Ecclesiastes

1
Ecclesiastes

• an old, foolish king
• (Ecclesiastes 413)

2

• After you have taken possession of the land that
  the LORD your God is going to give you and have
  settled there, then you will decide you need a
  king like all the nations around youThe king is
  not to have a large number of horses for his
  army, and he is not to send people to Egypt to
  buy horses, because the LORD has said that his
  people are never to return there. (Deuteronomy
  1714-16)
• Solomon had forty thousand stalls for his
  chariot horses (1 Kings 426)
• the export of chariots from Egypt. (1 Kings
  1029)
• Solomons horses were imported from Egypt (2
  Chronicles 116)

3

• The king is not to have many wives, because this
  would make him turn away from the LORD and he is
  not to make himself rich with silver and gold.
  When he becomes king, he is to have a copy of the
  book of Gods laws and teachings made from the
  original copy kept by the levitical priests. He
  is to keep this book near him and read from it
  all his life, so that he will learn to honor the
  LORD and to obey faithfully everything that is
  commanded in it. This will keep him from thinking
  that he is better than other Israelites and from
  disobeying the LORDs commands in any way. Then
  he will reign for many years, and his descendants
  will rule Israel for many generations.
  (Deuteronomy 1717-20)

4

• In the eighth monthin the eleventh year of
  Solomons reign, the Temple was completely
  finished exactly as it had been planned. It had
  taken Solomon seven years to build it. (1Kings
  638)
• Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it
  took him thirteen years. (1Kings 71)

5

• Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the
  daughter of the king of Egypt he married Hittite
  women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and
  Sidon. He married them even though the LORD had
  commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with
  these people, because they would cause the
  Israelites to give their loyalty to other gods.
  Solomon married seven hundred princesses and also
  had three hundred concubines. They made him turn
  away from God, and by the time he was old they
  had led him into the worship of foreign gods.

6

• He was not faithful to the LORD his God, as his
  father David had been. He worshiped Astarte, the
  goddess of Sidon, and Molech, the disgusting god
  of AmmonOn the mountain east of Jerusalem he
  built a place to worship Chemosh, the disgusting
  god of Moab, and a place to worship Molech, the
  disgusting god of Ammon. (1Ki 111-7)
• fertility, sexuality and war

7
Warning Signs

• For King Solomon made himself a chariot from the
  wood of Lebanon. Its posts are silver, its canopy
  gold, the seat is purple and the back is inlaid
  with these words With love from the girls of
  Jerusalem! Song of Songs 39,10 (TLB)

8

• A nagging wife is like water going
  drip-drip-drip. (Proverbs 1913)
• A nagging wife is like water going
  drip-drip-drip on a rainy day. How can you keep
  her quiet? Have you ever tried to stop the wind
  or ever tried to hold a handful of oil?
  (Proverbs 2715-16)

9

• It was foreign women that made King Solomon sin.
  Here was a man who was greater than any of the
  kings of other nations. God loved him and made
  him king over all of Israel, and yet he fell into
  this sin. (Nehemiah 1326 GN)

10

• Your father placed heavy burdens on us (2
  Chronicles 104)

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• All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful
  to teach us what is true and to make us realize
  what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when
  we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
  (2 Timothy 316)

13

• These are the words of the Philosopher, Davids
  son, who was king in Jerusalem. It is useless,
  useless, said the Philosopher. Life is useless,
  all useless. (Ecclesiastes 11-2)
• God has laid a miserable fate upon us. I have
  seen everything done in this world, and I tell
  you, it is all useless. It is like chasing the
  wind. (Ecclesiastes 114,15)

14

• Money and things useless
• I accomplished great things. I built myself
  houses and planted vineyards. I planted gardens
  and orchards, with all kinds of fruit trees in
  them I dug ponds to irrigate them. I bought many
  slaves, and there were slaves born in my
  household. I owned more livestock than anyone
  else who had ever lived in Jerusalem. I also
  piled up silver and gold from the royal
  treasuries of the lands I ruled. Men and women
  sang to entertain me, and I had all the women a
  man could want. Yes, I was great, greater than
  anyone else who had ever lived in Jerusalem, and
  my wisdom never failed me. Anything I wanted, I
  got.

