Death,
Mourning, and Sorrow
and their
relation to what is good for man in this life (Eccles. vii. 1-6)
Charles Welch
"The day of death
(is better) than the day of one's birth."
To the unsaved
reader these words will be sufficient to confirm their opinion that
Koheleth (Solomon) was a pessimist. To the enlightened believer the same
words will reveal him as a spirit-taught optimist. From the viewpoint of
Ecclesiastes what is this present life? It is summed up in the words
"Vanity and vexation of spirit" to all those who have not reached the
“conclusion of the whole matter" (xii. 13, 14). This present life is
expressed in the synonymous clause "all the days of his vain life which
he spendeth as a shadow" (vi. 12). At the end of that life there is the
"one event," and the "one place."
.. As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as
he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away
in his hand" (v. 15).
The flesh profiteth nothing. This life can only be blessed and
purposeful when it is viewed as a place of discipline and training,
fitting one for true service and life that is life indeed in
resurrection. The day of our birth ushers us into a sphere dominated by
the law of sin and death. We are at birth" sown in corruption,"
dishonour, weakness, merely a natural (soul-ical) body. Resurrection
changes all this. We are raised in incorruption, glory, power, and--with
a spiritual body. The first state is connected with Adam (I Cor. xv. 45,
Eccles. vi. ]0, Heb.) the second with Christ.
If these facts are appreciated in any degree, we shall also appreciate
the words of Ecclesiastes "the day of one's death is better than the day
of one's life." At death the pilgrimage ceases, the lessons are over,
the discipline done. For the believer sin's punishment, power and
presence will have for ever passed away. The death which has
fallen upon him shall never fall again. The present life with all its
blessings and pleasures and opportunities is a life spent in corruption,
and in the sphere of a curse. Such a condition cannot be immortal. Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither can corruption
inherit incorruption. This being so, even though the mind and heart
shrink from the valley of the shadow of death, one can see that it is a
necessity ("change" will be the equivalent for the living saints) if we
would enter into the full blessedness of redemption.
Ecclesiastes is under no false idea that death is a “friend" or a
"bright angel." That is left to the unbeliever in his endeavour to hide
the terror of the last enemy. The believer taught by the Scripture is
under no illusions as to death. Job could even dare to speak of "worms
destroying his body" when he knew that his Redeemer lived. Paul
can speak of death and the grave without softening either awful word,
because resurrection robbed them of their sting and their victory.
Ecclesiastes teaches that the only ones in this life who can “enjoy” any
good in it, in the true sense, are those who have faced its transient
character, realized the fact that this is not their rest but their
school, and who, knowing that life in its fulness cannot be entered
until we awake satisfied with Christ's likeness, set their mind on
things above where Christ is. As a result of believing that the day of
death is better than the day of birth, Koheleth continues:
"It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of
feasting:
for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to heart"
(vii. 2).
The man of the world argues in an exactly opposite direction. Seeing
that death is the end of all men, he says, "Let us eat, drink and be
merry, for tomorrow we die." Again it is the hope of resurrection
that makes the difference. Both can say "tomorrow we die," but the one
as a result says “feast,” the other “fast.” It is a natural thing
to say, “If this brief life is to end in death, why not make the most of
it? Why not get all the good one can out of it, in other words, put
sadness and sorrow out of sight; eat, drink and be merry.” That is
natural. Taught by the Spirit of truth however, we reason that if this
present life is to end in death and the full blessings of redemption
cannot be entered by flesh and blood; moreover, if there are spheres of
service to be entered in the life to come that shall bear some analogy
to our faithfulness here, and if an eternal weight of glory lies over
against a light affliction which is but for a moment, if moreover, love
to our Redeemer compels us to stand on His side, go without the camp and
suffer His reproach-then we cannot help becoming pilgrims and strangers,
declaring by our very abstention that we seek a country that lies beyond
the grave, that our pleasures are associated with our Saviour, and
that while sin and death and the curse are everywhere apparent, we
cannot find it in our heart to eat, drink and be merry, but rather find
greater and deeper joy in those circumstances which superficially are
the saddest and darkest hours of life.
"The living will lay it to heart" (vii. 2); further, "Sorrow is better
than laughter" (vii. 3) for the same reason, "for by the sadness of the
countenance (external) the heart (internal) is made better" (vii. 3).
The world thinks only of the face, the believer thinks more of
the heart. True wisdom recognises the essential difference.
.. “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning (and will be
thereby made' better ');
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth" (vii. 4).
Association with mourners may not prove so enjoyable to the flesh as the
hilarity of feasting and mirth, but
"It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear
the song of fools.
For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the
fool. This also is vanity" (vii. 5, 6).
The choice of worldliness is fleeting. The brief hour of mirth is oft
followed by days of bitterness. The poor untaught world sees nothing
beyond this present age, and the majority of Christians seem to have
conspired to perpetuate its blindness. Present Christendom with its
worldliness, its pleasures, its fleshly inducements, its forsaking of
the narrow path, its philosophy, its politics, all proclaim the negation
of resurrection. The Church is fast approaching the form of godliness
which involves the denial of the power of the resurrection, and with it
in song and sermon sounds the hoary tradition that puts resurrection
aside, bridges the gulf between the flesh and the spirit, and seeks to
improve that which is corrupt, carnal and mortal. Ecclesiastes vii. is
sober truth.
Let us hear the rebuke of the wise, and seeing the end of all men let us
lay it to heart.
From The Berean Expositor, Volume 12, page 52
