Please, if anyone sees this book differently, let me know how, because it's sort of depressing me every time I have my scripture study for the last week. And if you do agree, let me know so I don't have to feel so alone. :)
Monday, August 16, 2010
Ecclesiastes
I know I've read Ecclesiastes before, but I guess this is the first time I am really paying attention to it. I am wondering if anyone else has found it to be as bizarre as I do. It seems nearly as useless as the Song of Solomon. Every few chapters there will be a one-verse sort of truism, but nothing that hasn't already been said in Proverbs. Mostly it just seems like endless repetitions of "All is vanity. Nothing matters. Women are pretty much evil. Wisdom is great! Except that it doesn't matter because whether you are punished or rewarded is absolutely random and nothing you do makes any difference because all is vanity. It's better to be dead than alive."
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I love the book of Ecclesiastes. One of the things I like most about it is that it resounds with Solomon's testimony. At least I think it does. When he says "under the sun" he is referring to things of the world or the worldly, which I take to mean, things removed from God. Thus having a car wouldn't be vanity in and of itself, but trying to find true happiness in being a car enthusiast is vanity. I will admit, he tends to make extreme statements, but he also repeats about moderation.
ReplyDelete"There is a time to every purpose under heaven" and all that.
Ecc. 2:26 "For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit."
Wisdom and knowledge and joy are all God-given gifts and are to be enjoyed by the righteous. And he who estranges himself from God will not have these things but travail and labor in vain. These acts of the sinner are vanity and vexation of spirit. If a man giveth a gift grudgingly, it is accounted unto him as if he gave not the gift.
Solomon was a philosopher and sought happiness and realized that it was no where to be found, if not from God. He is a bit melodramatic, seems to have been taken by the excess that comes from being the son of a king and heir to the throne, but through his poor choices, he gained a testimony of the truth and left this record for us to also learn from. That is how I take Ecclesiastes. The Song of Solomon is a different matter. Joseph Smith supposedly said that it was not inspired by God. Nuff said.