Scripture
In his quest to find out how to live a meaningful life the writer of Ecclesiastes urges his readers, in view of the certainty of death and the unpredictability of life, to enjoy life to the fullest.
Let us read Ecclesiastes 9:1-12:
1 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. 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. 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.
7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
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.
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. (Ecclesiastes 9:1-12)
Introduction
Many people go through life with little joy.
People are anxious about the economy. More than 1 in 10 Floridians are without work. A number of people in our own congregation have been laid off and are looking for gainful employment. And, if one listens to some commentators, it is likely to get worse before it gets better.
People are anxious about their health. They wonder if their cancer will return. Or, if the cancer they already have, will go into remission. Others worry about Alzheimer’s Disease. Or diabetes. Or losing their eyesight. And to make matters worse, health care costs are going up—and not down, as promised.
People are also anxious about their children. Some parents, frankly, are ill equipped to be parents, and so it is not surprising that their children are going astray. But, then there are parents who doing all the right things in terms of raising their children, and, still, there seems to be one who is simply bent on going his own way.
Anxiety eats away at the joy life can give. Anxiety kills joyful living! That is as true today as the day on which the Preacher wrote it when he wrote the book we call Ecclesiastes.
Lesson
In our text for today, the Preacher urges his readers, in view of the certainty of death and the unpredictability of life, to enjoy life to the fullest.
And so in today’s lesson we are urged, in view of the certainty of death and the unpredictability of life, to enjoy life to the fullest.
I. The Certainty of Death (9:1-6)
The Preacher begins with an observation about the certainty of death.
In the previous two chapters (i.e., chapters 7 and 8) the Preacher noted that bad things happen to some good people and good things happen to some bad people. Now, as he begins chapter 9 the Preacher continues in verse 1a, “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.”
No matter how much the righteous suffer on earth, it is all in the hand of God. God is sovereign. Nothing in all of creation happens apart from God’s sovereign will.
The problem is, as the Preacher continues in verse 1b, “Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him.” That is to say, the righteous do not know whether the suffering they are experiencing is the result of God’s love or hate, that is, his favor or anger.
Think of the story of Job in the Bible. You remember that he lost his immense fortune, his ten children, and his health. We know that this happened because we are told that God allowed Satan to do that to Job. But do you know that Job never found out why God allowed that to happen to him? He did not know if God loved him or hated him. But Job kept trusting God, even though he did not understand why he was suffering.
At this point the Preacher brings the wicked back into the picture, and begins by saying in verse 2a, “It is the same for all.” What is same for all? Apparently, the same event is 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. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all” (9:2b-3a).
This same event happens to everyone. But what is the event? The Preacher says in verse 3b, “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.” So, the same event that happens to all people is death.
But, I also want you to notice that the Preacher gives the reason why all people die: he says that the hearts of the children of man are full of evil. The Preacher is likely referring to the command that God gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2:16-17, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Adam disobeyed God and death followed. Since we have all inherited Adam’s sinful nature, we all also die. No-one escapes death. Death is certain for all.
Still, there are advantages to being alive. The Preacher says in verse 4, “But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.” Obviously, to be alive is better than being dead. While a person is alive, there is hope for change, for good, for joy. But once a person dies, all that goes away. The Preacher uses a proverb to support his point that the living have hope, when he says that a living dog is better than a dead lion. In the Preacher’s day, dogs were not pets. They were despised. They were loathed. They were like rats in our day. By contrast, the lion, like today, was admired as king of the animal world. And so the Preacher was saying that even a despised dog’s life was better than death. Even a miserable life is better than death, for the living have hope.
Moreover, the Preacher says in verse 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.” When a person is dead, that is the end for that person.
Verse 6 is like an exclamation point regarding the dead: “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.” They are gone—forever.
So, the first observation that the Preacher stresses is the certainty of death. It comes to all.
II. Enjoy Life to the Fullest (9:7-10)
Against this dark observation, the Preacher has some important advice for the living: enjoy life to the fullest!
Listen! Death is certain for you. You cannot escape it. Death comes to everyone. Nevertheless, in view of the certainty of death, enjoy life to the fullest.
People may not sing it much anymore, but the following song was popular in its day:
You’re gonna take that ocean trip, no matter come what may:
You’ve got your reservations made, but you just can’t get away.
Next year for sure, you’ll see the world, you’ll really get around;
But how far can you travel when you’re six feet under ground?
Then the refrain:
Enjoy yourself; it’s later than you think!
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink.
The years go by, as quickly as a wink,
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think!
The Preacher gives several commands to emphasize his point that we are to enjoy life to the fullest.
The first command is in verse 7a, “Go”! It’s a wake-up call. There is no time to waste. Stop complaining! Stop worrying! Stop thinking about your problems! Stop being anxious! “Go”!
The second command is in verse 7b, “Eat your bread with joy.” Don’t rush through your meals. Enjoy them! In America we tend to eat meals quickly. We don’t take our time. But that was not the case in biblical times, nor is it the case in certain other parts of the world. A meal is a time not only to enjoy the food but also to enjoy one another. I think that is why Thanksgiving meals are so popular. We take time—sadly, only one day a year, it seems—to eat our bread with joy!
The third command is in verse 7c, “And drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.” God has provided a rich variety of drinks for us to enjoy. Some enjoy wine. And could I say for our tea totaling friends that the Bible never disapproves of drinking wine. Others enjoy other beverages, such as juice, or sodas, or tea, or whatever. God has given us all things richly to enjoy. Or, as the Preacher points out, God has already approved what is done, so long as it is done with joy and a merry heart!
