Ecclesiastes Devotionals
One for each chapter. Want to test what you read? Take the Ecclesiastes quizzes.
- Ecclesiastes 1: Honest About the Wind
Ecclesiastes begins with a verdict most books would save for the end: everything is fleeting and empty (1:2). The Teacher looks at the world and sees motion without arrival. The…
- Ecclesiastes 2: Enjoyment From God's Hand
The Teacher runs an experiment few others could afford. He tests laughter and wine, builds houses, plants vineyards and gardens, digs reservoirs, and gathers servants, flocks,…
- Ecclesiastes 3: Living One Season at a Time
The chapter's poem moves through life in pairs: birth and death, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing, war and peace (3:1-8). No one chooses all their seasons. Then the…
- Ecclesiastes 4: Not Meant to Toil Alone
The Teacher looks at oppression and sees tears with no one to comfort them (4:1). He goes so far as to call the dead better off than the living (4:2-3). Scripture lets that…
- Ecclesiastes 5: Coming Near to Listen
The Teacher begins this chapter at the house of God. He urges listening over the careless offerings of fools (5:1). God is in heaven and we are not, so we should come to him with…
- Ecclesiastes 6: When Plenty Is Not Enough
Ecclesiastes 6 describes a sorrow that is easy to miss. God gives a man riches, wealth, and honor but does not let him enjoy them (6:2). Even with a hundred children and a long…
- Ecclesiastes 7: Both Kinds of Days
The proverbs of Ecclesiastes 7 turn ordinary values upside down. Time in a house of grief does more good than time at a feast, since every life ends in death and the living need…
- Ecclesiastes 8: When Justice Seems Delayed
Ecclesiastes 8 is honest about how unjust the world can look. The wicked are buried with honor in the city where they did evil (8:10). Because punishment is slow to come, people…
- Ecclesiastes 9: Our Days in God's Hands
The Teacher faces death squarely in this chapter. The same end comes to the righteous and the wicked (9:2). The dead have no further share in anything done under the sun (9:6).…
- Ecclesiastes 10: Wisdom for Ordinary Days
Ecclesiastes 10 reads like a handful of sayings gathered from ordinary life. A little folly can spoil wisdom the way dead flies spoil perfume (10:1). Calmness can settle an angry…
- Ecclesiastes 11: Sowing Without Knowing
This chapter faces an uncertain future and refuses to be frozen by it. The Teacher urges generosity because no one knows what disaster may come (11:1-2). Whoever waits for perfect…
- Ecclesiastes 12: Remembering Our Maker Early
Ecclesiastes ends by urging the young to keep their Creator in mind before the hard years come (12:1). A poem of growing old follows. The keepers of the house tremble, the windows…