Ecclesiastes: Wisdom and Warnings for the Seasons of Life

1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

²    Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
          vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
³    What does man gain by all the toil
          at which he toils under the sun?
⁴    A generation goes, and a generation comes,
          but the earth remains forever.
⁵    The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
          and hastens to the place where it rises.
⁶    The wind blows to the south
          and goes around to the north;
      around and around goes the wind,
          and on its circuits the wind returns.
⁷    All streams run to the sea,
          but the sea is not full;
      to the place where the streams flow,
          there they flow again.
⁸    All things are full of weariness;
          a man cannot utter it;
      the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
          nor the ear filled with hearing.
⁹    What has been is what will be,
          and what has been done is what will be done,
          and there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰    Is there a thing of which it is said,
          “See, this is new”?
      It has been already
          in the ages before us.
¹¹    There is no remembrance of former things,
          nor will there be any remembrance
      of later things yet to be
          among those who come after. (Ecclesiastes 1:1-11, ESV)

1. Life is . (v. 1)

• “Vanity” = , mist, breath

2. Life is . (v. 14)

¹² I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹⁴ I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 1:12-14, ESV)

3. Life is . (v. 9)

• “there is nothing new under the sun”

4. We will soon be gone and forgotten. (v. 11)

For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! ¹⁷ So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:16-17, ESV)

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

²    a time to be born, and a time to die;
      a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³    a time to kill, and a time to heal;
      a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴    a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
      a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵    a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
      a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶    a time to seek, and a time to lose;
      a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷    a time to tear, and a time to sew;
      a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸    a time to love, and a time to hate;
      a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, ESV)

5. A wise person recognizes that there are and in life and acts accordingly.

 ⁹ What gain has the worker from his toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹² I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; ¹³ also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. ( Ecclesiastes 3:9-13, ESV)

6. A wise person recognizes that . . .

(1) God’s sovereign plan is good, wise, and makes “everything in its time” (v. 11a, ESV).

(2) God is in , we are not.

(3) We to understand, but we fully understand why life unfolds as God has ordained. (v. 11c)

(4) We are called to “a timeless God with the times of our lives” (David Gibson, Living Life Backwards, How Ecclesiastes Teaches us to Live in Light of the End, p. 58).

(5) Some of our yearnings will be fulfilled only in the “” which God has placed into our hearts. (v. 11b, ESV)

7. A wise person discerns the difference between our striving and grasping attempts at versus a trusting, confident receiving of God’s good .

There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? ²⁶ For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26, ESV)