Well, turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes. We begin our study of this book of Ecclesiastes this evening, and I am excited for this study, and I’ve been looking forward to it. I’ve even enjoyed thoroughly the introductory study, as that is what we’ll do tonight, is just introduce the book and talk about really what it’s about and who wrote it and kind of set the course that we will take as we venture through this book of the Old Testament.

And I’m excited because Ecclesiastes is a unique book. It is unlike just about every other book in the Bible. It is wisdom literature, and we see a lot of that in it. But even the way it’s written is very different than many other books in the Bible.

In fact, the book of Ecclesiastes is not directly quoted anywhere else in the Bible or in the New Testament, unless you count loose allusions to it, like in Romans 3, verse 10, where it talks about there is none righteous, no, not one, which generally alludes to Ecclesiastes 7.20, where it also says there is not a righteous man on earth. Which because it’s not quoted elsewhere, that means the book of Ecclesiastes is quoted less than the book of Enoch, and the book of Enoch’s not even in the Bible. Figure that one out.

But Ecclesiastes is a different kind of a book because it forces us to wrestle with very difficult questions in life. It’s a book that challenges us to take stock of what’s important in life. It’s a book that shows us the author’s struggle with purpose and meaning, and ultimately with his own faith. And in the process, it shows us that while faith is a gift to us, it doesn’t come cheap. It doesn’t make life easy. The book of Ecclesiastes is one of God’s gifts to us to help us live in the real world. in the fallen world. And that’s what we see throughout its pages.

It can be a challenge in the sense that it’s often a book that can easily be quoted out of context. Because Solomon speaks from the perspective of life under the sun, and we’ll talk about that in a moment, but then later on brings in God’s wisdom to the situation. Tom Asquill, a pastor from down in Cape Coral, Florida, has written a book from his study of the book of Ecclesiastes, and he titled that book, Real Life in a Fallen World.

Because Ecclesiastes is a book of the Bible that surprises us. It challenges our normal church people way of thinking. It springs truth on us in a way that we don’t expect it. Truth that forces us to realize that everything’s not as neat and tidy as our Christian sensibilities like to suggest. There’s not always easy answers in life.

Even for God’s people. Especially for God’s people. And the author, who we’ll see in a moment, is Solomon. He purposely contrasts the perspectives of frustrating despair. in exasperation with the joy that’s found in God’s ways. As I said, Ecclesiastes is a wisdom book, it’s wisdom literature written by the wisest man in the world. And he shows us that even all that wisdom doesn’t provide him with easy answers to life. He uses irony and repetition and wordplay, as we’ll see. One thing he uses a lot is juxtaposition. For example, he will contrast two opposing ideas to show us the difference. For example, he will say things like, in Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse three, what advantage does a man have in his labor, in which he labors under the sun?

He contrasts that with statements like, in Ecclesiastes 5.18, Here is what I have seen to be good, which is beautiful, to eat, to drink, and to see good in all one’s labor, in which he labors under the sun, during the few days of his life, which God has given him, for this is his portion. And it’s in these opposing perspectives that we’re forced to realize, again, that answers in life don’t come easy. in Tom Askel’s book that was very helpful in this study, in his introduction to Ecclesiastes, he uses a good contrast to illustrate this idea for us. First, he uses the example of the Greek myth about Sisyphus. If you’ve heard that story, in Greek mythology, Sisyphus was this character who was a mortal who offended the gods, and so he was punished.

And his punishment was to spend eternity pushing a rock up a hill, only to have it roll back down anytime he got to the top. And the point is that every time he accomplished something, he realized he hasn’t accomplished anything. And many people have written about that myth and the meaning of it and see it as a metaphor for life, saying that there’s no meaning in life and life is just absurd. No matter how hard you try, nothing really matters in the end. And it can seem to present that perspective in Ecclesiastes. But then, Tom Askewell uses another example to contrast this, and that’s the movie and the character from the movie, Pollyanna.

