The Disturbing But Surprising Wisdom of Ecclesiastes [Animated Explainer]

We're exploring three books in the Bible known as the wisdom literature Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job and they're all asking the question what does it mean to live well in this world So we looked at proverbs who you could think of as a bright young teacher She's all about pursuing wisdom an attribute of God that's woven into reality and she's optimistic that if you use wisdom you will build a successful life but then we come to Ecclesiastes who's more like the sharp middle-aged critic and he says You think using wisdom will bring you success You'd better

think again because life here under the sun is meaningless and that's a phrase you use a lot in this book but to understand this book we have to realize first that we're hearing two voices So first there's the teacher and we've been calling him the critic He's the main voice in the book but he is introduced to us by another figure the author and he's the one who's collected the critics words and then at the end of the book summarizes everything and gets the final word So why does the author wants to hear from the

critic? He wants to turn your view of the world upside down and he's gonna let the critic explore three really disturbing things about the world and we should warn you these are pretty intense Yeah! So the first is the march of time whereas the critic says Generations come and generations go but the earth it's been here long before us and we'll be long after No one remembers people from long ago and all the people yet to come They too will be forgotten by those who come after them and so on a cosmic scale, you and

I, we are just ibilik stars are born and then they die and form planets with orbit new stars and those planets they change over time and eventually burnt up And admits this cosmic backdrop, my entire existence is like a blink in time which leads to the critic's second disturbing observation that we are all going to die Humans face the same fate as the animals Death, all people, the righteous and the wicked The good and the bad Those who offer sacrifices to God and those who do not They all share the same destiny all this activity

and madness then we all join the dead Man! This book is depressing and so is the final disturbing thing for the critic and that is life's random nature So in Proverbs, life isn't random There's a clear cause-and-effect relationship between doing the right thing and being rewarded But the fact is that life doesn't always work that way The critic has observed a glitch in the system He calls it, Chance, or in his words The race doesn't always go to the Swift nor the battle to the strong nor does food always come to the wise or wealth

to the brilliant or favor to the educated time and chance happen to them all So his point is that you can't really control anything in life It's just way too unpredictable so if i want to master life then you're setting yourself up for a fall Now throughout the book, the Critic uses a metaphor to tie together all of these disturbing ideas Nearly 40 times he says that everything in life is "Hevel" it's a Hebrew word that means smoke or vapor Like smoke, life is beautiful and mysterious It takes one shape and before you know it

It takes a new shape and smoke look solid but try and grab it it will slip right through your fingers and when you're stuck in the thick of it like fog, it's impossible to see clearly Now our modern translations have lost the metaphor and they usually translate "Hevel" as meaningless but if you read closely the critic isn't saying that life has no meaning but rather that its meaning is never clear Like smoke, life is confusing It's disorienting and uncontrollable So what are we supposed to do with all of this? Well! Surprisingly, the critic first of

all acknowledges the perspective of Proverbs He says it's a really good idea to learn wisdom and to live in the fear of the Lord Really?! I mean he just said that doesn't guarantee success but he knows it's the right thing to do but secondly and more often he says that since you can't control your life You should stop trying Learn to hold things with an open hand because you really only have control over one thing and that's your attitude towards the present moment Stop worrying he says and choose to enjoy a good conversation with a

friend or the Sun on your face or a good meal with people that you care about The simple things in life Yes and both the good things and the bad because both are rich gifts from God and that's the surprising wisdom of ecclesiasticus Listening to the critic is painful and can lead you into some dark places and that's why the author speaks up at the end of the book He doesn't want you to lose hope He wants to make you humble Into someone who trusts that life has meaning even when you can't make sense of

it that one day God will clear the Hevel and bring his justice on all that we've done and so he tells us that the proper response to all of this is to fear the lord and keep his Commandments and that's the book of Ecclesiastes Now there's one more voice in the Bible's wisdom literature and that's the book of Job and he will bring us the final much-needed perspective on our journey into wisdom Hey! Thanks for watching this video We make a lot more videos like this one here on our youtube channel so check them out

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