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How are the teachings in Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs culturally relevant today?
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14 Replies
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Dr. Stuart believes Ecclesiast3s is a highly unusual book. There are a lot of ways that this book was interpreted. People are searching to learn what Solomon was trying to teach them. The people were looking to find love. Many of the philosophies were accepted that the people of today search for meaning, leading them to all their final thoughts: “meaningless”. With that it shows God as the only one true purpose. Song of Songs gives us a fantastic, beautiful picture of our God-given hope of a happy, intimate married partnership.
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People are looking for meaning, and people are looking for love. Ecclesiastes explores a mechanistic worldview, hedonism, stoicism, achievement, existentialism, fatalism…many of the philosophies by which people today seek meaning, taking them all to their ultimate verdict: meaninglessness. Then it presents God as the only true purpose/meaning giver. Song of Songs paints a beautiful picture of the God-given possibility of exclusive intimate, married partnership.
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Everyone is looking for meaning and also fulfillment in this world. I think Ecclesiastes presents us with a real look into what many will consider a happy and fulfilled life, having everything your heart can desire. Ecclesiastes does a good job of setting the record straight of the idea of self-gratification for what it is meaningless. Many try to find fulfillment in temporal material things not realizing that what they are looking for is only ultimately found in God and therefore wasting away in empty pursuits.
Many relationships would turn out differently if people would focus on affectionate love, instead of focusing too much in the physical. Many today have lost the true meaning of what God intended for relationships, and that’s why we see so many failed marriages. Song of songs is relevant today because even though it was written many years ago, we still haven’t mastered relationships.
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Because they relate to life, death, and issues of life all together. This is all the things that are relevant for all times and for life in and of itslef.
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Today people still struggle with the meaning of life; that is what Ecclesiastes addresses. Technological advance has made it possible for the masses, not just the elite, to enjoy conveniences and luxuries, but it has not made us happier because these things don’t add meaning to life. On the contrary, these advances have made life move faster. We end up more exhausted. And lacking of time and energy deep relationships, we end up feeling more isolated. Today’s people are more desperate for the meaning of life than before.
At the same time, modern media has flooded the minds of today’s people with notions of sexual love. Without good teaching on how to find, cultivate and sustain true love, we have been wrecked, or have seen others wrecked, in so-called love. This is enough to make us feel disillusioned with love. Hence the message of true love in Song of Songs is still relevant today.
#Ecclesiastes