. You'll also notice that Ecclesiastes includes the word ekklesia, which is the word that we frequently use in place of church, we use them kind of interchangeably, which means an assembly, particularly a religious one or an assembly of called out ones. And that Greek word ekklesia, as we know, is the word that most translations translate church in the New Testament. So I'd say what we have with this title, Ecclesiastes, is the idea that these are the words of the teacher of the Ecclesiastes, and as such, they're particularly important to us as members in the Ecclesiastes. So who wrote Ecclesiastes? Well, there are debates about that like there are about most things when scholars get thinking about things, but was it Solomon? Was it a separate author recording Solomon's words? Either there's a writer who writes about the teacher or the teacher kind of strangely uses the third person to describe himself in the beginning and the end of the book. Some believe it was also a later king of Judah in Jerusalem in the line of David, and some believe it was a writer after the exile. Ecclesiastes, as I said, is bookended with an opening and a closing that sound like they're written by a separate author from the subject who provides the content of the book. So it starts, as we saw in the last slide, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. So this is describing this preacher in the third person. And then the book ends in verse 8 of chapter 12. Vanity of vanities, so kind of bookending, says the preacher, all is vanity. Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care, sounds like Solomon, right? The preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books, there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, for God will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing, whether good or evil. So that beginning and ending reads like a separate author opens and closes the book and then records the words of the preacher where the pronouns change from the third to the first person through the body of the book. Whether there's a separate author or not, the majority believe that the content is Solomon's, and to me that makes the most sense, due in part to the descriptors that are used of the preacher, you know, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, the writer of many proverbs. He describes himself in the body of the book in Ecclesiastes 1 verse 16, I have acquired great wisdom, he says, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me. My heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge, and we can compare that to the description of Solomon made in First Kings chapter 10. Thus, King Solomon excelled in all the kings of the earth, in riches and in wisdom and the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Clearly, also, the teacher is rich or the preacher is rich. And in Ecclesiastes 2, he says in verse 7, I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women and many concubines. Sounds like Solomon, right? The delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also, my wisdom remained with me. So all of these things, I think, sound exactly like Solomon. And so we'll work on the assumption that either Solomon wrote the book or is the subject whose wisdom is recorded in the book. So concluding that Solomon is the teacher of the Ecclesia in the book, let's focus on the content of the book. What are the primary themes of Ecclesiastes? Well, they can, as you probably know well, can be disturbing. They can be discouraging. They can be dark, to be honest. There's even an element of hopelessness in the book. Until we think, I think about why Solomon says what he says in the book. So the first theme is this march of time. The march of time is ceaseless and it's unstoppable. And then there's a theme about death. We're all going to die. There's a theme about random nature of life and irony. And then the biggest theme is this vanity or the Hebrew word hebel, which means a smoke or a vapor, an emptiness. It's translated different versions, vanity, meaningless, futile, without purpose. And that word hebel appears 73 times in the Old Testament. And almost 40 of those times is both the author and or Solomon, if they're the same person, using it in Ecclesiastes. So almost 40 of the 73 times occurred in this one small book in the Old Testament. I would add that there is a crucially important qualifier for these themes that the teacher deals with through the book. And that qualifier is a huge unless. And we'll get to that. And I think it's the reason this this this unless qualifier is the reason why this book is written for or to the Ecclesia. So the first theme that we're going to look at is that of time. The march of time is both ceaseless and unstoppable, and the teacher here in Ecclesiastes also recognizes that there is timing for events, both good and bad, through the experiences of life. It starts very early in the book and in Ecclesiastes 1 and verse 4, Solomon writes, The generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises. What has been is what will be and what has been done is what will be done. And there's nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, see, this is new? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. So the teacher observes several things here. The earth is eternal. We are not. We can climb a mountain that's been stood for thousands of years. We can get to the top of that mountain. We can look out over the wonder of creation and be just one of many who have come and gone, who have climbed that same mountain, who have stood and looked in that same place out at the wonder of creation. The cycle of day and night are also eternal. And we're reminded of God's covenant with Noah that he makes in Genesis chapter eight, where he says to Noah, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. But what about people? Well, just like the animals, and we'll see that later, we have a beginning and an end. Yes, the human cycle, the life cycle that we go through is a cycle that repeats for many people. But as for our individual experience, there's but one ending. There's but one beginning. The third observation I think the teacher makes is that there's nothing new in the surprises of humankind. Are there technological and medical and scientific breakthroughs and advances? Yes. But that's true of every age. And so really, it's not new. And has life improved? Well, that's debatable, right? I'd say yes and no in terms of humankind making a difference in the experience of life. The true litmus test would be, is our life expectancy greater now than, say, thousands of years ago when we read the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90, where he says, the years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80, yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone and we fly away. In the year 2022, the world life expectancy was 72. So have we made advances in that regard? No, there's nothing new under the sun. Finally, he makes the observation that the achievements and the lives of the billions of humans who have come before us are almost entirely forgotten. You know, we have history books, but the vast majority of life is not recorded. Should our Lord remain away, the same will be true about us for those who come after us. And so all of that sounds pretty bleak, right? And I would say if that's our life's consistency, if that's all our life is, then yes, it is bleak. And that's sadly the case for the majority of humankind. However, the teacher doesn't leave it there. So we have to continue exploring what he says. I also said at the beginning of this theme that the teacher recognizes that there is timing for events, both good and bad, through the experiences of life. And we find that particularly in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, for everything, there's a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up what's planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek, and a time to lose, a time to keep, and a time to cast away, a time to tear, and a time to sew, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, a time to love, and a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace.

