Ecclesiastes: On life, meaning, and man’s ultimate responsibility

by Chris Ritter

Have you ever seen a movie where, during 95% of the movie, you could honestly say you did not know how it was going to end?  When all the characters and plotlines seemed to come together only in the last two minutes of the two hour movie?  One such movie that comes to my mind is “The Usual Suspects”.  Seriously an amazing film – if you haven’t seen it then I won’t play spoiler.  Just suffice to say that if you can figure the whole thing out before the end, I’d be impressed.  Or maybe I’m just a bad end-of-the-movie-guesser.

 

Either way, the book of Ecclesiastes is a lot like a movie with an excellent ending that you just didn’t see coming.  King Solomon writes perhaps the most confusing and depressing book in the Bible, and hardly any glimpse of hope can be found.  He was likely an old man when he wrote this book, looking back on his years intentionally spent pursuing everything under the sun, seeking wisdom and meaning from life.  He had unfathomable wealth and power, built the biggest homes, had forests and vineyards as his backyard, threw epic parties lasting years at a time – basically he got to the end of the rainbow and discovered the pot of gold was missing.  But, none of this was his final point.

 

The term “under the sun” is crucial to grasp in Ecclesiastes.  It denotes life on the earth lived apart from God.  Can man live without God and still find meaning?  This was one of Solomon’s questions, and his answer was clear:  without God, without faith in and reverent fear towards him, life is vain, meaningless, empty.  Solomon pursued everything we do, but got further down the road than any of us – sex and sensuality, parties, property and possessions, wealth and honor and freedom uninhibited.  By all accounts, life was glorious for Solomon.  Glorious and meaningless.

 

Then we come to the last two verses of the book.

The end of the mater, all has been heard.  Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.  Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

 

Solomon boils it down to two things:  fear God and obey him.  He gives us the wise life in one short sentence – what wise men throughout history have always attempted to do.  Solomon spent much of his life pursuing wisdom in every arena, pursuing meaning, and discovered that only in the fear of the Lord can wisdom be found (Psalm 111:10).  And only in humble obedience to God can meaning and true happiness be found. 

 

Here’s the problem:  you and I don’t believe either of those things.  We, bearing God’s image and living only because he graciously allows, shake our fist at God and demand an explanation for the horror around us and the difficulties of our life.  We see the illogic of man, the evil within ourselves, and cannot put all the pieces together.  We believe that since we can’t figure it all out, God can’t be good or loving or right to judge.  We don’t fear him properly and we don’t obey his commands.  And we certainly hate that he will bring everything and everyone into judgment.

 

Ecclesiastes is not the end of the story, thank God.  Though we are God-belittling, God-mocking creatures, God is a gracious judge who has decided to love us though we have hated him.  He has shown patience, mercy, and blessing in ways we will never know.  Most importantly, he provided his own means of both satisfying his righteous judgment against us and showing his mercy. 

 

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  1 Corinthians 1:22-25

 

Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God and the expression of God’s love and mercy to the world.  Amidst the brokenness, despair, and sense of meaningless we have living apart from our Creator, God himself came into humanity, became human, and experienced judgment on our behalf.  God does not believe life is meaningless.  God does not believe everything is vanity.  In his wisdom which many call foolish, he loved us enough to die and rise on our behalf.  By trusting Christ as Savior, we receive freely his grace and provision, begin a new life following him, and grow in godly wisdom… even if it is a wisdom much of our world refuses to believe.

 

How have you found meaning in life through Jesus Christ?  I’d love to hear your thoughts/story below.  And, share this with others by clicking any of the social network buttons above.

 

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