Ryken Ecclesiastes

Why Everything Matters
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4335-2441-7
Verlag: Crossway
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 320 Seiten

Reihe: Preaching the Word

The book of Ecclesiastes is 'about life, the way it really is,' writes commentator Philip Ryken. Readers throughout the ages have been drawn to the way it honestly wrestles with the tedium of work, injustices in this life, the ravages of age, and the inevitability of death. But its wisdom, according to Ryken, is in teaching people to trust God with life's questions even in the midst of struggles. Pastors, writers, speakers, and students will find this Preaching the Word commentary to be a helpful resource in their teaching and studies. Ryken explores what will happen if we choose the world's offerings instead of God's and teaches valuable lessons about what it means to have a God-centered worldview. Ecclesiastes is the twenty-sixth volume of the Preaching the Word series-noted for its clear exposition, readability, practical application, and unqualified commitment to biblical authority. Ryken's commentary will not only enrich any individual study of Ecclesiastes but will equip Christian leaders in communicating its universal application to a wide audience. The Psalms is one of the most widely loved books of the Bible. A source of instruction for our prayers, inspiration for our songs, and consolation for our tears, these biblical poems resound with the whole spectrum of human emotion and teach us to hope in God each and every day. In the first volume of a three-part commentary on the Psalms, pastor James Johnston walks readers through chapters 1-44, offering exegetical and pastoral insights along the way. In an age that prizes authenticity, this resource will help anyone interested in studying, teaching, or preaching the Bible to truly engage with God in a life-changing and heart-shaping way. Part of the Preaching the Word series.

Philip Graham Ryken (DPhil, University of Oxford) is the eighth president of Wheaton College. He preached at Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church from 1995 until his appointment at Wheaton in 2010. Ryken has published more than fifty books, including When Trouble Comes and expository commentaries on Exodus, Ecclesiastes, and Jeremiah. He serves as a board member for the Gospel Coalition and the Lausanne Movement.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ryken, Philip Graham

Leseproben

1

Vanity of Vanities

Ecclesiastes 1:1–2

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

1:1–2

SOCIOLOGIST Jonathan Kozol met Mrs. Washington in the South Bronx. She and her young son, David, were living at a homeless hotel close to East Tremont Avenue, in a first-floor room with three steel locks on the door.

Mrs. Washington was dying, and each time Kozol came for a visit, she was visibly weaker. But, oh, the stories she could tell about life on the underside of urban America—stories about poverty and injustice, drugs, violence, and rape. Mrs. Washington told Kozol about children in her building born with AIDS and about the twelve-year-old at the bus stop who was hit by stray gunfire and paralyzed. She told him about the physical abuse she had suffered from Mr. Washington and about all the difficulties poor people had getting medical care in the city.

The woman and her son also talked about spiritual things. “I wonder how powerful God is,” David admitted in one interview. “He must be wise and powerful to make the animals and trees and give man organs and a brain to build complex machineries, but he is not powerful enough to stop the evil on the earth, to change the hearts of people.” On a subsequent visit Kozol looked down and saw that Mrs. Washington’s Bible was open on the quilt next to her. So he asked what part of the Bible she liked to read. “Ecclesiastes,” she said. “If you want to know what’s happening these days, it’s all right there.”1

Why Study Ecclesiastes?

Not everyone would agree with Mrs. Washington. Ecclesiastes seems to take such a gloomy view of life that some people doubt the spiritual value of reading it or even question whether it belongs in the Bible at all. When one of the ancient rabbis read Ecclesiastes he said, “O Solomon, where is your wisdom? Not only do your words contradict the words of your father, David; they even contradict themselves.”2 Closer to our own times, scholars have described the book as “the low-water mark of God-fearing Jews in pre-Christian times.”3 Some have even doubted whether its author had a personal relationship with God at all, since his “gloomy sub-Christian attitude” seems so “far removed from the piety of the Old Testament.”4 So what is Ecclesiastes doing in the Bible, and why should we take the trouble to study it?

Mrs. Washington was right: if we want to know what is happening these days or have trouble understanding why a powerful Creator allows evil on the earth or struggle to resolve life’s other inconsistencies, it is all right here in this book.

