Today, I am reading and commenting on  Ecclesiastes 1-6.

The Book of Ecclesiastes begins with a statement with which I have struggled, but which helps us deal with many arguments made today.  The writer, who tells us that he is King Solomon (and I have no reason to doubt him), says that everything is meaningless.  Solomon explains that everything that happens today happened in the past.  No one remembers what was done by those who came before, even if we try to teach people to record what they have done, those who come after them will forget them.   Truly learning the truth that this passage teaches us allows us to deal with those who claim that biblical teachings no longer apply because things are different now.  However, if you spend some time studying history you quickly find that things are not as different as people would like to think.  In fact, things have not really changed all that much, if at all.

So, the fact that things do not really change all that much is an important thing to learn from this passage, but how do we deal with the existential depression which the writer expresses.  Solomon writes that nothing we do really makes a difference, nothing we do changes things.  Whether we act wisely or foolishly, we are all going to die at some point.  And if we work really hard to acquire great amounts of wealth and build great monuments, when we die we will hand them over to someone who may not work to maintain them.  Even if they do, what difference does it actually make?  I could continue to write on this, but Solomon tells us “the more the words the less the meaning.”  So, I will conclude with what Solomon says in Chapter 3.  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity.    There is nothing better than to be happy and do good while we live.  God made us for that and everything He has done will endure.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.