Come Alive: Ecclesiastes: Conversations with Scripture

By Talbot Davis

What genre is Ecclesiastes? Along with Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Song of Songs, it falls under the category of "Wisdom Literature," but that term doesn't really do it justice. It's part stream-of-consciousness lament, part poetry, part cultural analysis, and part personal tale of woe. Pile on all those d

• Language: English
• Publisher: Invite Press
• Release date: Jun 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781953495679

Talbot Davis

Talbot Davis is the pastor of Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, a congregation known for its ethnic diversity, outreach ministry, and innovative approach to worship. He has been repeatedly recognized for his excellence in congregational development. During his 10-year term as pastor at Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church prior to serving Good Shepherd, that congregation doubled in size and received the conference’s “church of excellence” award six times. Talbot has also received the conference’s Harry Denman Award for Excellence in Evangelism. Since Talbot began serving at Good Shepherd in 1999, average worship attendance has quadrupled, growing from 500 to 2000 each Sunday. Talbot holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University and a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. He lives in Charlotte with his wife, Julie, and they have two grown children.

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Come Alive:

Conversations with Scripture

Come Alive: Conversations with Scripture

Ecclesiastes

Copyright 2023 by Talbot Davis

All rights reserved.

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ISBN 978-1-9534-9566-2; epub: 978-1-9534-9567-9

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.

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MANUFACTURED in the UNITED STATES of AMERICA

Introduction

to the Book of Ecclesiastes

I begin this Come Alive volume with two promises, one of them unsettling and the other one thrilling.

Here’s the unsettling one: on more than one occasion as you take this journey through the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, you will ask yourself, What in the world is going on here and how did this make it into the Bible?

Here’s the thrilling one: when you complete this trek through this sometimes bewildering book, you’ll be more grateful than ever before for exactly who God inspired this book that made it into the permanent record we have in Scripture. More than that, I believe you’ll have a new appreciation for both the how of the book’s inspiration as well as the when in the author’s life the composition took place. I genuinely believe that a deep study of this often-ignored book will help you love the Scripture so you can adore Scripture’s Savior.

As is often the case, we need to establish the who, what, when, where, and why of this book to understand it well. You have to know the story behind the story to grasp the story itself!

Who

Who wrote this perplexing book? Our clue is in the opening words: The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem (Ecclesiastes 1:1). Which of David’s sons was king in Jerusalem? Solomon, the same king who gave us most of Proverbs, and the same man who ultimately followed so little of his own advice in that book! We will see many occasions in which the message and the outlook of Ecclesiastes is markedly different from that of Proverbs. What is going on with these two parts of the biblical library and what do we make of their different voices?

You’ll also note in those opening words of Ecclesiastes that Solomon refers to himself in the third person and that he also uses a term that the NIV translates as the Teacher. The original word in Hebrew is Qohelet (pronounced Ko-Hell-It) and means one who gathers, assembles, or collects. Qohelet will speak throughout this book and serves essentially as Solomon’s alter ego, allowing him to observe and reflect upon life without the specific burdens of royalty. Now to be fair, a number of Old Testament scholars who hold to a high view of Scripture suggest that an anonymous author wrote the book in the name of Solomon and did so several hundred years after his reign.

What

What type of literature is this book? This is the most interesting W question of all. Our goal as we read Scripture is not to read literally or symbolically but to read literarily: to read Scripture according to its genre. Well, what genre is Ecclesiastes? Along with Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Song of Songs, it falls under the category of Wisdom Literature, but that term doesn’t really do it justice. It’s part stream-of-consciousness lament, part poetry, part cultural analysis, and part personal tale of woe. Pile on all those descriptors, and I am going to label Ecclesiastes as a memoir of disillusionment that leads to a triumph of faith. Got that? Where it begins is hardly where it ends; how it opens must be considered in light of how it closes. I love this genre, in part because it is completely unique in the biblical library and in (greater) part because I know so many of you are living that same arc—a memoir of disillusionment that ultimately gives way to a testimony of faith.

When

Taking Ecclesiastes 1:1 at face value, Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes near the end of his reign over Israel, a reign that began in 970 BC and ended in 930 BC.

Where

The book was written in Jerusalem, the seat of power and learning in the united kingdom of Israel.

Why

You will find yourself asking these questions more than once as you read Ecclesiastes: Why is this here? What does it mean? How does it fit? Here’s one way I have come to look at it, and it makes me grateful to God for the way he inspired his word. Near the end of his life, Solomon is jaded, depressed, and disillusioned from the weight of his own self-destructive behavior. He has compromised his values, abandoned his Lord, and embraced idolatry through his many foreign wives and concubines. He’s had everything, all the time, and his excess has left him empty and void. I have a suspicion that in modern terms we would call him clinically depressed; you could even say that Solomon wrote Proverbs when he was on his meds and Ecclesiastes when he was off them. Some of you who wrestle with depression know exactly what I am talking about. If that supposition is true, how good is God? He knew that many of his children would battle with the same darkness as King Solomon and so gave us this book as an enduring testimony of his goodness that reigns even in our turmoil. That goodness will burst through in the book’s closing segment (12:9–14), reminding us that the Lord is not intimidated by our doubts; instead, he loves to be vindicated through them.

Now you know the story behind the story. Let’s get into the story itself as we open Day One of Come Alive: Ecclesiastes.

Introduction to the Book of Ecclesiastes

Introduction to the Book of Ecclesiastes

DAY ONE

Ecclesiastes