The Puzzled Preacher: A Pastoral Exposition of Ecclesiastes

By David Balsley

Why did the Lord see fit to include the book of Ecclesiastes in His inspired Word? Down through the centuries, many people have wondered how Solomon could have moved so far from his walk with the Lord and the wisdom of the Proverbs to the pessimism of Ecclesiastes in one lifetime. For this reason, some have questioned Solomons authorship of the book. But Solomon is only one of many who have taken a spiritual detour in life. As a result, there are many people in our nation and our world who can readily identify with the outlook of Ecclesiastes, because they too are living their lives as Solomon did for a timeunder the sun. This verse-by-verse tour of Solomons experience will help you understand where Solomons spiritual detour took him, and where he finally came to realize he should have been going instead. You will be encouraged to move out from under the sun to the abundance of life in the light of the Son!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781490896113

David Balsley

David Balsley followed his studies at Biola University and Western Conservative Baptist Seminary with more than forty years of pastoral ministry in Oregon, New Mexico, Arizona and California. He was already fascinated with the writings of Solomon as a college student, and he has spent years sharing his studies of the writings of Solomon in Bible studies and pulpit ministry, as well as the publication of The Puzzled Preacher - A Pastoral Exposition of Ecclesiastes and The Passionate Prince - A Pastoral Exposition of the Song of Solomon. He and his wife, Janice, live in Brea, California. They are active members of Green Hills Baptist Church (The Church at Green Hills) in La Habra, California.

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Copyright © 2016 David Balsley.

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Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-9610-6 (sc)

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015919942

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/05/2016

CONTENTS

Preface

Section 1: Solomon’s Introduction to Life’s Futility

1:1-18

Life Under the Sun

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Why Bother?

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

Section 2: Solomon’s Investigation of Life’s Futility

2:1-26

Going Nowhere Fast

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

Even Wisdom Has Its Limits

Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

Only God Knows

Ecclesiastes 2:18-26

Section 3: Solomon’s Illustrations of Life’s Futility

3:1-11:10

God Is the Key

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

The Big Picture

Ecclesiastes 3:14-22

Oppression Under the Sun

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

The Working Man

Ecclesiastes 4:4-8

Companionship

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Approval Ratings

Ecclesiastes 4:13-16

Serious Business

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Good News, Bad News

Ecclesiastes 5:8-9

Don’t Love Your Money

Ecclesiastes 5:10-17

Whistle While You Work

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20

Not Enough Fun

Ecclesiastes 6:1-6

Emptiness Under the Sun

Ecclesiastes 6:7-12

Surprise Values

Ecclesiastes 7:1-7

Secure in Sovereignty

Ecclesiastes 7:8-14

Living in Balance

Ecclesiastes 7:15-18

The Pursuit of Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 7:19-22

Solomon’s Enigma

Ecclesiastes 7:23-29

Responding Rightly to Authority

Ecclesiastes 8:1-4

Keeping Out of Trouble

Ecclesiastes 8:5-9

Judgment Day Someday

Ecclesiastes 8:10-13

Life’s Puzzles

Ecclesiastes 8:14-17

Making the Most of Earthly Life

Ecclesiastes 9:1-9

Beyond Our Control

Ecclesiastes 9:10-12

The Worth of Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 9:13-18

Complications of Foolishness

Ecclesiastes 10:1-7

The Challenges of Chance and Conversation

Ecclesiastes 10:8-14

Whatever a Man Sows

Ecclesiastes 10:15-20

Succeeding in An Uncertain World

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

Making the Most of Life

Ecclesiastes 11:7-10

Section 4: Solomon’s Conclusion and Solution to Life’s Futility

12:1-14

Give of Your Best

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

Solomon on Writing

Ecclesiastes 12:9-12

Solomon’s Conclusion

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Bibliography

Dedica

ted to

my dear wife,

Janice - who helped

by proofreading the text,

and whose partnership has done

so much to contribute to the

rich sense of meaning in my life;

and to my children,

Stephen and Alissa,

who are responding to

Solomon’s challenge to

"remember [their] Creator

in the days of [their] youth."

PREFACE

W hat is life all about? People have pondered the question down through the ages. The varied religious views and philosophical speculations of mankind bear witness to the multiplicity of ideas which people have come up with in regard to life’s meaning.

