October 24, 2018: Day 74 – Ecclesiastes 1

We hear in the first verse of the first chapter that the author of Ecclesiastes was a son of David, the king of Jerusalem.  We also read in the final verses of the first chapter that the author was gifted with “great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me.”  From this we can take that the author of Ecclesiastes was probably Solomon.  There is some debate about this, but I say that if it was Solomon, it was probably a Solomon in his very final years.  Here is someone who has been able to look over his life and see the great power that he had over wealth and people.  Yet he comes to realize that while he had this great power, God was still sovereign.  Even after all his battles, all of his struggles, even after all of his long life, God was still in control.

As a result of this realization he is able to say that all is a chasing after the wind.  After all of this introspection he realized that he is not able to control pretty much anything at all.  That is a great lesson for all of us.  No matter how well things are going, because it is in the good times of life, we are not able to control anything at all.  Job taught us that lesson.