Ecclesiastes is not an easy book to interpret. Some books of
the Bible are fairly clear-cut, like the Book of Proverbs:
·
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David,
king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight,
to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity.
(Proverbs 1:1-3)
Other books are far more nuanced, like the Book of Job,
in which we find that much of the Book contains statements which are in
error. For example, God had found fault with many of Job’s statements:
·
Then the Lord answered Job out of the
whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without
knowledge?” (Job 38:1-2)
·
And the Lord said to Job: “Shall a faultfinder
[Job] contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”
(Job 40:1-2)
If God had disapproved of Job’s pronouncements, so too
should we. God’s disapproval also pertained to Job’s three friends:
·
After the Lord had spoken these words
to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and
against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my
servant Job has.” (Job 42:7)
These revelations demonstrate that God often uses the errant
statements of man to serve His inerrant Word. This tells us that we should be
careful about taking the words of Job and his three friends as Biblical truth.
Instead, we should try to interpret their often-errant words in terms of how
they contribute to the inerrant whole, the lessons that God wants us to
understand.
It seems that this same principle also pertains to the Book of Ecclesiastes, written by the highly compromised King Solomon:
It seems that this same principle also pertains to the Book of Ecclesiastes, written by the highly compromised King Solomon:
·
For when Solomon was old his wives turned away
his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his
God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the
goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So
Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow
the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for
Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the
Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign
wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. And the Lord was angry
with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of
Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this
thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the
Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your
practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I
have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to
your servant. (1 Kings 11:4–11)
Once again, God used the errant words of man to serve His
inerrant (without error) purposes. Nevertheless, Solomon seems to have
retained his earthly wisdom. However, it seems that the more he engaged in
unrepented sin, the more his heart was hardened and his mind was taken captive
by sin. Consequently, this Book is highly nuanced – a mixture of wisdom
and folly:
·
And I applied my heart to seek and to search out
by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that
God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything
that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after
wind. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot
be counted. I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all
who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of
wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness
and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in
much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
(Ecclesiastes 1:13–18)
There are several inferences that we can make from this
passage (and others):
·
Solomon was on a wisdom quest to
determine the meaning of life. He never prayed for understanding in this Book.
·
It seems that part of this quest was to
understand life through many approaches, even “madness and folly.”
·
This quest was like trying to grasp
hold of the wind – an impossibility.
·
He experienced this quest as “vexation”
and “sorrow.” This is a vastly different conclusion than what we read in the rest of the Bible about
wisdom and understanding.
Therefore, the interpreter should not feel forced to regard
all of Solomon’s words as truth. Clearly, many of his statements contradict the
rest of the Bible. Instead, it should be regarded as a poignant portrait of
someone who had it all – wisdom, wealth, women, honor, power, and security –
and yet he confessed that he hated life. Why?
·
He had turned from God.
·
As a result, his wisdom would take him
no further than the things of this temporal world. With his wisdom alone, he
was unable to penetrate the curtain of death to see Eternity and the meaning
that Eternity alone can bestow upon life.
·
Without the revelation of Eternity,
Solomon experienced his life as meaningless and full of torment.
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