There is no better place to go for answers to our questions regarding the meaning of life than to the Word of God Himself. As the creator of all life, the Lord has revealed that there is nothing more important for a human being than to walk in faith and obedience with his Maker. And the revelation of the Scriptures progressively fills in the finer points of what the Lord is looking for in human behavior.

For Adam and Eve the will of God was summed up in a single command. They were not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is evident from the Biblical record that Cain and Abel, though we don’t have the details of God’s revelation to them, were aware of the importance of sacrifice in maintaining a healthy relationship with the Lord. Additional clarification regarding the will of God was given to Noah following the great flood. The Lord’s promises called for a response of faith from Abraham who, because he believed what he was told, was credited with righteousness. And, of course, a major step forward in the revelation of God’s will for mankind took place in the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai - a revelation which was clarified with additional detail during the wanderings of Israel in the desert.

By the time of Israel’s early kings (Saul and David and Solomon), there was more than enough truth revealed to guide the trusting soul in a deep and fulfilling walk with the Lord. When, centuries later, the Lord Jesus was asked by a testy lawyer which was the greatest commandment of the Law, Jesus went (without hesitation) to the instruction of Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4-5: Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! [5] You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. So, well acquainted as he was with the Law of the Lord, it is not surprising that King David could challenge his people centuries after Moses, as he did in Psalm 31:23-24:

[23] "O love the Lord, all you His godly ones!

The Lord preserves the faithful

And fully recompenses the proud doer.

[24] Be strong and let your heart take courage,

All you who hope in the Lord."

Many millions of earth’s citizens have discovered that life, at its best, will be found in a love for the Lord. Such love results in hope in the Lord and in faithfulness to the will of the Lord, which David wrote about. And one who made that discovery was King David’s son Solomon. He authored the wisdom-sayings of the Proverbs, with their wealth of revelation regarding life’s meaning. But another of Solomon’s writings, the book of Ecclesiastes, reveals that Solomon did not manage to stay focused on life at its best throughout the whole of his earthly pilgrimage. He obviously became distracted for a time, with the result that he spent a great deal of time and resources and energy searching under the sun for the source of meaning in life, to rediscover at last that life at its best does not find its source under the sun.

It is my hope that the pages which follow will help us to better understand where Solomon’s search took him and, what is more important, where it finally ended for the man I have chosen to describe as the puzzled preacher.

SECTION ONE:

SOLOMON’S INTRODUCTION TO LIFE’S FUTILITY

1:1-18

LIFE UNDER THE SUN

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

I n recent decades something called suicidology has flourished in the United States and in other parts of the western world. Many studies have arisen, as a result, and thousands of books have been written - some of them explaining how to go about successfully committing suicide.

For many people in our world life is viewed as not worth living. In addition to the hundreds of thousands who commit suicide each year, there are many more who attempt it, or who would attempt it if they could muster the courage. They have decided, for one reason or another, that their lives are no longer worth living.

What is it that gives meaning to human existence? There are many things, of course, which contribute to satisfaction in life. Among them are the satisfactions which are found in family relations, education, careers, material possessions, physical achievements, love of the arts, and humanitarian efforts. But, when all is said and done, none of these things are fully and finally satisfying. Though there are many things to enjoy on earth, life’s meaning in its fullest dimensions will never be found by those who look only on the face of the earth. Mankind was created by an omniscient God for reasons that reach beyond the earth, and it is only when a person takes God and His will into consideration in living that he will find life at its best.

Many centuries ago a well-educated and wealthy man set about to examine life in search of its meaning. He had the time, the mind, and the resources to go much farther in his search than most people will ever go. So we can be thankful that he recorded his findings in a book for our advantage - though many others have discovered what he discovered. One of his early discoveries was that life under the sun (i.e., apart from God) is full of emptiness.

I. INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES

A. THE AUTHOR 1:1

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

The word translated preacher is the Hebrew title for the book of Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew word qohelet means one who convenes and speaks at an assembly (according to Charles Ryrie),¹ or speaker, or preacher. The word occurs only in the book of Ecclesiastes, whose title in our English Bibles comes from the Greek version of the Old Testament (the Septuagint).

Centuries of tradition have maintained that the preacher of Ecclesiastes is Solomon. Some modern scholars have followed the lead of Martin Luther, who believed that the book was written after the time of the exile by someone who was writing from Solomon’s viewpoint, but there are good reasons for staying with the traditional view that Solomon is the author.

