Nevertheless, the author has a purpose and here it is. You don’t hear this immediately upon reading the first two chapter but the author extends an invitation to enjoy life as a gift from God. "A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." (2:24-26).
Before announcing that life is a gift from God to enjoy, the author realistically prepares for that conclusion by speaking to the restlessness of life (1:1- 11). So much in life appears to be futile and worthless when viewing life from a leave- God - out - of the - picture, secular worldview. Therefore the author completes the corollary. Life is a gift from God to be enjoyed but without God life is hollow.
Accordingly, the world and life within it are characterized by vanity, futility, and meaninglessness. That's what the teacher tells us. It is passing, ephemeral and transitory. The teacher is not a cranky, miserable and cynical person carping about life. He is a wise instructor who provides younger people with information that prepares them for the inevitable hurts and pains that come along. From his fundamental life question, Solomon cautions readers in 1:3. "What do people gain from all their labour which they toil under the sun?" The thesis is a simple one. In isolation, our earthly labour and effort has no real dividend. If we live our lives in our present world, merely to satisfy ourselves, life then is nothing but “soap bubbles.”
The Teacher illustrates this by emphasizing the dreariness of the unending round of doing the same things and going to the same events. "Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again" (1:4-7).
Before announcing that life is a gift from God to enjoy, the author realistically prepares for that conclusion by speaking to the restlessness of life (1:1- 11). So much in life appears to be futile and worthless when viewing life from a leave- God - out - of the - picture, secular worldview. Therefore the author completes the corollary. Life is a gift from God to be enjoyed but without God life is hollow.
Accordingly, the world and life within it are characterized by vanity, futility, and meaninglessness. That's what the teacher tells us. It is passing, ephemeral and transitory. The teacher is not a cranky, miserable and cynical person carping about life. He is a wise instructor who provides younger people with information that prepares them for the inevitable hurts and pains that come along. From his fundamental life question, Solomon cautions readers in 1:3. "What do people gain from all their labour which they toil under the sun?" The thesis is a simple one. In isolation, our earthly labour and effort has no real dividend. If we live our lives in our present world, merely to satisfy ourselves, life then is nothing but “soap bubbles.”
The Teacher illustrates this by emphasizing the dreariness of the unending round of doing the same things and going to the same events. "Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again" (1:4-7).
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