Birth and healing, building, laughing, embracing, love, and peace are all wonderful elements in the life that we experience. But they don't come without death, and illness, and destruction, and sorrow, and estrangement, and hate, and war. The human experience is punctuated with good and bad times. And Solomon continues in chapter 3 verse 16, this section in the ESV entitled From Dust to Dust. So here Solomon reminds us that there will be a time for judgment also. And I might have it wrong, but it seems to me in the context of this passage that that Solomon's pointing out our nature, despite our successes with obedience, and righteousness, and justice, we still have the failures of wickedness, and we will ultimately all need to rely on God's grace when judgment comes. So we'll look then at the next theme, and we'll go through these themes. I was going to stop for comments and thoughts, but I think we just will move along and then at the end we can open it up for thoughts. So the next theme is this theme of death. Death of course is inevitable for all since Genesis chapter 3, since the beginning of time, which of course in Genesis 3 is revealed to us the reason why death exists, right? So we come back to Genesis 3 verse 17, and God says to Adam, because you have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you are taken, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. The model is there from the beginning. Man sins because of temptation, and God curses men to death because of sin. James in his epistle he puts it this way in chapter 1 verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. And we know this process intimately, right? We know it very well. The pattern of our desires luring, enticing, and tempting us conceives and it gives birth to sin, and sin grows up and it kills us. And it's interesting, and I don't think coincidental, that the language of the life cycle is used by James here of conception and then birth and then maturity and then finally death. It's the cycle that has happened to humankind billions of times with only one exception since Adam and Eve. So what does Solomon have to say about death? Well, we come over to Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 18, Solomon says, I said in my heart, with regard to the children of man, that God is testing them, that they may see they themselves are but beasts.

