Ecclesiastes 1

V 1: SOURCE It is hard to reach any other conclusion than that King Solomon is the author of Ecclesiastes. He is the son of David, and is king in Jerusalem when he writes. V 2: STATEMENT Observing life through the eyes of man, his opening statement is that everything is vain or empty, or meaningless. V 3–8: SO? The underlying question he asks, humanly speaking, is ‘So what?’ Man labours and passes away, the year carries on as normal, yet man is never satisfied with what he sees or hears. So, what is the meaning of it all? V 9–11: SUN A key phrase in the book is the phrase ‘under the sun’. Much of Ecclesiastes is man’s observation of humanity, apart from God, in looking at ‘everything under the sun’. This is punctuated with glimpses of truth through the eye of faith which puts all this in its context. The writer opens by commenting, ‘There is nothing new under the sun.’ Everything is as it was and as it will be. V 12–15: SEARCHING The Preacher, (the name Solomon gives himself), has set his heart to search out wisdom concerning everything under heaven. He has observed everything he can and concludes that it is vanity and nothing can really be changed. V 16–18: SORROW Wisdom and knowledge alone only produce sorrow because they produce more questions than answers. At this stage, he does not refer to godly wisdom which is a gift from the Lord.