ECCLESIASTES
Real Life With A Real God
Welcome to the book of Ecclesiastes, a book about real life with the real God. We crave order, predictability, simplicity; a comfortable life. Ecclesiastes will not let us have it. The book begins, famously, with what seems like a conclusion: that all of life is vanity, a striving after wind. Work is never finished, wealth is never enough, justice is absent, wisdom is wasted, and death comes for us all. But there is more to this statement than meets the eye. Because even though Ecclesiastes recognizes the uncertainty of life, he also knows that God “has put eternity into man’s heart,” which leads him and us onwards in the pursuit of truth, in the fear of the Lord. Ecclesiastes shows us why and how to live joyfully in an imperfect world, as imperfect people, in the presence of a perfect and just God.
As Christians, though we have a more complete picture of life than Ecclesiastes, we need to take the struggles of Ecclesiastes seriously, and never lose sight of the fact that meaning can only ever be grounded in a good and sovereign God, whatever our circumstances. And not only that! This God has spoken and welcomes us to be his children. Through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father has delivered us from sin and death. By his own death, Christ triumphs over the relentless cycle of futility and death; through his resurrection, he brings the hope of eternal life to all of life; and with his second coming he “will bring every deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). This infuses every part of our existence with purpose and meaning, even when our lives seem short and meaningless. May God richly bless you as you take his words in this book to heart!
Watch an overview video produced by the Bible Project on the book of Ecclesiastes, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. This book forces us to face ...