Meaning(Less) of Life ; An Ecclesiastes Study

Introductions

Here's the key message of the whole book, explained in the first chapter:

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.

"Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

Yes, perhaps it's not a great opening, is it? Not inspiring, nor enlightening. But if you would take a good look about the meaning of meaningless or hevel, you'll see that the actual meaning of Hevel in Hebrew is enigma or a paradoxical understanding. So, it's not merely meaningless and we live in a nihilist world, but more so the meaning of life is like trying to catch a smoke. If you ever saw a smoke, you know that it could take into many forms and sometimes it's form is a beauty to look at. But try to grab it, and it'll slip through the hand, fading quickly,. That's Hevel.

Until now, the question of 'what's the meaning of life', is still a popular topics and many tried to answer it, including the Ecclesiastes writer. Though it's still not clear of who's the man behind it, but he did a great job to define it, and carefully writing it down, although it's still a confusing literature, even the modern people.He also mentioned to us, that he's the wisest man on earth, so that's the reason why some theologians believed that he was the King Solomon and who could give a better wisdom than the wisest king on earth?

Nonetheless, it's still difficult to read them without feeling intense and hopeless, because what he always said in the book is Hevel, Hevel, and Hevel. So, if everything is Hevel then how to have a good life, then? Well, the truth is King Solomon didn't say that all life is Hevel but he said that all life forms under the sun (means a life without God's guidance) is such a waste of time and energy (Mazzalongo, 2017). Don't waste your life to live under the sun because it wouldn't worthwhile and above all, it wouldn't be meaningful at all. Now, what's that even mean? We'll discover it, in another chapter

And what's the point of this book anyway? Well, from the 3 Wisdom Books, Ecclesiastes sure has its own characters and standing point (Mackie, 2018), where we could describe it as a half-age-old man that's very cynical with what's happening in life and the human's realm.

So, if we want to grasp the essence of this book without feeling hopeless, we must really understand the context of his wisdom first, before letting it live in our heart. Or as my friends once said 'Chew it, before swallow it'. Solomon surely didn't want you to get confused with his writings nor to lose hope in this world, but he took us to another step of understanding of human's life. Life is quite vague and random if you think for a while, but hey! It's still full of beauty (like a smoke).

One of his key messages about life, is that life is too absurd to be predict and live in that way. Sometimes the winner is not always the smartest or the strongest or the wisest. So, why bother to do good things or to be good at something? Bad things happen to everyone, right? He's challenging our understandings about the essential parts in our life. He's not trying to promote a nihilist life and just live your life the way that you want. It's quite the opposite and hopefully, it gives you a whole new understanding about having faith.

He was trying to say to the reader about how being faithful didn't really lead us to the right thing, sometimes. Even it could bring hell to our life, because no one could predict to what that God will do to our lives. So, stop having a dumb faith where you're hoping good things will come to you, when you did good things in life. The real faith occurs when you do good things because that's the right thing to do, per se. Not because you're expecting a favour or good karma, but simply to choose to believe in God and His command, because it's the right thing to do.

And to be honest, I rarely heard a discussion about this book in my community, weekly sermon, or a bible study group. More often I heard Pasteur's quoting this book when they were at a funeral to lead the sermon. At that point, I realize that Ecclesiastes is not a book for everybody. It's a deep, dark, and intense book to read and even to understand. It's even more challenging to be discussed, because it's very likely to be misunderstand without a proper context. But try to read it carefully, and you'll see that it's a powerful book for those who seek encouragement and enlightenment

So, what's the meaning of life? Or is there something truly meaningful to do in life? If you're the ones that ask this question and in need for an answer, I welcome you to enjoy this book as a part of your life journey, and hopefully I could help you to understand the important parts that the writers intend to, with 7 simple lessons. Solomon taught us a lot of things and they're still relevant to us. These lessons are for us, dear readers. All that we need now, is the courage to accept it and to unlearn things that holding us from enjoying life.