Ecclesiastes 3.8 tells us there is: " a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."
We are living during one of these times! We always are.
Ecclesiastes 3.1 -- There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
During Sukkot, Jews read the Book of Ecclesiastes, also known as Kohelet.
Ecclesiastes is attributed to King Solomon, King David's son. King Solomon's reign of 40 years was a time of great wealth and splendor for the Kingdom of Israel. Solomon surrounded himself with tremendous luxuries. According to the Bible, King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
ECCLESIASTES begins with:
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 Vanity of vanities, said Koheleth; vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
3 What profit has man in all his toil that he toils under the sun?
4 A generation goes and a generation comes, but the Earth endures forever.
Solomon is considered to be very wise and Ecclesiastes is one of the "wisdom books" in the Bible. (The others include Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs (Song of Solomon) and Job.)
The author's basic goal is to target all of the ways we try to build meaning and purpose in life apart from God and then let the teacher deconstruct them.
The Bible Project does a very intelligible analysis of Ecclesiastes.
After 12 chapters Kohelet concludes where he begins.
"The end of the matter, everything having been heard, fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the entire man."
Like a sukkah, life is temporary. Life is hevel, meaningless. everything is hevel. There you have it. Paradoxically, there is great lesson on finding joy.
Happy Sukkot...Look up.
