One thing I love about reading through the Bible in one year, about the discipline of reading through each part methodically, is that it forces me to read the parts of the Bible I would otherwise be tempted to shun. All of us like some parts of the Bible more than others, but regular reading ensures we do not feast on favourites and seek instead a balanced diet.
Today I’ve reached the book of Ecclesiastes, a book of pessimism which, as a pessimist, I would rather avoid (I don’t need other people’s pessimism: I have enough of my own!) Ecclesiastes, one of the ‘Wisdom writings’, talks of the futility of life without God: ‘everything is meaningless’ (Eccl 1:2). I had enough of existential French writers at university to last a lifetime: what’s the point of dwelling on this?!
Life ‘under the sun’ (a phrase mentioned 28 times in the book) is often frustrating, boring, confusing and painful. Eugene Peterson calls the book ‘a John the Baptist kind of book. It functions not as a meal, but as a bath. It is not nourishment; it is cleansing. It is repentance. It is purging.’ (‘Five Smooth Pastoral Stones,’ P 155)
We are conditioned, I think, to look for the positive and to ‘chase after the wind’. (Eccl 1:17) But we live in a post-Eden world, a world which is ‘not like it was before’. (‘Ever After’, Aaron Shust) Ecclesiastes is a sharp reminder of the fallen nature of the world, where intellectualism, hedonism and materialism are exposed as lacking. Ecclesiastes scrubs us clean from illusion and sentiment; it is ‘an exposé and rejection of every pretentious and presumptuous expectation aimed at God.’ (ibid., P 155/6) It reminds us that life without God can never satisfy us long-term; the ‘yes of the gospel is not spoken under the pretence that sin is not as bad as it appears to be nor while avoiding pain nor while sidestepping suffering.’ (ibid., P 160)
Ultimately, all the negativity, pessimism and despair of Ecclesiastes has to be read ‘in the context of God’s affirmation.’ (ibid., P 165) Meaning is found, Nicky Gumbel reminds us, not ‘under the sun’, but in the Son – life in the Son indeed.