2. Ecclesiastes Life Under the Son (Ch1)

David Augsburger says, “Emptiness is at the center of our humanness. To flee it is to miss the creative openness toward creation and Creator. To stuff it full of things is to block our ability to receive others in listening love. To anesthetize it with addictive experiences is to deaden the creative springs of the true self. Emptiness is to be embraced as a gift.”

Questions to Consider

Taken as a whole, this passage (1:1-11) paints a portrait of immense frustration. Does anything here resonate with you? Do you or have you ever felt a sense of frustration with life that is similar to what this passage describes? 

On his quest, Qoheleth tries many approaches to life. But at the end of them all, he is still left with the seemingly incurable frustration that he hasn’t found the “good life” he’s looking for. In what ways have you tried to create the “good life” for yourself? Talk about some of the things you have tried that haven’t really worked out the way you had hoped.

How can it be liberating , rather than frustrating to know that life is repetitive?

Do you find the message of this first chapter depressing or promising? Explain.