This side of eternity

Ecclesiastes 9:1-6 TNIV

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. 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.

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. 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 12:13-14 TNIV

Now all has been heard;

here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments,

for this is the duty of every human being.

For God will bring every deed into judgment,

including every hidden thing,

whether it is good or evil.

My thoughts -

I am not a fan of death. I don't much care for the idea of mortality. The whole notion that ultimately life ends and everything that you do in life will be undone by that end imparts a kind of meaninglessness to your actions. Everything here is tempered by its impermanence. Whether good or bad there is always that voice saying that it will not last.

I think I share this with the author of Ecclesiastes. The author of Ecclesiastes (we've been over whether or not it is Solomon before) sees death as the end and in response to this declares everything in life to be meaningless. All is in vain. He is not just responding to death, but also to injustice, suffering, and sin.

In the first passage we're looking at, from Chapter 9, the author is looking at the role chance plays in what happens to us (this is carried over from Chapter 8), how no one knows or can know what will happen in the future, and how it is all in God's hands. Furthermore, from the author's perspective, we're all bound for the same destiny. Whether we are good or bad, rich or poor, weak or powerful, God fearing or not, we will all die.

I sometimes wonder how Ecclesiastes made it into our cannon. You don't see a lot of books in the Bible take this kind of fatalistic approach to life and death. And you don't often see such a lack of hope in a future beyond the grave. One of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 88, openly questions whether or not God could be praised from beyond the grave. I think I like that and Ecclesiastes for the same reason. It gives voice from scripture to my own doubts, fears, and insecurities.

You don't see such questions raised in the New Testament, which is where a lot of us Christians like to reside in our scripture reading. In the New Testament we already have the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. These questions about death are answered for us in Jesus. And yet to be human is to be mortal. We live each day in the knowledge that death will overtake us eventually. We can't help but see that. And sometimes the idea of resurrection is purely academic. I don't experience it here.

I've buried many friends and family members and I haven't seen one come back. Not yet. I have hope in Jesus but also fear, doubt, and insecurity. Ecclesiastes lets me know that I am not alone in this. For all of our bluster about certainty many of us are not certain. Not all the time. And that is perfectly human.

So you see throughout Ecclesiastes the author's observation of this existential issue. He declares life to be meaningless. He declares everything to be in vain. I've been there. Heck, I live there. But then we get to the last passage here. How does the author end this book?

Here is a different response. We've had the overwhelming majority of Ecclesiastes tell us that life is meaningless, whatever you do doesn't matter. Who you are doesn't matter. Wisdom doesn't matter. Wealth doesn't matter. Obeying God doesn't matter. Ultimately whoever you are and whatever you do doesn't matter. You are bound for the same destiny as everyone else. You will die and nothing you have ever done will last. That's it. The end. Fade to black.

But here at the end the author tells us that we should obey God. Such a dim view of life and death, and with no hope for eternal reward or fear of punishment and yet we should obey God. We should keep God's commandments. Though chance and fate determine outcomes and all end in the grave we should fear God's judgement. We should keep God's commandments.

I don't know that I understand this from the author's perspective, but I do have my own. This is all we've got. I have lived without hope and I have lived with it. I have lived outside a reconciled relationship with God and I have lived inside it. It is better inside.

I don't know what happens when we die. I wish I could say I did. I wish I had certainty. But I don't and to say otherwise would be dishonest. I have hope. I believe. But I don't know. None of us really can know on this side of eternity.

But I believe in God. And I have found in my own life that living inside what I believe is God's will is better by far than living outside of it. And I trust God with my life. I trust God with my death. I trust God with eternity. Life doesn't make sense to me absent God.

So this is what we have. Trust God. Obey God's commandments. Love each other. Everything may be meaningless. Everything may be in vain. Life is short and often cruel. Horrible things happen to people. Things I can't explain or comprehend. Life is unfair. The wicked prosper and the good suffer. These things can not be denied. The author of Ecclesiastes does not deny them. I don't either.

And yet this is all we've got. And life can be beautiful and wonderful too. It's not perfect. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But I thank God for it. I praise God for it. And I place my hope and trust in God in it. And however eternity works out I feel pretty good about it.

This is all we've got. Trust God. It is better by far to do this than not to.