Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes. 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".
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Ecclesiastes 1:1-2:
1 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 |
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Ecclesiastes 1:3-11:
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 2:3:
I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. |
Apparently Solomon thought that under the influence of wine he might obtain deeper insights than those which come through sober reflection, but again he was disappointed. The stimulation afforded by alcohol did not give him the flashes of awareness he was seeking. He did not let himself become slave of drink during the time, however, for he used his intelligence to avoid the trap of making alcohol a crutch, an opiate, or an escape. So when he realized it offered him no help, he abandoned it.
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Eccleasiastes 2:10:
And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. |
"Addiction exists wherever persons are internally compelled to give energy to things that are not true desires. To define it directly, addiction is a state of compulsion, obsession, or preoccupation that enslaves a person's will and desire. Addiction sidetracks and eclipses the energy of our deepest, truest desire for love and goodness. We succumb because the energy of our desire becomes attached, nailed, to behaviors, objects, or people. Attachment, then, is the process that enslaves desire and creates the state of addiction" -Gerald G May MD "Addiction & Grace" [P14]
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Solomon soon found mirth and pleasure to be vanity. What does noisy, flashy mirth towards making a man happy? The manifold devices of men's hearts, to get satisfaction from the world, and their changing from one thing to another, are like the restlessness of a man in a fever. Perceiving it was folly to give himself to wine, he next tried the costly amusements of princes. The poor, when they read such a description, are ready to feel discontent. But the remedy against all such feelings is in the estimate of it all by the owner himself. All was vanity and vexation of spirit: and the same things would yield the same result to us, as to Solomon. Having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. His wisdom remained with him; a strong understanding, with great human knowledge. But every earthly pleasure, when unconnected with better blessings, leaves the mind as eager and unsatisfied as before. Happiness arises not from the situation in which we are placed. It is only through Jesus Christ that final blessedness can be attained. --Matthew Henry's Commentary
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Ecclesiastes 2:16:
For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool! |
Solomon found that knowledge and prudence were preferable to ignorance and folly, though human wisdom and knowledge will not make a man happy. The most learned of men, who dies a stranger to Christ Jesus, will perish equally with the most ignorant; and what good can commendations on earth do to the body in the grave, or the soul in hell? And the spirits of just men made perfect cannot want them. So that if this were all, we might be led to hate our life, as it is all vanity and vexation of spirit.
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Ecclesiastes 3:1-9:
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. |
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 |
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 3:13:
And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. |
God encourages hard work, but this is always balanced out by rest. His gift of the Sabbath has so many benefits. “Better is a handful of rest than a double handful of hard work and striving after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 4:6). The Ten Commandments put it this way: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work” (Exodus 20:9, 10, NKJV). According to the Bible, the work must be enjoyed. Make meal time a happy time. “Every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:13).
Sleep Is Important. |
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Ecclesiastes 5:2:
“Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven and you on earth: therefore let your words be few.” |
When we make a commitment, unless we find it to be a sinful one, we are to carry out that commitment. The great example we have is God’s commitment to sinners.
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Ecclesiastes 5:13-17:
“There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt. 14 When those riches were lost through a bad investment and he had fathered a son, then there was nothing to support him. 15 As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand. 16 This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? 17 Throughout his life he also eats in darkness with great vexation, sickness and anger.” |
Solomon calls miserly behavior a grievous evil, literally a “sick” evil. He uses the phrase under the sun as a recurring description of life on earth. This wounded wickedness is riches being hoarded by their owner to his own hurt. Someone is amassing riches and the riches lead to self-destruction. In this case, the self-destruction comes about through hoarding. The word for hurt is “ra’,” the same word used for evil earlier in the verse.
Hoarded riches is typically a symptom of a warped perspective that we can control circumstances. Believing that having a pile of money or possessions makes us safe or happy. All the while declining to actually enjoy the wealth or do any good with it. It is noteworthy that Solomon declares hoarding to lead to our own hurt. |
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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:
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 |