I am almost 39 years old. I realized I would die at age 10. I was lying in the bath. I was looking at my body. And I realized that one day it would be dead. One day I would be dead. It would be put in the ground, I thought. Worms would eat it. And I started crying.
I think that was about 1980. And at some point after that, I started counting how long I: might reasonably think I have. I of course assumed I would live to be old, you know, 60 or 70! There will be 1990, and I will be 20. Wow. I would be a grown up! And then there will be the year 2000. I will probably be married and have children. Dad was 27 and mum was 22 when they had me. Maybe in the year 2000 I will sit in some stadium somewhere and be watching sport with my children, wow. I would probably have a job like dad and my own house. That's freaky. And then what about 2010. I would be 40. That's old! Then 2020, and 2030, 2040. Hey that's a long way away. But when I was 3; grandpa died. Wasn't grandpa 63 when he died? And after 2040, 2050 and 2060 and 2070. Wow, 2070. That's a hundred years old. I don't know anyone whose 1.00. It's so far off! But it's going to happen. I am going to die.
Not all the time, not every day, but occasionally, I think of my own death. Only occasionally, I look ahead. I remember my true situation. That unless Jesus returns first, sooner or later, I will die. I tend not to think of it for too long. And when I finally get my mind off myself, I realize that other people will die too. I remember that my children whom I love will die, unless Jesus returns first. The bodies I now hold in my arms, the hands I put in my hands, they will be laid in the ground. Or nowdays their bodies will be burnt. And if I can bear thinking about such things and have the courage to face them manfully, I feel sad. I tend to tell myself, it's a long way off, I won't see it, but it will happen.
And then I remember you. That you are going to die. That I am dying, and that you are dying. And you are a fellow human, my brother, a child of Adam and Eve like me. You are going to die.
And most of the time it is not quick. It involves pain and suffering and scars and visits to the doctors, and bad smells and infections, and difficulty breathing, and immobility, and not being able to walk, and dirtying yourself and not being able to talk, and hiding the fact that you've broken your hip because you don't won't go into a nursing home, and a heart attack where you just were going to the letter box, and dementia and altzeimers, and swearing with swear words that you would never thought you would utter again, and loss of dignity, and being fed by others because you have returned to your second infancy. And friends, this is us. And as fellow human beings who watch others going through this. And is it not sad?
Remember that our teacher has been conducting an experiment. He has been looking at life ‘under the sun'. What is worth doing during the few days that we pass by under that great ball of fire in the sky? Turn with me to page 5, third paragraph from the bottom. And let me read to you chapter 7 verses 1 to 4:
7:1 A good name is better than precious perfume; and the day of death is better than the day of one's birth. 2 It is better to fro to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting. For the house of mourning is the destiny of all men; and the living should lake this to heart. 3Sorrow is better than laughter. For by the sadness of the face the heart is made good. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
Where is the place to go where we will understand life? Where is the place to go that will be good for us? Watching `Deal or No Deal' and the excitement of winning some unexpected cash? Going to the club with mates where we can have a drink and a laugh? Going to a party where pretty girls are smiling and listening to you? Throwing myself into the distraction of sport and hoping that your team will win, the excitement of gambling on two flies climbing up a wall, or the noise and bright lights of poker machines, the past-time of watching inane movies and television. Of course I will poo poo those things. These are the house of fools, and distractions that will teach us little about life.
What about visiting a friend's new born baby, or going to see your grandchildren and spending time with them, or listening to beautiful music or watching a beautiful sunset, or planning a holiday, or going to be with much loved family, or a wedding reception for good friends, or a dinner with loved ones, or a place where you can laugh and rejoice, or delighting in married life and children, and food given by God, all God's good gifts. Here are some things I am doing or hope I would do, and that I would encourage you to do, and that I think the bible and God want us to rejoice in, and that I think even our Teacher sees valuable and important.
