Today’s passage: Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

Helpful thoughts:

• The Preacher gave his heart (His inner man) to experience and consider all that is done on this earth.
• Whenever the word vanity is used, the Hebrew word could also be translated as a “vapor” or “mere breath”. (James 4:14)
• When the Preacher says, “To know wisdom and to know madness and folly”, the knowledge goes beyond reading or study.  Solomon sought to experience all wisdom, madness and folly.  He participated in madness and folly.  He found earthly gain in none of these things, from wisdom to folly.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is the business of this earth that we have been given “unhappy”?  What made it that way in the first place?
2. Why can’t man stop the Curse on this earth?
3. In what arena does wisdom and knowledge only result in vexation and sorrow? (Hint: Verse 13)

Helpful resources:

As we read through the book of Ecclesiastes together, I will also be reading this book;

Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End by David Gibson.

Today’s passage: Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Helpful thoughts:

• Solomon is the “Preacher” and author of this book.
• These first eleven verses serve as an introductory summary to the theme of the book.
  • There is nothing for man to gain (Take final and full possession of, or control over) on this earth.
  • Life is not a possession to be gained, but a gift to be enjoyed.
• Our life will come and go, time will continue on, mankind will always want “more”, and history will repeat itself without anyone even realizing it.

Questions to consider:

1. Why is it so important for us to remember that we will never “conquer” life under the sun?  What does the acknowledgement of our inability to truly be in control do for our perspective as it relates to God, eternity, and this life?
2. What perspective has the Preacher not yet brought into his preaching?  Where is God?  How does this omission help us to discern the arena within which vanity persists?
3. How is it true that there is never anything “new”?  In what way(s) is the technology of our day and mankind’s interaction with it, “Been already in the ages before us?”