Ray Pritchard - Something new under the sun : ancient wisdom for contemporary living

SOMETHING

New

UNDER TH E SUN

RAY PRITCHARD

2011 by Ray Pritchard

In honor of Mark and Ruth Wolery

Many friends prayed for me as I nearedthe end of this manuscript. I am especially grateful to the members of my Wednesday night Bible class for their in sights as we journeyed through Ecclesiastes together. Ilearned at least as much from them as they did from me.

Special thanksto Jim Bell, Jim Vincent, and Linda Haskins of Moody Press. Bill Thrasher,general manag er of Moody Press, had the vision ofproducing a trilogy of "wisdom" books for busy people. My thanks alsoto exec utive editor Greg Thornton, who suggested thestudy of Ecclesiastes as book two in this series.

Finally, I amkeenly aware that I could not h ave writ ten this book without the love and support of my wife,Marlene, and our three sonsJoshua, Mark, and Nicholas.

This book is not a commentary onEcclesiastes. It may look that way, and it may be arranged that way, but it issomethi ng else entirely.

This is actuallythe second installment of a proposed trilogy of "wisdom books" forbusy readers. Like many good ideas, this one didn't start out according to aprede termined plan. In 1997 I wrote a book called The ABCs of Wisdom based o n the Book of Proverbs. Isay "based on" because it wasn't a commentary either. It contains onehundred bite-sized nuggets of character-building truth based on some of thecharacter qualities found in the Book of Proverbs, such as dependability,persever a nce, punctuality,and compassion. I wrote about six hundred words on each topic and included abrief prayer and several questions to help readers do a bit of personalapplication.

When GregThornton of Moody Press asked if I would consider writing a sequel , I w ondered what hehad in mind. Wh en he suggestedEcclesiastes, I took a deep breath, because it is as little known as Proverbsis well known. The ratio of regular readers of Proverbs versus Ecclesiastes isprobably 1,000:1, which is odd since the two bo oksrest side by side in the Old Testament.

Of course, thereis an excellent reason for this. Proverbs is what it sounds likeshort, pithystatements that are easy to understand (mostly) and often very chal lenging to put into practice. By contrast Ecclesi astes con tains so many strange(some would say weird) statements that many people simply refuse to read thebook.

Not long ago afriend told me (with great conviction) that Ecclesiastes was written by Solomonwhen he was in a backslidden spiritual conditi on.Having worked through the book myself, I can understand and partly sympathizewith her sentiments. There are some statements in Eccle siastes that are extremely hard to understand. I know that some peopleconsider Ecclesiastes the most controversial bo ok inthe Bible.

However, Ibelieve that when the whole context of the book is taken into account, it willbe discovered that Solomon was a man of faith who leads his readers on a voyagethrough some of the backwater regions of life that we all think about but don't discuss in public. He isn't afraid to ask thehard questions and to admit when there are no easy answers. Since most of uslike answerssim ple, clear ones ifpossibleSolomon's words can some times seem veryfrustrating.

I would submitthat the re is nothing in Ecclesiastes that trulycontradicts the rest of the Bible when we un derstandthat Solomon is looking at life "under the sun"that is, from ahorizontal or earthly perspective. He simply wants to know, "What can welearn about the meaning of life by observing theworld around us?" The answer is we canknow a great deal, but many mysteries remain.

In the end Ithink Solomon is writing a kind of Old Testament apologetics in which heinvites the secular per son to join him on a searchfor ulti mate truth.

I said thisisn't a commentary, and very soon you will discover the truth of my words. Whatfollows are bite-sized meditations on the meaning of life for busy people. Eachone is based on a portion of the textnot as an ex positionbut rather t ouching on some of the underlying themesor else dealing with personal application. While King Solomon concludes wiselythere is "nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9), each readerwill discov er insights abounding"something newunder the sun"in this inspired Bible book thatchronicles a king's sweeping search for truth.

I've used thesame format as The ABCs ofWisdom so that you can read each section"on the run" if necessary; reading one or two, putting the book down,and picking it up again lat er. Since Ecclesiastescontains many unusu al sayings, I have added afeature called "More Light from God's Word." There you will findthree Scripture pas sages from other Old and NewTestament books. Please take time to read those passages because they gi ve a broader perspective on the things Solomon wrote.

One final word.I hope you won't read this book straight through. You'll gain much more from itif you read one chapter of Ecclesiastes (about eight entries) a day, using itas a springboard for further Bible study and as a guide forthinking through some fundamental issues of the spiritual life. Or you cantreat these as daily medi tations; with one hundredentries, you have enough read ing for twenty weeks,or almost five months (based on reading Monda ythrough Friday).

For a generationdesperately searching for reality and not knowing where to find itGod wrote abook that sets our feet in the right direction. If you'd like to join Solomonon his journey to truth, Ecclesiastes is the place to begin.

The words of the Teacher, son of David,king in Jerusalem: "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher."Utterly mean ingless! Everything ismeaningless."

Ecclesiastes1:12

Scott was only twenty-six years old whenhe died. Al though he grewup in a Christian home, during his teens and early twenties he went through aperiod of re bellion and spiritual searching. Hislife changed when the doctors discovered a brain tumor. Surgery brought a briefremission, but then the cancer returned.

A s the months passed, his faith increased even as hisphysical condition worsened. He began to seek the Lord as never before. TheWord of God became sweet to him. He became bold in his witness, especially tohis many friends. He asked God to use him to reac hothers so that he could point people to Christ no matter how long he lived.

God answered therequest. But several months later Scott died.

During thefuneral, his younger sister talked about how much she loved him, how as a younggirl she wanted to be li ke him, and how exasperatinghe could be at times. Then the cancer came. And she saw a difference so profound that itchanged everything. Her brother, she said, had figured out what life is allabout. Then she said this: "Life is nothing without God." Scot t had shown her that it doesn't matter how long you live orhow much money you have or even how well you do in your career. His faith atthe end spoke one simple message: Life is nothing without God.

When I stood upto deliver the message a few min utes la ter, I didn't have to say very much. I simply repeat ed what she said one more time: Life is nothing without God.

I then made thissimple application. If you live for eighty years but don't discover that truth,you've missed the very reason for your own ex istence.If you should earn a million dollarsten million dollarsand have hun dreds of friends and the praise of your contemporaries, ifyou have all that but don't figure out this basic truth, you're still inspiritual kindergarten.

Life is nothingwitho ut God. Everything else is just details. Yourcareer, your education, your degrees, your money, your fame, youraccomplishments, your long-range goals, your dreams, your possessions, yourfriend shipsthey're all just details. If you don'tfigure out that God is the central truth of theuniverse, you will spend your days mired in details, drifting along with noclear purpose. That's the ultimate "vanity" that causes life to bemeaningless.