The heavens declare
the glory of God and God’s invisible attributes have
been clearly perceived in the things that have been made; our Old and New
Testaments are in absolute agreement on this. Even if the Creator had never
uttered a word to his creatures, men would be without excuse.
We would also be hopelessly confused, frustrated, and
conflicted, grasping for an explanation of meaning and purpose that forever
eludes us, feeling the pull of eternity in bodies destined only for the grave.
When we began this series 54 Saturdays ago, I suggested
that Ecclesiastes is in our Bibles primarily to show us how badly mankind needs
God to speak, and to speak unequivocally. Humanity is fallen. Its members often
behave more like the god of this world than the One who made us in his own
image. Creation is fallen. Despite giving us indisputable evidence
of a Creator, it sends us mixed messages. Neither looking at ourselves nor looking at the world around us is
sufficient to answer the questions raised by our existence and the patterns of
life into which we inevitably fall.
The Preacher has painted for us a perfect picture of mankind’s
condition apart from divine revelation, which means that Ecclesiastes is at
times a dour, unpleasant book. How can it not be? God is frequently outside the
frame. When he appears, it is as one who
gives an unhappy business to the children of man to be busy with, who gives to the sinner
the business of gathering and collecting things he will never enjoy, who
keeps man from fully understanding God’s purposes, who
may destroy the work of your hands in anger, and who
is to be feared rather than enjoyed. None of these things the Preacher
believes about God is untrue, but they are only fragments inferred from
experience. They are far from the entire picture. For that we need revelation.
Those of us who grew up in Christian families take the word
of God for granted sometimes, as if it has always existed in its current form
and will always be as readily available to us as it is in the present moment. We
sit at the
end of the ages with the capacity to reach all
the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s
mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge ... and we so often fail to appreciate the inestimable privilege
with which we have been gifted, and the unbelievable responsibility that comes
with it. Our Bibles gather dust. We complain about not having time to read
them, and when we do, we far too often fail to meditate on what we read and
make it part of who we are.
For shame.
Ecclesiastes asks all the questions the rest of our Bible was written to answer. Perhaps if we came to it first, before becoming familiar
with the contents of the gospels and epistles, we might better appreciate what
God has done for us in speaking to man at “many
times and in many ways”, and finally and most unequivocally in his Son. But
generally speaking, we don’t. By the time a Christian reads the Preacher asking
what
he gains by working endlessly all his life, he has already discovered that even
the most mundane daily task may be performed joyfully, for the glory of God
in hope of eternal reward. By the time a Christian reads that God has put
eternity into man’s heart, he already knows he was made
for eternity. By the time a Christian reads the Preacher on the
emptiness of riches, he already knows that the proper use of the “mammon of
unrighteousness” is to make
friends for ourselves who will one day greet us again in the Father’s house.
By the time a Christian reads Solomon venting about the fact that good
leadership is rarely appreciated, he already knows that the greatest Shepherd ever
given to humanity was taken by those to whom he was sent, brutally mistreated
and murdered. He also knows the end of that story — that God has made him
both Lord and Christ. When his own efforts at caring for God’s people go unappreciated,
he has both a
perfect example to follow and an “unfading
crown of glory” to look forward to.
But we don’t generally come to Ecclesiastes first. It is
highly unlikely we were intended to. For those of us who have never known
anything but Christian answers to life’s questions, Ecclesiastes may even seem
a bit redundant. And yet many people who have come to Christ in mid- or later
life understand Ecclesiastes very well when they encounter it, because they are
familiar with the questions it raises. Any thinking person looking at the world
around him or her will eventually ask them too.
For the man or woman who does not know Christ, then, maybe
Ecclesiastes is a record of your travels. For the man or woman who does, it is a
reminder to give thanks for the unbelievable generosity and grace of God in giving
us his word, and most of all in giving us the Word Made Flesh.
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