This
book speaks through the mouth of Solomon, but does not in any way build on his
authority. In the earlier part, the writer describes human life as seen by a
shrewd observer, who disputes the arguments of those who find a satisfactory
aim in life either in intellectual labour, or in the gathering of riches, or in
pleasures, or even in the attainment of an ethical ideal, seeing that death
terminates all, and comes to all alike.
Man
cannot by searching find oat the deep things of God (3:11) but must bow before
His sovereignty (3”14). Whatever appearances may indicate, God judges
righteously, though judgment may be long delayed (8:12, 13).
The
recurring phrase ‘under the sun’ may be regarded as indicating the purely human
standpoint adopted by the writer in the earlier chapters, and as roughly
equivalent to ‘in the world as man sees it’. It is salutary for the Christian
to contrast the vanity and meaningless of this world, its business and
pleasures, as set forth in Ecclesiastes, with our glorious heritage in Christ
as set forth in the New Testament.
The
book is the record of a spiritual pilgrimage, reaching its culmination in
chapter 12 (cf. 12:13, 14 with Rom. 2:16. In Ecclesiastes, perhaps more than in
any other book of the Old Testament, the standpoint of the writer should be
borne in mind, and particularly the fact that he saw nothing for man beyond
death save judgment. His attention is concentrated upon this life, for ‘our
Saviour Christ. Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to
fight through the gospel’ (2 Tim. 1:10) had not yet appeared.
