Introducing Ecclesiastes (4 of 5)
In Ecclesiastes the Preacher presents us with the same counsel that God does in the book of Isaiah.
“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live…” (Isaiah 55:1–3, NASB95)
Ecclesiastes sorts that out for us—what will satisfy and what will not. And when we give ear to God where does He direct us that we find life abundant, eternal, and free? He points us to Jesus.
That is where Ecclesiastes ultimately directs us—to Jesus. Jesus is God’s answer to a fallen creation. His work of redemption did not just have to do with our salvation. It had to do with the whole created order under the sun, or as we sing in the carol each Christmas, “as far as the curse is found.”
Jesus is our hope and our help. One day the old order of things under the sun will pass away and all things will be made new. No more vanity. No more striving after wind.
For now in the days of our sojourning we lean upon Jesus, asking Him to establish the work of our hands. We look to Him for comfort and strength, wisdom and life, day by day.
The Hebrew word הֶבֶל occurs 38 times in Ecclesiastes. It is translated ‘vanity’ or ‘meaningless.’ But it can also be translated as it is in Deuteronomy. “They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols” (Deut. 32:21). Idols translates the word הֶבֶל and helps us to see what the real issue is. Will we look to the living God or will we look to idols?
Paul in the NT frames coming to Christ in terms of idolatry.
“For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:9–10).
In his first epistle where he writes about life and truth and love, John frames the challenge with these closing words: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).
God gives us the book of Ecclesiastes to equip us for life and living. The Preacher makes realists of us, but he does not leave us there. He gives us hope. He lifts our eyes to God the Father, who points us to His Son, Jesus Christ.
Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
NASB95 refers to Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
For further study see Under the Sun: Redemptive Reality in the Book of Ecclesiastes (Stanley D. Gale, Shepherd Press, 2025, 144 pages)
