Ecclesiastes
Perhaps the single most important book in the Old Testament, or even the entire bible, is the book of Ecclesiastes. I realize that a statement such as this screams the word “opinion,” but that is what I believe. Ecclesiastes is a valuable source of the thoughts of a great many people over several thousand years. It is my intent to provide a brief background of Ecclesiastes, and then discuss the contents of the book with an emphasis on how it is applicable to not only today’s society, but more specifically, our lives. I will attempt to do this by combining established fact and personal opinion in a way that is hopefully both informative and interesting.
The book of Ecclesiastes is thought to have been written in the last half of nine hundred B.C. The very first verse of the book makes a reference to, “a son of David, king in Jerusalem.” This is thought to identify Solomon as the author of Ecclesiastes. As with any book of the bible however, there are differing opinions. Some scholars feel that Solomon was only the main character portrayed in the book, as with Ruth’s relation to the book of Ruth. I feel that the more widely held view of Solomon as author is factual. I say this because Solomon was reputed to have been one of the wisest men of his time. I am sure that he recognized the need for the pessimistic viewpoint held by many people to be brought into the open. Only then could the issues be properly addressed and answers to the questions raised by this viewpoint be found. Instead of the issues pushing people away from God they could be used to teach the youth of that day how to use problems in a way to bring them closer to God.
The main speaker in Ecclesiastes, done in 1st person narrative, is identified as the Preacher. The term Preacher, when used here, is one possible translation of the Hebrew title Qoheleth, or schoolmaster. While it might be easy to think sometimes from what the Preacher said that he was an atheist, he was not. In spite of his belief in the inherent evil in everyone and everything, he was a deist. He believed in God, but thought that God had nothing to do with or did not care about what happened to us and our miserable little world. The Preacher makes this point throughout the contents of the book.
The Preacher believed that both the wise and the righteous were controlled by God. He went further and said although some were controlled by God, those wise men who claimed to know God’s will did not. Nobody could know God’s will. The Preacher also said that the righteous and wicked suffered the same fate. Saint or sinner, we all did the same thing after death, nothing. There was nothing beyond the grave, so enjoy life while you can, even though there is no joy to be found.
In the slightly pessimistic style of the Preacher a basic philosophy is established throughout Ecclesiastes. Everything that exists moves endlessly in circles and has no meaning or goal. This was a Greek, not a Hebrew conception of history. This is usually understood to mean that the people of Israel were now being exposed to some very different points of view. In this case, a Greek conception of history meant that the writer of Ecclesiastes was being influenced by the Hellenistic culture that was starting to take hold in the Near East and spreading outward to other lands. This was one example of non-orthodox views becoming part of differing philosophies, but this philosophy was not just the thoughts of one man. The Preacher voiced what was not only on his mind, but what many other people of his time were evidently thinking. It was the thoughts of what people believed almost three thousand years ago, and not surprisingly, what many people believe today. Certain people go through life and find good in nothing, except perhaps being miserable. The Preacher was one of these. In Ecclesiastes the Preacher tried; “work – for nothing, wisdom – he who increases knowledge increases sorrow, and pleasure – but it, too, proved to be worthless.”
While a few people go to the extreme that the Preacher did, most people fall somewhere between the Preacher and perfection. Most only embrace part of his philosophy part of the time. It is thought that Ecclesiastes was used in the time of the Preacher like Proverbs, as a schoolbook.
I believe that it was then relevant then and still should be. It is a perfect picture of what each one of us could become if we are not careful, the ultimate pessimist. In the time of the Preacher more pessimism was understandable, as God was then a vengeful God. I say he was a vengeful God because in the time that Ecclesiastes was written we had not yet started to see God and our relationship with him in view of the new covenant. This was the covenant that emphasizes our relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ. In the time before Jesus, man’s relationship with God focused on rules to govern behavior and strict adherence to those rules. Any person who disobeyed the rules was subject to disciplinary action. This is how God was a vengeful God. Today, our duty to God is to take joy in what we have. Then we are able to give joy to others, and by doing that, praise God and honor Him. I believe that the Preacher was actually telling everyone to have faith in God, using himself as a sort of worst case scenario.
