MAKING SENSE OF OUR DYING DAY
Ecclesiastes 8:10-17
When I was in College, I took an elective called “Death and Dying.” I know it sounds pretty morbid, but I heard it was an easy A so I took it. In the class we discussed the way different cultures view death and also talked about the things that people do in our culture to cope with the reality of death.
One thing I took from the class was the fact that people in our culture do all they can to avoid dealing with the reality of death. For example, when talking about death some speak very conservatively using terms such as “passing away, sleeping in Jesus and going home” while others speak very flippantly and jokingly about death using phrases such as “taking a dirt nap, kicking the bucket, and cashing in the chips.” So whether one goes to the righteous right or the loosy left, truth is no one wants to talk about death—no one except for Solomon that is.
It seems as if Solomon, especially in this book, is never afraid to ask the tough questions and address the difficult issues and our text for today is no exception. What Solomon is going to do today is make us all feel a bit uncomfortable because he is going to talk to us about our least favorite topic of discussion.
Today we are going to be in Ecclesiastes 9:1-12. Solomon’s main point in this text is that you and I and all people without exception are going to die and there is nothing we can do about it. We can exercise, drink bottled water 10 times a day and cut out fast food—it doesn’t matter because we are all going to die.
Solomon, however, does not get discouraged by this truth but explains to us in this text that it is important for us to think about our dying day because we are not ultimately prepared to live until we are prepared to die. So let’s look to Solomon here in this text to help us make sense of our dying day. First he tells us to…
RELAX…GOD IS IN CONTROL
9 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him.
In v. 1, Solomon breaks his normal routine and begins with a word of comfort. He reminds us here in this verse of Scripture that though there are all these uncertainties and mysteries in life and though there is uncertainty about our dying day and when that is going to be, he reminds us here that God is in control.
Now just because that’s the case, does not mean that our life is going to be easy does it? We don’t have any guarantee of a pain free existence—we don’t have any guarantee that our life will be filled with love and hugs and sunshine and smiles.
We have already discussed this in earlier texts. Life for us as believers can at times be the opposite of that. Life is uncertain—it’s mysterious—the wicked prosper in this life while the righteous suffer. We see the good die young while the wicked go on to live long lives with little heartache.
What Solomon says here is that though this is the case, the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God no matter what happens. So whatever God brings into our life we can trust in Him. Solomon says no matter what happens we can still be joyful and God can still be trusted because He is in control.
Having that perspective, even in the face of uncertainties in life and even with the uncertainty of our dying day—having this perspective can change our whole outlook on life. It can change our view of life from meaningless to meaningful, from futile and vain to happy and satisfying. Trusting in a sovereign God makes all the difference in the world.
Think about this. If God is in control of all things—if His hand is over our health and over our relationships and over our finances and over our work and over our pain and our suffering and our trials and if God is not only in control of those things, but has purpose behind everything he does and his purpose is good, that might just mean that the greatest tragedy by God’s hand in your life can really turn out to be the greatest joy. It might just mean that our loss of things might lead us to more of Him. It might just mean that the deterioration of our health will lead us to see our need of Christ and will result in us trusting in Him in ways we never have before.
RECOGNIZE…DEATH IS CERTAIN
2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
There is one universal truth which we’ve seen throughout Ecclesiastes concerning life and it’s this, “All life ends in death.” The odds are 1 out of 1 that every person is going to die. It doesn’t matter if you are good or bad, clean or unclean, religious or godless. The end is the same.
Death is what many call the “great equalizer,” which means it puts each and every one of us on the same equal playing field. It doesn’t matter how significant, how wealthy, or how intelligent one is, those people still die with the unknown, the poor and the foolish. And if that is not frustrating enough, we also don’t know when our dying day is going to be. Think of it in this way. It’s as if everyone who has ever lived has taken a number at the revenue office and the person behind the desk is just calling the numbers at random. That’s the way life is. Some numbers have already been called—numbers of people you know and though you have a number and know that number is going to be called, you don’t know when it will be. That’s Solomon’s point.
Now why is Solomon so straight forward with us in this verse? The reason is because he knows how we view death will radically affect the way we live our lives. If you don’t ever think about death and live your life as if you are promised tomorrow and the next day then you will live accordingly—you will be driven by the temporal things of this world and will live for yourself. But on the other hand, if you think about the certainty of death and that everyday might be your last, your life will look different.
Solomon continues with this point in vv. 4-6 when he says,
4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
Dogs in ancient Jewish culture were nasty animals. They were not the pets that you and I have today. They were despicable animals. They fed off garbage, they traveled around in packs and would attack people—I mean they were savages. But a lion was a magnificent, majestic and impressive animal.
Solomon says here, the living mangy dog is better off than an impressive dead lion because it is still living. There is still air in his lungs and life in his bones—there is still time left for him on the earth and the same is true of us. If up to this point in your life you have lived as a mangy despicable animal, Solomon’s point here is that while there is still breath in your lungs and life in your bones, there is still time to make a change—time to turn from your life of sin and live for God.
