INTERPRETING THE BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES

 

 

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:

 

·       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.