Several years ago, Donald Miller wrote a popular book titled Blue Like Jazz. I haven’t read the book, but I was intrigued by the Author’s Note at the beginning of the book:
I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God doesn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.
Perhaps the author of Ecclesiastes could have written a similar introduction to his book. I’m not sure how many of us have the guts to admit that often God doesn’t resolve. Deep down inside I think we all sense that is true, but we really have a hard time figuring out how to deal with those feelings. Maybe that’s why the book of Ecclesiastes intrigues us so much, but also why we don’t know quite what to do with it.
When compared to the rest of the Bible, Ecclesiastes is difficult because it is so different. The language is difficult; the book is filled with word plays and complex arguments; there are no references to major Biblical characters like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Jesus; there is not even any mention of God’s dealings with Israel, His chosen people. And because it is different there is a tendency to just read through the book so we can say that we’ve read it, without really attempting to deal with all these difficulties.
But as Paul makes quite clear in his second letter to Timothy:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16, 17 (NIV)
Since Ecclesiastes is without a doubt part of “all Scripture”, then that means that God has allowed it to remain there because it is useful and profitable for us. So we’re going to spend some time digging in to these words to see what treasures that we can mine that will teach us rebuke us, correct us and train us in righteousness.
I’m absolutely convinced that this is exactly the right time to do this. We live in a world that is full of chaos, a world that often seems to make no sense. We have people who are committed to killing others that don’t believe like they do in the name of serving their God. The global economy is in crisis. We see increasing crime in our own streets. Just this week, the Arizona Daily Star reported that the number of murders in Tucson last year was at an all-time high. And in the midst of all this turmoil, it’s really easy for us to ask the same question that the writer of Ecclesiastes addressed. “Is there a God, and, if there is, where is He?” In other words, how do we view God when life just doesn’t make sense?
I’m not sure exactly how long this journey is going to take. I’m certainly not planning to go into quite the same degree of detail with which we tackled the book of Ephesians. Instead of taking a verse or two at a time, we’ll probably look at half of a chapter or so each week. But my commitment is that over these next several months we will take whatever time we need to deal with even the most difficult portions of this book in order to understand them and apply them to our lives the very best that we can. So I would really appreciate your consistent prayer because I’m only going to be able to accomplish that task with God’s insight and guidance. It’s certainly not something I can do on my own.
I want to begin this morning with an overall introduction to the book so that we can put the book in its proper context. We’ll use the first three verses to guide us through that process:
1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.2 "Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher; "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."3 What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 (NKJV)
You probably noticed that I’m using the NKJV this morning, rather than the NIV, which I normally use, and I’m planning to continue to use that translation throughout this series. Although I generally like the NIV for its readability, the translators unfortunately chose to use the word “meaningless” to translate the Hebrew word that most other translations render “vanity”. We’ll discuss that particular word more in just a moment, but for now let me just say that this word is so significant to a proper understanding of the entire book that the use of the word “meaningless” results in a completely misleading idea about the main theme of the book. As we’ll see in our journey, the author is certainly not claiming that all life is meaningless. In fact, his purpose is actually to prove that our life here on this earth does have meaning and purpose, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense to us.
Title
In Hebrew, the title of the book comes from the word in verse 1 that most of our English translations render “Preacher” or “Teacher” – Qoheleth. That word comes from the root word which means “to gather” or “to assemble”. Although a precise definition of this term is difficult, it probably refers to someone who convenes or calls together an assembly. It could also be referring to someone who assembled all the sayings and material in the book, but that is much less likely in my opinion.
Our English title for the book comes from the title of the book in the Septuagint – the Greek word “ekklesiastes”. An “ekklesiastes” was a person who sat or spoke in an ekklesia – an assembly of local citizens. Many of you may recognize that as the same Greek word from which we get our word church, a gathering of “called out” ones.
Author
I really struggled this week with just how much time to devote to this issue. In modern academic circles there is much debate and disagreement when it comes to identifying the author and determining when Ecclesiastes was written. Perhaps we have become unduly influenced by a Greek mindset that is much more concerned about the identity of the author than the Hebrews to whom this book was written would have been. The unfortunate result of that approach is that many have become so distracted by their attempts to definitively determine the author that they have missed the message that is contained within the text itself.
Traditionally, authorship has been attributed to Solomon. Even though the author never identifies himself by name, we do have this information that the author provides in verse 1:
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem
We’ve already briefly discussed the title “Preacher”, which is the translation of the Hebrew “Qoheleth”. Since what follows could very well be some type of sermon, “Preacher” may be about the best English translation that we could make. But since the word more literally means “one who gathers or assembles” or perhaps even the “convener” or “speaker” in an assembly. I’m going to just use the Hebrew word “Qoheleth” throughout this series to refer to the author in much the same way that I used the word “logos” during our study of the incarnation in John 1.
