Today in our journey through the 66 books of the Bible we are visiting the book of Ecclesiastes...
Author
No author’s name is suggested directly in the book. However, traditionally some passages have suggested to readers that King Solomon was the author. (See Ecclesiastes 1:1,12,16; 2:4-9; 7:26-29; 12:9; 1 Kings 2:9; 3:12; 4:29-34; 5:12; 10:1-8.) Koheleth is the Hebrew title of the book. The word means teacher. This title, the author’s unique style of Hebrew, and his attitude toward rulers, suggest that the author is not a monarch. (See Ecclesiastes 4:1-2; 5:8-9; 8:2-4; 10:20.) Christians know the book as Ecclesiastes which means “the one who assembled”. Ecclesiastes is the Greek rendering of Koheleth that is found in the Septuagint.
Date
No time-period is mentioned in the book. If Solomon is the author, then the date of composition would be sometime roughly between 970 and 930 BCE. If Solomon is not the author, then Ecclesiastes was probably written after the time of Solomon.
One clue to the date of composition is the fact that two Persian words appear in the text: pardes (grove) in 2:5 and pitgam (sentence) in 8:11. The presence of these words indicates that the text should be dated sometime in the postexilic period (latter 6th century BCE or later). This is the time-period during which the Achaemenid Persian empire emerged and ruled Judah and most of the ancient Near East. This late date would also agree with the grammatical features of Koheleth’s Hebrew.
On the other hand, Ecclesiastes cannot be dated any later than the first half of the 2ndcentury BCE because there is a fragment of the book that appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls from that time. The Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach, which also date from this time, appear to refer to the book of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes was later (between the 8th and 10th centuries CE) classified among the megillot (The Five Scrolls) alongside Ruth, Esther, Song of Songs, and Lamentations. Each of these are read on different religious festivals during the Jewish year. Ecclesiastes is read on Sukkot (the feast of booths) which occurs in the autumn and celebrates harvest time.
Themes
Jewish and Christian commentators through the ages have wrestled with how the message of Ecclesiastes fits with the rest of the Bible. Some commentators see Ecclesiastes as a portrait of life without God, since it is hard for them to see how life with God could be described as “vanity”.
Many topics are covered in the twelve chapters of this book: the cycles of the natural order, the amassing of wealth and property, the opposing forces that govern life, friendship, the wearying uncertainties of life, the virtues and difficulties of human authority, the nature of folly and the limits of wisdom, the enjoyment of work and the terrors of old age.
The author takes stock of the world as he has experienced it between the horizons of birth and death, the latter being a horizon beyond which humans cannot see. The world is seen as being full of enigmas, the greatest of which is humanity itself.
From the perspective of his own understanding, the Teacher takes the measure of human beings, examining human capabilities. He discovers that human wisdom, even that of a godly person, has limits. Human wisdom cannot find out the larger purposes of God or the ultimate meaning of human existence. The traditional doctrine of reward and punishment for the good and the wicked, as expressed in Proverbs, does not appear, to the Teacher, to really work, at least not in this life.
As the author examines the human enterprise, he sees human beings in mad pursuit of one thing and then another, laboring as if they could master the world, lay bare its secrets, change its fundamental structures, break through the bounds of human limitations, and master their own destiny. The Teacher sees human beings vainly pursuing hopes and expectations that are in reality “meaningless, a chasing after wind”.
However, through the eyes of faith the Teacher believes that God has ordered all things according to his own purpose and that the role of humans is to accept God’s will, even accepting human limitations. Human beings should be patient and enjoy life as God gives it. Every person should know their own limitations and not vex themselves with unrealistic expectations. Human beings should be prudent in everything, living carefully before God, fearing God, and keeping his commandments.
The bottom line is this: life not centered on God is purposeless and meaningless. Without God, nothing in life will satisfy us. With God, all of life and God’s other good gifts are to be gratefully received and enjoyed.
Structure
- Author (1:1)
- Theme: the meaninglessness of human effort on earth apart from God (1:2)
- Introduction: the non-profit nature of working to accumulate things to achieve happiness (1:3-11)
- Discourse (Part 1): despite life’s apparent enigmas and meaninglessness, life is to be enjoyed as a gift from God. (1:12-11:6)
- Discourse (Part 2): since old age and death will soon come, human beings should enjoy life in their youth, remembering that God will judge. (11:7-12:7)
- Theme Repeated (12:8)
- Conclusion: Reverently trust in and obey God. (12:9-14)
Key Concept—Eternity in Our Hearts
My favorite verse in this book is Ecclesiastes 3:11 which says, “He [God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
The word for “eternity” (ha’olam in Hebrew) literally means “the age” or “the world”. The Septuagint translates this using the Greek word αἰῶνα. This word is used frequently in the New Testament and is often translated as “eternity”.
