Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sidney Greidanus is professor emeritus of preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary and the author of several books, including The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text, Preaching Christ from the Old Testament, Preaching Christ from Genesis, Preaching Christ from Ecclesiastes, Preaching Christ from Daniel, and Preaching Christ from Psalms.

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PREACHING CHRIST FROM ECCLESIASTES

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

PREFACE....................................................................................................xACKNOWLEDGMENTS............................................................................................xivABBREVIATIONS..............................................................................................xvTRANSLITERATIONS...........................................................................................xvii1. Preaching Ecclesiastes..................................................................................12. No Gain from All Our Toil Ecclesiastes 1:1-11..........................................................303. The Teacher's Search for Meaning Ecclesiastes 1:12–2:26..........................................494. God Set the Times Ecclesiastes 3:1-15..................................................................695. Working in a Wicked World Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:6..................................................886. Working Together Ecclesiastes 4:7-16...................................................................1077. Worshiping in God's House Ecclesiastes 5:1-7...........................................................1228. The Love of Money Ecclesiastes 5:8–6:9...........................................................1379. How to Handle Adversity Ecclesiastes 6:10–7:14...................................................15710. How to Act in a Paradoxical World Ecclesiastes 7:15-29................................................17811. Use Wisdom but Know Its Limitations Ecclesiastes 8:1-17...............................................20012. Enjoy Life! Ecclesiastes 9:1-12.......................................................................21913. Because of the Harm Inflicted by Folly, Use Wisdom! Ecclesiastes 9:13–10:20.....................23914. Take Risks Boldly but Wisely! Ecclesiastes 11:1-6.....................................................26015. Remember Your Creator! Ecclesiastes 11:7–12:8...................................................27516. Fear God, and Keep His Commandments! Ecclesiastes 12:9-14.............................................2951. Ten Steps from Text to Sermon...........................................................................3112. An Expository Sermon Model..............................................................................3133. A Meditation on Ecclesiastes 3:1-15.....................................................................3154. A Sermon on Ecclesiastes 9:1-12.........................................................................317SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................326SCRIPTURE INDEX............................................................................................330SUBJECT INDEX..............................................................................................334TARGETS FOR SERMONS........................................................................................337TOPICS FOR SERMONS.........................................................................................339

Chapter One

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. (Eccl 1:2)

Ecclesiastes may be the most difficult biblical book to interpret and preach. A major reason for this difficulty is that Old Testament scholars are not agreed on key issues: the number of authors involved in writing this book; the identity of the main author; when, where, and why the book was written; the quality of the Hebrew style; which sections are poetry and which are prose; the book's structure, or lack thereof; and whether its message is pessimistic or positive. Duane Garrett adds, "Perhaps an even greater hindrance to preaching Wisdom is the suspicion many have that it contains no gospel." Small wonder that many preachers consider it the better part of wisdom to omit Ecclesiastes from their preaching schedule. In fact, the Revised Common Lectionary assigns readings from Ecclesiastes for only two worship services: for New Year's Eve (Years ABC), Ecclesiastes 3:1-13; and for the Sunday closest to August 3 (Year C), as an alternative to Hosea 11:1-11, Ecclesiastes 1:12-14 and 2:(1-7, 11) 18-23. Unfortunately, omitting Ecclesiastes from one's preaching schedule is a major loss for the church.

The Value of Preaching Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes offers a unique perspective on human life — a perspective that is extremely relevant for the church today. Iain Provan observes, "In focusing our attention on this life rather than the next, indeed, this book contributes to the correction of an all-too-frequent imbalance throughout the ages in Christian thinking, which has sometimes presented Christianity as if it were more a matter of waiting for something than a matter of living." Sandy and Giese state, "The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most important possessions of the Christian church, since it compels us to continually evaluate and correct our understanding of God and our teaching about God in the light of the whole of biblical revelation.... The reflections of the sage in Ecclesiastes unmask the myth of human autonomy and self-sufficiency and drive us in all our frailty and inability to find meaning in a crooked world in the Creator-creature relationship — the ultimate polarity."

Moreover, Ecclesiastes is relevant especially for our culture because it tackles many of the temptations posed by secularism. Leland Ryken calls Ecclesiastes "the most contemporary book in the Bible. Ecclesiastes is a satiric attack on an acquisitive, hedonistic, and materialistic society. It exposes the mad quest to find satisfaction in knowledge, wealth, pleasure, work, fame, and sex."

Before preachers can preach Ecclesiastes with integrity, however, they will have to gain some clarity on the difficulties with which commentators have struggled for more than two thousand years. We shall first explore difficulties in interpreting Ecclesiastes and next difficulties in preaching this book.

Difficulties in Interpreting Ecclesiastes

We shall discuss in turn five major issues in interpreting Ecclesiastes: the nature of wisdom literature, the historical setting of Ecclesiastes, its genre and forms, its structure, and its overall message.

The Nature of Wisdom Literature

One cannot rightly interpret and preach a text until one has taken into account its specific genre. Wisdom literature, like Hebrew narrative, Psalms, prophecy, and apocalyptic literature, is a specific literary genre. Therefore a key question is, What is the nature of wisdom literature? Elizabeth Achtemeier responds, "Wisdom is the result of practical experience and the careful observation of both the natural and human worlds. Out of all of the chaos of experience, Wisdom finds customary 'orders' in the world — ways in which human beings and natural phenomena ordinarily behave. Its aim, then, is to teach men and women these 'orders,' so they may know how to act in harmony with the world around them." J. A. Loader observes similarly, "Wisdom is concerned with the correct ordering of...