Skip to main content

Ecclesiastes, Purpose

Everyone at some point in their lives asks the age old question; what is the point? Philosophers have devoted countless hours to  this question, and there are numerous books written on the subject. It is a part of our human nature to seek out a purpose.

What most of the world doesn't realize is that we were created with a purpose. God designed us to serve and live with him. So when we sin and break away from God our purpose is lost. In desperation we turn to other things to try and fill the void.

The book of Ecclesiastes deals with this very issue. The author of the book, simply known as the Preacher, does this in very interesting way. Instead of starting with the purpose of life, he goes into all the things that don't fulfill our purpose. The Preacher walks through all sorts of things that we pursue to fulfill our purpose, only to end with commitment to God.

Background

The date of the book of Ecclesiastes is unclear. This largely has to do with the ambiguity of the author. The author simply refers to himself as the Preacher. Many have assumed the author is King Solomon due to the very first verse, "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem."

Now this very well could be Solomon, but not necessarily. The term son of David is used by pretty much all of the kings of Judah since they are from the line of David. Jesus is referred to as the son of David because he is from the line of David. This means that it could be any king of Judah. 

Themes

The entire book of Ecclesiastes revolves around the Preacher finding life's purpose. Everything in the book builds up to the last few verses. The Preacher expertly walks the people he is addressing through the various things we chase after in life. 

As he goes through the book, the Preacher shows that our lives are meaningless without God. Money, respect, career, and even romance are shown to be inferior and ultimately fruitless. Only serving God and keeping his commandments leads to true fulfillment. 

Theological Point

Serving God is our purpose. It is only through service to God that we find completion and meaning. All the other things in life that we chase after, even the good things like family, are no substitute for serving God. 

Conclusion

The book of Ecclesiastes is often seen as a depressing book. The cry "Vanity! Vanity! All is vanity!" sticks with people. When we read the book, however, we see a theological masterpiece that expertly dismantles everything else in life except our true purpose in God.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thankful

Today is Thanksgiving, the day that we are supposed to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. It is a time of family reunions, football, and turkey eating. I sincerely pray that each and every one of you has a good day today. I'll admit that being thankful has not been easy for me this year. As pretty much all of you know, my mother passed away December of last year. Though she had been in the hospital for months, we were not expecting it. In fact I was sure she would be finally able to come home within a matter of weeks. Instead she peacefully passed on into the arms of Jesus, whom she loved more dearly than anyone else. As you can imagine, the entire family was heart broken. After what can easily be described as the worst Christmas ever, I returned to home to Illinois. It was here that I finally broke down. I spent the next months doing everything except being thankful. I cursed God, wept, screamed, begged to have her back, and was generally not the nicest person to be...
3 comments
Read more

What is Theology?

Greetings all! For the first true post I have decided to cover what will be one of the defining aspects of this blog; theology. I know that when I was growing up theology wasn't a word that was used in the churches I attended. In fact I don't recall ever hearing the word until I was in high school, and even then it was used negatively like theology was a bad thing. Theology is inseparable from Bible study, Christian living, and being a disciple of Jesus in general. It is an indispensable part of being a Christian. The thing is we haven't always treated it that way. We have allowed our theology to fall by the wayside, believing it to be useless or not appropriate. So what is theology exactly, and why is it so important? What is Theology? The word theology simply means "the study of God." The goal of theology is to reveal who God is, and when we know God we also come to know ourselves, sin, the world, and so on. What we've done in the past (and this may ju...
1 comment
Read more

The Name of God

In the book of Exodus we are introduced to many important elements that appear throughout the rest of the Bible. This is where we meet Moses, the first prophet sent to the nation of Israel. It is in Exodus that we first learn of the tabernacle and God's intention of living among his people. It is in Exodus that we witness the first Passover, which is the type of what is to come in Jesus. There are several other events that we could look to in Exodus, but there is one in particular that is very important that we have largely ignored; God revealing his name. We typically only refer to God by his titles. We call him Lord, Father, Judge, King, and God (yes, God is technically a title). I would like to emphasize now that there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so. In fact I would say that it is right for us recognize the power and authority of God in what we call him. What today's post is about is the fact that we have forgotten or even ignored the fact that God reveals his n...
1 comment
Read more