Another interesting word is used in Ecclesiastes 3:11. It is the word καιρῷ. The word Kairos appears frequently in this chapter where we read, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
The Greeks had two different words for time. There is the word Kronos; it refers to time measured by the clock. Then there is the word Kairos; it refers to time in terms of special moments.
One of my favorite books of all time was written by my friend, Tim Hansel. It is entitled When I Relax, I Feel Guilty. In that book Tim has a wonderful chapter entitled, The Time of Our Lives, where he explains…
Chronos is time governed by the clock. Kairos, on the other hand, is measured by events or special moments. Chronos is timetables and prearranged work schedules. Kairos is the rhythm of planting and harvest, energy and fatigue, that encourages human action to break forth in the time of ripeness.
The difference between chronos and kairos might well be illustrated by what just happened to me while I was writing this. Chronos says that the book is due in a few weeks and that I must be very disciplined about my time. Kairossays that my sons just came in the door and nothing is more important than that. Chronos says I have an outline I’m trying to follow and a time schedule that must be met today. Kairos says some things are more important than outlines—like my sons inviting me to go for a walk.
We took the walk.
Tim proceeds to give a delightful description of the walk with his young sons. Then he concludes…
Once again my life took on a meaning beyond time. Kairos—wrapped in an eloquence and a simplicity that can only be experienced briefly and remembered always.
We held hands as we walked home in the dark. And we shook the branches of trees so that they would sprinkle their drops on top of us. And we laughed. For a moment we filled the universe with our joy and I wanted that short walk home to last even longer. But I suppose the beauty of those kind of moments lies in the fact that you can’t hold on to them. Kairos, where all things seem possible, where past, present, and future seem to melt into oneness and hope. Kairos, where we again stop long enough to let life love us.
The New Testament calls this God’s “Now” time. In 2 Corinthians 6:2 Paul quotes Isaiah…
For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
God lives in an eternal “Now” and there are points at which God’s eternal “Now” intersects with our history. That is when we must, as Horace says, “Carpe diem,” seize the day.
C. S. Lewis writes most eloquently about this in Mere Christianity. In a chapter entitled Time and Beyond Time Lewis explains…
We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from past to future just as we do. But many learned men do not agree with that. It was the Theologians who first started the idea that some things are not in Time at all: later the Philosophers took it over: and now some of the scientists are doing the same.
Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty—and every other moment from the beginning of the world—is always the Present for Him. If you like to put it that way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.[1]
There are a couple of other verses in the Bible that hint at this idea of God being outside of time. In Psalm 90:4 we read, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” And in 2 Peter 3:8 we read, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
In a letter to a young agnostic named Sheldon Vanauken, C. S. Lewis once wrote,
You say the materialist universe is ‘ugly’. I wonder how you discovered that! If you are really a product of a materialistic universe, how is it you don’t feel at home there? Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or wd. not always be, purely aquatic creatures? Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. (‘How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up & married! I can hardly believe it!’) In heaven’s name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something in us which is not temporal.[2]
Vanauken writes throughout his own book, A Severe Mercy, about the longing for timelessness that led him to faith in God and in Christ. And this brings us back to Ecclesiastes. God “has also set eternity in the human heart.” Does this verse perhaps suggest that God has set a longing for eternity, a longing for timelessness, a longing for his “Now” time in every human heart? I believe so.
Describing the brink of his conversion, Vanauken writes…
I suspected that all the yearnings for I knew not what that I had ever felt—when autumn leaves were burning in the twilight, when wild geese flew crying overhead, when I looked up at bare branches against the stars, when spring arrived on an April morning—were in truth yearnings for him. For God. I yearned towards him.[3]
Yes, God has placed longings in our hearts, including a longing for eternity. And all these longings are meant to lead us to God, like a homing beacon. To me, the existence of these longings is one of the most powerful arguments for the existence of God. And when one allows such longings to lead one to Christ, one begins to find the longings fulfilled, engulfed by a presence, a love, and a light beyond description.
Our own Bud Rowles loved this concept from the time we first read about it together in Mere Christianity. Many months ago, Bud asked me to preach a sermon on what he called “The Absence of Time”. I knew what he was asking for, but I wasn’t sure where to fit it into my preaching schedule. Still, I began jotting down some thoughts. And Bud kept reminding me of his request. I kept telling him that I was working on it. Which I was. But then Bud passed from Kronos into the Kairos he had been longing for. Though Bud is not here with us anymore, not here to give me his feedback on this sermon, I know he is in a place where he is experiencing Kairos like never before. Now he could preach a better sermon on this topic than I can at present. Nonetheless, I dedicate this sermon to Bud and hope that somehow, he is listening in…
Comments