Today, I will be exploring two sections from Chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes. I will follow a similar format each day. I will pick 2 or 3 sections that connect with me. I will share my commentary through my life and then invite you to comment or share about sections that resonate with you.
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
My Theology and Film professor, Robert Johnston, refers to this passage as the epigraph for the book. This passage gives a summary or abstract of the book’s theme that will follow. I think this short phrase embodies many people that i interact with in our culture. What is life’s meaning? Where does it come from? How do I decipher it? Does what I decipher apply to anyone else beyond myself? Many people who have hit the proverbial wall in life respond by quoting Ecclesiastes 1:2. I have never seen a church, bible study, or experience that took this passage seriously as a source for instruction about life’s meaning. In a class on the Old Testament, I had a professor write off the whole book minus two verses and gave it ten minutes during a 16 week semester on the second half of the Old Testament. This book is all about meaning.
16 I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and 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.
These verses remind me of a conversation I had today with a friend. Our recent exploration of the implications of taking the Resurrection of Jesus seriously within the context of the early church and today has made us anal worshippers in corporate experiences. We were discussing how we both had reacted similarly to a song that we felt like misrepresented the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus. While I was struggling to decide what to do with my knowledge, my friend reminded me that the journey we were embarking on was not a sprint but a marathon.
I believe knowledge can lead to sorrow and grief because we no longer see the world the same way. Once our minds are expanded to realities we did not know before, we are responsible for this knowledge. We have to reinterpret our thoughts and convictions in light of this. What we believe can only be static if our experience is that – static. Some might find this troublesome, but my experience of the truth and meaning of life is always growing. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” The writer of Ecclesiastes, self-described in the book by the Hebrew word Qoheleth, is describing me and my life. I trust my understanding of who God is, yet I know that i am always understanding in part. Yet, as I learn more and more, my responsibility grows as well.
See you tomorrow for chapter 2.
-Scott
“I believe knowledge can lead to sorrow and grief because we no longer see the world the same way.”
This strikes a chord with me particularly in regard to knowledge of self. It is with great embarrassment that I find myself to be a reluctant believer. Having given my life to Jesus when I was very young I never went through this process of losing my worldview – Christianity was my worldview, I knew nothing else. Now as an adult, and as someone who became disillusioned, suffered a crisis of faith and who is now slowing fighting my way back I sort of feel like a new believer and I have to be honest – it sucks.
It took an event that caused me to examine my life to say, “Wow – I think I’ve become shallow – where is the meaning in my life?” And that question and my search for an answer has brought me to where I am today.
There is hope in the last paragraph of your blog though – that the fact that I struggle is proof that my experience is not static and that my experience of the truth and meaning of life is growing as well -just sometimes I have growing pains.
Knowledge
Wisdom is the filter for knowledge and without the filter the result self destructive behavior…I know this all too well. I’ve master the knowledge of my profession so well that it took over my life and left no room for Christ. See…I did this, not Christ. See…I earned this dollar; not Christ. See…I have this beautiful home which is paid for, not Christ; he won’t even mow the lawn. Me, me, me..in reality it wasn’t business that occupied me it was me. Almost egomaniacal isn’t it? I know I’m on dangerous grounds but I will continue anyways…it’s my nature. In fact, let me toss me under the bus first.
God is nothing without me. God owes me some explanations. God doesn’t listen. God doesn’t live in Phoenix. God doesn’t pay my bills. I could continue but I won’t. The other day this was my little temper tantrum that I tossed onto the shoulders of my fiancée who broke down into tears and I rant and raved on. She replied, “God owes you nothing and gave you everything.”
In a coffee house with a friend I trust dearly I set and explained how God provided the apples on the tree but I have to be the one to pick the apple. I was so proud that I’m able to show examples of what God can really do for us. I’ve convinced myself that God is an absent landlord who only collects the rent. I’m in fact, not an ambient Christian.
This struggle is pure static and some days I’m happy with 1% improvement. But when the dust settles if all I get out this relationship is a calmer heart and less fire within me then maybe I’ll be the older and wiser because I realized that knowledge without God’s Wisdom is a designed failure.
7