1. The author identifies himself as the Son of David (which Solomon was).

2. The author claims to have been King in Jerusalem (which Solomon was as well).

3. The author claims unusual wisdom (1:16), which Solomon had.

4. The author possessed unusual wealth (which Solomon did).

Writing the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon spoke from the viewpoint of a man who had taken a careful look at life and who now summoned and spoke to his people to let them know what he had found - and it wasn’t very encouraging!

B. THE ASSERTION 1:2

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,

Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Vanity is well illustrated by another good translation of the word which Solomon used: breath or breeze. Like a breath or a breeze which cannot be seen, but is breathed or blown only to be breathed or blown again, this earthly life is a transitory thing which (when you add it all up) hardly amounts to much.

The Bible shows us that God created us for more worthwhile things than we spend much of our time engaged in. But, with the entrance of sin, much of life took on a futility and a brevity which might make a man, in his more thoughtful moments, wonder why he has to be bothered!

It is interesting that Solomon’s word for vanity is the word which was used as the name of the fourth human being on earth, Abel (Hebel in Hebrew). Eve gave birth to her second son as the effects of the curse began to impress her with the truth that Solomon discovered many centuries later. It was the truth that life is fleeting and full of meaningless activity - especially if God is left out of the picture.

Ecclesiastes is the only book in the Bible which pursues the theme of life’s emptiness at any great length, but it isn’t the only book which says what it says about the futility and the brevity of life! The apostle Paul wrote about the futility of life on a sin-cursed earth in Romans 8:18-21:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [19] For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. [20] For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope [21] that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

And Jesus’ half-brother James addressed the same issue in James 4:13-14:

Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ [14] Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

Solomon wasn’t, as he might sound here, an incurable pessimist. But he was a determined realist; a man who observed and announced that life as we know it on our sin-cursed earth (and even more so, perhaps, in his age prior to Christ) is just full of things that don’t make a lot of sense!

You have noticed that about life, haven’t you? If you haven’t, stick around! We all eventually have occasion to wonder why life isn’t adding up to all we think it should!

II. THE MESSAGE OF ECCLESIASTES

A. SOLOMON’S QUESTION 1:3

"What advantage does man have in all his work

Which he does under the sun?"

Before anyone can adequately understand this question or understand the book of Ecclesiastes, he has to understand the meaning of the frequently recurring phrase under the sun.

An enlightened Christian in our age would have a reasonable response to Solomon’s question (What advantage does man have in all his work?). He would observe that God has provided many satisfactions on earth which make life worth living, in spite of life’s numerous and obvious problems. And he would observe that God is going to reward men in the kingdom age, and in the eternal ages to follow, for the works they perform in this life on earth. But Solomon’s phrase, under the sun, eliminates any consideration of God or of the rewards which are planned in the ages to come.

By the phrase under the sun Solomon leaves God completely out of the picture. His question is addressed to earthly life as we now know it - apart from God! What he asks is this: If you leave God completely out of the picture, what reason does a man have for living and what reward does he have for laboring all his life on the face of a sin-cursed earth?

Solomon’s viewpoint in Ecclesiastes is that of a man who had come to see life’s many activities as an exercise in futility - topped off by death! With this understanding of his question, Solomon is going to proceed to show us that the answer is this: There isn’t much reason for living and there isn’t much reward for laboring on earth if you think only in terms of what is under the sun.

B. SOLOMON’S OBSERVATIONS 1:4-7

Wherever you look on the face of the earth, you will find an endless series of circles!

1. The Passing of Generations 1:4

"A generation goes and a generation comes,

But the earth remains forever."

There is nothing quite as fresh as a brand-new baby, but what is it that happens to brand-new babies? As we all know, they grow up (if their life is normal) and they grow old and they die! So why do we still have people on earth? Because old and dying people are always being replaced by brand-new babies - who grow up and grow old and die, and are replaced by brand-new babies - who grow up and grow old and die, and are replaced by brand-new babies - and on and on it goes!

Do you see the futility of it all? People are born to die, and be replaced by people who are born to die! And, meanwhile, the earth abides and watches this seemingly endless parade of people who are born to die, but who are replaced with people who are born to die! Is there any great profit in being one of an ongoing procession of people who are born to die? Perhaps, instead, you would like to be the sun!