The identification of the author as Solomon comes primarily from the second part of that verse which identifies the source of the words in the book as “the son of David, king in Jerusalem”. Although that certainly could describe Solomon, and some of the other information in the book appears to be consistent with what we know about Solomon’s life, this is not definitive.
The Hebrew word for “son” could refer to any descendent of David and we know that there were other descendents of David who later reigned as king in Jerusalem. It is also possible that another author penned the book, but wrote it as if he were in Solomon’s shoes.
Perhaps there is a reason that no one can identify with absolute certainly who wrote the book. There is a sense in which Qoheleth, whoever that might be, is veiled behind the text. It is the words of the Qoheleth, and not his identity that are important. As we’ll see, the words contained in the book are so timeless that they could have very well been written even in our culture today. So we’re going to spend on time focusing on the text as we have it and not waste our time joining the endless arguments about the authorship of Ecclesiasts.
Structure
It’s interesting how various commentators have attempted, without success, to try and find a logical pattern or structure to Ecclesiastes. The book is far too complex to allow anyone to wrap it up a tidy little package. It is full of quotations, contradictions and intrigue. But since it is a book that grapples with reality, and reality is far too complex to be restricted to some linear, systematic, logical pattern, why should we expect that this book would be any different?
I think that is why, in our western mindset, we have a much more difficult time with Ecclesiastes than the original readers of this book did with their eastern approach to the text. As one commentator accurately points out, “For we must always consider the possibility, when we encounter a difficult biblical book, that the problem lies not with the book, but with ourselves.” [Iain Provan]
This has some very significant implications for our study of Ecclesiastes. We just finished a nearly two-year long study of Ephesians, a book written in Greek with a Greek mindset. For the most part, it was very structured and logical – three chapters of doctrine, followed by three chapters of practical application of that doctrine. Our journey through Ecclesiastes will not be nearly as structured and neat.
Wisdom Literature
The book of Ecclesiastes is of a genre known as wisdom literature. Although this form was quite common even outside the Scriptures, we are more familiar with the wisdom literature in the Bible, which includes Job, Proverbs, portions of the Psalms, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.
Unfortunately, we often get a wrong picture of what wisdom literature is intended to do because of our human perspective of wisdom. We tend to think of wisdom as practical knowledge and so we expect concrete, functional advice. We expect that a wise man will be able to figure things out and then fix things.
But biblical wisdom is not the power to leverage the world or manipulate God to insure our own health or success. Instead, it is a much more complex and often paradoxical body of information that requires much more that a superficial reading. The truths are often expressed in riddles that are not easily discerned.
Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance - for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.
Proverbs 1:5, 6 (NIV)
The fact that Ecclesiastes is in the genre of wisdom literature has a significant impact on how e need to approach our study of this book:
• The study of Ecclesiastes requires more than a superficial reading
Riddles take much thought and often quite a bit of time to solve. And if we fail to move beyond just a superficial reading and study of Ecclesiastes, we’ll be likely to conclude that the author had become despondent or given up on life or that this book is nothing more than a description of the unbeliever’s view of life.
But I’m convinced that if we can dig deep into this book, we’ll find that it is instead a book addressed to the people of God. It is not an apologetic for our faith, but rather a pastoral writing that will help us to live life wisely in the midst of a world that seems to be in total disarray.
The Author’s Perspective
If we fail to grasp the perspective from which the author is writing, we will get a completely erroneous picture of the message of Ecclesiastes. I’m convinced that this is one of the main reasons many have such a hard time understanding the book. In verse 3, we are introduced for the first time to a phrase that is used throughout the book that is the key to understanding the author’s perspective:
What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?
The phrase “under the sun” is used 29 times in 27 different verses in Ecclesiastes. When he uses that phrase the author is referring to the visible world in which we live. It is the place of man where we live out our daily lives. It is the place where we attempt, usually to no avail, to make the world work for us.
It is absolutely critical that we understand that the author is writing from this perspective. Along with the book of Job, this is one of the few places in Scripture that reflects a human, rather than divine point of view.
Ecclesiastes is very similar to Job in many ways. Much of the book of Job consists of the words of Job’s so-called friends, as they tried to make their case that Job was suffering because of the sin in his life. And if those passages are taken out of context, as they often are, they can be used to “prove” all kinds of false teachings that are clearly not true in God’s eyes.
