It Doesn’t Matter Ecclesiastes 9
This year’s Kentucky Derby winner is a horse called Rich Strike. This was a horse that wasn’t even in the race until 31 hours before the race began. 2 other horses had to scratch before Rich Strike even qualified for the race, but it wasn’t supposed to win. The odds were 80:1, meaning those that know horse racing were willing to pay out $80 to each 1$ bet on the horse. SO those that bet one the horse won big, because it wasn’t supposed to win.
One of the most famous unlikely victories in recorded history is the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. Just over 150 British and colonial troops successfully defend a farmhouse against an intense assault by 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors in 1879. The massive but piecemeal Zulu attacks on Rorke's Drift came very close to defeating the much smaller garrison. After repeated attacks, the Zulu force was depleted and no reinforcements were sent for further assaults on the position. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the combatants, it was the largest number of Victoria cross medals awarded by the British Government at any one battle. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the British lost only 17 dead to 351 Zulus.
One of the contestants on last year’s show Alone, the survivalist show, has a master’s degree in Experimental Archaeology from the University of Exeter, as well as a PhD on the microscopic analysis of prehistoric processed skin artefacts. She said that she hoped to win the $500,00 prize money so she didn’t have to worry about paying her bills or putting food on the table, since she doesn’t make much money with her degrees.
A British trash collector named Michael Carroll, was 19 when he bagged a lottery prize worth $14.4 million in 2002. He went a bit crazy: moved into a mansion, bought gold jewelry and got addicted to drugs and alcohol. He found himself in prison a couple of times, and the prize money was gone within 10 years. Carroll took a job at a cookie factory in Scotland, making only $300 a week. More recently, he was delivering coal for a living. He says he's grateful for the work and a second chance at life. Carroll says he's happy to be alive, sober and out of jail, so he can spend time with his young daughter.
Ecclesiastes 9:11 “Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them.”
Solomon has spent a lot of time examining life, “under the sun,” as he puts it. And this chapter shows a transition of sorts.
9:1 Indeed, I took all this to heart and explained it all: the righteous, the wise, and their works are in God’s hands. People don’t know whether to expect love or hate. Everything lies ahead of them.
Solomon is finally starting to recognize the superiority of God. It doesn’t matter who we are, or what we do. We are all in God’s hands. We can’t predict the future.
2 Everything is the same for everyone: there is one fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not sacrifice. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as for the one who takes an oath, so for the one who fears an oath.
It doesn’t matter how good we are, or how evil, how much we strive to serve God, or put ourselves first. We are all afforded only one opportunity to get it right. We only have this life. Excuses don’t matter. Our religious status doesn’t matter. Our appearance to those around us doesn’t matter. When death comes for us, we can’t avoid it.
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: there is one fate for everyone. In addition, the hearts of people are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live—after that they go to the dead.
Solomon says it is evil that we all only get the one chance. It doesn’t matter the opportunity we have, Solomon says too many use it for evil. They think that this life is it, so it doesn’t matter how they act.
4 But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion.
As long as we are alive, we have hope. We have an opportunity to make our lives right. IT doesn’t matter, right up unto the time of our death.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
“The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” Numbers 14:18
5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun.
Solomon doesn’t quite understand the details, having never died himself, but he can tell it from this side of the curtain, from “under the sun.” He is right in pointing out that it doesn’t matter once we are dead. It’s too late to change what’s been done. Even the living don’t remember the dead.
The Homer High School gymnasium is named after Alice Witte, who was a teacher and coach who died when I was in high school there. Today’s students don’t know who she was. How many people in our communities know who the Chapman’s were, or Paul Banks?
Solomon comes back to his same conclusion yet again,
7 Go, eat your bread with pleasure, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already accepted your works. 8 Let your clothes be white all the time, and never let oil be lacking on your head.
Key in on the repetition in vs 9.
9 Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun.
This life is short. Solomon has referred to the fleetingness of this life in chapters 3, 5, 6, 7 and now again in chapter 9.
David said in Psalm 39: 4-5 4 “LORD, reveal to me the end of my life and the number of my days. Let me know how short-lived I am. 5 You, indeed, have made my days short in length, and my life span as nothing in Your sight. Yes, every mortal man is only a vapor.
We all know life is short. We know we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. Even James reminds us of this in the New Testament. James 4: 13-16
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 14 You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. 15 Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn’t do it.
And James’ conclusion there ties right into the next verse back in Ecclesiastes 9.
10 Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
He says it doesn’t matter what your plans were, how smart or wise you were, how strong you were in this life. Once you are dead, it doesn’t matter.
And this brings us back to vs 11: Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them.
12 For man certainly does not know his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.
Whether we are talking about a sudden reversal of fortune such as we see when big businesses collapse, or a death at the height of one’s career, we, like Solomon, recognize it doesn’t matter who or what we are, we can be caught in an evil circumstance.
Next, Solomon tells us a story as an illustration.
13 I have observed that this also is wisdom under the sun, and it is significant to me: 14 There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege works against it. 15 Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.
It doesn’t matter even if you are a hero, and save the city, no one is going to remember you. I struggled to find a real-life illustration for this story, but couldn’t. And that’s the point. Even if it happened in actuality, no one bothered to record it, so we don’t know who it was that saved their city. No one remembers.
In this chapter, Solomon has gone through a whole list of circumstances that we get wrapped up in, “under the sun,” and his conclusion is that it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what comes next, after we die.
16 And I said, “Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded.” 17 The calm words of the wise are heeded more than the shouts of a ruler over fools. 8 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much good.
Solomon isn’t quite ready to give up on wisdom being the answer, but even his attitude towards that is changing. Note what he says again, “wisdom is better than strength, but . . .” and “wisdom is better than weapons of war, but . . .” He is starting to recognize that worldly wisdom isn’t the answer. You can be the wisest person in the world, but it doesn’t matter if no one listens to you.
Vs 18 really points out this transition in Solomon’s thinking. He concludes the chapter by saying, “One sinner can destroy much good.” It doesn’t matter in this life, but the state of your soul at the end of your days, that does matter.
We would do well to listen to Solomon’s conclusions in this chapter. He has realized that no matter what happens to us in this life, in the end, it doesn’t matter. Because this life is temporary. How we respond, and how prepared we are for the next life, That IS what matters. And that’s the invitiation tonight, how prepared are you for God’ judgement and eternity?
