Concluding Ecclesiastes...
My last post on Ecclesiastes was written just before I reached the halfway mark. Now that it's all done and dusted, I thought I'd share "the conclusion of the matter", as I see it.
If you know anything at all about Ecclesiastes, you know that the key word is "meaningless". Life, work, projects, relationships, ambition, power, pleasure... all is decreed to be meaningless. 'Meaningless' is a translation of the Hebrew word hebel, which means a vapor, or mist, or breath. There one minute and gone the next.
And therein, I think, lies the key to understanding Ecclesiastes: since hebel can mean insubstantial, inconsequential (and thus pointless, or devoid of ultimate meaning)... but it can also mean short-lived or fleeting. And I think the meaning of the word hebel shifts throughout the book. In the opening chapters, the teacher argues that if life is lived without reference to God, then every single one of our pursuits (life, work, relationships etc) is hebel in the first sense of the word: meaningless. In consequential.
However, in the later chapters, the teachers' constant refrain is that we should, quite literally, "eat, drink and be merry", to work hard, to enjoy life, to accept pleasure and enjoyment of things as a gift from God's hand. And why? Because when life is lived joyfully and thankfully with the Creator, then life is no longer hebel in the sense of being meaningless. Rather, life is hebel in the sense of being SHORT.
Life is short and unpredictable. So enjoy what you can, when you can. And thank God for it. It kind of helps with Christmas chaos, doesn't it?
If you know anything at all about Ecclesiastes, you know that the key word is "meaningless". Life, work, projects, relationships, ambition, power, pleasure... all is decreed to be meaningless. 'Meaningless' is a translation of the Hebrew word hebel, which means a vapor, or mist, or breath. There one minute and gone the next.
And therein, I think, lies the key to understanding Ecclesiastes: since hebel can mean insubstantial, inconsequential (and thus pointless, or devoid of ultimate meaning)... but it can also mean short-lived or fleeting. And I think the meaning of the word hebel shifts throughout the book. In the opening chapters, the teacher argues that if life is lived without reference to God, then every single one of our pursuits (life, work, relationships etc) is hebel in the first sense of the word: meaningless. In consequential.
However, in the later chapters, the teachers' constant refrain is that we should, quite literally, "eat, drink and be merry", to work hard, to enjoy life, to accept pleasure and enjoyment of things as a gift from God's hand. And why? Because when life is lived joyfully and thankfully with the Creator, then life is no longer hebel in the sense of being meaningless. Rather, life is hebel in the sense of being SHORT.
Life is short and unpredictable. So enjoy what you can, when you can. And thank God for it. It kind of helps with Christmas chaos, doesn't it?
posted by Bronwyn at 12:34 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home