The same thing has happened with Ecclesiastes. Just think of all the times that sayings from Ecclesiastes are used in our secular culture. Here are a few of the most common:
• Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
• There is nothing new under the sun.
• There is a time for everything, a season for everything under heaven.
• Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both.
• Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.
• Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
Even this popular secular song from the 1960’s gets its lyrics from Ecclesiastes. [Play excerpt from “Turn, Turn, Turn”].
So it’s no wonder that Ecclesiastes and Job have become the favorite books of atheists and agnostics. They take passages out of context and quote them piecemeal in order to give the impression that these are the divine words of God concerning life.
Much of what is contained in Ecclesiastes is merely secular wisdom and knowledge which is ultimately rejected by the author. But the book does very accurately reflect what man thinks. In fact, we’ll find that much of what is written in this book sounds very familiar to us because it is the same kind of thinking that we find in our culture today. So unless we take the book as a whole and evaluate these sayings in light of the fact that the author is writing from man’s perspective, we will come to all kinds of wrong conclusions.
Let me illustrate. Let’s suppose that you are an ant crossing a lawn. You would face all kinds of obstacles in that simple task – drops of water that are much larger than you pelting you, the smallest of twigs in your way which require the effort of scaling a mountain to get over, a machine with big sharp metal blades chasing you across the lawn. From your perspective you would have to conclude that life is against you.
But if you could get above it all and get a different perspective, you would see that there was a greater purpose involved here – sprinklers to water the grass, twigs which naturally fall on the grass from the trees above and a lawn mower that keeps the grass at its ideal length. Life isn’t against you; in fact, it’s not even about you necessarily.
So we’re going to be very careful to evaluate what we find in Ecclesiastes in light of the fact that the author is writing about what can be observed “under the sun” – from man’s perspective.
The meaning of “vanity”
The words “vanity” and “vanities” are used 36 times in the NKJV translation of Ecclesiastes. As I pointed out briefly earlier, the NIV translates this same word “meaningless”. Since a proper understanding of this word is absolutely crucial to a proper grasp of the book, we need to take a few minutes to figure out what the author means when he uses it.
The Hebrew word used here is “hebel”, a word that literally means “vapor” or “breath”. In order to understand the meaning of this word it is helpful to observe how the same word is used elsewhere in Scripture. Let’s look at three examples:
Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor [hebel].
Psalm 39:5 (NKJV)
Man is like a breath [hebel]; His days are like a passing shadow.
Psalm 144:4(NKJV)
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing [hebel], But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
Proverbs 31:30 (NKJV)
It is quite clear from these examples that the word “hebel” refers to the transient nature of human existence. But there is one more place in Scripture where we can get an even clearer picture of the meaning of “hebel”.
The name Abel is an English transliteration of the Hebrew word “hebel”. It’s interesting that even though Adam and Eve named Cain, there is no indication where the name Abel came from. But Abel’s death, the first death recorded in the Bible, brought Adam and Eve face to face with the stark reality of the fleeting nature of life “under the sun”. We don’t really know, but it certainly seems possible that the name Abel was given after his sudden death or even that the word “hebel” itself actually gained its meaning from that event.
And when Abel was killed by his brother, Adam and Eve were faced with the same two options that are before us when life doesn’t make sense:
• We can abandon our trust in the goodness and love of God
• We can abandon all hope of comprehending and controlling this world and completely place our faith in God
Qoheleth is not saying that life here on earth is “meaningless”, but rather that it is only temporary and fleeting. Even the word “vanity”, especially the way we use it in our culture today, doesn’t completely reflect a proper understanding of the word “hebel”, but it is certainly much better than translating the word “meaningless”.
Life is not meaningless. It may elude our grasp and defy our attempts to control it because it is merely a vapor. But it is certainly not meaningless. As we saw in our study of the incarnation, one of the most important implications of the “logos” becoming flesh is that God entered our world because the here and now does matter to God and therefore it does have significance.
So when we come to the word “vanity” in our study, I encourage you to substitute the word “breath” or “vapor”. I think that will help us to better understand what the author intends us to take from what he is writing.
This is going to be an exciting journey. I’m looking forward with great anticipation to the things that God is going to show us from His Word. And as we embark on that journey, let me leave you with the words of Iain Provan that I think give us a great perspective on the overall message of Ecclesiastes:
Embrace life for what it is, rather than what you would like it to be. Live it out before God, reverencing and obeying him. This is the pathway on which joy lies, even though puzzlement and pain will also be found there, and there are never guarantees about how things will turn out.
