Search The Scriptures —Study 0 — The Book of Ecclesiastes

Study 0 From the Book of Ecclesiastes is:  The Introduction of the Book of Ecclesiastes

This book speaks through the mouth of Solomon, but does not in any way build on his authority. In the earlier part, the writer describes human life as seen by a shrewd observer, who disputes the arguments of those who find a satisfactory aim in life either in intellectual labour, or in the gathering of riches, or in pleasures, or even in the attainment of an ethical ideal, seeing that death terminates all, and comes to all alike.

Man cannot by searching find oat the deep things of God (3:11) but must bow before His sovereignty (3”14). Whatever appearances may indicate, God judges righteously, though judgment may be long delayed (8:12, 13).

The recurring phrase ‘under the sun’ may be regarded as indicating the purely human standpoint adopted by the writer in the earlier chapters, and as roughly equivalent to ‘in the world as man sees it’. It is salutary for the Christian to contrast the vanity and meaningless of this world, its business and pleasures, as set forth in Ecclesiastes, with our glorious heritage in Christ as set forth in the New Testament.

The book is the record of a spiritual pilgrimage, reaching its culmination in chapter 12 (cf. 12:13, 14 with Rom. 2:16. In Ecclesiastes, perhaps more than in any other book of the Old Testament, the standpoint of the writer should be borne in mind, and particularly the fact that he saw nothing for man beyond death save judgment. His attention is concentrated upon this life, for ‘our Saviour Christ. Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to fight through the gospel’ (2 Tim. 1:10) had not yet appeared.