Sep 27, 2026 · 45 min · 11 segments
Cam Stephens explores Ecclesiastes 1:12–18 and the Preacher’s pursuit of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. While wisdom and education can be valuable gifts, Ecclesiastes reveals the danger of…
Cam StephensHost
And so what is the big question of Ecclesiastes? What is it that the preacher, as the author refers to himself, is trying to accomplish? What is he seeking the answer to on his journey? Well, in our overview last week, we actually skipped right on past it as we established the context for our series.
And so I invite you to open your copy of the Scriptures to verse three of chapter one, where we will reread what we cannot miss.
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? Why don't you circle that question in your Bible or in your scripture journal.
What does one gain from? Now the Hebrew word translated gain here comes with the idea of profit, advantage, or surplus.
It inquires what will be left over when everything has been accounted for? Or what surplus will we find when all is said and done? And isn't this the question that we all ask all the time? If I'm purchasing something at the store, I ask this very question.
Is the amount that I am paying worth what I will get out of it? Or if I'm deciding to go to school, I ask at the end of the day, is all this time, this learning and studying going to be worth it in the end? When I accept a job, I balance out what there is to gain.
Is the salary worth it? Is the feeling of accomplishment worth the sacrifices that need to be made? This is the bottom line question you may hear about in business.
After all is considered, after everything is counted and subtracted, what will be left over or what will we have profited from? And when this question is applied to life, which the preacher does here, as he asks, what is the bottom line of everything under the sun, of all my time spent on this earth, he's asking in the end, what is the net benefit of living? When I take an accounting of my life, when I think about my waking and my sleeping, my work and my play, my relationships, my knowledge, my possessions, my investments, my reputation, my accolades, what does it all add up to? What will I have to show for all of it in the end? Or put in broad philosophical terms, what is the purpose of this life we have been given? Or to use the language of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, what is the meaning to life, the universe, and everything? You see, our question is the same question that author Douglas Adams proposed would need to be asked by any being in any civilization at any time, regardless of how smart or technologically advanced they were.
Now, thankfully, as we discovered last week, the preacher of Ecclesiastes didn't come to the same conclusion, that the meaning of life is 42%.
I think we are prepared to begin the journey of connecting these dots through the words of the preacher as inspired by his God.
And so what is the big question of Ecclesiastes? What is it that the preacher, as the author refers to himself, is trying to accomplish? What is he seeking the answer to on his journey? Well, in our overview last week, we actually skipped right on past it as we established the context for our series.
And so I invite you to open your copy of the Scriptures to verse three of chapter one, where we will reread what we cannot miss.
What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? Why don't you circle that question in your Bible or in your scripture journal.
What does one gain from? Now the Hebrew word translated gain here comes with the idea of profit, advantage, or surplus.
It inquires what will be left over when everything has been accounted for? Or what surplus will we find when all is said and done? And isn't this the question that we all ask all the time? If I'm purchasing something at the store, I ask this very question.
Is the amount that I am paying worth what I will get out of it? Or if I'm deciding to go to school, I ask at the end of the day, is all this time, this learning and studying going to be worth it in the end? When I accept a job, I balance out what there is to gain.
Is the salary worth it? Is the feeling of accomplishment worth the sacrifices that need to be made? This is the bottom line question you may hear about in business.
After all is considered, after everything is counted and subtracted, what will be left over or what will we have profited from? And when this question is applied to life, which the preacher does here, as he asks, what is the bottom line of everything under the sun, of all my time spent on this earth, he's asking in the end, what is the net benefit of living? When I take an accounting of my life, when I think about my waking and my sleeping, my work and my play, my relationships, my knowledge, my possessions, my investments, my reputation, my accolades, what does it all add up to? What will I have to show for all of it in the end? Or put in broad philosophical terms, what is the purpose of this life we have been given? Or to use the language of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, what is the meaning to life, the universe, and everything? You see, our question is the same question that author Douglas Adams proposed would need to be asked by any being in any civilization at any time, regardless of how smart or technologically advanced they were.
Now, thankfully, as we discovered last week, the preacher of Ecclesiastes didn't come to the same conclusion, that the meaning of life is 42%.
I think we are prepared to begin the journey of connecting these dots through the words of the preacher as inspired by his God.
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