Ten Takeaways from Ecclesiastes
Ecclesiastes 1:1–12:14 – What's the Point?
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 31, 2025 (am)
What we’ve found in this series is that Ecc. is telling us things we already knew, really, but they’re also things we forget way too easily. And it surprises us that we forget them, a fact that’s underscored by how surprising the true message of Ecc. is each time we engage it afresh. So, this add-on message will be repetitious of what we’ve heard over the past four Sundays. But it’s intended to be shaped and formed and preached in such a way that we might be more likely to remember the message of Ecc. this time around. May God grant that to us as one of His gifts.
Each of the Elders have contributed to what you’ll hear today. Here are the ten takeaways we propose to you.
1. All is vanity under the sun, and this is not an exaggeration.
We read early on: 1:14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. We asked the explicit question whether this is overstated. And we answered that it’s not. This world is fleeting. Truly substantial matters are not anchored here. We won’t find them here. Contrary to the niv translation of vanity, meaningless, we believe there actually is meaning in this life; we’ll clarify that as we continue. But this world, and each of our lives within it, is a mere [breath], such that trying to find satisfying meaning within either of these two is a vain pursuit. It’s like trying to [grasp the] wind.
It’s exceedingly important that we understand this, and not just in order to understand Ecc., but in order to understand life and this world and the relationship between the two. How we see life depends on our vantage point. And this observation is helping us to gain the best vantage point.
2. We cannot fix what is broken under the sun, nor supply what is missing.
The Preacher made this point clearly, and early on: 1:15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. I’m tempted to comment further, but that would encroach on on our next takeaway
3. We cannot control the future under the sun, nor the outcome of any occurrence.
This is one of those things we’ve always known, but it’s put squarely before us by Ecc. in a way that makes it feel like fresh knowledge. We can’t control the outcome. Therefore, we can’t know the outcome. Therefore, we can’t count on the outcome of any situation or circumstance under the sun for joy or relief or vindication or fulfillment or security.
The Rolling Stones used to sing, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, and that’s a true tale. Our world is telling us something here. As C. S. Lewis would put it, it’s telling us we were meant for different world, a different sort of life than this.
We can’t be assured of anything here. We can’t know whether our kids will trust Christ as Savior, whether they’ll make good decisions as they grow older, whether they’ll be safe on their bike ride. We can’t know whether their body, or ours, has a hidden defect that could show up any moment. We can’t know that our money is safely invested or that the economy that supports it is stable and lasting. Before Covid, we’d never have thought life in America could slow to the point where everyone was at home seven days a week. But it happened overnight.
How do we live with such uncertainty? The Preacher said: 3:22 … I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Enjoy what you have. Rejoice in [what you do], never losing touch with what a privilege it is to do it. [It] is [your] lot, your assignment from God. You can be sure of that. Even so:
4. We cannot know what God is doing at any given time, nor how He is doing it.
Whatever good we have, we know that we received it from Him. But apart from that, we can’t know what God is actually doing in and through present circumstances any more than we can control those circumstances ourselves. His work is so much more grand than we can understand. 11:5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
5. Simple pleasures are gifts from God, truly meaningful amidst all the vanity.
3:12 I perceived that there is nothing better for [humankind] than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. Gift, not gain, is how we should understand the nature of life in this world. Life is a gift from God; it’s not ours to use as we please. Our whole orientation under the sun is to pursue what we would identify as gain, leaving behind as simple and unsatisfying what the Preacher says is central. But if we go that way, we’ll find life to be vanity. There’s nothing to be gained under the sun except a succession of endless cycles, the throbbing [noise] of creation, life scurrying round its ever-repetitive circuits (Moffatt) (Eaton 1983 76). But if life is received as a gift, then we can actually enjoy it. That’s the most appropriate thing to do with a gift. But a gift implies a Giver: life must be enjoyed as a gift from God.
Pausing here a moment, it’s a blessing to know that this life is meant to be received and enjoyed as a gift. It can feel at times that our culture flip-flops between living life for gain, for themselves (more and more stuff, toys, being ‘weekend warriors’ who pursue godless, self-gratifying satisfaction) and complaining about life as if it’s nothing but stress and drudgery. Ecc. saves us from both of these. On the one hand, it teaches us how to enjoy life truly as a gift, not as gain, and on the other, it instructs us to see that no matter how thick the vanity is around us, this life really is meant to be enjoyed—[food] and drink and your [work]. We’re granted permission to enjoy life, which then frees us from the sense that we need to complain about our circumstances just to fit in with everyone around us. In short, we’re called to enjoy what we have and stop striving for what we don’t have! But did you also notice that doing good (3:12) is included here? We’re not just passive recipients of this joy. We’re active partners in it. We contribute to what is joyful in this world, and thus also in one another’s lives by doing good.
6. God’s good gifts become vanity when we treat them as ends in themselves.
We need to heed the warning of the Preacher to enjoy the good things of that God has provided without making them the things. That would make no sense; they’re a vapor! And we don’t want to build our lives on things that are fleeting and temporary. We don’t want to live like one 6:2 … to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all… he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them…. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil, says the Preacher. Notice also that God’s gifts are a constant here. What changes is the vantage point of the receiver. He doesn’t enjoy them as gifts from God. Very sad.
