It's Meaningless, Unless…
The title Ecclesiastes comes from the Hebrew word Qoheleth (pronounced Ko-heh-leth), which means teacher, preacher, gatherer, or assembler. It refers to one who gathers people together to share insight, wisdom, or a solemn message. In this case, the Teacher, the Preacher—the Expert on life—calls an assembly to hear what he has learned, what he knows deeply, and what he feels compelled to proclaim.
So Ecclesiastes is essentially the expert counsel of a seasoned teacher, sharing his wise—and often sobering—insight with a world full of life, yet strangely lifeless. It's a world burdened by existence, yet blind to the Burden Giver—God Himself.
This is the Expert Witness on meaninglessness—on what it looks like to live life without God.
The preacher, Solomon, speaks as a man who has lived, who has learned, and who is now doing everything he can to lead us toward fearing God and walking in His ways—by first leading us away from the futility of life without Him. His key phrase? "Under the sun"—used over thirty times. He wants to gather every soul, across time, who has ever felt trapped in the monotony of day-to-day existence.
Solomon speaks with the full weight of lived wisdom, observing life from a human vantage point, under the sun, apart from divine perspective. But his goal is clear: he wants us to see where this path leads—and ultimately, to discover the Expert's conclusion. And his opening word is that conclusion. Life is empty, plain empty. Then he unpacks this conclusion for the next 12 chapters. He, intertwines, a proper view of God through it… and wraps it up with the whole of the matter in 12:13. Such great news for a world bearing a div |
