Preaching Christ From Ecclesiastes

P R E AC H I N G C H R I S T F RO M E C C L E S I A S T E S

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EERDMANS -- Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes (Greidanus) final textFriday, April 02, 2010 2:25:47 PM

Color profile: DisabledComposite 140 lpi at 45 degrees

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P R E AC H I N G C H R I S TF RO M E C C L E S I A S T E S

Foundations for Expository Sermons

SIDNEY GREIDANUS

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

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© 2010 Sidney Greidanus

All rights reserved

Published 2010 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

www.eerdmans.com

Printed in the United States of America

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Greidanus, Sidney, 1935-

Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes: foundations for expository sermons /

Sidney Greidanus.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN 978-0-8028-6535-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Bible. O.T. Ecclesiastes — Sermons — Outlines, syllabi, etc.

2. Bible. O.T. Ecclesiastes — Criticism, interpretation, etc.

3. Jesus Christ. I. Title.

BS1475.54.G74 2010

223¢.8077 — dc22

2010006437

Unless otherwise noted, the Bible quotations in this publication are taken from

the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of

Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the

United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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To our grandchildren:

Jeremy & Julie, Jeffrey, Cara & Peter, and Caitlin

Zachari, Anna, and Jessica, and

Mikayla, Solomon, and Katherine

May the “goads and nails” (Ecclesiastes 12:11)

of the Teacher’s wisdom

provide direction, stability, and security for your lives.

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Contents

preface x

acknowledgments xiv

abbreviations xv

transliterations xvii

1. Preaching Ecclesiastes 1

The Value of Preaching Ecclesiastes 2

Difficulties in Interpreting Ecclesiastes 3

The Nature of Wisdom Literature 3

The Relation of Wisdom to Redemptive History 3

Contradictions 5

The Historical Setting of Ecclesiastes 6

The Author(s) 7

The Original Recipients 9

The Date of Composition 10

The Place of Composition 11

The Purpose of Ecclesiastes 12

The Genre and Forms of Ecclesiastes 12

Reflection 13

Proverb 13

Instruction 14

Autobiographical Narrative 14

Anecdote 14

Metaphor 15

Allegory 15

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The Structure of Ecclesiastes 15

Literary Patterns 16

Juxtapositions 17

The Overall Structure 18

The Overall Message of Ecclesiastes 20

Difficulties in Preaching Ecclesiastes 22

Selecting a Proper Preaching Text 23

Formulating a Single Theme 23

Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes 24

Redemptive-Historical Progression 25

Promise-Fulfillment 26

Typology 26

Analogy 27

Longitudinal Themes 28

New Testament References 28

Contrast 28

2. No Gain from All Our Toil 30

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

3. The Teacher’s Search for Meaning 49

Ecclesiastes 1:12–2:26

4. God Set the Times 69

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

5. Working in a Wicked World 88


6. Working Together 107

Ecclesiastes 4:7-16

7. Worshiping in God’s House 122

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

8. The Love of Money 137


9. How to Handle Adversity 157


10. How to Act in a Paradoxical World 178

Ecclesiastes 7:15-29

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Contents

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11. Use Wisdom but Know Its Limitations 200

Ecclesiastes 8:1-17

12. Enjoy Life! 219

Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

13. Because of the Harm Inflicted by Folly, Use Wisdom! 239


14. Take Risks Boldly but Wisely! 260

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

15. Remember Your Creator! 275


16. Fear God, and Keep His Commandments! 295

Ecclesiastes 12:9-14

Appendixes

1. Ten Steps from Text to Sermon 311

2. An Expository Sermon Model 313

3. A Meditation on Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 315

4. A Sermon on Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 317

select bibliography 326

scripture index 330

subject index 334

targets for sermons 337

topics for sermons 339

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Contents

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CHAPTER 1

Preaching Ecclesiastes

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

(Eccl 1:2)

