GO TO THE HOUSE OF GOD TO LISTEN

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 / Keywords 5:1

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

 

Fulfill Your Vow to God

5:1 [a]Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

2 Do not be quick with your mouth,

    do not be hasty in your heart

    to utter anything before God.

God is in heaven

    and you are on earth,

    so let your words be few.

3 A dream comes when there are many cares,

    and many words mark the speech of a fool.

4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. 6 Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? 7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God.

Footnotes

a. Ecclesiastes 5:1 In Hebrew texts 5:1 is numbered 4:17, and 5:2-20 is numbered 5:1-19.

1. After considering what the Teacher has said about the futility and meaningless of life under the sun, we may be tempted to complain to God. However, the Teacher warns us not to respond with many hasty and foolish words and vows. God is almighty and sovereign. God created us. God is in heaven. We are on earth. Therefore, when we go to God’s house or any time we approach God, we must go near to God to listen to him with a humble and repentant heart. God desires that we speak to him in prayer (Php 4:6) but we must also remember who God is. Will you commit to reverently listening to God today as you read his word and pray?

 

2. We are also warned about making vows to God. If we make a vow, we ought not to delay in fulfilling it. In fact, it is better to not make a vow than making one and not keeping it. When our mouths make vows before God that we do not fulfill, our mouths have led us into sin. Jesus says not to make vows at all (Mt 5:33-37). Our words must be trustworthy and weighty instead of brushing aside our past vows by saying, “I made a mistake.” Talking too much is one mark of a fool and is meaningless. It can also lead us into sin. Instead of daydreaming and saying many things, we should fear God.

 

Prayer Father, forgive us for not listening to you. Help us to fear you and listen to you more than speaking.

One Word Listen to God and fear him

TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE

Ecclesiastes 4:1-16 / Keywords 4:9

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:

 

Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness

4:1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:

I saw the tears of the oppressed—

    and they have no comforter;

power was on the side of their oppressors—

    and they have no comforter.

2 And I declared that the dead,

    who had already died,

are happier than the living,

    who are still alive.

3 But better than both

    is the one who has never been born,

who has not seen the evil

    that is done under the sun.

4 And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

5 Fools fold their hands

    and ruin themselves.

6 Better one handful with tranquillity

    than two handfuls with toil

    and chasing after the wind.

7 Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:

8 There was a man all alone;

    he had neither son nor brother.

There was no end to his toil,

    yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.

“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,

    “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”

This too is meaningless—

    a miserable business!

9 Two are better than one,

    because they have a good return for their labor:

10 If either of them falls down,

    one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

    and has no one to help them up.

11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.

    But how can one keep warm alone?

12 Though one may be overpowered,

    two can defend themselves.

A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Advancement Is Meaningless

13 Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. 14 The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom. 15 I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor. 16 There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

1. The Teacher twice mentions that the oppressed have no comforter. Because of that, the Teacher reckons that being dead is better than being alive and better still to not have been born at all. But when we come to God our Father, he comforts us in all our affliction and trouble (2 Co 1:3,4).

 

2. The Teacher also sees that people toil and achieve out of envy. Although fools let their laziness bring them to ruin, achievement and constant striving to get ahead is also meaningless. Having less with tranquility is better than endless toil to gain a little more which is likened to chasing the wind.

 

3. God made us for friendship. A person toiling alone, even if he realizes his ambitions, will find his labor meaningless. Modern western culture emphasizes achievement, advancement, material possessions, and comfort at the expense of relationships. We are living through an epidemic of isolation and loneliness. Two are indeed better than one! We need others to help us and as much as we need to help others throughout our life journey. How will you intentionally build up spiritual friendship today?

 

4. Many people may follow a poor but wise youth. But people who come later are not pleased. People are fickle but Jesus is forever the same (Heb 13:8).

 

Prayer Father, help me to love others by being a good friend and comforting others.

One Word Put people ahead of ambitions

GOD’S JUDGMENT AND TEST

Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 / Keywords 3:18

I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.

