Ecclesiastes 9:1-6 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.

INTRODUCTION

Kids, what’s the one thing your parents have said to you the most and how many times do you think they’ve said it? Clean your room? Stop jumping on the furniture? Be nice to your brother/sister? Get in the car? Get ready for bed?

I have a child (who shall not be named) for whom I’ve have had to repeat the three rules of eating more times than I can count. In a close second is the ever-repeated admonition to make good choices.

My hope for my kids and all of yours, though, is that the phrase they hear repeated most is something more like “I love you” or “God is greater than you can imagine” or “Jesus is better” or “go grab your Bible.”

There’s a simple question that is implied in all of that: Why do we repeat things? More often than not, the answer is that the thing is too important to let go. In other words, we tend to repeat things that are most important to us.

That’s not only true for us, it’s also true for God. As I’ve mentioned before, where we find familiar things in the Bible, far from an opportunity to pull back or tune out, we’ve found an admonition to lean and tune in all-the-more. When God repeats something, it’s because it’s something we really need to grasp. That has already been the case many times throughout the first eight chapters in Ecclesiastes. It is the case once again in our passage for this morning.

The four main ideas of this passage are familiar indeed. They are that: (1) God is sovereign over all, (2) In light of that, it is a frustrating fact that there is no discernable difference between the experiences of the good and bad in this life, (3) All are sinful, and (4) Death comes to all.

We saw something very similar back in chapter two (2:12-17). There, the contrast was between the experience of the wise and the fool, but the basic idea is the same—the same things happen to both. And in 3:19-21, we see that this is not only the case between various kinds of men, but also between man and beast.

In other words, the slinky effect of Ecclesiastes returns again to a familiar set of topics, topics that we really need to wrap our heads and hearts around if we are going to live in this world as it truly is. And within that, we find the big idea of this passage: Life under the sun inevitably includes the head-scratching reality that good people and bad people experience the same things in life under the sovereign hand of God. The main takeaway is to interpret our circumstances with above the sun wisdom (God’s Word) more than below the sun wisdom (our senses and reason alone).

THE SAME GOD OVER ALL (1)

The Preacher was vexed, frustrated, and even despairing about a lot of the things he observed in his lifetime of searching for wisdom. One thing that was not at all confusing to him, however, was that God is God. That is, he knew and never wavered from the fact that God is sovereign over the world and everything in it.

That idea—the idea of all things being from the hand of God—is taught in many places throughout Ecclesiastes.

The things we busy ourselves with have been given to us by God (1:13; 3:10). If something is beautiful, it’s because God made it so (3:11). It is God alone who makes it so that we can know there is a God (3:11). That which God does, cannot be altered or undone (3:14). And yet, God will bring all things into judgment (3:17) and He can destroy the work of any man (5:6). God gives us our days, out lot, our wealth, our possessions, our honor, and the power to enjoy those things (2:24-25; 3:13; 5:18-20; 6:2; 8:15). God gives days of prosperity and adversity (7:14). God makes things good (7:29).

And in our passage, once again, we see that the righteous and the wise and all they do are in God’s hands. For the Preacher, this is God’s world.

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…

Grace, God is sovereign, but He is also wise and good. All three attributes are necessary for this to be good news. Of this, a friend wrote, “God’s sovereignty apart from his wisdom and goodness would strike unholy terror. But he doesn’t want us to wear a monocle [sovereignty only]. That lens is necessary, but he wants us to wear glasses with at least three lenses [wisdom and goodness too].”

In other words, God can not only do whatever He pleases (sovereign), but also, only good things bring Him pleasure (good), and He knows perfectly well what is good and how to go about accomplishing it (wise).

We can trust God even when life is hard, otherwise unbearably so, because of this.

Unfortunately, however, it doesn’t seem that the Preacher understood all of that. God’s sovereignty in all things was clear to him, but not necessarily His goodness in all things. Therefore, he concluded…

¹ … Whether it [the things we experience at the sovereign hand of God] is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him.

As we’ll see beginning in the next verse, God’s goodness toward the righteous and wise is far from clear when all we can see is what we can see. It’s easy to look around and see that there is a great deal of suffering in the world, but it is not nearly as easy to see anything that would indicate those things being governed by a loving God. That was the Preacher’s point here.

At the end of the day, the main message of v.1 is that whatever we face in life, it is according to the hand of God. And while the Preacher wasn’t sure if that’s always a good thing, we can be. We don’t always understand how. There is mystery as to the specific good God is doing sometimes. And yet God’s Word makes it clear that there is no mystery at all as to whether God is working good.

Our good and wise God is over all.

THE SAME EXPERIENCE FOR ALL (2-3A)

What was it that caused the Preacher to wonder about the goodness of God’s disposition toward the righteous and wise? Simply put, it was his observation that regardless of one’s character or religiosity, everyone experiences the same basic things in this life.

