We live in a user-friendly age with touch screens, GPS, and internet banking. We love it when things are easy to use. In fact, when things aren't user-friendly, we stop using them! The same can be true in our interaction with God. When God doesn't make sense to us, we stop 'using' Him and look for answers in other places. But while the world today has gotten a lot more convenient, life will never be SIMPLE. Complexity, mystery, and enigma are built into the very fiber of our world. After all, it was created by a God who is ultimately beyond our grasp. And this is one of the points of the book of Ecclesiastes: You will never fully grasp the wisdom built into the fabric of God's world, so fear God and enjoy life! 'This is the whole of mankind' (Eccl. 12:13)!
HOW TO READ ECCLESIASTES
The book of Ecclesiastes is essentially the retelling by the narrator of a teacher's (heb: Qohelet's) quest for wisdom. While Qohelet has lots to say that seems good, it is important to realize that ONLY the narrator's conclusion provides the final word on all matters (12:9-14). In this regard, we can NOT immediately adopt Qohelet's perspective as representing God's truth. However, the narrator concludes in 12:9-10 by saying, "Not only was the Teacher (Qohelet) wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people...The teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true." This signals to us, the readers, that most (if not all) of Qohelet's words represented true wisdom. But wait just a minute. Qohelet teaches that life is meaningless...are we to really believe this?
IS LIFE REALLY 'MEANINGLESS'?
Unfortunately, the word 'meaningless' is understood in today's culture to mean 'purposeless'. But this is not what is meant by Qohelet. In fact, 'meaningless' is an attempt to translate a word (heb. hevel) that was meant to be understood as a word picture. The more literal translation of hevel is "vapor" or "breath" or "smoke". In other words, hevel paints the picture of someone running around on a frigid day taking deep breathes and then trying to literally catch their breath with their arms. This is impossible! One second you see your breath but then it is gone. Life is hevel. Or think about someone smoking a pipe. Imagine them exhaling the smoke and then trying to catch the smoke with their arms. This is impossible! You think you have the smoke trapped in your arms only to find out that it has alluded your grasp. Life is hevel. That is the word picture the author is trying to create. And hevel is the true nature of life and wisdom!
So what does hevel mean in more concrete terms? Well, think about it...just when we think we have life figured out (and have life 'by the horns'), God throws us a curve ball that seems to contradict everything we know or have experienced. And once again we realize that our formula for life was not completely correct; getting our arms perfectly around the mechanics of life is impossible! The narrator of Ecclesiastes wants us to know that we simply can not reduce God's world to a formula or a hard and fast principle; all formulas will ultimately breakdown. In this regard, the book of Ecclesiastes seeks to provide a counterbalance to the book of Proverbs which seemed to communicate that God's world can be reduced to a few pithy statements. And so what we learn in Ecclesiastes is that the principles laid out in the book of Proverbs are only GENERALLY true.
So try reading Ecclesiastes with the author's hevel word picture in mind. Is he communicating that life is 'beyond our grasp', or 'here one day and gone the next', or a combination of the two, or something completely different? Try to figure it out. But whatever you do, don't forget that the word hevel was meant to create a portrait in your mind. And just like wisdom, hevel has a meaning that is beyond words and beyond our grasp (12:10-12)!
DOESN'T GOD WANT US TO UNDERSTAND HIS WORLD?
So maybe you're thinking, "Are you trying to tell me that God doesn't want me to try to understand His wisdom?" NO. We should certainly pursue God's wisdom BUT we should also understand that our ability to grasp wisdom is limited. Our task on earth is not to completely figure God out.
In fact, this is one area that Qohelet initially gets wrong (as pointed out by the narrator). Notice that Qohelet says in 1:13, "I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!" However, the narrator makes it clear in 12:13 that this is not a burden God has placed on humans when he says, "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man." Qohelet eventually reaches the correct conclusion in 7:24 when he says, "I am determined to be wise but this was beyond me. Whatever wisdom may be, it is far off and most profound - who can discover it?" Our job is not to figure God out! But if figuring God out is not the duty of man then what does God desire from humans?
SHOULD WE REALLY EAT, DRINK, AND BE MERRY?
God wants us to enjoy His world WHILE fearing Him. How do we know this? Notice how often Qohelet instructs people to enjoy life (3:12-13, 22; 5:18; 9:7-9; 11:8)! However, Qohelet does not want us to think that life is a free for all or that we can enjoy life irresponsibly! NO. He wants us to know that we need to enjoy life within the parameters of God's creation design. We need to enjoy life while maintaining a healthy fear of God (3:14; 5:7; 7:18; 8:12-13; 12:13-14)!
THE BOTTOM LINE
So how does the book of Ecclesiastes speak to our lives today? Even though we will never completely understand God's wisdom, we need to trust God despite the confusion. This is the reason the fear of God, once again, is the key to living a life grounded in wisdom. And just like in the book of Proverbs, the fear of God takes on a literal sense; it is associated with God's ability to reward or punish. But FEAR is not God's ultimate desire for humans (remember fear is not the END of wisdom). NO. God desires us to enjoy life. God has created an amazing world and He wants us to find happiness in it! However, enjoyment of God's world BEGINS with WISDOM and the FEAR of God. We simply can't enjoy God and His world if we refuse to embrace His wisdom.
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