Digital Logos Edition
The Perfect Commentary for Teachers and Preachers! This outstanding commentary series just got better; now complete with sermon and teaching outline. General editor Lloyd J. Ogilvie brings together a team of skilled and exceptional communicators, blending sound scholarship with life-related illustrations and useful outlines for teaching and preaching.
“The ‘good reward’ is illustrated in three vignettes:” (Page 123)
“The gray conclusion helps us understand Koheleth’s point. The whole range of life is beyond human control, though by nature we have to share in these activities. Our toil is basically profitless because God has so planned and controlled the events our lives that all our efforts make almost no significant change.” (Page 103)
“Our ignorance of God’s ways—this is the vexing problem. God controls our times, but He has not told us how and why. We walk in the dark, merely submitting to what God has determined, blind to His purposes, lame in our efforts to cooperate.” (Page 104)
“Three major issues confront us readers as we attempt to discover the gist of Koheleth’s message. The first is the meaning of the theme word—hebel, variously translated vanity, futility, meaninglessness, mystery, enigma, absurdity, irony, brevity, and the like. Just how pessimistic is the word?” (Page 19)
“The strong words of the Preacher were prompted by his disagreement with his fellow wise men. Their teachings were full of promises about the possibilities of wealth, security, happiness, and blessing. Koheleth, the Preacher, objected. He thought that the other teachers were promising more than life could produce. They were misleading their students with the unrealistic dreams that they painted. They failed at two points in particular: they tried to predict God’s ways without due respect for the mysteries involved; and they ignored the fact of death which cut short their plans and left their wealth to others.” (Pages 44–45)