In the twelve chapters of Ecclesiastes several subjects are presented and the Preacher gives his opinion about them. I believe that these certain things remain relevant issues today. The extreme attitudes and opinions of the Preacher serve to offer us hope for our culture. We have things so much better than most people had then. In nine hundred B.C. the Preacher was not really considered a radical by most. The majority of the people had things very much rougher than most of us do today. They still found room to have faith in God. I feel that this is a valuable lesson for us today. We should listen to the Preacher’s advice and see how it applies to our personal lives.
Other teachings of the Preacher include justice. The Preacher thought justice to be a matter of chance, with man having no more chance of attaining justice than animals do.
The Preacher advised that when it came to rulers it was best to just stay out of their way. If a ruler was wise enough, he would be able to make the right decisions. Unfortunately, there were no men who were that wise.
On the subject of God, the Preacher offered the same advice as he had on the subject of rulers. He said to not call attention to yourself or you could suffer the consequences. He believed that God should be left alone and obeyed without question.
The Preacher also had a series of personal beliefs about life. He said that the key to life was moderation. It was this way because rich or poor, you just could not win. His belief was that it was best to just take what was given and do not desire anything else, for the simple reason that everything in our life is preordained.
The thought is basic enough. Why should a person argue with a God who is not listening about things that we cannot get changed anyway? The Preacher also said to trust no woman and few men, even though he was married. In addition, he believed that just as man comes and goes, only God and the Earth are forever.
The Preacher had sage advice for the youth of his day. He recommended that the young appreciate life and relish youth, but remember that God was the one who was responsible for them having life. They were also to praise God while still young, before the problems of old age set in.
Each and every one of us will have a differing opinion on the sayings of the Preacher. I do not feel that it is necessary to state my personal opinion on each of his different thoughts. The book of Ecclesiastes must be understood in the light of what the intention of writing it was. The book was intended as a textbook to teach people. I do not believe that the teachings were meant to be taken in and interpreted literally, especially in our present time. The book is an example of what a man can become without faith. In the book of Esther, faith is a constant presence in the background without “God” even being mentioned once. In Ecclesiastes the word “God” is mentioned no less than thirty-seven times, yet the Preacher has no faith. This is important because I think the whole point of the book of Ecclesiastes is a call for us to have faith. This is much more evident today than it was over two thousand years ago. We have so many more reasons to have faith in God and all that he can do than most people had in the Preachers time. The fact that certain people have worse circumstances than others gives them an even bigger reason to have faith in God. We have to accept the fact that there is a reason for all things that happen and only God knows what that reason is. Adversity should only serve to strengthen faith in God. People face adversity each and every day to a varying degree. The stronger it is the more reason we have to trust in God and his wisdom. Any suffering and pain we experience will be repaid by God. If we must suffer to keep our covenant with God then it must be for a very good reason, even if I have no idea what it is.
I think that a book like Ecclesiastes was written as a necessity. The people of Israel were starting to have differing opinions in their views of God. A pessimistic view of creation and all in it showed the people exactly what they could expect from life if they had no room for the joy that God brings us. Ecclesiastes serves to bring people to God because of the simple fact that all things the Preacher found wrong and unjust with the world could be made right. The only way that things can be made just in our world is through God. This is because man is obviously an imperfect being. As we move closer to God we move closer to his ideal state. A pessimistic viewpoint is important for this movement because it voices thoughts that almost all people have no matter how righteous they try to be. In order to find answers to these questions we have to give the matter serious thought. It is easier to do this if we take comfort in the fact that many people have these doubts, therefore, many people are willing to help put these doubts to rest. This can be done by looking at the large number of possible answers people have found over the centuries. Of course they can’t all be correct, but it enables us to gain more wisdom than we could alone.
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