"All Is Vanity And a Chasing After The Wind"

I was reintroduced to Ecclesiastes this morning.  

Ecclesiastes is a very short book in the middles of the Bible. I would almost bet that most of you have not read much of this book.  

However most of us are familiar with the third chapter:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 

² a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 

³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up; 

⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 

⁵ a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 

⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 

⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 

⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace. (Eccl. 3)

I was first introduced to Ecclesiastes the first summer I started back college at age forty.  When we were assigned Ecclesiastes I had a difficult time understanding why is was included in Scripture.  After my second read I decided it was full of nonsense.

…and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. (Eccl. 1:14)

It took me a lot of time, over the years, to come to understand that Ecclesiastes was a kind of parable.  A graphic way of getting folks to see the error of their ways in day to day living.

Eugene Peterson has a wonderful way of interpreting this small, but powerful, book. 

“The Preacher (Ecclesiastes) is soap and water to clean us up.  We get clean of the dirt and grime of the cluttered piety we suppose as faith and the yelling and  blasphemies we supposed were religion, and we wash them down the drain……

There is an incredible amount of sheer bilge in religion.  There are shoddy morals and slovenly thinking.” (p. 201-202 As Kingfishers Catch Fire )

As I read Peterson’s words it was much clearer to me.  The Preacher is talking about one of the key reasons God come to earth in Jesus skin.  

Too adjust the thinking and living of the Hebrew people who had created so many unfounded rules for being God’s people.

What do you suppose that some of those rules are in todays world?

Tomorrow I will touch on the many vanities that only complicate our faith.