15

• I did not deny myself any pleasure. I was proud
  of everything I had worked for, and all this was
  my reward. Then I thought about all that I had
  done and how hard I had worked doing it, and I
  realized that it didnt mean a thing. It was like
  chasing the wind---of no use at all. After all, a
  king can only do what previous kings have done.
  (Ecclesiastes 24-12)
• If you love money, you will never be satisfied
  if you long to be rich, you will never get all
  you want. It is useless. The richer you are, the
  more mouths you have to feed. All you gain is the
  knowledge that you are rich. (Ecclesiastes
  510,11)

16

• A man might have a hundred children and live to
  be very old. But if he finds no satisfaction in
  life and doesnt even get a decent burial, it
  would have been better for him to be born dead.
  (Ecclesiastes 63)
• Everything has already been decided. It was
  known long ago what each person would be. So
  theres no use arguing with God about your
  destiny. (Ecclesiastes 610)

17

• So dont be too good or too wise---why kill
  yourself ? But dont be too wicked or too
  foolish, either---why die before you have to?
  (Ecclesiastes 716-17)

18

• Chasing after many women useless
• The truth is beyond us. Its far too deep. So I
  decided to learn everything I could and become
  wise enough to discover what life is all about.
  At the same time, I wanted to understand why it's
  stupid and senseless to be an evil fool. Here is
  what I discovered A bad woman is worse than
  death. She is a trap, reaching out with body and
  soul to catch you. But if you obey God, you can
  escape. If you dont obey, you are done for.

19

• With all my wisdom I have tried to find out how
  everything fits together, but so far I have not
  been able to. I do know there is one good man in
  a thousand, but never have I found a good woman.
  I did learn one thing We were completely honest
  when God created us, but now we have twisted
  minds. (Ecclesiastes 724-29)

20

• Is everything useless?
• I decided that God is testing us, to show us
  that we are no better than animals. After all,
  the same fate awaits human beings and animals
  alike. One dies just like the other. They are the
  same kind of creature. A human being is no better
  off than an animal, because life has no meaning
  for either. They are both going to the same
  place---the dust. They both came from it they
  will both go back to it. How can anyone be sure
  that the human spirit goes upward while an
  animals spirit goes down into the ground? So I
  realized then that the best thing we can do is
  enjoy what we have worked for. There is nothing
  else we can do. There is no way for us to know
  what will happen after we die. (Ecclesiastes
  318-22)

21

• Someone who is always thinking about happiness
  is a fool. A wise person thinks about death.
  (Ecclesiastes 74)
• Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow
  death to be gloomy all the time. (Proverbs
  1722)

22

• Here is what I have found out the best thing we
  can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have
  worked for during the short life that God has
  given us this is our fate. (Ecclesiastes 518)
• So I am convinced that we should enjoy
  ourselves, because the only pleasure we have in
  this life is eating and drinking and enjoying
  ourselves. We can at least do this as we labor
  during the life that God has given us in this
  world. (Ecclesiastes 815)

23

• I thought long and hard about all this and saw
  that God controls the actions of wise and
  righteous people, even their love and their hate.
  No one knows anything about what lies ahead. It
  makes no difference. The same fate comes to the
  righteous and the wicked, to the good and the
  bad, to those who are religious and those who are
  not, to those who offer sacrifices and those who
  do not. A good person is no better off than a
  sinner one who takes an oath is no better off
  than one who does not. (Ecclesiastes 91-2)

24

• God made everything, and you can no more
  understand what he does than you understand how
  new life begins in the womb of a pregnant woman.
  (Ecclesiastes 115)
• No matter how long you live, remember that you
  will be dead much longer. There is nothing at all
  to look forward to. (Ecclesiastes 118)

