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Ecclesiastes 1
Haystack bible commentary"Stacks and stacks of commentary...."
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Ecclesiastes, is a book of the Jewish Ketuvim and of the Old Testament. The title is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Koheleth, meaning "Gatherer", but traditionally translated as "Teacher" or "Preacher".
==Ecclesiastes 1:1:2:
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The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. |
 Wachman Nee
“Man may think human intellect and reasoning are almighty, that the brain is able to comprehend all truths of the world; but the verdict of God's Word is, "vanity of vanities.” ― Watchman Nee |
==Ecclesiastes 1:3-11:
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3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. 11 No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them. |
In 1961 the term "Theater of the Absurd" was coined to describe various playwrights who authored plays which caught characters in hopeless and meaningless situations amidst various word plays and cliches with much repetitions and meaningless dialogue.
For some of you it will now make sense why the "theater of the absurd" can be a descriptive of today's society. By and large contemporary culture and many of its fruits either is or is bordering on the absurd. However, those who embrace the absurd emphatically believe it to be very logical, which ironically is quite absurd. It is clear, at this point, that those who claim to have put much thought into it and then come up with the conclusion that "life is inherently without meaning;" have truly not put much thought into it at all, while at the same time playing/acting/living in the worldwide stage of the absurd. . When man loses his sense of purpose; the decay of his culture will soon follow. Welcome to Nothing from Nowhere. In Ecclesiastes it tells us that life is meaningless without God. Everything Is Meaningless |
JC Riley
Solomon realized and wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:8 that “The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor or the ear filled with hearing.” We each wrestle between two opposing prayers/desires: ‘not my will by Yours be done’ and ‘not Your will but mines be done.’ In our hearts we desire more than we need and far more than we can handle. In Jesus’ instructions on prayer He taught His followers to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11. Although He was referring to physical food, I think there is an application for us in other areas. For example, we can pray ‘Give us enough knowledge for today, comfort for today, encouragement for today’, etc. For today makes it clear that we will be content but having our needs met in the moment and trust God with the future. It’s when we get lost in worrying about the future that we lose sight of the sufficiency of God. Yet, we seem to constantly desire more. The question was asked to the Israelites: “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?” Isaiah 55:2. We don’t usually want more of what is good for us but more of what is not. There are some things we will have to say “no” to in this life. Indeed, there are some desires that would weaken our witness and even turn us away from God if we were to realize them. --JC Riley; The Voice: The Uncomfortable Truth of Christianity 4.6.24
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Ecclesiastes 1:3-4:
What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. |
The word for WORK is the Hebrew ‘AMAL and looks at hard work. No easy job is being described here but the hard toil that has been the lot of man since the fall:
A persons time on earth comes to an end so quickly that one wonders if the effort to accomplish anything is really worth while. Our generation, with all its achievements, will pass, and another one will come, and yet the earth, the dirt in which man is cursed to toil, outlasts him. |
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Ecclesiastes 1:3-18: What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
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Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 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! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted. I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
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==Ecclesiastes 3:1-9:
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 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 get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, 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 of war, and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
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The scope of these verses is to show,
1. That we live in a world of changes, that the several events of time, and conditions of human life, are vastly different from one another, and yet occur promiscuously, and we are continually passing and repassing between them, as in the revolutions of every day and every year. In the wheel of nature (Jam. iii. 6) sometimes one spoke is uppermost and by and by the contrary; there is a constant ebbing and flowing, waxing and waning; from one extreme to the other does the fashion of this world change, ever did, and ever will. 2. That every change concerning us, with the time and season of it, is unalterably fixed and determined by a supreme power; and we must take things as they come, for it is not in our power to change what is appointed for us. And this comes in here as a reason why, when we are in prosperity, we should by easy, and yet not secure--not to be secure because we live in a world of changes and therefore have no reason to say, To-morrow shall be as this day (the lowest valleys join to the highest mountains), and yet to be easy, and, as he had advised (ch. ii. 24), to enjoy the good of our labor, in a humble dependence upon God and his providence, neither lifted up with hopes, nor cast down with fears, but with evenness of mind expecting every event |
Oct 15, 2015: The Gospel Herald reported:" Saddleback church pastor Rick Warren has encouraged those struggling with grief to remember that while it is painful, it is also a healthy and helpful emotion that should be viewed as a gift from God. The pastor and bestselling author made his comments during a recent devotional about grief based around Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, which states,"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens .... a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance." Warren begins by emphasizing that God doesn't expect Christians to be happy all the time, as "sometimes the only appropriate, logical response to life is grief." "The Bible says you are to grieve over your losses, including your disappointments, your sin, the suffering in the world, and your friends who are spiritually lost," the Purpose Driven Life author writes. However, God does want His people to "be intentional in your grief." |
The farmer or gardener is not wholly free. The climate, the nature of the soil, and the seasonal factors limit his selection of crops. He must sow in the springtime and reap in the fall, and no amount of effort on his part can alter these dictums of nature.