7. It is God Himself Who gives us the power to enjoy His gifts.
5:19 Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. 20 For [this person] will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. The practical word that comes to us by adding this point to the one we just made is that we recognize what differentiates us from those who don’t enjoy God’s gifts, or at least don’t enjoy them rightly, is itself an act of God. [He gives the] power to enjoy [His good gifts]. That’s not something we’re able to do. So, when we feel it lacking, I’d suggest we ask Him to grant it. Help me to find Your joy in eating and drinking and working and doing good. Father, keep [me] occupied with joy in [my] heart.
Also, now that we’re on this side of the saving work of Jesus, we have access to a joy (gladness of heart) that’s even greater and more unshakable than that which was known to the old covenant saints. Through new birth and the indwelling Spirit, we have the opportunity truly to enjoy God’s good provisions while seeing this world rightly in light of its fallenness, recognizing that this life is made up of seasons, and to try to change them, or avoid them, is like trying to [harness] the wind. This is part of how we show up as light in the darkness.
8. Despite God’s good gifts, vanity will always surround us under the sun.
The Preacher says this clearly and directly: 11:8 … if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. Not only will we always be surrounded by vanity in this life, but we’ll be invaded by it, even us new covenant believers. Think of Paul’s confession in Rom.7:15 … I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. … 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Paul might as well have said: Vanity fills my heart. I’m hopelessly susceptible to it. So, we’ll always be battling it, seeking to hold on to the joy.
9. Strive to enjoy God and His gifts while you are young.
In other words, strive to anchor into His joy before you begin to notice all the vanities that saturate this world and become infected by them. The Preacher said: 12:1 Remember… your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them.”
The closing chapters of Ecc. really target the younger ones; what a blessing it is to see that so often in Scripture. Here, it’s encouragement to root ourselves deeply in our relationship with the Lord before the lures of vanity grow stronger, as does our ability to engage them, thus ensnaring our hearts. That’s when we encounter the deepest sorrows of this fallen world.
Before we move on from this one, though, we should make explicit something that until now has only been implicit: what we’re really enjoying when we enjoy God’s gifts is God Himself—the Giver, in and through His gifts. The Preacher helps us see that here as he says: remember your Creator in the days of your youth, not just remember the gifts or remember the joy. That has become so much clearer on this side of the Jesus’ life and ministry.
What God offers us in Christ is something that’s not vaporous. Through His Spirit, He offers us a pathway through the good gifts, which we do enjoy, straight to the Giver. We don’t want to get off that trail too early and camp on or pursue or build our lives around the good gifts themselves. God offers us Himself through them, a joy that’s not vaporous or fleeting, that not only doesn’t go away but actually grows stronger the more deeply we know Him, finishing in the crescendo of His full presence once this vain world is past. That’s why it’s so needful to root our joy in Him: nothing else will bring us into this eternal joy.
This life is actually lived in the tension between these two: eternity future and vanity present. The Preacher tells us that 3:11 … [God] has put eternity into [our] heart, yet so that [we] cannot find out what [He] has done from the beginning to the end. We live in this tension day by day. And it’s the writer of Hebrews who best helps us know what to do with it: Heb.10:24 … let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works (3:12), 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as [we] see the Day drawing near.
10. God is always watching, and He will surely judge us in the end.
We heard it first early on: 3:17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. And we heard more later: 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Then it was included in the final word: 12:13 … Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. The implication here really isn’t the fear of judgment, but the assurance of it to those who’ve been enjoying God in and through His gifts. This vain world will come under meticulous and perfectly just judgment. That is a comfort to those who know the vanity but still strive to hold onto the joy. Living Life Backwards is how one commentator titles his work on Ecc.: taking the one thing in our future that is certain, death (and after that comes judgment [Heb.9:27]), and living today in light of that certain end.
Conclusion
These are ten takeaways from Ecc. that we hope will help you hold on to what we’ve heard here, and perhaps also refresh it in mind each time you read this amazing book again. Surely it would be difficult to find a book, even in the Bible, with a more relevant message and collection of reminders to God’s children still today. And what a blessing it’s been especially today to reflect on how it can be heard, understood, and applied by new covenant believers.
__________________
Resources
Carson, D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Ecclesiastes, by Michael A. Eaton, 609-618. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.
Clendenen, E. Ray, and Kenneth A. Matthews, eds. 1993. The New American Commentary, vol.14, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, by Duane A. Garrett. Ecclesiastes, 253-345. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.
Dever, Mark. 2006. The Message of the Old Testament. Ch. 19, The Message of Ecclesiastes: Wisdom for the Successful, 527-544. Wheaton: Crossway.
Gibson, David. 2017. Living Life Backwards. Wheaton: Crossway.
Grudem, Wayne, ed. 2008. ESV Study Bible. Study notes on Ecclesiastes, by Max F. Roglund. Wheaton: Crossway.
Guthrie, D. & J. A. Motyer, eds. 1970. The New Bible Commentary Revised. Ecclesiastes, by G. S. Hendry, 570-578. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Keil, C. F., and F. Delitzsch. 1891. Commentary on the Old Testament, trans. M. G. Easton. Ecclesiastes, 627-816. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Kidner, Derek. 1976. The Message of Ecclesiastes. Nottingham: InterVarsity.
Longman III, Tremper, and David E. Garland, eds. 2008. Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Revised Edition, vol. 6, Proverbs – Isaiah. Ecclesiastes, by Jerry E. Shepherd, 253-365. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Wiseman, Donald J., ed. 1983. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Vol. 18, Ecclesiastes, by Michael A. Eaton. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
The Bible Project/Videos/Ecclesiastes, [TBP].
NEXT SUNDAY: Preparing for Project Illuminate, Selected Texts