Before the parliament began, the team I was with were sitting down at a restaurant where we met these two gals named Diana and Harmony, who were having a meal next to us. Somehow, we started getting into a conversation with them, and it turned out Diana was a Catholic Nun. Harmony was there to support her friend. Diana told us that she was giving a talk called Lectio Divina. Lydia stated she would be there, and I was curious about it as well.
According to the schedule book: Lectio Divina or Divine Reading–lectio, oratio, meditation, contemplation–naturally leads a group into deep and attentive prayer. Three mindful readings of a sacred text with a time for quiet, as well individual response, naturally enable the group to open their hearts to the text. A final reading of the test invites the gathered community into contemplative silence for 15-20 minutes. There is time for debriefing at the conclusion. This session focuses on a text from Ecclesiastes. This sacred and ancient practice can be applied to poetry and other texts.
It was interesting that a passage from Ecclesiastes was going to be read during this practice. The day of her talk Lydia and I showed up and received a pamphlet of what we would be doing.
The pamphlet gave a step-by-step process of what was going to happen during this Divine Reading. Everything Diana stated she read from the pamphlet.
After Diana went through the pamphlet (seen above). She asked everyone to talk about what they all experienced and what their interpretation was of the scripture. One gal spoke up and stated that as she was meditating on Ecclesiastes 1:4-10, she could picture Mother Earth in this text. Everyone just nodded and thought it was great that she interpreted it that way. Everyone else had an interpretation of the scripture, and it was completely different. What shocked me was that this was accepted. Interpretation of scripture was being interpreted in different ways, and yet how each person interpreted it was exactly what it meant.
This could not be true. There could not be multiple interpretations of scripture. So then, what is the real interpretation of Ecclesiastes 1:4-10?
The Truth of the Matter:
Let’s look at the passage Diana used within this session. This passage comes from the book of Ecclesiastes. The book of Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon, who was the third king of Israel.[1] He wrote around 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs but is more known for his wisdom and wealth.[2] Ecclesiastes looks at the fundamentals of life and can be pessimistic, experiencing injustice, growing old, dying, and eventually being forgotten.[3] The passage Diane used from this book was Ecclesiastes 1:4-10, lets re-read this text and dive into what it really means.
Ecclesiastes 1:4-10 “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.”
Within Ecclesiastes 1:4-7, Solomon observes nature and time.
Verse 4: “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” All this depicts is Solomon observing generations. People are born, and people die, but when it comes to nature, the earth, it stays the same.
Verse 5: “The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.” Solomon is just observing the sun as it goes down and comes back up. The sun doesn’t rise in one place and then moves to somewhere else and rises the next day. It stays in the same place.
Verse 6: “The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.” The wind stays the same as well. It blows north, goes around, and always returns. It stays the same and is constant.
Verse 7: “All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.” When looking at rivers and how they flow. Water always ends up at the sea. The sea does not overfill and it stays constant.
Now, through Ecclesiastes 1:8-10, Solomon takes a different turn on this. He starts to observe man and becomes more pessimistic about life.
Verse 8: “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” What this verse is saying is that man is never satisfied with anything. The eye sees, but there is always more to see, and the ear hears, which there is always more to hear. There is nothing to satisfy them.
Verse 9 and 10: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us.” Solomon is talking about the mundaneness of society. There is nothing new that happens. People live, people die, they come, and they go, and there's always a new job, new car, new house, old job, old car, old house, and it becomes mundane. It stays the same.
This passage talks about how everything stays constant and the mundaneness within life. The fact that Diana used this passage to be positive seems to be ironic because the passage is very pessimistic. Diana also let everyone see this was a positive thing and did not confront anyone, stating that their interpretation was wrong. She let them believe what they wanted to believe and hear what they wanted to hear, and it was deemed good.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20
[1] “Solomon”, in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Brentwood, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2015), 1486.
[2] “Solomon”, in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Brentwood, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2015), 1487.
[3] “Ecclesiastes, Book Of,”, in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Brentwood , Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group, 2015), 453–455.