2. The Circuit of the Sun 1:5

"Also, the sun rises and the sun sets;

And hastening to its place it rises there again."

We see the sun rise in the east - when it can be seen - every morning [and it rises in the east every morning even when it can’t be seen], and then we watch it set in the west every evening. And what is the sun doing during the night when it can’t be seen? It is hastening to its place! Solomon graphically portrays the scene by saying, literally, that the sun comes panting (shaaph) to its place!

But why all this hurried motion? So that it can rise in the east and set in the west, and then hurry back to the east so it can set in the west! What an exciting adventure! How would you like to be the sun? Or perhaps you would prefer to be the wind!

3. The Circles of the Wind 1:6

"Blowing toward the south,

Then turning toward the north,

The wind continues swirling along;

And on its circular courses the wind returns."

The wind doesn’t travel such a predictable course as the sun appears to travel, but it still travels in circles! Solomon observed what modern science confirms, that wind currents travel in regular, circular patterns - blowing north and south, east and west, up some and down some - but never really going anywhere!

If blowing with the wind doesn’t sound too rewarding, how about falling with the rain or flowing with a river or rising and falling with the sea?

4. The Cycles of the Waters 1:7

"All the rivers flow into the sea,

Yet the sea is not full.

To the place where the rivers flow,

There they flow again."

Rivers are still flowing to the sea today just as they were yesterday and last week and last year and a century ago and a millennium ago and in Solomon’s day (three millennia ago). And in Solomon’s day they had already been flowing for millennia to the sea!

So what has come of all this flowing? Has the sea filled up and overflowed? No, it hasn’t. And it won’t. For all their flowing, there isn’t a great deal of evidence that the rivers have gotten anywhere or accomplished anything (apart from some sculpting of the surface of the land) - but that is pretty much a picture of all of life!

C. SOLOMON’S CONCLUSIONS 1:8-11

1. Life Is Wearisome 1:8

"All things are wearisome;

Man is not able to tell it.

The eye is not satisfied with seeing,

Nor is the ear filled with hearing."

If you take a long and careful look at life, leaving God out of the picture, you will get tired of looking, but you may not be able to say exactly what you saw. Though the scenes keep changing, it isn’t very certain that they are going anywhere. It is something like standing in the busyness of one of earth’s cities and watching endless motion without knowing where it all leads.

You can watch and watch and watch the world and the people around you, but there will still be more to see - and you may not even be certain what you have seen! You can listen and listen and listen again to the sounds that fill your life, but there will still be more to hear - no matter how long you have already been listening - and all the listening you can do won’t bring you to conclude that you have heard enough to understand what it all means.

You will literally wear yourself out seeing and listening and still never be able to say that you have seen it all or heard it all, or that what you have seen and what you have heard has gotten you where you feel you ought to be!

2. Life Is Relative 1:9-10

"That which has been is that which will be,

And that which has been done is that which will be done.

So there is nothing new under the sun.

[10] Is there anything of which one might say,

‘See this, it is new’?

Already it has existed for ages

Which were before us."

You walk and walk and walk until you are sure you have arrived where no other man has ever been - then you stop for lunch and sit down on a rusty coke can! You study and study and write and write and produce a new, exciting book on a subject no one has ever addressed before - only to be told that you will have to change your title because someone has already used it for another book on the same subject!

Every once in a while someone introduces something which seems to be brand-new, but if you will carefully look around, you will find something like it somewhere else - often something that has been around for years.

3. Life Is Forgetful 1:11

"There is no remembrance of earlier things;

And also of the later things which will occur,

There will be for them no remembrance

Among those who will come later still."

Library shelves are filled with volumes and volumes of Who’s Who books, all full of the names of people whom almost nobody knows and about whom almost nobody cares. There are a few people who have become well enough known that most people in their sphere of influence know of them. In the United States that would include such national figures as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But, as a general rule, when a man dies he will soon be forgotten by almost everyone!

If you are hoping to be remembered long past your time on earth, your chances are very slim. In fact, they are almost nonexistent! There are millions of people in the world who have never even heard of the city where you live, let alone anyone in it. And those who have heard of your city or some of its residents won’t last long or remember long having heard of it or having heard of them.