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same. As one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. This can be pretty discouraging, right? Solomon rightly lumps humankind in with the animals because we all die. And at the end of the day, we're all given a choice, which we'll come to in a bit. And I think that's the thing that separates us from the animals is what we do with this choice. It's a test by God, says Solomon, the creator, to show us that we're all but beasts and have the same life cycle as the beasts and are as valuable as beasts, unless, and there's that big unless that we'll come to again. We come over to Ecclesiastes 4, and Solomon says, again, I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. On the side of their oppressors, there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. Again, pretty discouraging language here, right? The phrase that comes to mind is there are fates worse than death. And we can think of our brothers and sisters in Africa who are enduring the oppression and persecution of brutal civil war. We can think of our Iranian brothers and sisters who flee for their lives and live as refugees to escape torture and a death sentence for the sake of following Christ. And it's not just that, though, you know, coming from my own 33 years of experience in the medical field, I've seen countless cases of people enduring suffering that is

fates worse than death. But we still don't need to be hopeless. We don't need to be discouraged. And there is a good part, and we're going to get to that.

In Ecclesiastes 8, verse 7, Solomon says, For he does not know what is to be. For who can tell him how it will be? No man has the power to retain the spirit or power over the day of death. There's no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. Also pretty hopeless sounding. We have no control. Death is coming and we don't know when. When it does come, there's no way for us to retain life. However, that last statement there, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it, implies hope. If we give ourselves to wickedness, it will not, it cannot deliver us. But there's an implied alternative, and that's what we'll be focusing on.

He comes in Ecclesiastes 9, verse 2, to say, It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. This is an evil in all that is done unto the Son, that the same event happens to all. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward for the memory of them is forgotten. Solomon points out that death is the great equalizer. Good or bad, rich or poor, clean or unclean, worshiper or atheist, death comes to all. And we're resigned to that, we know that. But thanks be to God and our Lord Jesus Christ, death and hopelessness are not the same thing. As Paul says to the Romans in Romans chapter 3, For all have sinned and fall short of the

as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So we'll close the death theme and we'll move to the third theme.

And that is one of what I would call chance and irony. The actual word chance that's used once in the Ecclesiastes

is the Hebrew word pegga. And it's here in Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 11 where Solomon says, again, I saw that under the Son, the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance, pegga, happen to them all. In itself, this is a very obscure word. It occurs only one other time in the Old Testament, it's a Hebrew word, so only one other time in the Old Testament. And interestingly, that occurrence is also in the words of Solomon. It comes in 1 Kings chapter 5 where Solomon says to Hiram the king of Tyre, You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God, because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. And that word misfortune is the other usage of pegga. That's the other translation from pegga. And that really fits the context here in Ecclesiastes 2, I think. When the slow win the race, when the weak win the battle, when the wise starve and the idiot is rich, we could rightly call that misfortune, or at least perhaps undeserved, right? But Solomon's point, I think, is that there are no guarantees in this life. It's kind of like playing plinko on the price is right, you know, pardon the secular reference, but there's this board of pegs, and we drop a disc to randomly bounce through the pegs and end up in a slot at the bottom. And the slot might be $20,000 or the slot might be zero. And that's oversimplification. But bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. In Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Solomon says, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income. Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. So more irony here, right? He who wants more is never satisfied. They who love being rich are never rich enough. The poor hungry ditch-digger will always get a better night's sleep than the fat rich guy who can buy all the comforts of life. In Ecclesiastes 6, Solomon says, There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind. A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. Again, this is the irony of life, isn't it? And other passages come to mind here. Back in Ecclesiastes 5, in verse 15, Solomon says, As he came from his mother's womb, he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil, that he may carry away in his hand. Just as he came, so shall he go. So we're born with nothing, we go with nothing. Jesus has a parable for this in Luke 12, the parable of the rich fool. In verse 15, Jesus said to them, Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I'll do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. One's life does not consist in the abundance of one's belongings. That's the doctrine of the world. He who has the most toys doesn't win. He just leaves behind the most toys. And Jesus's point at the end of the parable, and this is the big unless that we're coming to, is be rich toward God. When we lay up treasure in heaven, we're promised incorruption just like that treasure is incorruptible. When our treasure is here and now, expect the corruption of the moth and rust that corrupts in the future. And we'll come back now to Ecclesiastes for one final passage in this theme of chance and irony. It's back in Ecclesiastes 7, verse 15, Solomon says, In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there's a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil doing. And again, Solomon is observing that there's this irony, right? There's no guarantees or what we might consider fairness in this life. Good people may have their lives cut short, bad people may prosper and die at a good old age. And we can either look at this as an element of the hopelessness of life, or we can look at it as a wake-up call to prioritize how we live our life every day that we're given. And so we'll look at the last and the largest theme of Ecclesiastes and then make some important conclusions. The final theme is vanity or this Hebrew word, habel. That Hebrew word is translated vanity, futility, or meaningless. And as I said, Ecclesiastes has more than half of the usage of that word in the entire Old Testament. So we have it right in the first chapter in verses 12 to 14. I, the preacher, have been king over Israel and Jerusalem, and I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after the wind. Solomon in his wisdom saw the futility in the busyness of life. It's like smoke, which appears to be solid and tangible, but when you try to grasp it, it just flows through your fingers. The endless pursuits of humankind are ultimately pointless, like striving to chase and capture the wind. Then in chapter 2 verse 1, I said in my heart, Come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter it is mad, and of pleasure what use is it? I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. Solomon was in a unique position with his riches and his wisdom to dabble in all the pleasures of life, and we know he did, right? What was his conclusion? They're all vain pursuits. At least they are if those things are the focus of our lives. They're vain pursuits.

