Ecclesiastes: Recent Episodes
Rick Whitlock
In this final episode of the podcast, we revisit the conclusion to Ecclesiastes found in Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 and specifically talk about what it means to “fear God and keep his commands.” We see that this is a shorthand statement that points us to the entire story of Scripture, through which God is guiding us towards personal transformation and giving us the way of persona transformation. He does this so that we might recover our human purpose and live well in a fallen world. When we “fear God and keep his commands” we find a new view of life that still sees the vanity, futility and frustration of our experiences but also can see beyond to the hope of the glory of God. We see how we cannot live as if we are in the happily ever after here and now, but we can live as if it is coming. “To fear God and keep his commands” is to receive salvation from our fallen condition and participate in transformation into the holy character of Christ. Equipped with God’s holy character, we express his hope through our lives.
In this episode, we see how the two conclusions to the book of Ecclesiastes are invitation to gain a far greater perspective on our lives than what we have simply through our own experiences and deciding our own meaning and purpose. The book of Ecclesiastes shows us, in Ecclesiastes 12:8, that our experience of this fallen and flawed world is “vanity.” But it also shows us how to respond to this reality in Ecclesiastes 12:13 — “fear God and keep his commands.” Ecclesiastes gives us two conclusions, therefore, about our lives: the first is descriptive and the second prescriptive. Though our lives are described as vanity, what is prescribed is faith, to learn to see with the eyes of faith that go beyond the walls of this world. While everything appears to us to be vanity or meaningless, That we can know and obey God gives us solid reality to build our lives. That he judges everything means that everything matters (12:14). So Ecclesiastes ends with good news: everything we do actually matters even if our experiences don’t match our longing for meaning and purpose. Ecclesiastes wants us to recover our purpose, then, by being reconciled to God.
In this episode, we see how the two commands in Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:7 — to rejoice in life and to remember death — point us to the life and death of Jesus Christ. It is a foundational truth of Christianity that the death of Christ is God’s response to our inevitable death. While death is God’s penalty for sin, the death of Christ is God’s deliverance from sin for all who believe. It is through his death on the Cross that Jesus atones for our sin, destroys the work of the devil, and delivers us from death. In this episode we move from Ecclesiastes 11-12 to the New Testament and discover in Hebrews 2:6-9, 14-15 (as well as a number of other New Testament passages) that the death of Christ gives us resources of incredible hope and joy to face our death or the death of those we love. In Christ, you can face death because Christ loved you and gave himself up for you, dying on your behalf that you might live. So what more can death do to you? It has lost its ability to defeat us, since Christ has claimed victory over death by rising from the grave. Join us as see what Christ’s death achieved for us and how it is applied to us.
In this episode, we look at Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:7 and learn from the Teacher who calls us to both rejoice in the goodness of life and remember the reality of death and God. In fact, these things go hand-in-hand: to truly make the most of life you have to not ignore but face death. Death is like “spiritual smelling salts” that wake us up to the importance of life as well as the shortness of life. With a pandemic sweeping the globe and changing our everyday lives for the foreseeable future, this passage speaks to our current experience and invites us to consider how our mortality might be taking us by the hand and leading us to our longing for immortality. Join us as we rejoice in life but also remember death, and learn how to live life before God the Creator and Judge.
In this episode, we continue our consideration of wealth from the perspective of wisdom, turning to the Gospel of Luke to understand how our financial practices change when we are walking with God. From Ecclesiastes 5 & 6 we see that the reality of death ought to cause us to reconsider our love of money. If you can’t take it with you when you die, how ought we to use money here and now? It turns out we can still enjoy money (Eccl 5:18-20), but not in the same way as those who love money. In Luke 12 we see Jesus’ answer to money’s place in our lives. He says our primary struggle with money is that we expect it to provide more comfort and security than it actually can. He confronts our anxiety about scarcity, and shows that our lives are much more about our eternal souls than our financial savings. He calls Christians to be “rich toward God.” Our hearts follow our investments, he says, and when we seek God’s kingdom and find our treasure in heaven more than on earth, our lives are transformed. Knowing that Jesus became poor so we might become rich gives us salvation, motivation, and an illustration for how to give generously for God’s kingdom purposes.
