Today we are in Ecclesiastes Chapter 4 where Solomon will talk about work and rest in the context of life “under the sun.” The book of Ecclesiastes keeps coming back to center on the idea of what happens when you get everything you ever thought you wanted, when you attain whatever goal you set for yourself, and then you wake up the next morning and you are still you…what do you do then? It shows how life and our work seems to fall apart on a constant basis which makes the writer call it all “meaningless” or “vapor” or “vanity.”
From Series: "Ecclesiastes - The Existential Hangover"
Ecclesiastes is a book that deals with the idea of our existence. The teacher of the book looks at life "under the sun," which is a way to say "our life a part from who God is." Under the sun refers to all of our works that are temporary and contrasts them with things that are eternal, the things that belong to God who isn't confined to live "under the sun." The book looks at a life of someone who achieved everything anyone could have wanted yet still wakes up the next day and says, "now what?" We are calling the series the Existential Hangover because we will deal with our lives and how they are meaningless without Jesus. Ecclesiastes asks questions that can only be answered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
