Ecclesiastes | "Listen Up!" Bible Study (Baskette)
The uniqueness of the Listen Up! Bible Study series:
God's word is alive, with something new to say to all of us.
That's why the Listen Up! Bible Study series does not simply teach information about the Bible. It listens to God speak.
In these Bible studies, you will be encouraged to listen: listen to the Bible, listen to your own questions and responses, and listen to the honest sharing among participants in your study group. In that mix of biblical text, personal engagement, and honest speaking and listening, God's word may be heard, speaking challenge and comfort. (Browse the collection of Listen Up! Bible studies.)
Ecclesiastes Listen Up! Bible Study
Sometimes considered the most curmudgeonly and cynical of all the books of the Bible, Ecclesiastes is also praised for telling it like it is. It addresses eternal problems that have always troubled human society: the problem of pain, the fruitlessness of overwork, the vanity of ambition, the age of anxiety, the fear of death and being forgotten. Ecclesiastes reminds us that these are not 21st century problems.
This book of wisdom also reminds us that the great joys in life are fairly simple: snuggling under the covers, having close friends and/or a sweetheart, sunlight, rest, eating good food and drinking good wine, and a good days' work. It offers soothing certainty about what it means to enjoy the good life: waiting, expecting, with open arms, to receive day by day the good things that come from God.
This study is divided into four sections:
- Chapters 1-2 (Vapor of Vapors: Everything Evaporates)
- Chapters 3:1-4:8 (A Time for Everything)
- Chapters 4:9-6:12 (The Key to Life is in Low Expectations)
- Chapters 7-12 (Time and Chance Happen to All)
Leader's Guide included in this study.
PDF Instructions
This Bible study is a PDF. Please purchase one PDF per reader/study group member.
Each purchase of a Listen Up! PDF includes permission to print or digitally save one copy of the study. For example, an order of 10 copies of Ecclesiastes "Listen Up!" Bible Study allows 10 copies of the study to be printed for study group use.
The PDF will be emailed to you. Once you place your order, you will receive a link via email to download the PDF. Nothing will be shipped.
About the Author
Molly Baskette is Senior Minister at First Church Somerville United Church of Christ, in Somerville, Massachusetts, and author of the bestselling Real Good Church: How Our Church Came Back from the Dead, and Yours Can, Too, published by The Pilgrim Press.