We should study Ecclesiastes because it is honest about the troubles of life—so honest that the great American novelist Herman Melville once called it “the truest of all books.”5 More than anything else in the Bible, Ecclesiastes captures the futility and frustration of a fallen world. It is honest about the drudgery of work, the injustice of government, the dissatisfaction of foolish pleasure, and the mind-numbing tedium of everyday life—“the treadmill of our existence.”6 Think of Ecclesiastes as the only book of the Bible written on a Monday morning. Reading it helps us to be honest with God about the problems of life—even those of us who trust in the goodness of God. In fact, one scholar describes Ecclesiastes as “a kind of back door” that allows believers to have the sad and skeptical thoughts that we usually do not allow to enter the front door of our faith.7

We should also study Ecclesiastes to learn what will happen to us if we choose what the world tries to offer instead of what God has to give. The writer of this book had more money, enjoyed more pleasure, and possessed more human wisdom than anyone else in the world, yet everything still ended in frustration. The same will happen to us if we live for ourselves rather than for God. “Why make your own mistakes,” the writer is saying to us, “when you can learn from an expert like me instead?”8

Then too we should study Ecclesiastes because it asks the biggest and hardest questions that people still have today. As we shall see, there is some debate as to when this book was actually written. But whether it was written during the glory days of Solomon’s golden empire or later, when Israel was in exile, it addresses the questions that people always have: What is the meaning of life? Why am I so unhappy? Does God really care? Why is there so much suffering and injustice in the world? Is life really worth living? These are the kinds of intellectual and practical questions that the writer wants to ask. “Wisdom is his base camp,” writes Derek Kidner, “but he is an explorer. His concern is with the boundaries of life, and especially with the questions that most of us would hesitate to push too far.”9 Nor is he satisfied with the kind of easy answers that children sometimes get in Sunday school. In fact, part of his spiritual struggle is with the very answers that he has always been given. He was like the student who always says, “Yes, but . . . ”

Here is another reason to study Ecclesiastes: it will help us worship the one true God. For all of its sad disappointments and skeptical doubts, this book teaches many great truths about God. It presents him as the Mighty Creator and Sovereign Lord, the transcendent and all-powerful ruler of the universe. Reading Ecclesiastes, therefore, will help us grow in the knowledge of God.

At the same time, this book teaches us how to live for God and not just for ourselves. It gives us some of the basic principles we need to build a God-centered worldview, like the goodness of creation and our own absolute dependence on the Creator. Then, on the basis of these principles, Ecclesiastes gives many specific instructions about everyday issues like money, sex, and power. It also has many things to say about death, which may be the most practical issue of all.

In short, there are many good reasons to study Ecclesiastes. This is especially true for anyone who is still deciding what to believe and what not to believe. It is a book for skeptics and agnostics, for people on a quest to know the meaning of life, for people who are open to God but are not sure whether they can trust the Bible. If Ecclesiastes serves as a back door for believers who sometimes have their doubts, it also serves as the gateway for some people to enter a personal relationship with Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life, which is why for some people it turns out to be one of the most important books they ever read.

Who Is Qoheleth?

Once we start to read Ecclesiastes for ourselves, the first question we need to consider is authorship. Who wrote this book? The opening verse seems to give us the answer, but it also raises a number of questions. It says, “The words of the Preacher” (Ecclesiastes 1:1). This seems straightforward enough, except that “Preacher” is not the only way to translate the Hebrew name Qoheleth. Some translators refer to the author as the Teacher, the Philosopher, or the Spokesman. Others prefer to leave his name untranslated and simply call him Qoheleth. So which translation should we choose?

Certainly it is safe to call the author “Qoheleth,” as I will often do in this commentary. Qoheleth is perfectly good Hebrew even if no one knows exactly how to put it in English. “Teacher” is also defensible, especially given what is said at the end of the book, that he “taught the people knowledge” (Ecclesiastes 12:9). Qoheleth was a public teacher. Yet “Preacher” may be the best translation of all. Let me explain.

The Hebrew root of the word qoheleth literally means “to gather, collect, or assemble.” Some scholars take this as a reference to the way the author collected various proverbs and other wise sayings together into one book. However, that is not the way this form of the word is used anywhere else in the Bible or other Hebrew literature. Instead, the verb qoheleth refers to the gathering or assembly of a community of people, especially for the worship of God. So Qoheleth is not so much a teacher in a classroom but more like a pastor in a church. He is preaching wisdom to a gathering of the people of God.

This context is clearly reflected in the title this book is usually given in English. “Ecclesiastes” is a form of the Greek word ekklesia, which is the common New Testament word for “church.” An ekklesia is not a church building but a congregation—a gathering or assembly of people for the worship of God. The word “ecclesiastes” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word qoheleth. Literally, it means “one who speaks in the ekklesia”—that is, in the assembly or congregation.10 So Qoheleth is a title or nickname for someone who speaks in church. In a word, he is the “Preacher.”

In this case, we can be even more specific because the Preacher is further identified as “the son of David, king in Jerusalem” (Ecclesiastes 1:1). Naturally we think first of King Solomon, for although many kings came from the royal line of David, Solomon is the only immediate son of King David who ruled after him in...