Most people who become famous are remembered for only a short time. But most of us will never become famous, or anything like it! Most people are fortunate if they are even known, let alone remembered. Solomon’s message was reflected in the song which many people were familiar with in the second half of twentieth century America - Do You Know the Way to San Jose? Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote of the man longing to return to the city he left behind for what he thought would be a successful career as a movie star - only to conclude:

L.A. is a great big freeway!

Put a hundred down and buy a car!

In a week - maybe two - they’ll make you a star!

Weeks turn into years - how quick they pass -

And all the stars that never were are parking cars and pumping gas.²

We are no more likely to be remembered than the millions and billions of nameless people who have gone before us, because no one has the capacity or will have the longevity to remember us for long. And, quite frankly, most of them don’t care! Life is forgetful!

Life under the sun (i.e. apart from God) is full of emptiness. So don’t go looking for a meaningful life if you are planning to leave God out of the picture.

WHY BOTHER?

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

D o you ever come to the end of a day and wonder what all of the time and energy you have invested during the day has really amounted to? You get out of bed in time to have breakfast, and the first thing you know you are getting hungry for lunch! Or you get out of bed in time to make breakfast and clean up the kitchen when it is time to start making lunch!

Many, if not most, of the things we do in a day are things we have also done the day before or the week before - with some minor variations - and we will do again in another day or few days or week or month. Life can be - and often is - very repetitious. So any thinking person can’t help stopping from time to time to wonder if he is really making any progress, or just going around and around in circles, and creating deeper and deeper ruts.

For the Christian, of course, life is going somewhere. Salvation is a process - beginning with our new birth in Christ. It then continues (ideally) with steps of growth which take us higher and higher in this life (in terms of our knowledge of truth and our likeness to Christ). And it is leading us ultimately to eternal joy in heaven.

The apostle Paul expressed his satisfaction in following Christ in Philippine 3:13-14: Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, [14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Even though the Christian experiences many of the same circles which the world experiences, there is a sense of progress in knowing that our circles have some meaning in the process of salvation in this life, and an eternity of meaning projected forward into the life to come!

How we arrive at the breakfast table is important in Christ! It isn’t just a matter of getting there. Our actions and our attitudes are all very important in the Christian life - even on the way to the breakfast table!

But just imagine how empty life could be if it weren’t seen in view of eternity! Imagine how frustrating it would be going through some of life’s circular patterns if this life were all there is. Maybe you don’t have to imagine! Maybe you have been there recently enough to remember how it is - or maybe you are still there!

In his search for purpose and meaning in life under the sun, Solomon came to the realization that all the works and wisdom of man, apart from God, are vanity.

I. SOLOMON’S SEARCH OF MAN’S WORKS 1:12-15

A. HIS POSITION 1:12

I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

The word preacher (qoheleth) refers to a speaker in some kind of an assembly. Either in fact or in his imagination, Solomon gathered before him the assembly of Israel to speak to them about the meaning of life.

His more familiar role to us is that of king over Israel in its capital city Jerusalem, a position he still held when he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. There are many questions as to when and why the experiences of the book of Ecclesiastes took place in Solomon’s life, but the suggestion that it wasn’t really Solomon who wrote the book raises more questions than it answers. The preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem (v. 12) and he magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before him (v. 16) - and that is a description of Solomon if it is a description of any Bible person we know!

Now it might seem that a king as wise and wealthy as Solomon was would have the pieces of life’s puzzle pretty well sorted out. But there appears to have been a time in his life when this was not the case - as he acknowledges for all to read.

B. HIS SEARCH 1:13

And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

We know that Solomon received from God a gift of wisdom (chokmah) like no other man has ever had. He was given the skill (chokmah) to understand and apply the facts of life to practical matters. So Solomon decided to use his wisdom in a research project - which he describes for us in two phrases in 1:13.

1. To seek… all that has been done under heaven.

Solomon went looking to see what kinds of things men were accomplishing - apart from divine direction. Under heaven, like under the sun, tells us that Solomon’s search involved man’s works apart from God’s direction. So Solomon was looking for things like building projects, learning institutions, the latest inventions, and so forth.

2. To explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven.

Solomon wanted not only to see what men were doing by their own ability, but to investigate what they were doing. He applied his skillful mind to understanding not only the