But the teacher's point is this. These are not the best place to be if you really want to do your soul good. If you want to live in the reality of this world, there is a better place. A funeral home. A morgue. A palliative care unit. A coroners court. An accident site, where the tarp is thrown over the twisted metal and Ray and his rescue truck mates are cutting the body free. Sitting with a young widow whose husband won't be conning home. Going over to the house of parents whose child has just died.
Do I really want to understand life and what is good? Then I will go to the place of death and morbidity. Because death and morbidity is our future. As Paul says, `The wages of Sin is death' (Romans 6:23). And as Hebrews tells us, 'Man is destined to die once, and after that face judgment' (Hebrews 9:27).
When the teacher says, 'vapour of vapours, all is vapour' or ‘meaningless, meaningless' or 'vanity of vanities, all is vanity' (whichever translation you prefer), our death is the core reason he says it. Death is the great event that stands behind the meaninglessness of our pursuits.
Death says, 'Why are you doing that? Why are you wasting your time with that stuff?'
Take even the pursuit of wisdom. This is key to the Teacher's life. This is what he has been striving for. Our teacher looks for all the world like Solomon. And. there was no-one in the whole earth as wise as Solomon. The teacher says of himself in chapter 1 verse 16:
Look I have gained for myself great wisdom, more than all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my heart has had great experience with wisdom and knowledge.
And yet he says on page 2, second paragraph down: Chapter 2 Verses 12-17:
12 And I turned myself to look at wisdom, and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? [Only] that which has already been done! 13 Then I saw that wisdom is better than folly, as much as light is better than darkness. 14 The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that one event happens to them all. 15 Then said I in my heart, `What happens to the fool, also will happen to me! So why then was I more wise? Then I said in my heart, `This is also vapour'. 16 For what happens to the wise man also happens to the fool. They will not be remembered forever, seeing that in the days to come all will have long been forgotten. And how is it that the wise man dies in the same way as the fool! 17 So I hated life; because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me. For it is all vapour and a striving after wind.
The teacher sees that wisdom is better than folly. He sees that foolishness and sin wrecks like now, and that wise living makes life better. Yet, verse 14, both. die. Both will perish and be forgotten by the world that comes after him, both the one who gives himself to wise and sensible living, and the one who recklessly indulges in folly. Death makes the pursuit of wisdom and good sense pointless and careful living in the world pointless, just like it makes the pursuit of pleasure and headonism pointless. That is the teacher's point. And that's why he hates life. Death makes the pursuit of labour pointless. Death makes the teacher say, ‘why have I given myself to the painful and grievous toil of all the work I have put my hands to'? I took on great projects and works. And what have l gained for all that trouble and pain. Look at the next paragraph, chapter 2 verses 18 to 19:
18 And I hated all my labour in which I laboured under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man that will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labour in which I have laboured, and in which I have shown wisdom under the sun. This also is vapour.
I am working hard to accumulate this money, this wealth, this empire. But my son or grandson down the track will lose it. He will squander it, he will make bad investment decisions, it will be market corrected, it will disappear, it won't last. And all my work will come to nothing. And eventually, I myself and all my achievements will be forgotten. Paul Kelly wrote this song: [recite first verse of Paul Kelly's `You Can't Take it With You']
You might have a happy family. Nice house fine car. You might be successful in real estate. Even be a football star. You might have a prime time TV show. Seen in every home and bar. But you can't take it with you.
And he is right. This world’s wealth stays in this world. It cannot be taken into the next world in it's present form. For the wealth of this world to become usable in the next, we must go to the great money changer. Jesus Christ. He will tell us how to convert the currency of this world into the currency of the next. "Sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me".
But back to Ecclesiastes, the teacher observes that death treats us like animals. Page 3 fourth paragraph down:
16 And moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there. 17 I said in my heart, 'God shall, judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.' 18 I said in my heart. 'It is because of the sons of men, that God may test them, and that they may see that they themselves are but animals.' 19 For that which befalls the sons of men befalls animals. This one thing befalls them: just as the one dies, so also dies the other. Indeed, they all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the animals, for all is vapour. 20 All go to one place. All are of the dust, and all return to dust again. 'Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward, and the spirit of the animal goes downward to the earth? 21 Therefore, I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should take pleasure in his works; for that is his lot. For who will bring him back to see what will come about after him?
