Delve Into The WritingsSample

DAY 9 – ECCLESIASTES

The various collections of sayings in the book of Proverbs present a consistent message: prosperity, health, and security will inevitably follow if one pursues the right character qualities, in the fear of God. Even within that book, however, a minor theme is sometimes sounded. Some of its sayings acknowledge that there can be exceptions to this rule. We can’t be confident that our actions will always produce the results we expect: 

• An unplowed field produces food for the poor, but injustice sweeps it away. 

• The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord. 

• Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. 

This minor theme in the book of Proverbs is the major theme of Ecclesiastes, another book written within Israel’s wisdom tradition. It seeks to answer the question of how to live meaningfully in a world where: 

The race is not to the swift 

or the battle to the strong nor does food come to the wise

or wealth to the brilliant

or favor to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all. 

The word Ecclesiastes is the Greek translation of a Hebrew term that occurs repeatedly in this book. It’s usually translated “Teacher” in English. The term refers to “someone who addresses an assembly.” These are the collected words of a teacher or preacher, just as a note at the end of the book informs us: “Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.” 

The words of the Teacher himself begin and end with the declaration, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” The word translated “meaningless” here actually means “fleeting” or “short lived.” As we discover from the teachings of the rest of the book, this phrase warns us that all of the rewards we often work for and expect in life are actually uncertain, fleeting, and ultimately unsatisfying. The Teacher pursues this insight and the problem it poses for living, in a long discourse that shifts back and forth between prose and poetry, and between autobiography and exhortation. 

PRAYER: Lord, continue to teach me in and through Your Word.