Verse by verse through Ecclesiastes: Introduction & Devotion

This’ll be my first time teaching through any of the wisdom literature or poetry in the Old Testament. Not only that, the book we’re about to look at is probably the most unique in the bunch…It is not like Proverbs, which is full of short, little guidelines for life…It’s not like Psalms which is full of praises, hymns, and crying out to God for help…And it’s not like the Song of Solomon, well, for obvious reasons…

We’re starting Ecclesiastes…and before we go any further, I have some questions I’d like you to consider. ❶ What is the most frustrating thing about life to you? [People in my group came up with these answers: when things don’t work properly and when there’s no reward for effort]. ❷ Have you ever gotten something you really wanted—what did it feel like once you had it? [Our answers were: “it’s not all it’s cracked up to be” “it wasn’t as exciting as I anticipated”].

If you've tried to be good in hopes that good things would come back to you, and now you’re frustrated with life, this book should speak to something deep in your soul. If you’ve ever stopped and asked yourself “Why am I putting in all this effort? Why do I even try?” Ecclesiastes is for you.

Main Reading: Ecclesiastes Ch. 1-3

When you flip to your Bible’s Table of Contents, you can—most of the time—figure out what each book is about based on its title. Galatians was written to churches in a region called Galatia. That’s the audience. Hosea was a message from a prophet named Hosea. That’s the guy talking. You don’t need a commentary to figure that out…But, then you see a book like Ecclesiastes, and suddenly you feel like you missed a class somewhere…The title doesn’t immediately tell us what we’re dealing with. It sounds churchy, but it’s still vague to us. So it’s worth asking what the word “Ecclesiastes” even means—not because the definition will somehow unlock the whole book, but because it’ll help us know a little bit about what we’re getting into.

The word Ecclesiastes is a Latin transliteration of the biblical Greek word, ekklesia. We usually translate that as “church,” but it simply means a gathering—people called together to listen. So, whenever we go to read a portion of this book, I want you to picture someone standing up and saying: “Alright, everyone—gather ’round.” It’s not unlike hearing a conference speech, TedTalk, or a sermon in a church. At the very least, this helps us know that Ecclesiastes isn’t a private devotion, but a public speech—a voice addressing a crowd.

That doesn’t even begin to explain all the questions the book raises, but it does give us a starting point and help us know how to listen. Well, as soon as you open the book, the author & narrator introduces us the the main character;

The Teacher or—in Hebrew—קֹהֶלֶת Qohelet. [That’s the Hebrew name for the book, too].

If you need help remembering Qohelet, it’s sounds like saying “Go yell it!” which is fitting because Qohelet means “one who preaches to the crowd.”

But I do have to warn you—this Preacher is unlike any other preacher you’ve ever heard before…He’s cynical, skeptical, and jaded from life’s bad experiences. His message, at times, is simple: “Life sucks and then you die.” Over and over again, Qohelet uses one key word to describe life: Some translations say “vanity.” Others say meaningless. In Hebrew, the word is הֶבֶל hevel—it means breath, vapor, or smoke. Something you can see, but can’t grab. Something that’s real, but doesn’t last. Qohelet uses that word 38 times. So if this book ever starts to feel repetitive, that’s on purpose.

If I had to compare our author to anyone you might know, I’d say that Qohelet is like a grumpy old man making a scene in a store because something’s not going his way. On the other hand, he can sometimes come across like a stand-up comedian pointing out and poking fun at all the useless stuff we do in this world for no reason.

Then, at other times, Qohelet sounds like a philosopher at a party...While everyone else is trying to have a good time and briefly forget all their problems, failures, & mortality, Qohelet wanders over, sits down next to you, stares in your eyes, and says, “We’re all gonna die someday”—so in many ways, Qohelet is the ultimate buzzkill.

In another sense, it feels like this Preacher is writing a Presidential Memoir. You know, one of those books where a former Commander-in-Chief releases behind-the-scenes details of what it was like to become the most powerful man in the world. I mean, imagine getting everything you want—what would you say or think on the other side? That’s sort of what Ecclesiastes is like…

Another way you could look at this book is picture yourself sitting at a bar, like many people do, trying to figure out life. And this Teacher walks over, and hands you a drink…but instead of the drink making you drunk, it gives us a hard dose of reality [Like the red pill in The Matrix]. All these characteristics come together to make a book that is really unlike anything in the entire Bible.

One of Qohelet’s most frustrating conclusions is this: For all our effort, for all our striving, nothing really changes. People are born, people die. We work, we’re forgotten, and someone else replaces us. So, just think of Ecclesiastes as the Cliff Notes on the most confusing and frustrating parts of life. It says “Life is unsolvable, unexplainable, & unfair” in a way that seems designed to upset you.

