Ecclesiastes. Wow, what a downer, eh?
As I read through the book, my overwhelming impression was that Solomon seemed clinically depressed. I’m not being flippant: he’s so weary and discouraged and his outlook bears some of the hallmarks of depression, including not finding pleasure in things that usually are or used to be enjoyable. Everything is meaningless. And then there’s the preoccupation with death.
I struggle to know what to make of the book: why is it canon? Why did the Holy Spirit ensure that it be included as part of our Bible?
Many of Solomon’s observations certainly resonate. He speaks truth. Perhaps this is the reason for the book—the wisest man of all time articulates what most of us have felt at some point. Is life meaningless? What is all this for? Bad things happen to good people . Difficult seasons come into all lives, and we often feel powerless to change things or to find meaning in events in our lives. So Solomon captures man’s perspective on the difficulties, meaninglessness, waste, injustices, and inequalities of life. It seems to me that anyone who reads the book will, in at least one spot, say, “Yeah, what about that?”
But I wanted to find some higher truth, some God-inspired wisdom in this wisdom literature. I do appreciate the advice Solomon reiterates: it’s good for people to be happy in their work, and we should take pleasure in the simple things like eating, drinking, and enjoying the fruit of our labor. For God gives us means of employment—whether for monetary reward or not, he gives us purpose—and we should never get lulled into taking the simple pleasures for granted.
Yet overall Solomon doesn’t offer much comfort, he doesn’t give us a spiritual truth to give divine perspective. Maybe that’s part of the point? He doesn’t build up to a platitude to take the sting out of the things that truly wound. Our hope doesn’t lie in the wisdom of the wisest man on earth.
I read the book through the lens of the New Testament, wherein we are given assurances of everlasting life with God. It’s not just “life sucks and then you die,” it’s that life does indeed suck sometimes, but our death is but entry into life everlasting, into the very presence of joy, peace, and delight. There will be no ennui in heaven.
In the meantime, I feel sorry for Solomon. I believe the man with a thousand wives and concubines would have been much happier with just one. Did he have people in his life whom he truly knew and who knew him? In whom did he invest? He sounds so lonely. I think that what Solomon is missing is relationship, true God-given relationship, which, though it be a pale shadow, is still a reflection of the communication our spirits* are meant to have with God. We love and connect with people who help us bear our difficulties and breathe joy into our days. This takes investment. It takes community. I’m so blessed and encouraged by the community in the body of Christ at COTC.