Data expansion:
The theme of Ecclesiastes is to lament the emptiness of life. People's toil under the sun is vain. Only by trusting in God can life be truly satisfied. Solomon was brilliant, but he abused God's grace and corrupted the country. In his later years, he saw through everything, repented, and put his personal subjective experience.
Cooperate with objective observation, dialectical his point of view, convince the world to accept it, and avoid repeating the same mistakes. He told the world that both seeking knowledge and happiness are futile, and they are all catching shadows. The pursuit of wealth, fame, longevity, power and status is futile, meaningless and unsatisfied. Only in God can we find the meaning and direction of life. Therefore, remember your creator when you are young.
The key word of Ecclesiastes is vanity-it is futile to try to find the meaning of life outside of God. Looking at the sun, we can know that people's lifelong pursuit will eventually be defeated (VIII 17). Nothing can fill the vacancy that God has set in life except God himself.
Augustine's famous saying: man can't be satisfied, and only in God can he rest in peace. But with God, life becomes complete and meaningful, and generate's life is full of hope from God. The missionary ended the book with a positive thought: it is the duty of human beings to fear God and keep his commandments.
Historical background
The author of Ecclesiastes calls himself "the preacher", hence the name. The original meaning of "preacher" is "convener of the meeting", which is translated by some scholars as "president", probably because he often convenes a group of people to attend lectures. Tradition holds that the author is Solomon.
Because he is a descendant of David, full of glory and wisdom. However, the negative view of life in the book is not consistent with Solomon's remarks in his heyday, so the tradition holds that this is Solomon's reflection and repentance after leaving God for a period of time in his later years.
Solomon is a rare wizard. In his early years, he was famous for his wisdom of fearing God. Middle-aged people are warm and passionate, leaving the true god, and the country is weak. In his later years, he learned from a bitter experience and repented. As a "missionary", he wrote Ecclesiastes.
The purpose is to persuade the next generation of young people to trust God as soon as possible. Therefore, this book is Solomon's heartfelt words, a testimony of his personal experience and his heartfelt advice. With his past failure experience, he earnestly warned the world that the empty life under the sun is because people left the true God above the sun.