This book will say exactly what you don’t expect to hear in Christian circles. In fact, in describing life under the sun, Ecclesiastes is practically irreligious…And no matter what a person believes in, they will find many of the observations in this book to be painfully relatable and unavoidably true.

Ecclesiastes is about 3,000 years old, but it’s some of the most up-to-date literature a person can read. From a merely human perspective, it’s one of the most true-to-life books in the Bible. But because it discusses things we don’t like to think about, it’s one of the least talked about books…I think all people need to hear, read, & understand this book—especially those who are my age & younger, who have a lot to figure out about life on earth…

But even though everyone needs to hear Ecclesiastes, few will actually listen to it, because it’s depressing. At times, you’re not going to want to admit that the preacher is right about what he says. You’re going to want to hope and wish for a better existence. But if-and-when that happens, I want you to resist the temptation to write him off…You’re going to want to think: “Gee, this guy must’ve been writing on a Monday!” or “Maybe none of this is true…this just what a beaten-down old man sounds like when he’s grumbling.” “Maybe this guy had a long, bad day and he’s ranting to his journal.”

No, I’d much rather you come to terms with what this Preacher says and realize that it’s true.

Accept that all the pieces of bad news that Qohelet reports are inescapable facts. Why? Well, if you never feel the weight of this tragedy, you will never feel the wonder of redemption.

If you don’t hear the bad diagnosis, you’ll never take the medicine. If you don’t know what it’s like to be at rock bottom, you’ll never know what it’s like for God to pick you up. If you never experience frustration, then you’ll never truly know joy. If you never have to go through anything hard, then you'll never know truly what it is to experience good.

I think this is part of God's larger plan in the world—and it raises one of the biggest questions in my life…“Why did God put that stupid tree in the garden with people who were prone to be deceived by a serpent, eat the fruit, and break God's law—why did He create a world in which that exists?” If God just wanted to be with us forever, why didn't He just create us in a vacuum, where there was no potential opportunity for us to sin? My answer for you is this: because it's better to be forgiven after having sinned, then it is to just be loved because you were made perfect and put in an airtight bubble. The love that results from forgiving someone is much deeper and more meaningful than just loving someone because they've always been a certain way. I think about the story; Jesus is at a party, and there's this prostitute who comes in. She washes His feet, and the Pharisees at the table are like, “do you know this woman is?!” And Jesus says, “the one who's forgiven much loves much.” And so, I think, that's why we live in this place that is such a mess. There are so many things to get frustrated about, so many questions to ask and so many things that make us want to raise our fists and yell at God in frustration. But the truth is, it's a much more real and deep to experience hardship and then know joy than it is to just be like fish in a bowl swimming around, and everything's the same every day.

Well, let’s talk about Jesus because if we go any longer without Him, I’m gonna lose it! You’ve heard people say—too often—“Jesus is the answer!” And that’s true…But answers work best—in fact, they only make sense—when there are questions being asked.

Ecclesiastes is full of questions. “Who really knows what’s best? Who can make sense of this? And who is actually in control?” The book refuses to answer these questions too quickly…So, we’re going to let The Preacher in Ecclesiastes ask all the tough questions about life. So that all the Good News we see in Jesus will make even more sense and seem even more necessary. We don’t want to pretend that life is perfect and that just adding Jesus will make it even better…We need to admit that life is as meaningless, and bleak, and pointless, and dark as Ecclesiastes says it is…And, once we do that—once we say: “This sinful world sucks,” we can then follow it up with “unless…” “Unless God exists. Unless He’s present in this place. Unless Heaven has invaded earth & we aren’t left alone.”

Because let’s get this straight. If God is not here, we should all be grumpy pessimists.

If God is not here, then all the pain, hurt, and trouble you’ve experienced in life means absolutely nothing! You oughta just save yourself the trouble in a world without God—be a consistent atheist who believes the world came from nothing and is going nowhere—and end your life now. But if God is real and in this world, then there is a possibility—and perhaps even even a promise—that all your bad experiences will be, in some way, redeemed for the best.

So, yes, this is a book about pointlessness but it makes a really good point.

And I can’t wait any longer to get into it.

Discussion Questions:

Does a book like this sound comforting or uncomfortable to you?

Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with life? And do you think most people answer that question honestly?

We typically associate doubt and frustrations with unbelief or the secular world, what do you think about the fact that we have an entire book of the Bible that expresses these feelings?