“ The words of the Teacher, son of David in Jerusalem,
Meaningless! Meaningless !, says the Teacher.
Utterly meaningless !
What do people gain from all their labours
At which they toil under the sun ?
Generations come and generations go ,
But the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets.
And hurries back to where it rises .”
Ecclesiastes 1:1-5
Do you ever feel like this, and you work day after day, and year after year ? I hope you do not feel like this, and that you feel value with your work. But, I know that we do not all feel valued for the work that we do. We do not get enough time off, or do not get enough pay, or the job is too hard and too dangerous. We have all felt like this at least once. Or not ?
We might get bogged down by climate change, or disease, or wars or other factors in our world. And we might say, “ I do not understand the meaning of life. There are too many negatives, and I do not find God in my world anymore. Why I am working , and living , if I know that I am going to die anyway eventually ? ”.
Why would the people who put together the Bible include such a book in the books that shape the Jewish/Christian communities ? What is the role of this book as we have it ? We, in the church, do not read these verses very often in our worship services. It is not the only voice in the Old Testament, but it is a holy book.
So, is the Teacher speaking out of his own personal experience with life ? I would think that he is crying ( yelling ) out to God because this is what he feels deep down in his soul. I do not think it has to do with work, but it has to do with his relationship with God. I think he trusts God so much, that he can cry out in this way. If he did not know God, then he would be screaming into the wind. Some translators use the word “vapour” instead of meaningless. There is this gas or vapour that moves as it wants, and we cannot control it . For the Teacher ( or Philosopher ) he cannot control anything in his life, so he cries out in anger or sadness or just at life. Or is he just blowing into the wind
The great thing about Scripture like this, is that we can argue with it. In the Jewish tradition, there is always arguing going on. We have not always thought that we can rage against God and Scripture in the Christian tradition. But if our faith is active and real for us, we have to fight with God. We can see illness as meaningless, so what do we say to God ?
The book of Ecclesiastes was my favourite while I was in university ( at Trent in Peterborough ). My faith was struggling, and I was trying to own my faith for myself, and move beyond the faith of my parents. I was a history and English major, and much of what I read was about war, abuse and the ugliness of life. I turned to the Teacher here in Ecclesiastes to my experience, so this meaningless Teacher carried my faith along to the next part of my journey.
Fred Redekop
Ponder Anew 