If you know the story, Pollyanna is a young orphan girl who learns to live by what she calls the glad game. She forces herself to find something good in everything, every circumstance she’s presented with. For example, when she’s given a set of crutches for Christmas instead of the doll she wanted, she’s simply glad that she doesn’t need them. And when her evil aunt forces her to live in the attic, she’s glad because now she has a great view of the city. And when she’s punished for being late to dinner and she’s forced to eat just bread and milk, she’s glad because she decides now she likes bread and milk. And this is what Tom Askew concludes from that illustration. This is what he says. He says, Sisyphus and Pollyanna represent the extreme opposite ways of thinking about life.

But there are a myriad of perspectives in between them. Each one of us has a perspective on life, and we think about life in general and our own lives in particular through lenses crafted by our experience, temperament, and circumstances. The problem is that very often our outlooks on life are not very thoughtful and as a result can be superficial. And with a superficial view of the world, that sets you up for a shallow life filled with disappointment and despair and misses out on true lasting joy. I think that’s a helpful way to look at the message of Ecclesiastes.

Life isn’t as terrible as it sometimes seems. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows either. The truth is found somewhere in between. And life is complicated. And life doesn’t always make sense. And that’s true for the atheist and for the Christian. And Solomon doesn’t look past the good or the evil. He deals honestly with situations in life as they exist in the fallen world. So we need to talk about the author.

I’ve already made mention of him, but Ecclesiastes is written by Solomon. And that’s questioned sometimes because Solomon’s name does not appear in the book. But in Ecclesiastes chapter one, verse one, you see it says, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. And there have been several theories by a multitude of different scholars who’ve tried to find another author other than Solomon, and none of them are convincing. Solomon’s the author, especially when you read in verse 16 of chapter one, the preacher says, I spoke within my heart saying, behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has seen abundance of wisdom and knowledge. And again, at the end of the book, in Ecclesiastes 12, He says, in addition to being a wise man, the preacher also taught the people knowledge and pondered and searched out and arranged many proverbs. The author is most certainly King Solomon, son of David. who God gave the gift of wisdom.

We read that account in 1 Kings, where God gives Solomon a request, ask of me what you want. And in 1 Kings 3, verse 9, Solomon says, give your slave a listening heart to judge your people, to discern between good and evil, for who is able to judge this glorious people of yours? And so a couple of verses later in verse 12, God answers him, and he says, behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you.

That’s Solomon. And we know that Solomon fits the bill of one who wrote many proverbs, because it tells us in 1 Kings that he spoke 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. Solomon was an accomplished man. And King Solomon, or as he identifies himself here as the preacher, is also where we get the title of this book in our English Bibles, well, kind of.

We see the title in our book as Ecclesiastes. Solomon identifies himself as the preacher. The name Ecclesiastes comes from the Greek word for assembly or ecclesia. It’s the same word we translate as church since the founding of the church in Acts 2. So as one’s reading the book, the words from the preacher, we are the assembly that he has gathered. And so the book is titled, To the Assembly, or Ecclesiastes. And the rest of the words of this book are the words of the preacher.

And again, this is not Solomon after he has forsaken his wisdom, as some have suggested. Solomon is still the wisest man on earth. And yes, he lived in sin. He did things that God had commanded not to. But even through those experiences, Solomon has a lot of wisdom to share. He has a lot of wisdom and experience to impart to us, ways to live and ways not to live.

But as wise as Solomon was, he also saw that the words of this book were really God’s words. Because you see in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 11, right before that summary statement at the end of the book, the preacher says this, the words of wise men are like goads and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails. They are given by one shepherd. So in reality, the unique and challenging nature of this book is because it’s God’s words to us about how we are to understand life. in this fallen world. And although it’s been thousands of years since Solomon recorded these words, we still need Ecclesiastes’ message today.

We still need this message to keep us from the kind of despair and frustration that can shake our faith and tempt us toward unbelief. And we need this sort of a perspective to keep us from blind and out of touch optimism that will leave us vulnerable to the challenges of life. We need to see this life through God’s lens. That’s Ecclesiastes. That’s what this book forces us to do. It keeps us in the realm of the realistic.

And it helps us to see that we can find joy and satisfaction in a world that’s full of pain and sorrow and wickedness. So that’s the author of this book. Another important theme of the book that helps us understand what Solomon is telling us is found in verse two. Verse two there of chapter one says, vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. That will be repeated throughout the book. He basically wraps up every section with a similar statement about things being vanity. There have been a lot written about the meaning of this word.

