July 30th, 2022

Our ‘journey’ continues this Sunday with something that could be called a substantial turn when it comes to the Old Testament text. With the Gospel reading, we are, of course, still continuing through that central and significant portion of the Gospel according to Luke [12:13-21], but this time our look back into the Old Testament takes us into the book of Ecclesiastes [1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26]. The previous Sundays of the Old Testament text were a look into Genesis, and the Sunday which will follow after this Sunday will again look into Genesis, but for this Sunday, you might say that we are looking into the ‘genesis’ or the beginning of Ecclesiastes.

Beginnings are important, as is attested by the number of times we look at the book of Genesis. But the beginnings of the books of scripture are important as well since there was often a hint of what would be the more important messages of the work.

There are many things that could be said regarding the beginning of this book, but what follows is a somewhat-literal translation of the first verses of the text and a few verses around that text; and do not forget that this style of language is a bit more difficult than a simple history lesson of what happened [1-4, 9-13]:

Words of the Gatherer, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

“Breath of breaths,” he says, the Gatherer, “Breath of breaths, the whole breath. What gain to the man with all of his work which he works under the sun? A generation going and a generation coming, and the earth for the ages standing….”

“What that he was, he that he will be, and what that he has done, he that he will be done, and there is not any of a new one under the sun. Is there a thing which he says, ‘See, this is new’? It already has been to the ages, that was from before our faces. There is not a remembrance to the first ones and also to the later ones, who they shall be, not he will be to them a remembrance to them, with who they will be to the later.”

“I, the Gatherer, I have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave myself to seek and to search out by the wisdom on all that which he himself has done under the heavens, this one. Burden of bad God gave to sons of the man to be afflicted with him.”

The section which was left out simply has a few examples of how things in creation do not change. It may still be difficult to see the progression of the verses above.

But there is a significant difference between what is first mentioned, something happening ‘under the sun’, and what is happening ‘under the heavens’. In the last part of the quote above, there is the statement by the ‘Gatherer’ that he gave his ‘self’, and that could refer to his heart, mind or will—basically his inner self—to searching out the wisdom of God. This is something more important than having things that are ‘under the sun’.

There is a significant progression from being, at first, ‘under the sun’, and then being ‘under the heavens’. This second phrase is extremely rare within this book, while the former one is extremely common and appears approximately thirty times.

Very soon after that phrase ‘under the heavens’, there is the phrase, ‘burden of bad’. This is a reference to the work of the Law which the LORD uses to bring us to repentance. At the end of this book of Ecclesiastes, there is the command to ‘Fear God…(12:13).’ This is basically the very same emphasis at the very end of the book.

This is also not something new for those who are Lutherans and familiar with Martin Luther’s Small Catechism (see the meanings of the Ten Commandments). We are troubled because of our sin. We should fear God. But, as Martin Luther points out, we should also love him, and this is especially because of what he has done in Jesus Christ.