In this episode, we consider wealth from the perspective of wisdom. What do we discover when we take a close look at what money does to us and for us in this world? The Teacher in Ecclesiastes shows in Ecclesiastes 5:8-6:9 that money can corrupt our morals (5:8-9), money loved cannot satisfy (5:9-12), money lost can darken our days (5:13-17), money has limits that leave us discontented (6:1-6), and mankind has insatiable longings that money alone cannot fulfill (6:7-9). Money can be enjoyed (5:18-20), but only if our primary appetites are satisfied first. As Jesus says, money comes awfully close to becoming a god for most of us. But “you cannot serve God and money” (Luke 16:13). While the popular opinion is that money brings happiness, the increased responsibilities and anxieties of managing more and more money might actually make us more unhappy. Maybe money’s not all it’s cracked up to be. The Teacher invites us to consider our views of money and what kind of life we assume it will produce for us. He confronts us with our appetites, desires, and loves and asks us to take a close look at our money ambitions and bank accounts: Do you love money? And where does your love of money lead you? Will having a great income guarantee you happiness or only leave you more unsatisfied than you were before?
In this episode, we return to Ecclesiastes 4 and see not only how the Teacher reveals our need for caring companionship and healthy community but points us beyond the human community to our need for eternal companionship and community with Christ Jesus. Though we are called to help, care for, and protect one another in the human community, we discover that we are unable in ourselves to consistently create this kind of community apart from becoming a new community in Christ. When Christ sent his Spirit to the earliest Christians in Acts 2, they became this new kind of community, one marked by the same radically unselfish love given by Christ on the Cross. Only those who personally know the radical unselfishness of Christ can become the radically unselfish new community in Christ. Join us as we consider what this new community looks like.
In this episode, we turn to Ecclesiastes 4 and see how the Teacher reveals our need for companionship and community. However, he sees that human companionship and happy communities are hard to find. He looks at society as a whole and sees oppression (4:1-3). He looks at the workplace and sees envy and competition (4:4-6). He looks at the home life of the ambitious and finds workaholism and loneliness (4:7-8). He looks at both wise and foolish leaders and sees that both become isolated, even if for different reasons (4:13-16). Community is fleeting and frustrating because of oppression, competition, workaholism, and isolation. The Teacher invites us to see our communities as they really are, and then to turn and see our part in them. Only those who see themselves as they are can begin to change and participate in a new kind of community.
In this episode, we return to Ecclesiastes 2 and see how verses 24-26 show us that satisfaction is good, is possible, is a gift, and is dependent on faith. While our last episode revealed that we will not find satisfaction in the experiences, possessions, or wealth we accumulate, this does not mean we must reject experiences, possessions, or wealth. Rather, we seek to receive God before his gifts, for only if we are accepted by God will we be able to enjoy his gifts. Only those who are pleasing to God have power from God to enjoy their lives.
What does it take to find true and lasting satisfaction in our lives? In Ecclesiastes 2, we join the Teacher on his search for satisfaction. He pursues great experiences, great possessions, great wealth, great power, and great wisdom, but finds that for all the laughter, alcohol, sex, art, entertainment, possessions, power, fame, and money he accumulated, he isn't satisfied. For all the good he had it wasn’t good enough. He ends his search by considering: What if in order to find joy you have to be joyful? What if in order to experience satisfaction in this life, you have to already be satisfied? Join us seek to understand the human search for satisfaction through the words of Ecclesiastes 2.
In our third episode, we discover how “The Search for Significance” (episode 2) leads us to find our “Significance in Christ.” We turn to Mark 8:34-37 to see how Jesus answers the question: "What do we really gain with all our efforts in this world?” (Ecclesiastes 1:3). Jesus’ answer is a great paradox: if you want to gain your life, you must lose it. The only way to a truly significant life is to give up the kind of life you currently have. Come discover with us what this paradox means for our lives.
Episode 2 Description: In our second episode, we begin part 1 of 2 on “The Search for Significance.” We’ll look at Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 and see that the Teacher in Ecclesiastes is asking an age-old question that still matters today: “What do we gain by all our efforts? What does my life add up to? How can I be happy and know that what I do matters?” By exploring the rhythms of history and nature, the Teacher shows us that, while we can make gains in our personal lives and make progress in our society, we are nevertheless left with bigger questions: How can we make progress towards ultimate, lasting happiness? Join us as we explore the Teacher’s answer and consider how even our best efforts might not produce the happy life we desire, and how this is actually a good thing.
In our first episode, we describe what we plan to do with this podcast as well as provide a short introduction to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes invites us to reflect deeply about the nature of life in this world, and it offers no easy answers in response to the many frustrating realities we face in this life. Instead, it points us towards deeper questions such as, “Is it possible, in this life, to find lasting satisfaction, significance, goodness, truth, beauty, love, community, wealth, and power? How should you plan your future? What is the wisest way to go? How should you direct your time, energy, education, and resources? What should you seek with your one life? And how should you confront your limits, losses, and successes?” If you’ve ever wondered why Ecclesiastes is even in the Bible — with its apparently dour outlook and depressive mood — this episode is for you. We’ll argue the Ecclesiastes is a much-needed book both in the Bible and today as it invites us to slow down and consider the most important realities humanity confronts.