Ecclesiastes may be the most difficult biblical book to interpret and preach. Amajor reason for this difficulty is that Old Testament scholars are not agreed onkey issues: the number of authors involved in writing this book; the identity ofthe main author; when, where, and why the book was written; the quality of theHebrew style; which sections are poetry and which are prose;1 the book’s struc-ture, or lack thereof; and whether its message is pessimistic or positive.2 DuaneGarrett adds, “Perhaps an even greater hindrance to preaching Wisdom is thesuspicion many have that it contains no gospel.”3 Small wonder that manypreachers consider it the better part of wisdom to omit Ecclesiastes from theirpreaching schedule. In fact, the Revised Common Lectionary assigns readingsfrom Ecclesiastes for only two worship services: for New Year’s Eve (YearsABC), Ecclesiastes 3:1-13; and for the Sunday closest to August 3 (Year C), as analternative to Hosea 11:1-11, Ecclesiastes 1:12-14 and 2:(1-7, 11) 18-23.4 Unfortu-

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1. See Whybray, Ecclesiastes, 16.2. “There is scarcely one aspect of the book, whether of date, authorship or interpretation,

that has not been the subject of wide difference of opinion.” Gordis, Poets, Prophets, and Sages(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971), 326.

3. Garrett, “Preaching Wisdom,” 108.4. Compare this minimal use of Ecclesiastes with the practice of some Jewish communities

of reading all of Ecclesiastes during the annual feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles). Some of the rea-sons suggested for reading Ecclesiastes during this feast are: “Qohelet recommends rejoicing,which is the mood of Sukkot; . . . he declares the transience of human life, which is well symbol-

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nately, omitting Ecclesiastes from one’s preaching schedule is a major loss forthe church.

The Value of Preaching Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes offers a unique perspective on human life — a perspective that isextremely relevant for the church today.5 Iain Provan observes, “In focusingour attention on this life rather than the next, indeed, this book contributes tothe correction of an all-too-frequent imbalance throughout the ages in Chris-tian thinking, which has sometimes presented Christianity as if it were more amatter of waiting for something than a matter of living.”6 Sandy and Giesestate, “The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most important possessions of theChristian church, since it compels us to continually evaluate and correct ourunderstanding of God and our teaching about God in the light of the whole ofbiblical revelation. . . . The reflections of the sage in Ecclesiastes unmask themyth of human autonomy and self-sufficiency and drive us in all our frailtyand inability to find meaning in a crooked world in the Creator-creature rela-tionship — the ultimate polarity.”7

Moreover, Ecclesiastes is relevant especially for our culture because it tack-les many of the temptations posed by secularism. Leland Ryken calls Ecclesias-tes “the most contemporary book in the Bible. Ecclesiastes is a satiric attack onan acquisitive, hedonistic, and materialistic society. It exposes the mad quest tofind satisfaction in knowledge, wealth, pleasure, work, fame, and sex.”8

Before preachers can preach Ecclesiastes with integrity, however, they will

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ized by a temporary booth; and . . . autumn is the season evocative of mortality.” Michael Fox,Ecclesiastes, xv.

5. According to Ellen Davis, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 160, “Martin Luther saidwe should read ‘this noble little book’ every day, precisely because it so firmly rejects sentimen-tal religiosity!”

6. Provan, Ecclesiastes, 42. Cf. Brown, Ecclesiastes, 21, “Contrary to what is commonlypreached, life is not simply a journey of edifying experiences, a pilgrimage of glee. It is aboutconfronting inevitable despair, disillusionment, and, yes, death face to face, the via negativa. Ec-clesiastes, in short, covers the gamut of life down under, that is, ‘under the sun’ and under God.His is a theology from below, not for liberation’s sake but for navigating the turbulent waters ofthe living of these days in reverence to God. Qohelet is a teacher for preachers who has lived totell about it all . . . barely.”

7. D. Brent Sandy and Ronald L. Giese, Cracking Old Testament Codes: A Guide to Inter-preting the Literary Genres of the Old Testament (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1995), 271.

8. Ryken, “Ecclesiastes,” 274. Cf. Garrett, “Preaching Wisdom,” 119: “Ecclesiastes . . . stripsaway the ideologies and false hopes by which men and women live and loosens the grip that thequest for wealth, power, and education hold over people. In so doing, Ecclesiastes eloquentlyturns the reader toward God, the only hope of eternal meaning and life.”

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have to gain some clarity on the difficulties with which commentators havestruggled for more than two thousand years.9 We shall first explore difficultiesin interpreting Ecclesiastes and next difficulties in preaching this book.

