The Conclusion of the Matter

I have never enjoyed or appreciated the book of Ecclesiastes in my three decades of following Jesus, really until now.

Several months ago, I was doing some sermon prep over at the university, and one of the students named Kelly, we were describing this, and I was explaining my lack of appreciation for the book to which she was like, I love the book of Ecclesiastes.

And I'm like, yeah, but then when you read it, it just kind of doesn't sit right.

And she says something to the effect of, you know, if you're reading chapter one, I got into chapter two, got into chapter three, and I'm like, no, that's not right.

No, that's not true.

No, that seems to contradict the rest of the Bible.

And yet, if you'll read it all the way to chapter 12...

All of a sudden you go, oh, you got me.

And God sneaks up on you, not really through the front door, but through the back door.

And he does something very interesting.

I'm actually sad for this series to be over now.

This has been a series that's really been centered around this word hevel or meaningless or vapor or mist.

And for 12 and a half chapters, we've heard this Solomon figure who had been the son of David, the king in Jerusalem, who started very well, wrote the book of Proverbs, but in his older age, drifted from God, got 700 wives, 300 concubines on the side, his heart departed from God, and he really goes dark, and Israel goes dark, but now there seems to be a coming back around, or at least this character is describing this reality of the conclusions of what he has seen.

There have been some people that have said throughout the ages that the book of Ecclesiastes should be the first book of the Bible, not Genesis, because the book of Ecclesiastes, although it does not provide a lot of answers, it provides the right questions.

And when you get the right questions, you can go to the Bible for the rest of the answers.

And so today we come to the conclusion of the matter where Solomon has been asking for 12 and a half chapters if everything under the sun ends in death.

if everything under the sun ends in destruction, if everything under the sun ends in decay, his question really is, what is the point? Does anything matter? And essentially, that's what you've heard.

Nothing matters.

You work, it doesn't matter.

You get married, it doesn't matter.

You have kids, it doesn't matter.

You get success, it doesn't matter.

And so he says this one last time, meaningless, meaningless.

Nothing really matters.

And it all feels frustrating until verse 13 when he says, now, all has been heard.