Today is really the background and the overview of Ecclesiastes, and then I will dive into it and we’ll just bounce back and forth between them and we’ll get to see how they are both related and different.  Should be fun.

Now, looking at Ecclesiastes, the entire writing starts off like this:

“The words of the Preacher, the son of David...”, but preacher is really a translation of Qoheleth (ko-hell-ith), which is a Hebrew word that means ‘one who gathers people’, and in this case the people are gathering to learn.  There are various views who this person is exactly, whether it is Solomon, another descendent of David, or just another Israelite teacher who is a lot like Solomon.  Whoever it is, a great piece of insight I got from looking at the Bible Project’s video on this is that we need to be sure we differentiate the author (who is anonymous) and the teacher, who is a character IN the story being told.  The teacher is IN the writing.  Most of the book is written by an author that wants us to form our own conclusions based on what the teacher is saying through the book.

The teacher’s main point throughout this book centers around another Hebrew word, hevel (or hebel), which is used 38 times throughout the writing, and most famously in this phrase that is repeated: hevel, hevel, everything is utterly hevel.  In the ESV, it is translated as ‘meaningless’ or as ‘vanity’ most often.  But this is a rich word with some context and complexity - it really means temporary and fleeting as well as inferring that something is an enigma or a paradox.  If you think of beauty or of goodness or justice like smoke, it is there, it is beautiful, and as soon as you try to grab a little ball of smoke, what happens?  Well, it just vanishes.  That’s the idea here...wisdom is there, it is real, but just as soon as you think it is tangible and concrete, it is violated and appears to be almost worthless.  In the teacher’s words, it is like “chasing after the wind”.

The author, by way of the teacher, wants us to deconstruct the way we derive purpose and value in our lives apart from God.

Themes that the teacher walks us through are the passage of time, death, deriving purpose from working hard (our careers) or through pleasure.  It is a roundabout journey through various ideas broached in various ways.

And even wisdom is hevel, it has no guarantees...it is an enigma, you want to employ wisdom in your life, definitely, but even it doesn’t assure of us any kind of outcomes.

So, what’s the point then?  If it is all so ‘meaningless’ what is the point that is being made.  Well, the teacher wants us to discover that, it is like he is trying to lead us to place where we eventually have reasoned our way to the same conclusion he has, which is that we should enjoy the gifts of God, that life is ultimately out of my control and under God’s control, and that accepting this reality and leaning into this reality is a way better way to live than the opposite.  It is almost an apologetic approach to arguing for the existence of God.

He is telling is that the pursuit of wisdom must done with open hands, without a pretense of control, and that we should trust God to take things where He may.  It is a different view on the utility of wisdom in our lives compared to Proverbs, but the conclusion is the same - God is ultimately in control.