 

3:16 And I saw something else under the sun:

In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,

    in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

17 I said to myself,

“God will bring into judgment

    both the righteous and the wicked,

for there will be a time for every activity,

    a time to judge every deed.”

18 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath[c]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

Footnotes

c. Ecclesiastes 3:19 Or spirit

1. The Teacher saw that where there should have been judgement and justice, there was wickedness. Wickedness in the world breeds more wickedness, fear, anger, selfishness, or even indifference. The Teacher did not despair. He turned his mind to God. Both the righteous and the wicked must face God’s judgment (17). Every activity and deed will be judged by God in his time (2 Co 5:10). Only those whose full hope and faith is in Jesus Christ can have confidence at the judgment (1 Jn 4:17).

 

2. God has also tested us so that we may know that our earthly fate is like that of the animals. All animals and people face death. No animal or person is exempt. From the perspective of mortality, we are no different from animals. People and animals come from dust and will return to dust. Without God, death makes life meaningless.

 

3. God tests us to help us know that death is inevitable so that we see ourselves for what we really are – sinners awaiting judgment and death and in need of a Savior. God gave his Son Jesus to be our Savior. Jesus saves us from sin and death. We may experience physical death but we can face it with hope of eternal life in God’s kingdom when we put our faith in Jesus. Our fate may physically be like the animals but Jesus gives eternal life!

 

Prayer Father, thank you for Jesus who saves us from judgment and death. My hope is in you alone.

One Word How will you respond to God’s test?

TIME AND ETERNITY

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 / Keywords 3:11

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

 

 A Time for Everything

3:1 There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2     a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3     a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6     a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7     a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8     a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

15 Whatever is has already been,

    and what will be has been before;

    and God will call the past to account.[b]

Footnotes

a. Ecclesiastes 3:11 Or also placed ignorance in the human heart, so that

b. Ecclesiastes 3:15 Or God calls back the past

1. After a generally pessimistic reflection on human life “under the sun”, especially without God, the Teacher poetically describes the passing of time. This section may be the most quoted part of Ecclesiastes. It should not be understood as a meditation on the randomness of life. Rather, it is an encouragement for us to have a proper view of God’s sovereignty over all things. God has sovereignly ordered a time for everything. Birth and death, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing - each activity has its time in our lives as set by God. We toil and groan under the burden God has laid on us (Ro 8:22) but God has also allowed us to experience beauty (11a). We often avoid pain and struggle and seek ease and comfort. But God, in his wisdom and grace, allows us to have a full range of human experience so that we may always seek him and know him better.

 

2. Though we live out our earthly lives in finite time and space, God has also set eternity in our hearts. We long for eternity even though we cannot really understand what our eternal God has done. God alone gives us satisfaction in our work. His will endures forever. God will judge how we live (15). May we have a healthy fear of our sovereign God.

 

Prayer Father, thank you for being eternal and sovereign over everything that happens. Please grow our faith in every season of life and to live with an eternal perspective.

One Word God is sovereign in every season

GOD GIVES WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, AND HAPPINESS

Ecclesiastes 2:12-26 / Keywords 2:26

To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

 

 Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless

2:12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,

    and also madness and folly.

What more can the king’s successor do

    than what has already been done?

13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly,

    just as light is better than darkness.

14 The wise have eyes in their heads,

    while the fool walks in the darkness;

but I came to realize

    that the same fate overtakes them both.

15 Then I said to myself,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.

    What then do I gain by being wise?”

I said to myself,

    “This too is meaningless.”

16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;

    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.

Like the fool, the wise too must die!

Toil Is Meaningless

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. 19 And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. 20 So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. 21 For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. 22 What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? 23 All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

1. As the Teacher deeply considered wisdom and labor, he understood that both are valuable. At the same time, he also understood that wisdom and labor, without God, are temporary, finite, and powerless in the face of death.

 

2. The Teacher contrasted wisdom with madness and folly. Wisdom is better than folly. Wisdom gives a person light to know how to navigate and live life in a broken world. Yet, whether a person has lived with wisdom or has been a fool, both must die (16). Only faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and conquered death through his resurrection, can give us eternal life (Jn 3:16). God’s gift of eternal life permanently solves all of life’s agonies.

