Ecclesiastes 1:1-2

Ecclesiastes is an ungodly book. Please do not stop reading yet, let me make my case and then compare it to scriptures. The son of David, King Solomon, wrote Ecclesiastes. At one time Solomon had a relationship with God, and God granted him the gift of wisdom. Many believe Solomon to be the wisest man who ever lived. Solomon had a wonderful beginning, but God and others do not judge our works and our lives by our beginnings, we will be judged by our endings.

Solomon did not write Ecclesiastes at the beginning, or even near the middle of his life. He wrote this near the end, and his ending was not good. Much had happened since his promising beginning. Solomon had turned his back on God, and God’s will. The list of his deliberate willful rebellious disobedience is long. He married many foreign women, both for political ambition and because of carnal lust. He allowed his foreign brides to lead him into pagan idolatry and he worshipped false gods of all types. He overtaxed his people, drafted them into the military and treated them as slaves. He built Temples to false gods. In his rebelliousness, he shattered his relationship with God.

Now as he is approaching the end of his life, he writes the book of Ecclesiastes. He still has the gift of wisdom that God has given him, but he does not have a relationship with God to give that wisdom context and direction. Without God, his wisdom is earthly, ungodly and wicked. He records all of his misguided, misdirected, earthly, ungodly and wicked wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is there, in all of its ugliness for us to read.

If this book is so ungodly, why is it included in the bible? It is included because the very essence of wisdom is the ability to learn from other’s bad examples. For every one of Solomon’s false conclusions, spiritual wisdom counters with truth revealed in Christ. Solomon found only utter meaninglessness; Christ gives meaning to the meaningless.