Difficulties in Interpreting Ecclesiastes

We shall discuss in turn five major issues in interpreting Ecclesiastes: the natureof wisdom literature, the historical setting of Ecclesiastes, its genre and forms,its structure, and its overall message.

The Nature of Wisdom Literature

One cannot rightly interpret and preach a text until one has taken into accountits specific genre. Wisdom literature, like Hebrew narrative, Psalms, prophecy,and apocalyptic literature, is a specific literary genre. Therefore a key questionis, What is the nature of wisdom literature? Elizabeth Achtemeier responds,“Wisdom is the result of practical experience and the careful observation ofboth the natural and human worlds. Out of all of the chaos of experience, Wis-dom finds customary ‘orders’ in the world — ways in which human beings andnatural phenomena ordinarily behave. Its aim, then, is to teach men andwomen these ‘orders,’ so they may know how to act in harmony with the worldaround them.”10 J. A. Loader observes similarly, “Wisdom is concerned with thecorrect ordering of life. Wise action is that which integrates people harmoni-ously into the order God has created. The rules of life that prescribe how hu-man beings must integrate themselves into that order are the precepts of wis-dom.”11

The Relation of Wisdom to Redemptive History

In contrast to other biblical genres, wisdom literature does not deal with themighty acts of God. Graeme Goldsworthy observes that this does not mean thatwisdom is “a self-contained and alternative way of looking at God and reality.”Wisdom, he states, “complements the perspective of salvation history. Indeed,

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9. See the extensive historical review by Craig Bartholomew in his Reading Ecclesiastes: OldTestament Exegesis and Hermeneutical Theory, 31-205.

10. Achtemeier, Preaching from the Old Testament (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox,1989), 166. Cf. von Rad, Wisdom in Israel, 92-95; and Bernhard W. Anderson, Contours of OldTestament Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999), 264-67.

11. Loader, Ecclesiastes, 4.

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we should go further than that and say that wisdom is a theology of the re-deemed man living in the world under God’s rule. It is thus as much an aspectof kingdom theology as salvation history is.”12

There are also clear connections between Ecclesiastes and the beginning ofredemptive history as recounted in the early chapters of Genesis. As Genesis 1teaches that God is the sovereign Creator, so Ecclesiastes proclaims the sover-eignty of God (3:14; 8:17). As Genesis teaches that God in the beginning set thetimes (day and night, 1:3-5) and upholds the seasons (8:22), so Ecclesiastesteaches that God has set the times (3:1-8) and “made everything suitable for itstime” (3:11). As Genesis teaches that God created this world good (nôb, 7 times),so Ecclesiastes acknowledges that there is still good to be found in this world(nôb, e.g., 2:24; 3:12-13; 5:18). As Genesis teaches that God created human beingsupright, so does Ecclesiastes (7:29). As Genesis (1:27; 2:15) teaches that humanbeings were created for fellowship with God, so does Ecclesiastes (12:13). Gene-sis further relates that human beings broke this relationship by rebelling againstGod (3:6), subsequently hiding from God (3:10), being driven out of the Gardenof God (3:24), and suffering the penalty of living in a God-cursed creation(3:17) where meaningful work (2:15) would become toil (3:17-19) and where lifewould inevitably end in death (3:19, “You are dust, and to dust you shall re-turn”). Ecclesiastes similarly speaks of our present distance from God (5:2),God’s curse on the earth (1:15; 7:13), the burden of human toil (1:3; 2:22), and thetragedy of death (3:20; 12:7: “The dust returns to the earth as it was”). Moreover,Genesis reveals that evil resides in the human heart (6:5) and that sin un-checked (4:7) leads to murder — the first victim appropriately named Abel (4:8,Hebel = vanity). Ecclesiastes, similarly, shows that evil dwells in human hearts(7:20, 29; 8:11; 9:3) — one of the reasons for its repeated declaration that “all isvanity” (hebel, 1:2; 12:8).13

In spite of these connections with Genesis and the beginnings of redemp-tive history, Ecclesiastes does not focus on God’s redemptive acts. DuaneGarrett formulates the contrast this way: “Genesis tells the story of how hu-mans — originally in a state of life, paradise, and innocence — fell into guilt,toil, and mortality. Ecclesiastes tells how persons now made weak and mortalshould live.”14 William Brown observes, “Most conspicuous about the wisdomliterature is its ‘ahistorical’ character. Strikingly absent among Proverbs, Job,

