ECCLESIASTES: This particular book in the Bible has no time period or no writers name is mentioned in the book, but several passages suggest that King Solomon may be the author. THE TEACHINGS OF THE BOOK IN A NUTSHELL: The author of Ecclesiastes puts his powers of wisdom to work to examine the human experience and assess the human situation. His perspective is limited to what happens under the sun (as is that of all the wisdom teachers). He considers life as he has experienced and observed it between the horizons of birth and death -- life within the boundaries of this visible world. His wisdom cannot penetrate beyond that last horizon; he can only observe the phenomenon of death and perceive the limits it places on human beings. Within the limits of human experience and observation, he is CONCERNED TO SPELL OUT WHAT IS GOOD FOR PEOPLE TO DO. And he represents a devout wisdom. Life in the world is under God -- for all its enigmas. Hence what begins with Meaningless! Meaningless! (Eccl. 1:2) ends with Remember your Creator (Eccl. 12:1). With a wisdom matured by many years, he takes the measure of human beings, examining their limits and their lot. He has discovered that human wisdom, even when it has its beginning in the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7), has limits to its powers when it attempts to go it alone, which significantly, it CANNOT FIND OUT the larger purposes of God or the ULTIMATE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. With respect to these it can only pose questions. Nevertheless, he does take a hard look at the human enterprise -- an enterprise in which he himself has fully participated, busy human ‘ant hill’ in mad pursuit of many things people laboring at life with an overblown conception of human powers and consequently pursuing unrealistic hopes and aspirations. He takes a hard look and concludes that human life in this mode is meaningless, its efforts all futile. What, then, does wisdom teach him?....to be continued..(From: The Lord Is Risen From The Dead Page).
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 16:08:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015