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.

The Preacher’s opening words in v.1 reiterated how meticulous and earnest he was in observing the world around him. This was anything but a flippant, last-minute attempt to turn in a late assignment. He worked really hard over the course of a significant length of time, across a significant number of contexts, and with a significant number of participants, to discover how the world really is.

And one of his main conclusions was that life looks basically the same for everyone. There was no discernable difference between the experiences of people who were righteous, wicked, good, evil, clean, unclean, obedient, disobedient, convicted of sin, unconvicted, those who kept their word, and those who refused to even make a promise. Life was essentially the “same for all.” There were plenty of people within every group for whom things were going well and not well. No group the Preacher observed had a truly better or worse overall experience.

You’ve seen that, haven’t you?

• I know angry atheists and devout Christians alike who are tremendously successful.
• I know people who are impeccably godly and others who are outwardly and unapologetically wicked who know consistent and deep suffering.
• We hear of people all around the world, of all different faiths and of no faith at all, who are struck by cancer, catastrophic weather events, and mistreatment at the hands of oppressors.
• Rich and poor people alike are often lonely, unfulfilled, and discouraged.
• If you look around your workplace, you’ll find people in positions of leadership who are lazy and others who are hard workers.
• There are faithful, baptized members of our church who were raised by intentional, prayerful, discipleship-driven, church-rooted parents and who were raised by wicked, abusive, godless parents.

When the Preacher looked around, he saw example after example of this and his conclusion was that, “3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all…”.

He had a really hard time thinking of this as anything other than evil injustice. As I mentioned just a minute ago, the same fate for all, combined with the fact that God is sovereign over it all, was confusing beyond measure. And like the last point, this idea is not new in this passage. That God’s ways are indiscernible and often frustrating in their indiscernibility is a constant refrain for the Preacher (i.e. 3:11).

So, what do you do when the circumstances in your life don’t make sense? How do you respond when you witness or experience injustice? What tends to fill your heart? Do you respond as the Preacher did or are you able to get above the sun enough to see things differently? Is your typical response, like the Preacher’s, driven almost entirely based on your own observations and under the sun reason, or is driven by the above the sun promises in God’s Word? Do you usually focus more on the fact that you can’t think of a single way that God is doing good in this or on the fact that He’s promised that He is?

For those of you who are trusting in God, please imagine your current suffering and your current processing of it, as I read a small handful of God’s promises for your suffering. And if you’re not suffering in any significant way right now, consider the passages I’m about to read in preparation for the suffering that is sure to come at some point.

Romans 8:28-29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Ephesians 1:11-12 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Ezra 8:22 The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him…

Although fleeting and underdeveloped, the Preacher himself did have some sense of this. Ecclesiastes 8:12, “…I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him.”

The same wise and good God is over all, overseeing the same under the sun experiences of all, but for those who trust in Him, for you, God is always doing one million invisible additional things for our good in those experiences.

THE SAME CAUSE FOR ALL (3B)

One day things will be different. The “good” will be separated from the “evil,” the good to eternal life and blessing and the evil to eternal judgment and condemnation (Matthew 25:31-46). In the meantime, however, good people and evil people are mingled and constantly largely experiencing the same things in life.

But what’s underneath all of that? Why is it like that in God’s world? Look at the middle of v.3.

³ … Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live…

At the very least, the Preacher understood that sin is real, that it’s bad (5:6), that it is corrosive and costly (3:17; 4:3; 8:11, 13), and (as we see in the verse I just read) that all men are sinners (7:20; 9:3).

Once again, it seems like the Preacher understood more than he understood. His awareness of the corruption of all mankind might not have gone as deep as, and answered all the questions that, it should have, but it was there.

What he sort of knew, we know for sure: There are none who are truly good, but God alone (Mark 10:18). The world is as it is (with the “good” and the “evil” each experiencing the same things), because sin has corrupted all mankind and the world we live in. None of us have purely pure motives or actions. Nothing we do is just as it ought to be. There are none who deserve uninterrupted blessing, success, or prosperity

Coming to see this and believe this is (not just conceptually or theoretically, but actually believing that you are a sinner, having violated God’s Law), believe it or not, the beginning of the best news of all time. If you do not know and grieve that you are a sinner, you are in far bigger trouble than you can imagine.

The second piece of (equally non-good-news-sounding) good news is found in the next few verses: death comes to all.

THE SAME RESULT FOR ALL (4-6)

I’ve been saying throughout this sermon that the Preacher lamented the fact that everyone he observed had the same basic experiences in their lives, no matter what kind of life they lived. That is true. But I hope that some of you noticed something in the grammar of the passage that I haven’t yet mentioned. The Preacher, in this particular passage, wasn’t mainly talking about common experiences (plural). He was mainly talking about a common experience (singular).