The fourth command is in verse 8, “Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.” The Preacher lived in a hot climate, so a white garment was a cool garment. Oil would keep a person’s skin from drying out. The Preacher’s point about the garments and the oil is a reference to joy. When people were grieving or distraught, they showed it by wearing sackcloth and putting ashes on their heads (see 2 Samuel 13:19). But, when they were joyful, they wore white clothes and put oil on their heads. In our culture we might show our joy by wearing colorful clothes and being well-groomed.
The fifth command is in verse 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.” The most precious gift God gives to us, after he gives us Jesus, is a spouse. One commentator reminds us that “there has always been within the Christian tradition an ascetic tendency that understands true spirituality as involving the shunning of created things (e.g., food, wine, sex) rather than the enjoyment of these things in thankfulness to God who has blessed us with them. . . . [The Preacher] helps us see that the latter is the true spirituality.” Enjoying God’s good gifts is true spirituality.
The sixth command is in verse 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.” Sheol is the place of the dead. It is the grave. At this point in redemptive history, the Preacher did not yet know about hell, and so sheol does not refer to hell; it simply refers to the grave. Basically, the Preacher is urging us to do with all our might whatever our hand finds to do, because once we are dead there is no possibility of continuing to do it.
So, in view of the certainty of death, the Preacher urges us to enjoy life to the fullest: “Go”! “Eat your bread with joy”! “Drink your wine with a merry heart”! “Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head”! “Enjoy life with the wife whom you love”! And, “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might”!
III. Life Is Unpredictable (9:11-12)
Finally, the Preacher points out that life is unpredictable.
He says in verse 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.”
One would expect the fastest person always to win the race. But this is not always so. In the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the American Lola Jones was expected to win gold in the 100 meter hurdles race. She was by far the fastest hurdler in the race. But she tripped on the ninth hurdle, and finished not first but seventh. “The race is not to the swift.” Life is unpredictable.
One would expect the strongest always to win the battle. But this is not always so. Goliath was a giant of a man. He laughed when a teenager named David came out to fight against him. David did not have any armor on, and he only had a slingshot and some pebbles. But David killed Goliath. The battle is not always to the strong. Life is unpredictable.
The Preacher then gives three examples of intellectual superiority: “nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge.” In each of these instances one can think of examples of people who did not come out on top. Again, life is unpredictable.
Why do these things happen? The Preacher gives the answer in verse 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.” No one is in control of his or her destiny. Accidents happen, runners trip, the strong can be beaten, wise teachers lose their jobs, intelligent entrepreneurs can go bankrupt, the skillful can fall out of favor.
No one knows what will happen next. Disaster can strike at any time, including the moment when you least expect it.
Consider the curious case of Moliere, the French actor and playwright. While performing the title role in the final scene of his own drama titled The Hypochondriac, or The Imaginary Invalid, Moliere was seized by a violent coughing fit. As it turned, his malady was no imagination. Moliere died just a few hours later.
Or consider the sad fate of America’s leading psychic, Jeanne Dixon. On January 2, 1997 Dixon predicted that a “famous entertainer will leave a nation in mourning within weeks.” Whether the nation mourned or not, just three weeks later Dixon herself died of a heart attack. It is doubtful that she ever saw it coming.
Or, take another example. Bob Cartwright was disappointed when he was unable to accept an invitation to fly to New York city with his friend Tyler Stanger and professional baseball player Cory Lidle for a playoff game between the Yankees and the Tigers. He felt differently when he saw the news that Stanger and Lidle had crashed into an apartment building and perished. “I was supposed to be on that plane,” Cartwright said. Yet just one month later Cartwright died in another plane crash, near his mountain home in California.
Then there is Donald Peters, who bought two Connecticut lottery tickets on November 1, 2008—just as he had for the previous twenty years. As it turned out, one of his tickets was worth $10 million. But Peters was not as lucky as one might think, because he died of a heart attack later on the very same day that he bought the winning ticket.
None of these unfortunate, unexpected events would have surprised the Preacher. “Time and chance happen to them all,” he would have said, “For man does not know his time.”
Life is unpredictable.
Conclusion
And so the Preacher urges us to enjoy life to the fullest in view of the uncertainty of death and the unpredictability of life.
The New Testament, of course, teaches us that death is not the end but a new beginning—for those who trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior it is our entrance into life in heaven for all eternity.
But that does not alter the message that we ought to enjoy the days God gives us on this earth. Jesus himself enjoyed “eating and drinking” (see Matthew 11:18-19).
On more than one occasion Jesus provided bread for the people to enjoy (Matthew 14:13-21; 15:32-29).
He even turned water into “good wine” for people to enjoy at a wedding (John 2:9-11).
Further, Jesus honored marriage by being present at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11).
Jesus also urged us to work with all our might when he said in John 9:4, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” Jesus has in mind the night, the darkness of death, that will soon overtake him and his disciples.
Because Jesus died and rose again from the dead to save us from our enslavement to sin and to reconcile us to God, we can live as God intended in the beginning: enjoying our food and drink, enjoying life with joy, enjoying life with our spouse, and enjoying our work.
Unfortunately, we so often fritter our time away in meaningless pursuits: worry, anxiety, grudges, arguments, anger, you name it. We waste our days as if we have an unlimited supply of days to live. But we don’t. One day we will die. Death is certain. Moreover, life is unpredictable. Therefore, live life to the fullest!