A lot of times we’re told that the word means something like meaningless. As if the preacher’s main message to us is that life in the end is meaningless and pointless. But that doesn’t really fit well with what’s in the book. That doesn’t really fit well with everything else that he has to tell us. And all the comparisons that he makes.

For example, in Ecclesiastes 4, verse 6, he says, one handful of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after the wind. Or in Ecclesiastes 7, verse 2, better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting because that is the end of all mankind and the living puts this in his heart. And other places throughout the book where he contrasts what is better with what is not. If one is better than another, then life can’t be meaningless. No, I think the preacher’s trying to show us where to find meaning in life, and not to tell us that in the end it’s all meaningless. I don’t think that’s what he means by the word vanity here. That Hebrew word for vanity is the word hebel.

But it can also be translated as breath, or breeze, or mist, or vapor. I think the preacher’s saying that everything is a mist or a vapor. It’s a common biblical idea I read from Psalm 39 to open the service. Psalm 39 5 says, you have made my days as hand breaths and my lifetime as nothing before you.

He’s speaking about the brevity of life. He says, surely every man, even standing firm, is altogether. There’s that word for vanity. In verse 11 of Psalm 39, he says, with reproofs you chase a man for iniquity. You consume as a moth what is precious to him. Surely every man is vanity. And then in Psalm 144, O Yahweh, what is man that you know him, or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath. It’s that same word. His days are like a passing shadow. I think that is what the preacher is getting at with the use of this word.

Or to help put it in perspective, this was really interesting. This Hebrew word, Hebel, is also a biblical name. It’s the name of Adam and Eve’s second son, Abel. Abel’s name meant breath or vapor, or as we see it here, vanity. That’s what his name meant. His name literally means here today and gone tomorrow. Which is fitting, I guess. This is what the preacher is saying in Ecclesiastes.

This is his metaphor for life. Life is like a vapor or a breath. Like when you breathe when it’s cold outside. I know it doesn’t happen here much, but just believe me, when it’s cold out and you breathe, your breath creates a vapor. You breathe out, you see it, and then it’s gone. That’s like life. Life is fleeting. Life is momentary. It’s here today and gone tomorrow.

Or as James puts it, in another allusion to the book of Ecclesiastes in James 4.14, you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.

You are a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes away. You know what happens when you blow out a candle? How long does that puff of smoke last? You can smell it and you can see it. You know it’s there, but it’s also temporary. And it disappears quickly like it was never there. It comes and goes without a permanent impact or lasting impression.

And the more your life goes by, you understand this. I’m sure you found yourself saying exactly what you used to hear the old people saying. Life goes by faster and faster the older you get. You blinked. And now here you are in an old person’s body. What happened? We are born, we live, and we die. And it happens quickly.

But we don’t like to think about that. We don’t like to think about how quickly life is gone. And the book of Ecclesiastes forces us to think about that. Forces us to think about what it means that our life is like a vapor. It’s here and then it’s gone. Which means it forces us to think about what really matters in life. How are we going to live while we’re here? What is worth living for?

So let’s look at some themes of this book. And one of the most important themes of this book is God himself. This book teaches us about God. It teaches us and shows us that like the song we sing, Christ Our Wisdom, God is God and we are not. Solomon continues to find that out. As he searches for his purpose in life, he continually realizes, I’m not God. Ecclesiastes is a lot like Job in that way. Despite all of Solomon’s searchings and musings about life, he realizes God is higher and greater than he is.

In Ecclesiastes 5 too, he says, God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. A few verses later, he says, God takes no delight in fools. The preacher also shows us that as messed up as this world is, God is still sovereign over it. He’s sovereign over the mess too. In Ecclesiastes 7 verse 13, he says, see the work of God, who is able to straighten what he has bent. This world is bent and He allowed it to be bent for His purpose. God is sovereign over our struggles and trials in life. God is sovereign over our suffering. It seems I’ve heard that before recently. In Ecclesiastes 1, verses 13 and 14.

Solomon says, I gave my heart to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous endeavor which God has given to the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun and behold all is vanity and striving after the wind. This frustration in life This exasperation Solomon feels because life is so brief and it’s hard to find the purpose in it. That grievous endeavor, Solomon says, God gave it to us. It is God who has given that to the sons of men. God has ordained and given this struggle to us. God is sovereign.

