Adult
• 5 Sessions of Learner’s Materials
• 5 Sessions of Teaching Materials
• Handouts
1. Ecclesiastes 3:16; 4:1-3; 5:8-9; 7:15
2. Ecclesiastes 1:1-10, 3:1-15
3. Ecclesiastes 1:16-18; 2:1-11; 2:18-20
4. Ecclesiastes 3:18-21; 9:1-6, 10
5. Ecclesiastes 11:1-10; 12:12-13
Ecclesiastes is a book that many people prefer not to read. Why? Some sample comments might run: "It’s depressing!" or; "Who wants to read all of that negative stuff? We want to read something that will ‘lift us up!’" While it is true that Ecclesiastes will never be confused with a manual on positive thinking, many other people nevertheless find it to be one of the most refreshing books of the Bible. The reason is simple—its honesty! The book of Ecclesiastes points out some painful truths which many of us have found to be true in our lives, but which most other Bible books don’t talk much about—like the fact that sometimes good people have a hard life and die young, while evil people prosper, or the perception that the activity we spend our time on is meaningless.
Session 1: Sometimes we feel ourselves to be victims of life’s unfairness. We didn’t get that job because someone else "had connections," or just when things were going so great we had a disabling accident that wasn’t our fault. It was so unfair! Or sometimes we see others as the victims of injustice and in our identification with them, we feel just as strongly. "Why did he have to die? He was so young and so good!" "What about those starving children in Somalia? They have never had a real chance at life!" Our feelings about life’s seeming unfairness are real and valid. Our faith in Christ, if it is to be real and valid, must help us deal with those feelings, and put them into perspective.
Session 2: Our accomplishment of positive things, as well as our fight against the negative, also seems to be thrown into insignificance by the larger picture of the universe. A few years ago in a Peanuts comic strip, Linus was building a super colossal sandcastle, taking obvious pride in his work. Then the rain came along and washed it all out. He looked around at the now flat, wet sand and said, "There’s a lesson to be learned in this somewhere...but I don’t know what it is." The lesson for many of us is to realize that so much of what we do does not endure. In today’s scripture from Ecclesiastes, we can see how that feeling is shared; and we will be able to see some Christian perspectives on what it means to make a difference.
Session 3: When a person graduates from high school, college, or a trade school, friends and family all urge that person on toward "success." The only problem is, more and more of us are having trouble defining just what "success" is. Some have defined it in terms of income level. Some see "success" as fame. Still others think of success in terms of educational or professional attainments. How can we urge our children and grandchildren on to success if we do not know what success is? The Teacher of Ecclesiastes also wrestled with these issues. As we look at his perceptions, they can help us come to a clearer definition of success for ourselves.
Session 4: If we are to grow and mature as persons, we must deal with the reality of death. Jacques Ellul writes, "We have seen that we must not try to soften or tone down the reality of death in any way if we expect our consciousness of it to serve as a pillar of wisdom" (Ellul 178). The writer of Ecclesiastes or the Teacher certainly did not try to tone down or soften the reality of death. As we study his words, perhaps we can better deal with death in our own time.
Session 5: How do we live in such an imperfect world? One option is to just dig in our heels, say, "This is not the way it is supposed to be!" and then refuse to act until the world gets back into line. In Ecclesiastes, the Teacher concerned himself with this issue of living in an imperfect world as well. His perceptions can help us to see better some other options for how we can deal with the imperfections of our own world.
by Keith Madsen
This unit includes Commentary by Cecil Sherman and Tony Cartledge.
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