[Read Ecclesiastes 9:1-12]
Life doesn’t always make sense. That’s been the author’s frustration for the past few weeks. He’s frustrated when he sees the wicked prospering and receiving praise. He’s frustrated when he sees the righteous suffering. It’s frustrating because it doesn’t seem like it should be this way.
But there are more ways that life doesn’t seem to make sense. He says, “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11, NIV). Not only does he see the wicked prospering, but he sees slow people winning races. He sees weak people winning battles. He sees foolish people succeeding and unintelligent people finding favor. It’s like he throws his hands up in the air and says, “Come on!”
This really bugs us, doesn’t it? When we see someone get a promotion that they don’t deserve; when we realize that the “best man” doesn’t always win. It feels like a major injustice. People should get what they deserve, right?
Yet, depending on the circumstance, we like it when this happens—especially to us. Right? We like it when we “get lucky” and don’t get what we deserve. We love it when we beat someone that is better than us. We love it when we out perform and out succeed someone smarter, more educated than us. That makes us feel really good. BUT, when we’re on the losing side of it, we cry out against the great injustice.
The author builds on all this and takes it to another level. He points out something that REALLY bothers us—something that REALLY feels like an injustice. He says, “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.” (Ecclesiastes 9:12, ESV). Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, people die—like fish caught in a net, like birds unexpectedly caught in a snare. We have no idea when it’s gonna happen AND it doesn’t always make sense. Sometimes people die young—suddenly, out of the blue. Sometimes healthy people die out of nowhere—completely unexpected. And when it happens, we become frustrated—angry—crying out at the injustice of it all.
Yet, the reality is that we will all die. It may sound like a gruesome, pessimistic thing to say, but it’s true. We will all die. It’s coming for every one of us. The author says, “All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good, so with the sinful; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them.” (Ecclesiastes 9:2, NIV). The “common destiny” he talks about is death. It is coming for every one of us. We cannot escape it. And, sometimes, death comes suddenly—out of the blue.
We don’t like to think about this AND we definitely don’t live this way. Think about it. We don’t wake up in the morning wondering if we’re going to die today. We don’t typically think about death until someone we love dies—that’s why it catches us off guard so much. We live like we’re going to live forever—like death is a dream.
That’s why this pandemic has caused so much anxiety, fear, and consternation. Situations like this bring the reality of death in front of our face and FORCE us to think about death. We cannot ignore it anymore. We can no longer live like we’re never going to die. Because the news is talking—every, single day—about how many people are dying. Death is being placed on our minds every day.
Again, please don’t read into this beyond what I’m saying, but I remember one Facebook post that was going around in August. It said something like, “Take a moment to think about this: Teachers are preparing their wills in preparation for the upcoming school year.” I remember Rachel reading that and saying, “Should we all be preparing our wills? Preparing for death? Isn’t that something we should be doing all the time?” Yes.
Whether we like it or not, we are always living in the shadow of death. This pandemic hasn’t changed that reality. That has always been the case—ever since the Fall in the garden. All that this pandemic has done is bring the reality to the forefront of our minds. We’ve always lived precariously in the shadow of death. We could have died just as easily before the pandemic as during the pandemic. Yet, we’ve been forced to think about it. We’ve been forced to recognize that we will all die and we have no idea when that day will come.
This really bothers those who have rejected God. Remember, the author takes opportunities to look at the world through the lens of those who’ve rejected God. He says that those who believe there is no God have to believe that “Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 9:4–6, NIV). For those who’ve rejected God, there is nothing after this life. NOTHING. Only emptiness. There is no hope. There is no knowledge. There is no reward. Only death. They will never take part in anything ever again.
That’s a pretty bleak picture isn’t it? No wonder the world lives in denial and fear of death. You can’t function in the world with that on your mind. It is paralyzing. So, you have to ignore it. You have to push it into some other area of your brain and forget about it. Then, when you’re forced to think about it, fear and anxiety overcome you. That’s what we’re seeing. The fear, panic, franticness, anxiety coming from people being forced to look into the abyss—being forced to look into the emptiness of a world without God.
