Why get into Ecclesiastes?
Do you ever feel the frustration of this world? Everyday life demands much, and seems to deliver little. The fruit of our endeavours can seem fleeting, and sometimes invisible. We strive for that which doesn’t last, and feel acutely the brokenness of this world. Things aren’t as we feel they should be, and yet we have no choice but to keep running, working and wondering.
How do we navigate our experience in all of this? We need a God who sees the world in which we live, and enters into this reality. This reality of a life under the sun that frustrates, confuses and seems lacking in substance. We need a God who not only sees it and understands it, but enables us to live wisely in it.
Enter Ecclesiastes.
And the gift of the ‘goads’ of the words of Ecclesiastes. The writer compares the ‘words of the wise’ to ‘goads’, like that of a shepherd’s stick, embedded with sharp nails that’s used to prod his sheep in the right direction. Ouch! It may not seem like an appealing invitation, yet we want to invite you to come and be prodded by this wise, gritty book of the Bible with us! It’s a book that helps us to walk God’s way, and even know joy in that walk. Come and let these words nudge, persuade and prod you into that Christ-driven path that is the everyday walk of the Christian.
Let’s be honest and say that the nudge and persuasion is going to come through a book that can be confusing, and often reflects the mess of the world as the writer processes what he sees before him. But, as we read it, hear it and dwell on it, those ‘goads’ will become clearer and that path of wisdom will become more visible.
That Ecclesiastes is in the Bible means that God gets it. He gets our world, he gets us and he gives us all we need. The surprise is that we aren’t just surviving life. We are to enjoy it as we allow our perspective to be adjusted through a right view of God. The God who made us, who has put eternity in our hearts and who illuminates the parameters and expectations of this life under the sun.
The writer of Ecclesiastes deals with a reality that we recognise. He wonders out loud what the point of it all is, and as we eagerly accompany him on his wisdom-seeking tour of everyday life, we begin to realise that the answer is sobering but free-ing. Our teacher walks us through the weeds of life, exposing them for what they are, but as we walk our gaze is gradually lifted to the One who made us.
So come and join us as we have our gaze lifted, and learn to walk wisely with our feet firmly on the ground amidst the gritty reality of this broken world.