Solomon says,
6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
According to Solomon, all the petty and ridiculous things that we give ourselves to and spend our days worry about matter little in the end. What good is a new promotion going to do you when your body is in the ground? In the grand scheme of things, what good is it for us to allow our hatred, our jealousy, and our anger toward others to dominate our life, occupy our time and continually cause us pain when they amount to nothing when we die?
How are you spending your days you have left? Are your days consumed with seeking after earthly things? Are you spending your time and energy angry and bitter toward others? Let me ask you this, Is that how you want to go out of this world? Is that the legacy you want to leave behind?
What would our lives look like if we lived our days with this reality in mind, “I’m going die someday, maybe today and so is everybody else?” Solomon's message is clear that for us to live a life that counts we have to live with our dying day in mind.
REJOICE…LIFE IS TO BE ENJOYED
7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
Solomon shows us here in v. 7 the biblical response when thinking about the certainty of death. In these verses Solomon explains that for the people of God, though death is unavoidable enjoyment is possible.
Solomon says, “Though we need to be mindful of our dying day, though we need to wake up with the mentality that each day might be our last, he says we also need to remember chapter 9:1 that tells us that God is in control and that He has us, His children in His hand and He has purpose behind what He does and that His purpose is good. Therefore Solomon says that we need to “Go, eat (our) bread with joy, and drink (our) wine with a merry heart.” Now know Solomon in this verse is not talking about being a glutton or a drunkard, but he is saying, “We need to enjoy the time that we have in this life while we have it and we need to do it in a god honoring way.
He says in v. 8,
Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
Solomon is simply saying here, as we live with our death day in mind, we don’t need to waste away like a fatalist. At times we need to get cleaned up and dressed up and go out and celebrate the fact that God has given us one more day to live for Him. In ancient Jewish Culture white clothes were a symbol of celebration, which is why Solomon says “Let you garments be always white.” He also says put oil on your head, which is the Hebrew equivalent to deodorant, perfume and/or cologne. In other words, Solomon is saying “Get cleaned up and smelling nice, put on nice clothes and go out and enjoy good food, good drink and good fellowship.”
Let’s be honest, we need to hear and take this advice don’t we? We are to enjoy life—to celebrate. Like I’ve said before, we of all people have reason to do so. If Solomon were alive today and using our language he would tell us, “Though we all are going to die someday maybe to today, we need to have a blast while we last!”
He goes on to say,
9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Solomon says in the short time we have left, we need to spend it enjoying the relationships that we have and the work that we do. In other words, again Solomon says we need to “Have a blast while we last!” We need to enjoy our life while we have it.
Husbands and wives, enjoy the time you have left while you have it. What would all of our relationships look like if we really took our death day seriously? This life is so short and ends all too soon so we need to make it worthwhile by enjoying the time we have left with the ones we love and in the work that we do.
SO IN LIGHT OF OUR DYING DAY, LET’S REJOICE BECAUSE LIFE IS TO BE ENJOYED!
REALIZE…YOUR DAYS ARE SET BY GOD
11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
As we have talked about already, though we like to think of ourselves as being in control—as the captain of our own ship—the master of our own fate the opposite is often true. We can’t do anything about the past and we know very little about what’s around the corner. The control that we think we have is a façade.
In v. 11, Solomon challenges our preconceived ideas about the way we look at life. We tend to think that doing certain things guarantees certain results. Though at times it does at other times it does not. Truth is, though we think we know what the outcome is going to be in any given situation, we don’t for sure. Though we have our own plans for the way we think things should happen, things don’t always go according to plan.
At times we can be like that fish that Solomon talks about in v. 12 who is just swimming along with his own agenda and out of the blue gets caught in a treacherous net or like the bird he describes that is just flying along doing his own thing and get trapped in a snare.
We can have all our plans—all of our ducks in a row and our rug of comfort can be completely pulled out from underneath us like that. Why? Because we are not in control—we are not in the driver’s seat. Our days are set by God. God wants us to realize that we are in need of Him—He wants us to understand that our life is in His hands--that our days are numbered by him and in turn wants us to trust in Him.
CONCLUSION
Let me end with this. Maybe you are here this morning and don’t like these uncertainties of life and the sobering truth that you are going to die someday maybe today. I wish I could bring you some words of comfort this morning and tell you “Don’t worry about it. You’re not going to die anytime soon.” But I can’t make that guarantee to anyone. Truth is none of us know. But what I can do is tell you how to be prepared when that day comes and how to live even though you die.
25 Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. John 11:25-26
What Jesus offers us here is better than a long life here on earth—he offers us eternal life with Him.
You want to be ready for your dying day? You need the work that Christ has done applied to your life and you can have it if you would trust in the finished work of Christ.
