Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning. - 11:7
Ecclesiastes, which is one of three "Wisdom Literature" books of the Hebrew Bible, is placed right after Proverbs, and for good reason. Proverbs features a very simplistic world view, and in turn it looses a touch of reality. It presents the idea that those who do good, receive good. Those who do wrong, are wronged themselves. This idea is true, but the author never clarifies that God is just and our world is not, therefore we may not get as we deserve on this side of eternity, but rather when we stand before the Throne of God.
( I'd also like to note that all of us fall short of His glory, and it is through grace we are saved in the first place. This is an idea that is absent in wisdom literature and in much of the Hebrew Bible.)
This is where the book of Ecclesiastes comes in. It brings down a metaphorical hammer, sometimes seemingly smashing Proverb's outlook to pieces. The author of the book calls everything "meaningless" repetitively, which stands in stark contrast to the previous book, which gave much power to material objects (such as wealth, etc). At certain points, however, the author Ecclesiastes gives these things a little too much power (10:19), because in the end everything is meaningless anyway, so you may as well enjoy it. We're all going to die anyway...right?
No.
In fact, this is why Ecclesiastes ends in such a strange way. The author of the book ends with a disclaimer, basically calling the Teacher out for studying to the point of exhaustion (12:12). This seems to negate everything that was said the past 12 chapters. The biggest takeaway, I believe, is we should all be careful about studying questions we simply cannot know the answer to. In this life, anyway.
In Jesus, we are allowed to seek true, replenishing rest.
We find peace in Him knowing it is not our job to understand everything that happens under the sun. Who can know such things?
He can. And let that be enough.
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