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Ecclesiastes 6:7:
All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled. |
The word translated "appetite" is the Hebrew word neplesh. The word is often rendered "soul" in several other Old Testament passages. The soul is not satisfied. Work doesn't bring relief from depression or even satisfaction if there are conflicts which feed the soul with discouragement.
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Ecclesiastes 7:10:
Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. |
George Ball observed, “Nostalgia is a seductive liar.” Often our memories play tricks on us, tempting us to believe the past was better than it actually was. Solomon warns us of this in Ecclesiastes 7:10: “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.”
The ultimate danger of feeding nostalgia is not the immediate pain of longing for the past, but the damaging effect it can have on our beliefs. Dwelling on skewed memories (whether exaggerated positively or negatively) can twist our view of God, others, and ourselves. We must catechize ourselves with God’s Word, not with our nostalgia. Memories will fail, God’s Word won’t (Matt. 24:35). --Blake Glosson; Reformed Theological Seminary. |
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Ecclesiastes 7:29:
“God made men upright, but they have sought out many devices” |
Is this saying about the concept of “original sin.”? It may signify the whole of human devices, imaginations, inventions, artifice, with all their products; arts, sciences, schemes, plans, and all that they have found out for the destruction or melioration of life. God has given man wondrous faculties; and of them he has made strange uses, and sovereign abuses: and they have been, in consequence, at one time his help, and at another his bane.
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Ecclesiastes: 8:4:
Where the Word of a King is, there is peace.. |
"God is infinite in power, so let us fear Him. "Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence?" (Jeremiah 5:22). He has power to cast souls into hell. "Who knoweth the power of (God's) anger (Ps 90:11). The same breath that made us can dissolve us. ("His fury is poured out like fire, the rocks thrown down by him" (Nahum 1:6). Solomon says, "Where the word of a king is, there is power," much more where the word of God is. The fear of God will drive out all other base fear
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Ecclesiastes 8:11: Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil
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If you ever wonder why man sets himself to do evil, the answer is "because he thinks he can get away with it." He has assured himself there is no consequence for his actions. He is, however, simply taking advantage of God's patience.
God offers a response as laid out in Jeremiah: Jeremiah 23:14-20: "But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.” Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.” Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly." |
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Ecclesiastes 11: 1:
Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. |
When the Nile overflows its banks the weeds perish and the soil is disintegrated. The rice-seed being cast into the water takes root, and is found in due time growing in healthful vigour. One has also interpreted it: The expression “cast your bread on the surface of the waters,” is taken from the custom of sowing seed by casting it from boats into overflowing rivers, or in marshy ground. When the waters recede, the grain will fall to the soil and spring up. “Waters” here could be an expression used to represent people, many people, who are recipients of our benevolent efforts, who in turn return to us benevolence in our time of need.
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Ecclesiastes 11:2:
Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. |
This could be speaking to the subject of benevolence of sowing, but, realizing that we do not know what could come up in the land. So, dont set your heart on riches. We do not know what the future may hold. God will hold to his promises in season, but we dont know what each season will bring in the land.
First, that Solomon lays out the groundwork for diversification. I like the balance of having 7-8 “eggs in the basket,” rather than just one that would leave us with nothing if it turned out bad. But also, not 200 miniscule eggs that are worth next to nothing individually. In this case, if any one investment performed very well, it would make very little impact on the portfolio as a whole. On the other hand, if you had seven investments and any one of them performed well, it would have a decent impact on the portfolio as a whole. |
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Ecclesiaste 11: 5:
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. |
Self explanatory scripture.
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==ecclesiastes 12:11-12:
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Ecclesiastes 12:11-12:
11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. |
 Richard Baxter
“Make careful choice of the books which you read: let the holy Scriptures ever have the preeminence. Let Scripture be first and most in your hearts and hands and other books be used as subservient to it.While reading ask yourself:
1. Could I spend this time no better? 2. Are there better books that would edify me more? 3. Are the lovers of such a book as this the greatest lovers of the Book of God and of a holy life? 4. Does this book increase my love to the Word of God, kill my sin, and prepare me for the life to come? "The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body." Ecclesiastes 12:11-12 ― Richard Baxter |