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12. Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom, 142.13. See Charles G. Forman, “Qohelet’s Use of Genesis,” JSS 5 (1960) 256-63; Robert Johnson,

“Confessions of a Workaholic,” CBQ 38 (1976) 22; Roger Whybray, “Qoheleth as a Theologian,”247-48; Walter Kaiser, Ecclesiastes, 36-37; Arian Verheij, “Paradise Retried: On Qohelet 2:4-6,”JSOT 50 (1991) 113-15; and David Clements, “The Law of Sin and Death: Ecclesiastes and Genesis1–3,” Themelios 19/3 (1994) 5-8.

14. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 279.

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and Ecclesiastes are the great themes of biblical history, such as the exodus, cov-enant, and conquest of the land. God’s role as deliverer and lawgiver, in turn, isscarcely mentioned in the wisdom traditions. Rather, emphasis is placed uponcreation and humanity’s place in it.”15

This does not mean, however, that God is absent from Ecclesiastes. God isthe great Creator (12:1) who made and still “makes everything” (11:5). God setthe times and “has made everything suitable for its time” (3:11). God gave hu-man beings their breath (12:7) and made them “straightforward [upright], butthey have devised many schemes” (7:29). God made “the day of prosperity” aswell as “the day of adversity” (7:14). God gives us “the days of life” (5:18; 8:15),“wealth and possessions,” and the ability “to enjoy them” and to “find enjoy-ment [even] in toil” (5:19; 6:2). God gives “wisdom and knowledge and joy”(2:26), as well as “the collected sayings” of wisdom (12:11). God wants people toenjoy life, “for God has long ago approved what you do” (9:7). God tests people(3:18), “has no pleasure in fools” (5:4), and can become angry (5:6). God holdspeople accountable for their actions and “will judge the righteous and thewicked” (3:16; 11:9; 12:14). Therefore people should “rejoice” in all their years(11:9), remember their “Creator” (12:1), “fear God” (3:14; 5:7; 7:18; 8:12), and“keep his commandments” (12:13).

Goldsworthy notes that wisdom, like salvation history, “finds its goal andfulfilment in Christ. . . . Three aspects of wisdom confront us in the New Testa-ment. First, the Gospel narratives portray Jesus as the wise man who, in theform and content of many of his sayings, follows in the traditions of Israel’swisdom teachers. Secondly, Jesus goes beyond this actually to claim to be thewisdom of God. Thirdly, certain New Testament writers . . . understand themeaning of Christ’s person and work in the light of certain wisdom ideas.”16

Contradictions

Several commentators have faulted Ecclesiastes for its contradictions. Com-pare, for example, the Teacher’s assertions, “I thought the dead, who have al-ready died, more fortunate than the living, who are still alive” (4:2), and, “Who-ever is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a deadlion” (9:4). Or consider the contradiction within a single passage: “I know itwill be well with those who fear God, because they stand in fear of him, but itwill not be well with the wicked” (8:12-13), and, “There are righteous peoplewho are treated according to the conduct of the wicked, and there are wickedpeople who are treated according to the conduct of the righteous” (8:14).

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15. Brown, Ecclesiastes, 11-12.16. Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom, 149.

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Contradictions, however, are natural in wisdom literature because life iscomplex.17 One of the clearest examples of contradictory advice is found inProverbs 26:4-5,

Do not answer fools according to their folly,or you will be a fool yourself.

Answer fools according to their folly,or they will be wise in their own eyes.

Sometimes it is wise not to answer fools; at other times it is wise to answerthem.18 Instead of faulting Ecclesiastes for its contradictions, one ought to uti-lize them in seeking to understand the message of the author19 (see pp. 17-18 be-low, “Juxtapositions”). As Raymond Van Leeuwen puts it, “Rather than forcingus to erase or ‘harmonize’ the ambiguities and ‘contradictions,’ biblical wisdominvites us to ponder the nuances and complexities of life; it invites us to becomewise.”20

The Historical Setting of Ecclesiastes

Since wisdom teaches “customary ‘orders’ in the world,”21 identifying the his-torical setting of the author and his recipients is not as crucial as it is for othergenres of biblical literature. Nevertheless, having some sense of the historicalsetting in which Ecclesiastes was written will help preachers better understand