Yet, when we accept the reality that there IS a God, and we come to know and trust Him, it changes everything. We understand a few important truths. First, that author says, “So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands…” (Ecclesiastes 9:1, NIV). When we finally recognize that there is a God, we also have to recognize that everything we do is in God’s hands. Not only that, but in verse 9 it says that God has given us all the days of our lives. Every day of our life has been given to us from God. The day we were born was given to us by God. This is a day that the Lord has made and given to us. AND the day of our death will be given to us by God. The day of our death is in God’s hands.
When we understand these things—and ACCEPT these things—it changes the way we live. It has to change the way we live. In the midst of a pandemic like this—with death always before our eyes—our lives should look different than those who’ve rejected God. Since we know that the day of our death is in God’s hands, and since we know that God has given us today as a gift, the author says, “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do…Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love…Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” (Ecclesiastes 9:7–10, NIV). Since we know God has given us today, and is in control over the day of our death, we can Enjoy our life. We can enjoy today—the day God has given us. We can enjoy our food, we can enjoy our spouse, we can enjoy our work.
Take a moment to notice the three things the author mentions: food, marriage, and work. These are the three things he calls us to enjoy. Can you think of another place in the Bible where these three things are spoken together? In the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are given food to eat, they are given one another in marriage, and they are given work to accomplish in the world.
Yet, when they sinned and disobeyed God, things fell apart. They came under God’s curse. Tension came into their marriage (Gen 3:16). Work became more difficult and exhausting (Gen 3:19). The ground was cursed; there are thorns and thistles; and we will eat from the earth in pain all the days of our lives (Gen 3:17-18).
Sin has corrupted our food, our marriages, and our work. And when we reject God, there is not hope of restoration. We are forced to live in hopelessness that “this is how it will always be.” We settle for bad food. We settle for broken marriages. We settle for unfulfilling/meaningless work. And we slowly slip into despair because nothing is going to change and nothing is going to get better.
Yet, God brings redemption. Through Jesus Christ we’ve been forgiven and are being restored. Yes, through Christ, we’ve been forgiven for all of our sins. But we’re also being restored into the image of God—restored to the way God has created us to live in this world. Through Christ’s redemption, our marriages are being restored, our work finds meaning, and even our food is redeemed.
Through Christ, our marriages are redeemed as wives submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ (Eph 5:24), as husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Eph 5:25), as husbands love their wives and wives respect their husbands (Eph 5:33).
Through Christ, our work finds meaning as we do everything as if Christ was our boss, serving Him and seeking our reward in Him through our work (Col 3:23-24), and as we recognize that in Christ none of our work is in vain (1 Cor 15:58).
Through Christ, even our food is redeemed as we eat in honor of Christ and give Him thanks (Rom 14:6), being content with the food Christ has given us (1 Tim 6:8), making sure that we’re eating and drinking to the glory of Christ (1 Cor 10:31), looking forward to the day when we’ll eat with Christ at his glorious wedding banquet.
This is why we’re told to eat and drink the food God has given us with joy. This is why we’re told to enjoy the spouse God has given us. This is why we’re told to work hard and joyfully at the task God has given us. These are gifts of God in this life. We are called to enjoy them.
And to bring all of this together, we are called to enjoy them while we live because we don’t know then the day of death will come. So, we are called to enjoy these gifts from God today.
We should not neglect these gifts because we are paralyzed by fear of losing them. We should not neglect these gifts because we are frustrated with what we have. We should not neglect these gifts because “things aren’t fair.” We also should not neglect these gifts because we are fearful and full of anxiety about our impending death. God has given us these gifts TODAY. We are called to enjoy them TODAY.
The reality is that every one of us will die one day. It’s coming. We don’t know when. But we know this one thing, Christ has redeemed us. He has conquered sin and death. We no longer have to fear either of them, but we should not ignore them.
Since Christ has redeemed us, we can enjoy the life he has given us TODAY. We can go home after church, make a good meal, and enjoy every single bite. If God has given us a spouse, we can cuddle up on the couch and enjoy the time we have with them. We can get up Monday morning, go to work, work hard, and enjoy the opportunity to serve our God—thanking Him for the work he’s given us. Because we no longer have to fear death, we can enjoy the life Christ has given us TODAY.