Ecclesiastes takes a weary and pessimistic view of the world. The world goes on and on; nothing is new; the same things happen over and over; everything is empty and without real value. Many people have felt that way at times, and there are plenty of good reasons. But later on Ecclesiastes insists that life is sweet, and that we should enjoy it as much as possible and live in the present moment. We should just stop our frantic pursuit of success, wealth, and power. Not bad advice for our very competitive and success-driven culture.

You can kill a person, but not an idea. Herod killed John the Baptist, and Jesus appeared preaching and teaching many of the same things. Herod was afraid; who is this? Is it Elijah or one of the prophets? Later on, some of the leaders will even kill Jesus to snuff out his message. But the message goes on and on and just keeps getting louder! The message is the important thing, not so much the individual. That is why it is so important that we continually proclaim the message in our thoughts, words, and deeds. The powers of this world will always try to snuff out the light, but they will never succeed.