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Basics

BOOK: Ecclesiastes

Description: Reflections of King Solomon in old age

Author: Solomon

Date written: sometime late in Solomon’s reign, probably somewhere about 930BC

Chapters: 12

Brief Synopsis

• The title   Ecclesiastes   is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Koheleth meaning  “Gatherer”, but traditionally translated as “Teacher”
• The teacher is a son of David and king in Jerusalem, i.e. Solomon. 
•  In it Solomon deals with such issues as the futility of human effort, limited life-spans, oppression and envy and much more.
• It is life seen from a purely earthly perspective and therefore somewhat negative.
• Yet conclusions are drawn about life and about God.

Why Read Ecclesiastes

 It often seems it is a book you either love or hate because you either see in it a dry cynicism or wise-although-jaded counsel. As someone has well-written it is “not God’s arguments but God’s record of man’s arguments”. To understand it we really need to understand its perspective and once we see that it makes a lot of sense and should provide much instruction for our lives today.

The Perspective of Ecclesiastes

There are three things to note:

i) The historical context: It is usually suggested that Song of Songs was written by Solomon when he was young, Proverbs written by him in middle age, and Ecclesiastes when he was old. Now to catch something of his personal history we have to read 1 Kings 10 that shows us his incredible successes, but which is followed immediately in chapter 11 by, “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women ….. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God.” (v.1,4) It was in this latter period that he clearly became very jaded about life, out of fellowship with God.

ii) Overall Perspective: A key phrase that occurs many times in the book is “under the sun”, meaning from an earthly perspective. This is a book from a very human perspective and, even worse, from a jaded human perspective.

iii) The God Perspective: What is remarkable to reflect on, is that his successes that made him one of the richest men in the history of the world [perhaps until modern times] came through the wisdom that God gave him. He was blessed, prosperous and famous because of the enabling of God. It was this that enabled him to become rich, carry out all the projects he mentions in 2:4-6, and then go on to spend so much time studying. However it might be suggested that as time passed, this studying came more and more in a time when he had drifted away from the Lord and was, therefore, studying to find meaning in an increasingly unhappy and unfulfilled life. For these reasons we should take much note of what we find here as salutary warnings for how we should go about life in the twenty-first century where we too, have so much prosperity and affluence, in the West at least.

The Ultimate Lessons of Ecclesiastes

The overall warning is that human endeavor in the absence of God, whether physically or mentally, comes to the ultimate conclusion that it is all pointless. Having said that, despite this overwhelming sense that is there in the early chapters, Solomon, even in his jaded state, has the temerity we might say to declare the following:

• 2:26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness
• 3:12,13 there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.  That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. [also 5:18,19]
• 12:13 fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.

It is also interesting to note that although Solomon has turned away from the Lord he nevertheless can’t help himself referring to ‘God’ 37 times in this book. God will still be there, in the background, if you like, making His presence known despite our folly when we turn away from Him.

Because of his time and circumstances of life, we think it is legitimate to describe Solomon’s outlook as jaded in this book and the modern believer with the New Testament in the other hand, so to speak, may agree that without God all of these negative assertions are so often true, but should go on to rejoice that ‘in Christ’ we have purpose, meaning and direction as God leads and guides us and we need never feel jaded as Solomon has come to be. His main folly – which is incredible in a man who in his early years had been gifted by God with immense wisdom – is that he allowed desire to bypass his intellect so, as the record declares he ignored the Law in respect of foreign women declaring, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love,” and so indeed, as noted above, “his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God.” (11:3,4) Ecclesiastes is the result!

Unlike most other books we will not provide a Contents List of the 12 chapters because we conclude that the titles we have given, give little help as to where to turn next. Our best advice is read the whole book from beginning to end.

Outline

We have considered a variety of outlines that are in common use but have rejected each of them as either too complicated or over-simple. Ecclesiastes is not an easy book to classify and so we have ended up using our own summary list of subjects or themes:

• 1:1-11 A meaningless world that just keeps on
• 1:12-18 Searching for wisdom is chasing the wind
• 2:1-11 Chasing after pleasure is chasing the wind
• 2:12-16 The wise and the fool both eventually die
• 2:17-26 The results of work cannot go through death
• 3:1-8 Everything has a right time
• 3:9-17 The works of God
• 3:18-22 The fate of all creatures
• 4:1-3 Oppressed and oppressor
• 4:4-6 Achievement through work is meaningless
• 4:7-12 Loneliness4:13-16   Folly in leaders
• 5:1-7 Careless words before God
• 5:8-20 Meaningless striving after wealth
• 6:1-9 Prosperity without enjoyment is folly
• 6:10-12 The fixed nature of life
• 7:1-6 Death helps a right perspective
• 7:7-14 Live in wisdom
• 7:15-18 Avoid extremes
• 7:19-29 The folly of mankind
• 8:1-6 Wise actions before rulers
• 8:7-17 The wise and the wicked
• 9:1-6 A common destiny for all
• 9:7-10 Living in the light of this
• 9:11-12 The uncertainty of life
• 9:13-18 The words of the wise
• 10:1-7   Position does not mean wisdom
• 10:8-11   Wisdom helps work
• 10:12-14 The words of the fool
• 10:15-20 The role of the ruler
• 11:1-6 Giving, work & activity
• 11:7-10 Let youth live in the light of eternity
• 12:1-8 Remember God before death comes
• 12:9-14 Keep a right attitude towards God

Concluding Comments

• It is thought that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes near the end of his life. Remember the historical records of 1 Kings 11 that he married many foreign women and gave way to their religions and lost his own. The result? A jaded king, which is reflected in the words of this book.
• Key words are “under the sun” which appear 28 times. The perspective is, therefore, from the earth. He has lost the divine perspective and there are but echoes of his former experience.
• Yes, he acknowledges God but the covenant name “I AM” or Yahweh, is never used.
• It is a useful book for modern people, particular post-modern people who focus so much on ‘experiences’. As we might say, “Solomon has been there, done it and got the tee-shirt” – six times over! And his conclusions after he has pondered great philosophical thoughts and done so many things? Without God it is all meaningless!
• As we so often say, if you take God out of the equation, the existence of the world and what we are today, is pure chance. There can be no such thing as meaning and purpose. Solomon has learnt that
• The good news is that Ecclesiastes is not the only book we have and so we have the wonder of so many other books where the revelation of God is clear and sharp. In the meantime, Ecclesiastes presents us with a salutary warning not to let our lives get sucked into weird and wonderful religions where confusion and doubt reign and life loses its sense of purpose and meaning that only comes with the experience of the Living God who we find on so many of the pages of our Bible.
• Enjoy reading Ecclesiastes but keep it in perspective and let its lessons be received.