Another thing you’ll see repeated throughout the book is the phrase under the sun. The preacher uses this phrase under the sun to emphasize the emptiness of life without God. It occurs over two dozen times in the book, the phrase under the sun, and it reminds us that the author is thinking about life down here.

Life as we experience it here and now. Life as we experience it, as we live it, without regard to God’s perspective. Life like that is exasperating. And from that point of view, nothing has true meaning. But then the preacher reminds himself and us of the truth that God has revealed. The thing that does give life its meaning.

For example, under the sun, a fool might get the benefit of a good man’s work. Chapter 2, verses 18 and 19. This is Solomon’s exasperation at working his whole life. He says, thus I hated all the fruit of my labor, for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a man of simple-minded folly. Yet he will have power over all the fruit of my labor, for which I have labored and which I have acted wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.” Now, if that’s all you quoted from Ecclesiastes, you’d be in trouble. That’s a despairing perspective. Why do I get out of bed in the morning? Why do I go to work? What’s the point of it all?

But from God’s perspective. Chapter 2 verse 24, there’s nothing better for a man than to eat and to drink and have his soul see good in his labor. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. From God’s perspective, the joy is found in the work. Not in what you can gain from it, but in the work he’s given you itself.

Or we also see that under the sun, riches are a harm to the one who has them. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 13, there’s a sickening evil which I have seen under the sun. Riches being hoarded by their master to his own evil demise. Again, if that’s all you read, you might live the life of an ascetic. It’s good to be poor. Poverty’s where it’s at because look at what happens when you have riches.

But from God’s perspective, Chapter five, verse 19, furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has also empowered him to eat from them and to take up his portion and be glad in his labor. This is the gift of God. For he will not remember much the days of his life because God allows him to occupy himself with the gladness of his heart.

The preacher wants us to know that under the sun is not all there is. So you might be thinking, well, that means that surely the Christian’s way of looking at things is different. I’m a follower of Jesus, so doesn’t that change everything? Well, yes and no. Yes, knowing Christ does provide a new perspective on life. We’ll see how Ecclesiastes points us to that. And yes, the world under the sun is not all there is, and we know that because of Christ.

But the preacher’s not just commenting on what life without Christ is like. He’s telling us how the world is. This is what the world is like. This is just reality and it’s the same for everyone. The Christian and the non-Christian. We all live under the sun.

Being a Christian doesn’t stop this from being true. Being a Christian doesn’t take away all the frustration of life. Being a Christian doesn’t stop all the bad things from happening. Instead, being a Christian should make us the first people to stop pretending like that’s true.

Because we do have a different perspective. That’s the preacher’s point. It may not make perfect sense yet, but that’s where he’s taking us. Another helpful commenter on the book of Ecclesiastes is a man by the name of David Gibson. We actually studied his book in the Men’s Bible Study a few years back. His perspective on Ecclesiastes, of the whole book, he boils it down to one sentence. He says this, only preparing to die will teach us how to live. I think that’s a great summary. of what the preacher’s trying to get through to us.

How is it that we should live in this life? We should live as though we know the end. Yes, we won’t be here long, but we know that there’s more than this, and we should live like there’s more than this. We live in the world under the sun now, which means we live in a world where we will soon be dead. So how does that shape how we live while we’re here?

Another aspect of this book that’s in the verse we’ve already looked at. Verse two, vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Yes, he tells us that life is brief in those words, but he also tells us that life is elusive, just like a vapor. like we talked about that word means. Just like a vapor vanishes quickly, it’s also impossible to grab onto. He’ll use a few different metaphors for this throughout the book, but Ecclesiastes teaches us that we don’t have the control over life that we think we do. We think we have knowledge and understanding of how the world works until we don’t. until something happens that shakes the foundations we’re standing on. Again, this is how David Gibson describes this idea.

He says, in some measure, we can understand how the world works, but why does it always rain on the days you don’t bring your umbrella? Why is the line you don’t join in the supermarket always quicker than the one you do? Why do you feel low even when you can’t really put your finger on the specific cause? Why do people you know and love die young or suffer long-term ill health while the evil dictator lives on in prosperity to old age?

