Qoheleth’ s Discernment Method
Here’s a thinking structure devised by Mark that you can experiment with in your household or ministry group.
For churches and families sorely in need of wisdom, Ecclesiastes is an underleveraged book of the Bible. The writer identifies himself as Qoheleth, the one who assembles or gathers. This could be understood in a number of ways. One who assembles and gathers people. One who assembles and gathers wisdom and insight. I (Mark) describe Qoheleth as one who searches. Given that a search engine is used more times in a day than a fork, this interpretation makes sense for our times.
Ecclesiastes is a unique book because Qoheleth’s musings are derived from his observations about nature, people, society, culture, and work. He is learning directly about life—and indirectly about God—by observing life apart from God, or life “under the sun.”
In the early days of the internet, my ministry engaged students on the internet to help them on their journey of discipleship. Our team did movie and music reviews to help young people navigate popular culture. But as the volume of media and various channels increased, we just couldn’t cover everything. The movie reviewers couldn’t keep up with every movie coming out—neither could the organization’s budget! All the content “under the sun” just kept multiplying.
Realizing it was impossible to filter all media streaming across the screens of the next generation to help them make decisions in advance about what media to consume, I decided the best we could do was teach them to discern culture on their own as they encountered it in real time. Based on Qoheleth’s grand experiment of observing God indirectly, I derived some basic questions for wisely discerning media. (My kids, rolling their eyes after every movie or TV show they watched together, learned to discern culture like this. You’re welcome, Matlock kids! Don’t mention it.)
Where Is God? Who Is God?
While watching reruns of The Brady Bunch with my kids, I asked, “Where is God in this story?” All of a sudden, we realized this was a family without a relationship with Christ. We didn’t see them pray. We never saw them consult the Scriptures to find wisdom for their problems. We did, however, sometimes see biblical principles at play in the Brady family’s adventures. When a football hit Marcia in the face, one of my kids remarked that sometimes God allows things to happen in our lives that seem bad to help us grow. Not bad for an elementary schooler! Christians do something similar when we read the book of Esther, an exile herself. God is not mentioned anywhere in its pages, yet we see him actively moving throughout her story.
It’s comparatively easy to find God through his direct revelation in Scripture and in our relationship with Christ, but seeing God indirectly requires intentionality. Cultural discernment, much like wisdom, begins with God.
It’s possible for a creator to write God out of the picture entirely, and helping young minds consider this possibility can be very powerful all on its own. It’s great to discover God in an unlikely place, but it’s also worth noticing when God isn’t an active part of a human-created universe.
But noticing where God is missing is not enough. If a person living in exile is to discern culture well, they must also get to know God’s true character. There are many human creations of art and story that include a portrayal of God that is false or misleading. An image of God that is weak, unloving, distant, or cruel needs to be identified and then corrected.
Daniel and his friends were able to navigate a culture distant from the ways of God because they knew who God truly is. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood tall instead of bowing before Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol, what they knew about God gave them the courage to make that choice. They knew he is mighty. They knew he has promised to protect his people. But they also knew it was possible he would not save them because his ways are above human understanding.
A generation of exiles with a limited understanding of God is prone to bowing, and so it’s not enough only to ask where God is. We must also ask who God is and help them find out for themselves.
What Claim Is Being Made about How Life Works?
Every human creation declares something about how the world works, and identifying that worldview is an important part of cultural discernment. Whether we’re dealing with great works of literature, the latest horror movie, or a James Bond film, the author has a worldview. James Bond movies portray one idea of masculinity. What is true or not true about that idea? What about Bond’s notions of survival or good and evil?
It’s important to recognize how often art gets life right. Sometimes artists are more in touch with the human condition than many of us in ministry! The artist’s claim about how life works is often what draws people to their art, and talking about the worldview underlying their creation is a great way to help young people understand their own claims about life.
Here are a couple follow-ups to move us from reflection toward synthesis: How do these claims compare to God’s path for human thriving? How would this creation be different if Jesus’s way were followed?
Where Can Hope and Redemption Be Found—If at All?
Qoheleth looked around and saw nothing but meaninglessness under the sun. Working humbly and enjoying people before you die are better than total emptiness, but those pursuits, too, are ultimately meaningless. Most media today come to similar conclusions. But Qoheleth found something more “above the sun,” and that is often the missing component in today’s stories. (Read Eccles. 12:1–7.)
Every character is placing hope in something, but what? Do they find redemption, or does their hope fail them? What is the source of power for their transformation?
Even as followers of Christ, we sometimes try to manage sin in our own strength, feeding the law of the flesh inside us rather than trusting in the grace of Jesus. If we who know Christ struggle with where to find hope and redemption, it’s no wonder that secular expressions of these things are skewed as well.
Here’s a follow-up to move us from reflection toward synthesis: How does this song, story, or work of art change when hope and redemption are found in Jesus?
The practice of answering Qoheleth’s questions can build resilience in our lives as we interpret the world around us, for it isn’t only the creative work of humans that an exile has to discern but also current events and daily interactions. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5 NIV), and we think this is the kind of cultural critical thinking he would have in mind for us today.