² It is the same for all, since the same event happens [to all]…

³ This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all…

What was that event? Death.

³ … 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.

In other words, the Preacher was pointing his readers mainly to the fact that no matter what kind of person you are or what kinds of things you do, you will die. Of this, one of the commentators I regularly read has said many times, “Death is the great leveler.”

Think of the person you most admire (whose life seems to be going exactly as you’d like yours to be going), the person you least admire (who is suffering the most), the youngest person and oldest person, the nearest person and furthest person, the person most and least like you, the smartest and dumbest person, the prettiest and ugliest person, the best and worst person, the richest and poorest person, the healthiest and sickest person, the strongest and weakest person, the most godly and the least godly. Everyone you can draw to mind has a one inescapable thing in common, no matter what they do, think, feel, believe, love, or trust, they will all die. And at the heart of this whole passage is the Preacher’s frustration about this. It just doesn’t seem fair to him that nothing about the way you live your life can alter this fact.

It seems to me that unlike some of the other ways the Preacher remained in mystery, in this case he really did have all the pieces he needed. He just didn’t know how to put them together. The fact of the matter, Grace, is that death comes to all because, as the Preacher saw, sin leads to death and we are all sinners. In Adam (which we all are), all die (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Interestingly, the Preacher’s concluding observation is that, nevertheless, it is better to be alive than dead. That’s the heart of v.4, “But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.”

For most of us, this makes at least a bit of sense. Although lions are “the king of the jungle,” it’s better to be any lesser animal who is alive than the greatest animal who is dead. In the ancient world, though, in the Preacher’s world, the contrast was much greater.

When we think of dogs, we tend to think of cute, domesticated, well-groomed, well-behaved, well-bred family pets. But again, that was far from the case for the Preacher.

If you’ve ever traveled internationally to areas of the world that are less well off, you’ve inevitably seen a different kind of dog. They’re generally everywhere, they’re mangy, filthy, malnourished, aggressive, unsupervised, and unwanted. They’re the last thing you want to be around. People are constantly shooing them away, kicking at them when they try to seal a bit of food, and cursing them. They’re the lowest part of society. (With that in mind, a lot of the biblical references to dogs will make a lot more sense.)

And the Preacher’s conclusion is that death is so bad that it’s better to be that kind of dog and alive, than the most noble and powerful animal of all and dead. He lists several (five) reasons why.

The Living Have Knowledge (5a)

Like so many other things, in the way of life after death, the Preacher knew more than he knew, but not all that could be known. His view on the afterlife is unclear and confused. He knew there was something (as we’ve seen and will continue to see), but not much at all about that something. In these few verses (and throughout most of Ecclesiastes) it sounds as if the Preacher’s view of the afterlife falls somewhere between death as eternal sleep and death as simply having no more to do with the things of earth.

In that way, it’s not hard to make sense of his thoughts on the advantages of the living (and why it’s better to be alive as a dog than dead as a lion). His first thought being that the living have the advantage of understanding.

⁵ For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing…

As I said a minute ago, this sounds like the Preacher is assuming some kind of eternal sleep for the dead. How else could they know nothing? But we’re not meant to put too much on this. It’s possible (and maybe probable) that he’s speaking more of knowing nothing about the affairs of life on earth than knowing nothing about anything. Regardless, the Preacher calls his readers to be glad for what they do know since that will change one day.

The Living Have a Reward (5b)

A second advantage of being alive is that there is a kind of earthly reward available to the living that isn’t to the dead. We see that in the middle of v.5.

⁵ …and they [the dead] have no more reward…

The next points point to the kinds of rewards the Preacher has in mind. For now, though, let’s name the elephant in the room. The great promise of God is that death is the only doorway to full and eternal reward. It is a reward that is far, far greater than any that we can experience on earth. I’ll come back to this in the end, but don’t miss the fact that the Preacher missed this. And don’t miss the fact that everyone misses this who tries to figure out the nature and meaning of things through nothing more than observation and reason.

How many people alive today have made use of the Preacher’s same methods and come to the Preacher’s same conclusions? How many are proving this observation true for themselves (no more reward in death) by believing this observation to be true?

Grace, everyone who employs only senses and reason can only conclude that there is no reward in death. And everyone who concludes there will be no reward in death will have no reward in death. This is why the primary takeaway of this sermon is to make use of above the sun wisdom in order to make the best use of the under the sun wisdom we have. Indeed, our under the sun wisdom is only wisdom when it is interpreted through the lens of something higher (the Word of God).

The Living Are Known (5c)

Again, then, what kind of rewards did the Preacher have in mind when he said the dead have no more reward? The end of v.5 gives us part of the answer.

