Loading…

Ecclesiastes—Why Everything Matters is unavailable, but you can change that!

The book of Ecclesiastes is "about life, the way it really is," writes commentator Philip Ryken. Readers throughout the ages have been drawn to the way it honestly wrestles with the tedium of work, injustices in this life, the ravages of age, and the inevitability of death. But its wisdom, according to Ryken, is in teaching people to trust God with life's questions even in the midst of struggles....

vanishes” (James 4:14). So too when the Preacher says “vanity of vanities,” he is partly making a comment on the transience of life. Breathe in; now breathe out. Life will pass by just that quickly. Some versions translate this word literally and use a word like “vapor” or “smoke” for the Hebrew word hevel. For example, here is Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 1:2: “Smoke, nothing but smoke. There’s nothing to anything—it’s all smoke” (MESSAGE). When we look at the way this word is used throughout
Page 19
Buy this book at Logos.com