Week 34 Ecclesiastes
I remembered today that Ecclesiastes was written by one of the world’s smartest guys.
I flipped back to Solomon’s story and re-read what the Lord had told him: I will give you a wise and understanding mind such as no one else has ever had or ever will have!
I get lots of reminders while I’m reading-through that the bible is a Combination Book – a mix of things that make sense plus things that don’t. [A useful formula is Understandables + Non-Understandables = the Bible].
Anyway when I started reading Ecclesiastes I remembered that a) I was reading a heavy-duty topic and b) it was written by the World’s Smartest Person. So I jotted down five useful guidelines-reminders for myself:
If I think I know what the Preacher is driving at maybe I don’t
If something sounds juvenile or obvious or crazy maybe it isn’t
If the Preacher is making no sense check my sense-making capacity
If the essay seems random & disconnected maybe I’m missing connections
If a comment sounds trite maybe it’s important.
My Summary Conclusion: Avoid Hasty Conclusions.
I know a guy who read a book by a very smart guy. He read and re-read page one about fifteen times before he figured he was ready to turn to page two. I thought about that as I started Ecclesiastes.
Note: quote from 1 Kings 3:12 (NLT). I think the book the guy was reading was Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein.