By Christianity.com | Created at 2024-11-24 05:01:08 | Updated at 2024-11-24 15:01:35
10 hours ago
So, lesson one from this ancient writer for modern people is “the art of effective diagnosis.” Ecclesiastes 2:1-10 is a case in point. Scrolling on our various devices today, we are bombarded with visions that commend our culture’s priorities and values with a screaming urgency. But they are really no different from those of earlier times; the “preacher” has tried them all. In fact, he calls them to the “witness stand.”
He explores laughter and humor (verse 2), projects and possessions (verses 4-6), entertainment, sex, and sensuality (verse 8), and, of course, the pursuit of prestige and recognition (verse 9).
He reminds us of Mark Twain’s insight, “You don’t know quite what it is you want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache you want it so.”
The sage of Ecclesiastes presses us to face our hunger, our deepest longings, and our expectations, and he puts them all on trial. His conclusions are stark. In essence, he says he’s tried it all, evaluated it all, and it’s all pointless. There is a recurring word for pointless, vanity, or meaningless used by the author; it is the Hebrew word ebel. Jacques Ellul comments on this word: “In Qohelet as in Isaiah, everything concurs to suggest the idea of uselessness. This idea is so strong that we might conclude that ebel suggests the idea of nothingness: from the point of view of reality, insubstantiality; from the point of view of the truth, a lie; from the point of view of efficiency, uselessness; and from the point of view of security, deceit.”
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