4 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
2 And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
3 But better than both
is he who has not yet been,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
2 And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
3 But better than both
is he who has not yet been,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.
4 And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
5 The fool folds his hands
and ruins himself.
6 Better one handful with tranquillity
than two handfuls with toil
and chasing after the wind.
and ruins himself.
6 Better one handful with tranquillity
than two handfuls with toil
and chasing after the wind.
7 Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
Look at verse 2. It tells us that death is actually a gift from God. And as I was listening to a sermon by Mark Driscoll, I realized that I had never seen it that way, but that it's actually true.
Death is a gift from God. Think about it.
I would submit this to you. Death is a gift that God has given us. Many of us have this naïve myth that we would love to live forever. I would submit this to you. Contemplate a world wherein everyone does whatever they want with no threat of death and they live forever. If you knew that you would not die, would you live differently? You would. Would you live more recklessly? You would. Would you live more selfishly? You would. Would you cause more pain? And more injustice? And more suffering? And more oppression on others than you do now, if you knew that they could not kill you or that your sin would not lead to death? You would.
Contemplate living in a world, then, where everyone sins and nothing happens. There is no motivation or incentive to stop. In addition, contemplate a world wherein that if you get sick, you could be sick forever. If you were in pain, you could be in pain forever. That if you are injured or if you fall into poor health, that you will be that way forever. Chronic suffering without any hope of an end. Do you wanna live there? I don’t wanna live there. That’s Hell. That’s Hell. Hell is life that has not been redeemed, but continues forever. That’s Hell. And God enables us to go through death as a great gift is what Solomon says. That those people who have already died, they are better off. They are better off. Because at least the seeing of injustice, the seeing of wickedness, the suffering of oppression, it’s come to an end.
I've never thought of it that way but it's absolutely true!
And, in fact, death ushers us from this world of darkness into the very presence of Jesus and the glorious kingdom that awaits us there.
In v3 Solomon says that better yet are those who have not been born. The unborn children in their mother's womb are better off than us because they have not yet seen the evil that we do to each other or experienced it themselves.
What a depressing passage! And apart from relationship with Jesus, it is depressing. But thanks be to God who has provided us a way to tether ourselves back to Him, to give us the hope of our glorious and eternal future, and to enable us to begin to live it, at least in part, here on earth already.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ecclesiastes 4:8-12
1 comment:
Excellent points by Mr. Driscoll. I never thought about it that way either. I have long realized that I would never want to live forever, but he adds a lot more to it that I hadn't thought about. Thanks for including that.
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