Bible Survey: Ecclesiastes
The theme of Ecclesiastes is the emptiness of life without God. Its key word is vanity, and its key phrase is under the sun, which runs all through the book. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:3).
Solomon wrote it, most likely late in life, after he had tried everything the world could offer. I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards, he says, and whatever his eyes desired, he had. Then he looked back on it all, and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit (Ecclesiastes 2:11). He had started out with a heart for God, but his heathen wives turned him away, and Nehemiah later held him up as a warning: even him did outlandish women cause to sin (Nehemiah 13:26). A Christian young person who marries an unbeliever is heading down the same road.
That phrase under the sun is the key to reading the book rightly. Ecclesiastes records man reasoning about life from what he can see in this world. As Scofield put it, inspiration sets down accurately what passes, but the conclusions are man's. The Bible records the devil's words, Ye shall not surely die (Genesis 3:4), just as accurately, and they were a lie. So when the cults pull out a verse like the dead know not any thing (Ecclesiastes 9:5) to teach that there is no conscious life after death, compare Scripture with Scripture. The rich man in Luke 16 was not asleep. He was in torment, and he knew it.
Solomon himself never doubted that judgment was coming: know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment (Ecclesiastes 11:9). And after all his searching, this is where he lands: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
Next in the series: Song of Solomon.
Taught by Brother James Barker in Sunday School at Naples Independent Baptist Church, September 6, 2020. Watch the lesson.