25

• The Philosopher tried to find comforting words,
  but the words he wrote were honest.
  (Ecclesiastes 1210)
• After all this, there is only one thing to say
  Have reverence for God, and obey his commands,
  because this is all that we were created for. God
  is going to judge everything we do, whether good
  or bad, even things done in secret.
  (Ecclesiastes 1213-14)

26

• Here is what I have found out the best thing we
  can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have
  worked for during the short life that God has
  given us this is our fate. (Ecclesiastes 518)

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Doctrines from Ecclesiastes

• God has laid a miserable fate on us
  allEverything is useless
• - Except eating drinking
• A human being is no better off than an animal,
  because life has no meaning for either.
• There is no way to know what happens after
  death.
• God controls the actions of wise and righteous
  people, even their love and their hate.

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• 5. A good person is no better off than a sinner
• 6. God is not knowable

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• All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful
  to teach us what is true and to make us realize
  what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when
  we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
  (2 Timothy 316)
• I just want to do what the Bible says

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• Missing the difference between God and the Bible
  is a bit like the person who reads Jonah and
  spends hours and hours figuring out if a human
  can live inside a whale - and what kind of whale
  it was - but never encounters God. The book is
  about Jonahs God, not Jonah's whale.the
  ultimate goal of the Bible is to know God. -
  McKnight

32

• We are summoned by the God who speaks to us in
  the Bible to listen to God speak, to live out
  what God directs us to live out, and to discern
  how to live out the Story in our own dayturn the
  two-dimensional words on paper into a three
  dimensional encounter with God.

33

• Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a
  fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as
  yourself. I am the LORD. (Leviticus 1918)
• Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim
  your beards. (Leviticus 1927)

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36
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• Yes, the living know they are going to die, but
  the dead know nothing. (Ecclesiastes 95)
• A time for killing...a time for hatred
  (Ecclesiastes 33,8)

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The Art of Reading ScriptureRichard B Hays
39

• Richard B. Hays, the Four (or Five) Ways Not to
  Read the Bible
• An advice column
• A map on how to get to heaven after we die
• A predictive text that tells us what will happen
  at the end of time
• A source of information about antiquity
• A Rorschach Blot on which oppressors impose their
  views in order to justify their unfair power.

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• Five good ways to read the Bible
• As a story that it is primarily about God
• As a coherent narrative from Genesis to
  Revelation, requiring each portion of it to be
  read in light of the whole
• With awareness that specific texts can have
  multiple meanings
• In collaboration with others in contemporary
  Christian communities and
• A willingness to be surprised, challenged, and
  transformed.

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Solomon an old foolish king

• A poor youngster with some wisdom is better off
  than an old but foolish king who doesnt know
  which end is up. (Ecclesiastes 413 TMB)
• The Philosopher tried to find comforting words,
  but the words he wrote were honest.
  (Ecclesiastes 1210)

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43
Solomon

• At one time in his life, he lived the principles
  of Gods kingdom
• And for a time, he was a bright light to the
  world

44
Solomon

• At another time, Solomon accepted the principles
  of another kingdom (selfishness, power, greed)
• And this led him to become a foolish king

45
Summary

• If we base our life on the principles of Gods
  kingdom and on the true wisdom, we become
  successful (as God determines success)
• If we base our life on the principles of any
  other kingdom, we become foolish (as God would
  define foolish)
• Gods way leads to healing, restoration,
  happiness, peace, joy, and wisdom it works!
• Any other way leads to self-destruction, gloom,
  and foolishness it doesnt work!

46

• But restoration to favor with God did not
  miraculously restore the wasted physical and
  mental strength of former years (see MH 169).
• It pictures in vivid terms his pursuit of
  pleasure, popularity, wealth, and power but the
  thread that binds this sad narrative together is
  Solomons own candid analysis of the perverted
  thought processes by which, in his own mind, he
  had justified his wayward conduct. Those portions
  of Ecclesiastes that relate the experience and
  reasoning of his years of apostasy are not to be
  taken as representing the mind and will of the
  Spirit. Nevertheless, they are an inspired record
  of what he actually thought and did during that
  time (PK 79)