Searching for the Meaning of Life: Ecclesiastes

Studies in the Book of Ecclesiastes

In Ecclesiastes, the Preacher reflects upon his own futile efforts to find ultimate meaning and purpose amidst life’s perplexities. He concludes that nothing “under the sun” will ever fulfill the eternal longing which God has put in the heart of man. In a world that gives no clue as to life’s purpose, provides no answer to man’s ultimate longing, and furnishes no resolution to life’s jarring contradictions and inequities, the Preacher’s observations and conclusions are eminently valid; man by his unaided wisdom will never penetrate the mystery that guards the purposes of God. In this context, Ecclesiastes wrestles through the same themes of the world’s bewildering contradictions and frustrations and the confidence that the God who sits above the sun will bring an ultimate resolution. Man finds his center, not in the world of vanity, but in the God of eternity.