Following Proverbs, we come to the Book of Ecclesiastes. The most well-known verses from this book are found in chapter 3:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes is a book that contemplates the meaning of life. Why are we here? What is it that makes life worth living? Although the subtitles in the NIV are not very promising:

Everything is Meaningless
Wisdom is Meaningless
Pleasures are Meaningless
Toil is Meaningless
Advancement is Meaningless
Riches are Meaningless
A Common Destiny for All (in other words, death)

The writer is basically saying that even human wisdom has its limits; it can’t discover the larger purposes of God or tell us anything about our ultimate existence. All the human things he describes are simply chasing after the wind. But his faith teaches him that God has ordered things according to his own purposes.

Life lived without reference to God is meaningless and purposeless. The wholeness of our life and existence is found in God, each of us has a God-shaped hole within us that can only be filled by him.

As the NLT Study Bible says: Those who trust God will take the apparent futility of life as an incentive to diligently and wisely achieve what they can while they are alive and to enjoy God’s good gifts in the process.

This is one of a series of posts outlining all the books of the Bible. Previous Next