I thought we knew how the world worked. That’s life under the sun. That’s the life the preacher wants to tell us about. You can live your whole life building something and it might succeed and it might fail. You might get the big promotion at work and you might get let go next month.

Or you might be skipping around singing Christmas carols one night and wake up with cancer the next morning. How much control do you really have over life? How much control do you really have over how secure your job is, or your finances are, or your financial security? How much control do you have over how healthy you will be? Or what will happen to the interest rates, or the housing market, or anything else that happens in life?

As the preacher says, both good and evil people die. In chapter 9 verse 11, he says, I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, and the battle is not to the mighty, and neither is bread to the wise nor riches to the discerning, nor favor to men who know.

For time and misfortune overtake them all. What he’s saying there is, life doesn’t always make sense. Because if it made sense the way we think about it, the race would go to the swift, and the battle would go to the mighty, and the bread would go to the wise, and riches to the discerning. But time and misfortune overtake them all. Bad things happen to everyone. Life under the sun is vanity.

Why is it like this? Why is life like this? Why do bad things happen to people who are doing their best? Why do wicked people succeed while good people suffer? Why do babies die? Why do mothers get cancer? Why do some husbands walk away from faithful wives while others suffer in loneliness and waiting for a spouse? Why do some parents abuse and mistreat their children, while other couples long and wait and pray for God to open the womb? Why is life this way?

Paul picks this up in his letter to the Romans, and he uses this word for vanity from Ecclesiastes. In Romans chapter eight, starting in verse 19, For the anxious longing of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility. That’s that word vanity. Creation was subjected to this vanity, this frustrating aspect of life that doesn’t make sense. Creation was subjected to it, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption and to the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

For in hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we eagerly wait for it. Life is like this because of the curse of sin. But sin doesn’t get the last word. This futile world is not without hope, not even for the preacher who tells us about this world of vanity.

Because he has the hope of redemption, the hope of restoring everything back to the way it should be, back to the way it will make sense again. Which is why the preacher’s ultimate conclusion at the end of the book, the last two verses, is this. The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments. Because this is the end of the matter for all mankind. For God will bring every work to judgment. Everything which is hidden, whether good or evil. Fear God and keep his commandments. Repent and believe the gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

That’s the end of the matter. That’s what’s important. What really matters in life is nothing you have done. It’s what he has done, and it’s what he is doing, and it’s what he will do. Fear God and keep his commandments because he isn’t done yet. This life under the sun is not all there is.

He will bring everything into judgment one day. He sent his son to be the savior, the world. He came and he entered this futile and vain world so that he could conquer the sin and death that plague it. And one day he will return and restore creation longing for redemption and to raise those who believe in him to reign with him over the new creation. in a new and redeemed world that isn’t subjected to this futility and frustration and brevity anymore. But until then, we live in the world of the preacher under the sun.

Vanity of vanities, says the preacher. Vanity of vanities all is vanity. And we know he’s right. When we think about how brief and insignificant our lives are compared to the centuries of history of this world. How short our lifespan is. When we think about all that’s happened in history. We know that what the preacher is saying is true.

Except of course when we pretend like it’s not. And we live life like it’s not true. We live life like it’s just going to go on forever. until we’re blindsided with reality. We live like it will be someone else who gets cancer, not us. We pretend like we’re the ones that get to determine whether we make a difference in the world or not, and that we will be the ones to accomplish something that will last. Or so we think.

And so the preacher, a man much wiser and more experienced than any of us, he has some work to do. And he’s got some foundations to shake. And that’s what the book of Ecclesiastes is for. Like the very next words that we’ll cover next time, verse three, what advantage does a man have in all his labor in which he labors under the sun?

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer. Our God, we thank you. We thank you for a book like Ecclesiastes that helps us to see what life is like in this world. It doesn’t paint over things or look past all the hard things. Lord, help us to understand it. Help us to see what your word has to teach us about living this life under the sun. Help us to read this book with an eye toward your sovereign control over all things and that you are one day going to redeem creation so that all the questions that this book forces us to ask will be answered. God, we thank you. We praise you and glorify you and pray that as we go from here tonight that you would be glorified in our lives. We pray all of this in Jesus’ precious name, amen.