Continuing a collective read and share thru the book of Ecclesiastes. Read up. Join in!
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
Picking up where we left off last time, I wondered aloud if Ecclesiastes and the whole 'looking for meaning' topic might be one for sharing my faith with others. Erik chimed in that approaching someone who is an atheist on the avenue of life's meaning wouldn't be a new approach to them. (Thanks for the comment, by the way!) I'm sure he's right. I don't know that I had an atheist in mind as much as people who haven't given the whole matter of God more than a precursory consideration. I'll bet you have a number of acquaintances, as I do, who aren't followers of Christ, but they have some sense of something 'other' out there. So, what is it? What's the secret to life? Is that 'other' to be found in great human accomplishment? Solomon says...
Let's start with wisdom.
v. 12 - I marvel at how the author of this book shifts from first to third person, and then back again. Reminds me of a Saturday Night Live spoof on Bob Dole years ago, or, if you're an NFL fan, former Saints wide-receiver Joe Horn, "Well, all Joe Horn knows is that Joe Horn is going to go catch passes. That's what Joe Horn does." Sorry for the diversion. The author identifies himself as having been king over Israel.
v. 13 - What do you suppose the author means by declaring, "What a heavy burden God has laid on man"?
v. 14 - What a great picture the author paints of futility in the phrase 'chasing after the wind'. Can you catch it? Corral it? This is evidently a favorite phrase as the author returns to it many times in this book, and again here in just a few more verses.
v. 15 - Here the author confesses he is powerless to make any meaningful change in all that is. He has concluded that human wisdom is powerless to remedy all the brokenness and to fill all the deficiencies that are evident in the world.
v. 16-18 - Solomon declares that his vast wisdom and experience offered very little advantage over sheer madness and folly in making a difference that lasts. Once again, in verse 17, he equates it all to chasing the wind. Verse 18 records his final conclusion on human wisdom apart from God.
As I think through it, it would seem to me that the more wisdom and experience a man had apart from God, the calamities of this world would really would look more and more despairing. If God isn't in the story, how does this story have a happy ending?
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