DISCOVER
Ecclesiastes

The author’s purpose is to prove that everything “under the sun” by itself, apart from God, is vain and empty and that the only true good comes from doing all we do conscious of God’s eternal goodness (Ecclesiastes 3:16; see also verses 11-14). The vanity of all things apart from God is first announced as a fact and then proved from Preacher’s experience and observations. Finally, the author shows that the fullness of life is a gift from God and is not the result of man’s striving or working for it (see Ecclesiastes 3:13; 5:19). 

—Henrietta Mears  

Source: This content is from What the Bible Is All About, written by Henrietta Mears. Copyright © 1953, 2011 by Gospel Light. Copyright assigned to Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Some people think that Ecclesiastes is about the meaninglessness of human existence. This perspective is not quite correct, however. Ecclesiastes is really about the meaninglessness of life without God. But because the writer never gives up his belief in God, his ultimate purpose is to show us how meaningful life can be when we see things from God’s perspective. His message is not that nothing matters, but that everything does. The more we study Ecclesiastes, the better we understand why.  

—Phil Graham Ryken  

Source: Content taken from Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters by Philip Graham Ryken, ©2014. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

As Christians, we come to this book as believers who are convinced that Ecclesiastes, as peculiar and puzzling as it is at times, is rightly part of the canon of Scripture because it has been uniquely inspired by God. While it shares similarities with other wisdom literature of the world … it is unique among the wisdom books of the world in that it has Yahweh’s breath in and upon and around it. And because of this, it is living and active and can cut us to the core of who we are.

—Douglas Sean O’Donnell  

Source: Ecclesiastes (Reformed Expository Commentary), Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Copyright 2014, P&R Publishing, Philipsburg, NJ.

Ecclesiastes teaches us to live life backward. It encourages us to take one thing in the future that is certain—our death—and work backward from that point into all the details and decisions and heartaches of our lives, and to think about them from the perspective of the end. It is the destination that makes sense of the journey. If we know for sure where we are heading, then we can know for sure what we need to do before we get there. Ecclesiastes invites us to let the end sculpt our priorities and goals, our greatest ambitions and our strongest desires.

—David Gibson 

Source: Content taken from Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End by David Gibson, ©2017. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

By cautioning us not to put our hope in earthly pleasures and worldly treasures, Ecclesiastes teaches us to put our hope in God instead. The book also reminds us, especially in its closing verses, that a day of judgment is coming. Like everything else in the Bible, therefore, Ecclesiastes points us to the gospel of salvation. Our only safety is in the mercy of Jesus Christ.  

—Phil Graham Ryken  

Source: Content taken from Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters by Philip Graham Ryken, ©2014. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Ecclesiastes teaches us plenty of norms (Ecclesiastes 7). But most of these norms are of a different kind. More often than not, these norms have to do, not with didactic principles, but with the kinds of circumstances and situations or “seasons” that one must navigate under the sun. If Proverbs is like math, mostly dealing in equations in which one thing adds up to equal another, then Ecclesiastes is like music, all mood with melody and tone. If Proverbs is like meteorology giving us indicators so as to predict certain outcomes, then Ecclesiastes is like the actual weather, fickle and unpredictable in its ability to rant with storms or breathe easy with a mid-morning breeze. In Proverbs a good man plus God’s love and wisdom equals a good life. In Ecclesiastes a good man plus God’s love still dies like the beast of the fool. In Proverbs, wisdom gives us eyes to recognize the storm clouds and what to do in response. In Ecclesiastes, death is a piece of tornado from which no proverbial basement can shelter us.  

—Zack Eswine 

Source: Recovering Eden: The Gospel According to Ecclesiastes, Zach Eswine, Copyright 2014, P&R Publishing, Philipsburg, NJ.

“I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man” (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 ESV).

…the ability to enjoy life—both moments of recreation and labor—is a gift of God. The paradox is that one cannot genuinely face personal mortality and finitude without first facing God’s immortality and infinite power.

—Duane A. Garrett

Source: Garrett, Duane A. The New American Commentary: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2011.

And under the sun is an important phrase found about 30 times in the book. It means Solomon is looking at the question of meaning from an earthly perspective. If this world is all there is—if there is no God, no afterlife, and no final judgment—then everything is meaningless. The phrase does not necessitate an atheist outlook but rather an uncertainty about what lies beyond this life, its experiences, and observations.  

—Douglas Sean O’Donnell  

Source: Ecclesiastes (Reformed Expository Commentary), Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Copyright 2014, P&R Publishing, Philipsburg, NJ.

In the ancient world, and in Scripture, the sun marked time more than space. “The phrase ‘under the sun’ … refers to a now rather than a there.”[1] “Under the sun” points to these days, now—as long as the earth lasts, in this period of time, this is just how things are. One day the sun will be no more; we will live in a new creation, a new world order. But for now, the Teacher is simply commenting on what this temporal life is like. Pastorally, it’s so important to realize this is true. Coming to Christ as Savior and Lord doesn’t change the under-the-sun existence. Many embrace Christ in difficulty and walk the way of the cross to increased suffering and heartache this side of eternity. We live under the sun today, but we will live in glory tomorrow.

1. Peter J. Leithart, Solomon among the Postmoderns (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2008), 69.

—David Gibson

Source: David Gibson, quoted from his article, “Is It All Really Vanity? Finding Meaning in Ecclesiastes,” published by Desiring God