Ecclesiastes

We have been doing a study series on Ecclesiastes in house group. We had some great discussions especially from chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 3 begins with the famous verses "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die" etc.

The whole book can seem a bit disheartening with its themes that everything is meaningless; there is nothing new under heaven; everything that happens has happened before and will happen again; we all come from dust and to dust we will return; there is no justice; the oppressors have all the power and the oppressed have no comforters.

As we talked through these chapters I was encouraged by two things. First, God has "set eternity in the hearts of men". It is quite natural that we should ask questions like why am I here? what is the meaning of life? what is the point of life and work? and all the other questions and doubts that come up whether or not you have chosen to follow Jesus.

Not only is it natural to ask those questions and other bigger questions, but secondly God knows that we won't work out the answers to some of the big questions. The rest of chapter 3 verse 11 continues, "yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end". A sense of eternity may have been set upon our hearts, but we do not have the eternal perspective that God has.

The challenge from these chapters came for me when I was reminded about a guy called Tim whom I knew at school. Tim was a bit of a loner. He was very clever and exceptionally good at maths and chess. He taught me how to play chess in the sixth form common room by beating me in 4 moves several times until i figured out how to get out of it. He occasionally came to Scripture Union but for the most part said very little and kept himself to himself as the saying goes. At the age of 17 he sat down one Saturday morning in his parents', put his father's shotgun in his mouth and ended his life. He did not leave a suicide note but as i remember it, it was said afterwards that he had left pages and pages of calculations from which he concluded that life is meaningless.

As God's people, His Church amd chosen "comforters", it falls to us to share God's love, His hope and grace.