We must remember that the teacher is conducting an experiment. He is looking at life under the sun. He is in the laboratory of life. At times he only thinks about what he can see. At other times, he 'ups periscope' so to speak. He looks beyond what he can see in the world under the sun and looks to God. That is why he seems to contradict himself. Men are not like the animals, in that men will be judged. `God shall judge the righteous and the wicked'. Chapter 3 verse 11:
[God] has set eternity in their hearts, yet in such a way that man cannot find out the work that God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 11)
Yet, it looks like humans are like animals. A fox or a wombat gets hit on the side of the road. It gets buried, or gets ground into the dirt. A human dies. He or she gets buried, or burned and the ashes sprinkled over. And there is nothing in what we see in this world that suggests that human fate is different to the animal. If I am left looking at only this world, all I see is essentially the same process: Life, death, return to dirt.
So what is the solution for us mortals, us men doomed to die? What is the wise and sensible way for us to live our short lives? I think there are two solutions.
The first is to live sensibly accepting the temporary gifts of God as good things. They are passing away. But we need to live in this difficult, fallen and vapourous world. So we accept them and use them with thanks from God. On page 5, 2nd paragraph from the top. Chapter 5 verses 18 to 20:
18 Look, that which I have seen to be good and appropriate is for someone to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labour in which he labours under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him. For this is his lot. 19 And to every man who God has given riches and wealth, and the opportunity to eat from it, and to take his lot, and to take pleasure in his labour, this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not remember much about the days of his life; because God keeps him occupied with the pleasure of his heart.
The good things of life are God's analgesic, God's pain killer. When you've got a head ache, you take a tablet. To survive the next day, you try and get a good night sleep. And to survive this difficult and hard life, you accept God's good gifts and use them wisely and appropriately. Thank God for the food you receive. Thank God for the house that you have. Go to work, do good. serve people. Love your neighbour as yourself. Fix that leak, solve that problem. Because it helps us to forget that we are dying. It keeps us from excessive morbity. That is the tone of chapter 9 verses 7-10:
7 Go your way, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a good heart, for God is already pleased with your works. 8 Let your garments be always white, and don't let your head lack ointment. See life with the wife whom you love all the vaporous days of your life which he has given you under the sun, all the days of your vapour, for that is your lot in life, and in your labour in which you labour under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work, nor thought, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave to which you are going
Don't give up and become unkempt. Get up in the morning and have your shower. Do your laundry, dress well. Wear deodorant or aftershave, comb your hair. Eat and drink, accepting these things are from God. Enjoy time with your wife, if God has blessed you with one. Seize the day. Use the things of this world in the way God has stipulated. But this cannot be our all engrossing panacea. This cannot become our hedonism, or our escape from the reality of death. For we are to use the things of this world, but not as those who are engrossed in them or believe that they are all that there is.
For there is another world of which the Teacher is fully aware. Though he conducts his experiment under the sun on earth, he is fully aware that there is a God in heaven to whom we must give an account. The summary at the end of this book reminds us forcefully of this: The very last paragraph on page 10. Chapter 12 verses 13 and 14:
This is the end of the matter. All has been heard Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.
This is the ultimate reality. Man is destined to die once and after that face judgment. Yes, The wages of sin is death,but also the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Listen to Jesus' words of victory. Just before he raised his good friend Lazarus from the dead, this is what Jesus said to Martha:
'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in my will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die'. (John 11:25-26 NIV)
The resurrection of Jesus has turned death into a defeated enemy. Listen to Paul's words of victory.
Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not vain. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NIV)
Now that Jesus has defeated death by his death and resurrection, death is transformed. Our labour in the Lord is not in vain. For there is a judgment. And all of our works which are done by faith in the Lord will stand. They will be eternal, they will not pass away. Everything done through obedience to Christ and faith in his name will last into eternity. They are the gold and silver and precious stones that will endure the fires of God's judgment. So brothers, Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not vain.