And Solomon proceeds in Ecclesiastes to go into a pretty dark place,

and we come over to Ecclesiastes 2 verse 17, So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. This is strong, sad language, right? Depression is a real problem. It can be easy to get into a rut and feel like life is meaningless, even hate life. Getting motivation, finding satisfaction, finding meaning and purpose can all evade us from time to time. And I think like Solomon here is airing his heart, it's important for us to share those difficulties and burdens with each other. I think of Paul's words in his first letter to the Corinthians. He says in chapter 12, But God has so composed the body that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. When life seems hopeless

and we feel nothing but despair, let's reach out for help. And let's be willing to offer help, not only in prayer, but in support and love for one another, knowing that we're all in this together. And of course, as we go through the body of Ecclesiastes, there are many other examples of vanity, futility, meaninglessness in Ecclesiastes. But it's time, I think, now to focus on that big unless that we've been alluding to. Focus on the hope that the book brings. Is all hopeless? Is all vanity our efforts all for naught? Well, absolutely not. It depends on where our focus is. It depends on what we value in this life that God has given us. It depends on how we feel about and how we respond to the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ for us. Solomon punctuates Ecclesiastes with these little visions of hope and meaning. He says in Ecclesiastes 5 verse 1, Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it. It's better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, for when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity, but God is the one you must fear. Let's not be rash. Let's listen more than we talk. Let's keep our promises to God and our Lord Jesus Christ and each other. Let's not let our mouths lead us into sin, but instead be quiet and fear God. Why? Why should we do that? Because in the reverence and in the love of God, there's deliverance. We come over to Ecclesiastes 7 verse 17, Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand. For the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. And I think it's important here to recognize that Solomon reminds us that we're not going to be perfect. We're failing creatures, right? There's not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins, all but one. And so seeking righteousness and focusing on a life which is dependent on God brings meaning, it brings purpose, and it brings deliverance to an otherwise vain and meaningless existence that ends only in death. Solomon tells us that we have a choice to make. He says in Ecclesiastes 8 verse 10, Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place, and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity, because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily. The heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked. Neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. It ultimately will not go well for the wicked. It ultimately will go well for those whose faith is attributed to them as righteousness. There is hope. There is meaning to life. And Solomon is trying to teach the Ecclesia this. Let's have open hearts to his wisdom. They should be like goads whose sharp points direct us on the way to life. These words of Solomon are ultimately the words of our one shepherd, as the book closes, who we long to see and whose reign and rule we long to be under. We close with Ecclesiastes 12 verse 11. The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails. Firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. The end of the matter? All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. And so thanks for your patience and your time this evening.