⁵ … for the memory of them is forgotten.

Whatever else there is to say about the Preacher’s observations and conclusions, it is true that the dead are soon forgotten. Some people are forgotten virtually as soon as they die—people without family or community. Some are remembered (albeit in a different way) if they accomplish or are otherwise connected to an especially noteworthy event (in recorded history). But almost all of us will be forgotten within a generation or two after our death. I imagine that not many of us have very clear recollections of our great grandparents.

The reward of the living is that we are known. There are people in our lives who understand and love us. They’re glad when we’re around and sad when we’re not. They depend on us for certain things and would feel a real loss if we could no longer meet their needs. We share life with them and their lives are fuller because of it. None of that is true for the dead in a very real sense—at least among those still on earth.

Although this is a tragically incomplete view of life and death, there is something to be learned from it: Let’s be a people who really give ourselves to one another. Let’s do our best to be fully present wherever we are. Let’s live in such a way that rises way above the pursuit of personal entertainment, to the point that the lives of those around us are genuinely enhanced by us.

The Living Have Emotions (6a)

The next advantage, found at the beginning of v.6, is another example of the kind of reward of the living the Preacher has in mind.

⁶ Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished…

The living have the privilege of experiencing the full spectrum of emotion—love, hate, and envy are named by the Preacher. Suggesting some kind of eternal sleep, the Preacher assumes that the dead no longer experience anything. It is better to be alive and experience good (love) or bad (hate and envy), than to be dead and not.

The Living Have a Place and a People on Earth (6b)

Finally, and summarily, the fifth advantage of the living listed by the Preacher is participation in life under the sun. Look at the end of v.6.

⁶ … and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

The Preacher would be able to rightly say this even with a full grasp of life after death. It is true in God’s World that once we die, we will have no more share in the affairs of those on earth (at least not until the new heavens and earth are ushered in by Jesus).

Before coming to my conclusion, I want to point out something that appears to be a contradiction in the Preacher’s Words.

His basic message of the latter half of this passage is that even with all the vanity of life under the sun, it is better to be alive than dead. Contrast that with what he said in 4:2, “I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.” That sound like the opposite of what he said in 9:4-5.

As is often the case, in neither passage was the Preacher trying to make a universal, absolute declaration. Rather, in each case he was simply highlighting a few practical advantages of life and death. Without an understanding of heaven or hell, that’s most definitely true. And in that way, the observations the Preacher makes in the two passages are not mutually exclusive, but complementary.

In chapter 4, the advantage of the dead is that they are no longer oppressed and must no longer see the evil deeds done under the sun. In chapter 9, the advantage of being alive is that there is a significant measure of reward available to the living that is not available to the dead (in his mind).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I want to come back to the greatest news of all time. I mentioned that it begins with the understanding that we have all sinned against God. Then, in the next point, we saw that it continues with the fact that the result of our sin is (eternal) death. The Preacher saw both of those things without entirely seeing those things. Largely stuck there, the Preacher clearly recognized that doesn’t sound a lot like good news.

With a more complete picture of God’s work in the world, however, it’s not hard to see that if you do not believe in a God who is creator-king and righteous-judge of all, and that we all (you and I) have sinned against Him and therein brought death upon ourselves, the rest of the good news won’t be good news either.

If you don’t believe that, there is no good news for you in the same way that news of a cure for a disease you don’t know of anyone having isn’t good news. News of a cure is only good news for those with or near the disease.

Sin and death are good news in the sense that they are the disease that God has provided the cure for. If you don’t know you have that disease, news of what God did to overcome it will sound silly at best.

But once the Spirt opens your eyes to see your ruin, you are ready to receive the rest of the good news: namely that God loved the world in such a way that He sent His one and only Son into the world, so that whoever believes in Him will not truly die, but have eternal life. Jesus came to earth in love, becoming a man, to give us an example of perfect godliness and then to die in our place. He willingly offered His life as a ransom for the world. And then, on the third day, He rose again, defeating death and making everlasting life possible for all who will receive that in faith.

These things are not, as you can easily see, discernable through observation and reason alone. The require wisdom from above; above the sun wisdom that God alone can impart.

To that end, let me leave you with another passage from the Word of God. One that perfectly fits with the Preacher’s observations, but fills in what He lacked.

1 Peter 1:3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused [the sovereignty of God observed by the Preacher] us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you [the reward of the dead in Christ], ⁵ who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials [the righteous suffering as the Preacher observed], ⁷ so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ [the reason things were the same for the righteous and the wicked that the Preacher couldn’t see].

Life under the sun inevitably includes the head-scratching reality that good people and bad people experience the same things in life under the sovereign hand of God. The main takeaway, therefore, is to interpret our circumstances with above the sun wisdom more than below the sun wisdom.