Approaching Ecclesiastes

 
 

We are beginning a study of Ecclesiastes.

Derek Kidner says of this book, “The voice of the Old Testament has many accents. There is almost everything there, from the impassioned preaching of the prophets to the cool, reflective comments of the wise—and a whole world of poetry, law, story-telling, psalmody and vision in between. But there is no-one quite like Koheleth; no book in this whole great volume which speaks in quite his tone of voice. His concern is with the boundaries of life, and especially with the QUESTIONS that most of us would hesitate to push too far.”

He’s right. Ecclesiastes is a MASTERPIECE, but it has a strange and confusing voice.

Having spent some time with it now, I understand why Walt Kaiser says, “Ecclesiastes has been called the Black Sheep of the cannon of Biblical Books ... a source of delight for the skeptics... and the cause of despair for the saints. Its described as nihilistic, pessimistic, fatalistic, skeptical, and cynical.”

Because it is full of difficult and often confusing statements, one of the keys to properly understanding the book is HOW WE APPROACH IT.


As we approach it together over the next 15 weeks or so, I’d like to offer 4 KEYS to Approaching Ecclesiastes. To say it another way, these 4 keys will help us to unlock the difficult and confusing passages in Ecclesiastes.

KEY #1: We need to understand THE AUTHOR

  • The Author is Koheleth (1:1, 12) = Preacher or Teacher (Personally, I prefer “Teacher”)

  • The Author is the King of Israel, Son of David (1:1, 12) =  King Solomon

    • Reason #1: Solomon was endowed with wisdom by God. (1 Kings 3-5)

    • Reason #2: Solomon wrote other wisdom literature. (Proverbs, Song Solomon, Psalms 72, 127)

    • Reason #3: Solomon’s experiences away from the LORD match the experiences written about in Ecclesiastes.

  • The Author is ultimately GOD. The Teacher emphasizes this himself in 12:9-12

KEY #2: We need to understand HIS AGENDA.

  • The Teacher who has experienced the hopelessness of life apart from God doesn’t want us to merely KNOW that what he is saying is true, he wants us to FEEL IT. He allows the weight of the difficulties of life to drag us under until we are drowning in the futility and frustration of life, and finally in the end, he brings us up for air. (Imagery: Joel James, Bryan Ferrell, etc)

  • Kidner: “Where other writers would commend the light to us directly, Koheleth does it by making the darkness intolerable.”

KEY #3: We need to understand THE CONTEXT

  • The Teacher is talking about Life “under the sun”

  • God’s design was for His people to live in His place under His rule and experience His blessings (Graeme Goldsworthy). In the Garden, everything was “the way it was supposed to be.” Man’s rebellion against God (sin) changed that forever. Man’s sin destroyed Shalom, brought the curse, separated us from God, and banished us from the Garden. Now, all of life is lived “under the sun” or “outside of the Garden”. Life outside the Garden is the opposite of life in the Garden.

  • Ecclesiastes: A Commentary on Life outside the Garden. Everything must be read in that context.

  • Joel James says, “Ecclesiastes is a commentary on Genesis 3. In light of that, Solomon's so-called cynicism is not cynicism at all.  In fact, it is painful realism in a world that is limping along, crushingly burdened by the weight of the Fall and the Curse. Wise living under the Curse includes grappling with the dissatisfaction, frustration, and meaninglessness of life.”

KEY #4: We need to understand THE CONCLUSION

  • It’s true! Life outside the Garden IS futile and frustrating, but that’s NOT the FINAL CONCLUSION.

  • The Teacher-King of Israel states the FINAL CONCLUSION in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

  • J. Stafford Wright, 20th Century British Theologian, writes, “Now if this is the deliberate conclusion of Ecclesiastes, and if the book is a unity, it stands to reason that no statement elsewhere in the book can be interpreted as a final conclusion if it contradicts the statement at the end of the book. Or, to put it from another angle, if any statement in the course of the book is given as a final conclusion, it must be interpreted in the light of the ultimate conclusion at the end.”

  • The Judgment of God is not merely declarative, it is redemptive. The final conclusion is tha through judgment God has reconciled everything through Christ and in the end, God will restore everything to “the way it was supposed to be.”

  • That means, as Philip Ryken says, “The final message of Ecclesiastes is NOT that nothing matters, but that EVERYTHING does.”

BOTTOM LINE: Here’s how we are approaching Ecclesiastes:
Solomon, the wise Teacher-King of Israel, wants us to FEEL the futility and frustration of life under the sun so that we will FIND our significance and satisfaction in the God who dwells beyond the sun.

EcclesiastesTim WhiteInterpretation, Hermenuetics, Ecclesiastes, Under the sun, Gospel