Life without God is meaningless.
From the very beginning, mankind has been consumed by one question: What is the meaning of life? On the one hand, human ingenuity and compassion save and improve lives every day though large-scale technological advances, community missions, and individual acts of kindness. On the other hand, human selfishness and wastefulness have led to the tragedies of genocide, broken families, and environmental destruction. In light of this paradox, some choose to focus on the sunny side of life, while others doubt that the world can ever find a solution to its problems. Regardless of our general outlook, we have all felt the profound disappointment expressed in the Book of Ecclesiastes: that life is not as it should be.
The truth is that we live in a fallen world. We might deny it, fight it, hide from it, or even try to make sense of it. But we cannot escape it. This is a widely accepted truth among Christians; nevertheless, many believers struggle with Ecclesiastes because it is not easy to reconcile the hopeful message of our faith with a book that revolves around the theme that everything is meaningless: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2). How can such a bleak statement exist alongside the joy of the gospel?
Some view the Book of Ecclesiastes as the elegy of a man who has abandoned God; spiritually dead, the man is unable to find light in a fallen world. His despair may be all the more unbearable because of his former experience of God; the shadows of life are made even darker by contrast with a light that has been lost. Others understand the book as more of a theoretical exercise: the author tries to imagine a meaningful life apart from God, humbly concluding that all is futile without God, the sole source of life’s significance.
Still others see Ecclesiastes as an exploration of wisdom’s response to a fallen world. The harsh truth is that life in a fallen world is fleeting, profitless, puzzling, and futile (see “There is Nothing New Under the Sun” at Eccl. 1:3–11). This holds true for the believer and the unbeliever, the wise and the foolish, the Jew and the Gentile alike. Yet although life in a fallen world may be meaningless, God is not meaningless. And because of God, we can respond to life with wisdom, and in that, we can enjoy meaning. Just as Scripture commands us, we can be in the world but not of the world (Rom. 12:2), finding our meaning not in this life but in the promise of another (Matt. 6:20; John 15:17–19; 17:16–18; Rom. 8:21, 22; 2 Cor. 5:1–8; see also “Liberating Creation” at Rom. 8:21, 22).
Ecclesiastes is a work of Wisdom Literature (see the introduction to Job), a genre of writing widespread in the ancient world. Wisdom Literature aimed to provide instruction about life, though it often raises as many questions as it answers. In the case of Ecclesiastes, the answers themselves can be more troubling than the questions. Yet the book provides one answer that is the foundation of all wisdom: “Fear God and keep His commandments” (Eccl. 12:13; compare Prov. 1:7).
Ecclesiastes states that it is the work of “the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (Eccl. 1:1). This notation and the description of the author’s luxurious and, at times, reckless lifestyle (2:1–16) point to Solomon as the book’s author. If so, Ecclesiastes was likely written sometime in the later part of Solomon’s life, perhaps around 920 B.C.
Key Verses in Ecclesiastes
• “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2).
• “There is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9).
• “In much wisdom is much grief” (Eccl. 1:18).
• “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Eccl. 3:1).
• “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up” (Eccl. 4:9, 10).
• “A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the sternness of his face is changed” (Eccl. 8:1).
• “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth” (Eccl. 12:1).
• “Fear God and keep His commandments … for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Eccl. 12:13, 14).