Ecclesiastes 1
Purpose is a problem that plagues a plethora of people
Ecclesiastes is a book that proclaims at the beginning (1:2) and the end (12:8) that life is meaningless.
Ecclesiastes 1:2
"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Each chapter between 1 -12 echo the meaningless of life.
The word that is translated "meaningless" (or vanity in some translations) appears 38 times in the book of Ecclesiastes.
In chapter 1, meaningless occurs 4 times and it is summed up with the phrase Chasing after the wind (which occurs 9 times in Ecclesiastes).
The message of chapter 1 is that life is meaningless and is as fruitful as chasing after the wind. T
Thought to Ponder
According to Thomas Merton;
“The fundamental theme of Ecclesiastes is the paradox that, although there is “nothing new under the sun,” each new generation of mankind is condemned by nature to wear itself out inn the pursuit of “novelties” that do not exist. This concept…contains inn itself the one great enigma of paganism. Only Christ, only the incarnation, by which God emerged from his eternity to enter into time and consecrate it to himself, could save time from being an endless circle of frustrations. Only Christianity can, in Saint Paul’s phrase, “redeem the times.” Other religions can break out of the wheel of time as though from a prison: but they can make nothing of time itself.”
eccl
Ecclesiastes is a book that proclaims at the beginning (1:2) and the end (12:8) that life is meaningless.
Ecclesiastes 1:2
"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Each chapter between 1 -12 echo the meaningless of life.
The word that is translated "meaningless" (or vanity in some translations) appears 38 times in the book of Ecclesiastes.
In chapter 1, meaningless occurs 4 times and it is summed up with the phrase Chasing after the wind (which occurs 9 times in Ecclesiastes).
The message of chapter 1 is that life is meaningless and is as fruitful as chasing after the wind. T
Thought to Ponder
According to Thomas Merton;
“The fundamental theme of Ecclesiastes is the paradox that, although there is “nothing new under the sun,” each new generation of mankind is condemned by nature to wear itself out inn the pursuit of “novelties” that do not exist. This concept…contains inn itself the one great enigma of paganism. Only Christ, only the incarnation, by which God emerged from his eternity to enter into time and consecrate it to himself, could save time from being an endless circle of frustrations. Only Christianity can, in Saint Paul’s phrase, “redeem the times.” Other religions can break out of the wheel of time as though from a prison: but they can make nothing of time itself.”
eccl
posted by Pastor Stan at
2:58 PM
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