 

3. Next, the Teacher reflected on his labor. He hated all the things for which he had toiled because he had to leave them to someone who had not labored for them. That person might even be a fool! His labor was grief and pain. He had no control over who would receive the fruit of his labor because he would be dead. This felt completely meaningless.

 

4. Happiness and enjoyment are gifts from God. Will you seek him and please him?

 

Prayer Father, please allow the reflections of the Teacher to redirect my heart away from myself and to seek and please you.

One Word Please God

THE LIMITS OF WISDOM AND PLEASURE

Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:11 / Keywords 2:11

Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

 

Wisdom Is Meaningless

1:12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;

    what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;

    the more knowledge, the more grief.

 Pleasures Are Meaningless

2:1 I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. 2 “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” 3 I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem[a] as well—the delights of a man’s heart. 9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;

    I refused my heart no pleasure.

My heart took delight in all my labor,

    and this was the reward for all my toil.

11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done

    and what I had toiled to achieve,

everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;

    nothing was gained under the sun.

Footnotes

a. Ecclesiastes 2:8 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.

1. The Teacher studied and applied wisdom to learn all that he could under the heavens. We need wisdom and knowledge, but these alone cannot solve all the problems of life. For example, God has allowed all mankind to be burdened by sin and death so that we might turn to him. Only God can take away this burden through Jesus (Mt 11:28-30). Moreover, though the Teacher became wiser than anyone else, more wisdom led to more sorrow. More knowledge led to more grief. Wisdom and knowledge, like chasing the wind, are limited and fleeting.

 

2. When wisdom and knowledge had come up empty and vain, the Teacher turned to pleasure. Pleasure, wine, folly, and even laughter could not give him meaning and purpose in life.

 

3. The Teacher set his mind on great projects. He built buildings, planted great vineyards and gardens, and amassed great wealth. He denied himself nothing, but he continued to be guided by wisdom. Yet for all the Teacher had accomplished and accumulated, he concluded that nothing was gained in the end. These things cannot save our souls nor give us eternal life.

 

Prayer Father, wisdom, knowledge, pleasure, and accomplishments are gifts from you but are also limited and cannot save me from death. Help me not to chase those things but draw me to you.

One Word Do not chase after the wind

“MEANINGLESS!” SAYS THE TEACHER

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 / Keywords 1:2

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

 

Everything Is Meaningless

1:1 The words of the Teacher,[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:

2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”

    says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

    Everything is meaningless.”

3 What do people gain from all their labors

    at which they toil under the sun?

4 Generations come and generations go,

    but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,

    and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south

    and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

    ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea,

    yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

    there they return again.

8 All things are wearisome,

    more than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing,

    nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 What has been will be again,

    what has been done will be done again;

    there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which one can say,

    “Look! This is something new”?

It was here already, long ago;

    it was here before our time.

11 No one remembers the former generations,

    and even those yet to come

will not be remembered

    by those who follow them.

Footnotes

a. Ecclesiastes 1:1 Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 2 and 12

1. The Teacher begins with, “Meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” For a king, who has power, honor, and wealth, to say that everything is meaningless is very surprising. Meaningless carries the meaning of vanity, absurd, futile, and temporary.

 

2. Next, an example of labor is given. Though generation after generation labors, that labor seems to be for nothing. The earth continues as it always has irrespective of our labor. The sun rises and sets, the winds blow, and the streams continue to flow into the sea though the sea never fills up. We search for novelty but there is nothing new under the sun.

 

3. While this all sounds depressing, there is genuine wisdom in what the Teacher says about life in this world. We are often preoccupied with finding meaning and fulfillment in our work, accomplishments, and pursuing new experiences. We may look for meaning in our children, in other people, building a legacy or something else in the world. But we must know and accept that these are all temporary and inadequate. Will you let your sense of meaninglessness drive you to seek God who can give true meaning to life?

 

Prayer Father, please forgive me for looking at the world as if it can give us meaning. Help me to be wise about life and to find true meaning in you.

One Word Accept the Teacher’s wisdom