Daily Devotional | Echoes of Eden

If you’ve ever planted a garden, you know it is harder than it may seem. Even if you succeed in creating a color-filled bed of flowers, weeds will soon follow. Gardens are beautiful, but they are also a lot of work! In Ecclesiastes 2, the Teacher describes his many accomplishments. In his quest to find life’s meaning, he acquired incredible wealth and undertook “great projects” (v. 4). One of his creative endeavors involved gardening: “I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them” (v. 5). Here the author uses Hebrew words that also appear in the description of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2: “planted,” “made,” “gardens,” “all kinds of fruit trees,” “[to] water,” and “flourishing.”

Both Genesis 2 and Ecclesiastes 2 describe the creation of a garden by a ruler. This may not be so obvious to us today, reading in English. But to the original readers/ hearers of Ecclesiastes, the allusion to the creation narrative would have been obvious. The Teacher is telling us that he has tried to do what only God can do—he attempted to make a garden that would rival Eden, and he failed. God’s creation was “good” and “very good,” but even the very best of the Teacher’s efforts were like “chasing after the wind,” and “nothing was gained.”

The author chases after pleasure and fame with vigor: “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired” (v. 10). But in the end, he finds even these great accomplishments to be “meaningless” (v. 11). It is important to recognize the Teacher’s allusion to Genesis in this chapter because this entire book is Genesis-shaped. He is telling his readers—ancient and modern—that his reflections are grounded in a robust theology of God as Creator and the creation as good.

Go Deeper

As you read Ecclesiastes, look for allusions to the book of Genesis. Why do you think the Teacher wants us to read his writings in light of Genesis?

Pray with Us: As we read about planting gardens and think about Your beautiful creation, help us, Father, to remember to worship the Giver of gifts, not the gifts themselves. You alone bring peace and contentment!

BY Dr. Russell L. Meek

Russell Meek teaches Old Testament and Hebrew at Moody Theological Seminary. He writes a regular column on understanding and applying the Old Testament at Fathom Magazine, and his books include Ecclesiastes and the Search for Meaning in an Upside-Down World and the co-authored Book-by-Book Guide to Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary. Russ, his wife, and their three sons live in northern Idaho.