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What the Bible says about Solomon's Understanding
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Ecclesiastes 1:3

When Solomon suggests there is no profit in all man's labor, he means that nothing in this world makes life worth living. How depressing!

Apparently, Ecclesiastes was written as the conclusion to an experiment that lasted many years, maybe even his entire lifetime. Solomon was eminently qualified to write this. He was intelligent and given understanding as a special gift by God, which he asked for. He did not ask for wisdom but understanding that he might be wise. Understanding must precede right application. If one does not understand a situation he is in, he will not be wise, so Solomon asked God for understanding, and from that developed wisdom.

He had power and authority because he was king in Israel. He had money, perhaps as nobody else has ever experienced in the history of mankind. Solomon was no square. He was active, inquiring, and had an analytical mind, reaching conclusions that were logical and right given the circumstances and the information he had.

So what follows after he states his theme? Life is irrational, absurd, meaningless. His lifetime experiment had not put him in a happy frame of mind.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Ecclesiastes and the Feast of Tabernacles (Part 1)

Ecclesiastes 1:9

Solomon says, "There is no new thing under the sun." No matter what men invent, the basic motivation that brought the thing into being is not new. The "thing" in this context is not what we might normally think of. Remember, this is a treatise on life, not on technology. For example, a lot of new things have come along, such as lasers, hydrogen bombs, and automobiles. In this context, these things are not really new. They may be new technologically, but they are not Solomon's object. They will have no impact on understanding the meaning of life.

A laser will have no more impact than an automobile does. Men see all kinds of possibilities in which they can use this new technology, but will it make life any less vanity-filled? Will it give meaning to life? No more than the automobile, no more than the buggy did before it and the wheel before it—because human nature never changes. Satan never changes. God never changes.

So the more things change, the more they stay the same. This can be awfully frustrating to a thinking individual, who is looking at life and wondering where it is headed, which includes most of the people in the world. Thus, as Solomon sees matters, no new thing appears on the scene.

John W. Ritenbaugh
Ecclesiastes and the Feast of Tabernacles (Part 1)


 




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