The message of Ecclesiastes: fear God in order to turn a vain, empty life into a meaningful life that will enjoy God’s good gifts, and to escape the final judgment.

Wisdom literature is concerned with wise actions which integrate people harmoniously into the order God has created. Wisdom is concerned with the general order and patterns of living in God’s creation.

Epistemology: a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge; the theory of knowledge; how we know what we know.

1. A rambling introduction . . .

2. Title (1:1)

3. The secularist’s problems (1:2-2:23)

• The failure of secularism (1:2-11)
• The failure of wisdom to satisfy secular life (12-18)
• The failure of pleasure seeking and self-indulgence to satisfy secular life (2:1-11)
• Life’s ultimate certainty: death (2:12-23)

4. The alternative to secularism: faith in God (2:24-3:22)

• The life of faith (2:24-26)

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(Next week)

• Fear God, for he is sovereign (3:1-15)
• Fear God, for he will judge us all at the judgment seat of Christ (3:16-22)