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17. Some scholars seek to explain the contradictions in terms of changing thoughts over alifetime or changing circumstances. Crenshaw, Ecclesiastes, 49, states, “I believe the tensions ofthe book represent for the most part the fruit of a lifetime’s research. Changing circumstancesevoke different responses to conventional wisdom and to one’s own former thoughts. Differ-ences in societal concerns also dictate a variety of expressions. . . . But the contradictions suggestmore than the result of time’s passage. They express the ambiguities of daily existence and theabsurdity of human efforts to understand it.” Other scholars use the contradictions to argue formultiple authorship (see p. 7 below).

18. Similar “contradictions” are found among English proverbs: sometimes we have to say,“The early bird catches the worm,” but at other times “Better late than never” is more suitable;sometimes we need to say, “He who hesitates is lost,” but at other times “Look before you leap”or “Haste makes waste” is more fitting.

19. Cf. Fox, A Time to Tear Down, 3, “The contradictions in the book of Qohelet are realand intended. We must interpret them, not eliminate them.” See this whole section “On ReadingContradictions,” ibid., pp. 1-26. See also his Qohelet and His Contradictions, and his “The InnerStructure of Qohelet’s Thought.”

20. Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, “Proverbs,” in A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible, eds.Leland Ryken and Tremper Longman (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 266.

21. See p. 3 above.

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the message and discern its original relevance. The questions which we mustseek to answer are: Who wrote this book? To whom? When? Where? And why?

The Author(s)

Traditionally biblical scholars identified King Solomon as the author of Ecclesi-astes. But Luther already began to question this simple identification.22 If Solo-mon were the author, why did he not directly identify himself as he does inProverbs 1:1, “The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel”? Instead weread in Ecclesiastes 1:1, “The words of the Teacher, the son of David, king in Je-rusalem.” The author is identified as “the Teacher,” Qohelet.23 If Solomon werethe author, why would he and his editor conceal his name? Instead of Solo-mon’s using a pen name, Tremper Longman argues, “It is much more likely thatthe nickname Qohelet was adopted by the actual writer to associate himselfwith Solomon, while retaining his distance from the actual person. It is a way ofindicating that the Solomonic persona is being adopted for literary and com-municative purposes. In brief, the wise man who adopts the nickname Qoheletpretends to be Solomon while he explores avenues of meaning in the world.”24

After Luther rejected Solomon as the single author of Ecclesiastes, thefloodgates of speculation opened. Because of the book’s contradictions andswift changes in perspective, “at one time there were scholars ready to suggestthat two, or three, or even as many as nine different minds had been at work onthe book.”25 If all these different minds had been working on this book at cross-purposes, then discerning the specific message of a preaching text would bepractically impossible. What would be the context for determining the messageof the text?

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22. “Martin Luther was probably the first to deny the Solomonic authorship. He regardedthe Book as ‘a sort of Talmud, compiled from many books, probably from the library of KingPtolemy Euergetes of Egypt.’” J. Stafford Wright, “Interpretation of Ecclesiastes,” EvQ 18/1(1946) 19.

23. The Septuagint translated Qohelet as Ekkl3siast3s. “In classical Greek ekkl3siast3s means‘one who sits or speaks in the ekkl3sia,’ that is, an assembly of local citizens. The Hebrew termqohelet — which occurs only in this book — is almost certainly a participle of the verb qhl, ‘toassemble,’ which is in turn related to the noun q#h#l, ‘an assembly’ (often rendered as ekkl3sia inthe Septuagint).” Whybray, Ecclesiastes, 2.

24. Longman, Book of Ecclesiastes, 4-5. A few commentators still defend Solomonic author-ship (e.g., Kaiser, Ecclesiastes [1979], 25-29, and Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs[1993], 264, 266). For arguments against Solomonic authorship, see, e.g., Young, Introduction tothe Old Testament, 347-48; Kidner, Wisdom of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, 105; and Longman,Book of Ecclesiastes, 4-8.

25. Kidner, Time to Mourn, 14. The nine authors were suggested by D. C. Siegfried, “Predigerund Hohelied,” in W. Nowack, Handkommentar zum Alten Testament (Göttingen, 1898).

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Preaching Christ From Ecclesiastes

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