Ecclesiastes 7:1-4
1A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. 2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
INTRODUCTION
Well, this is finally it. The last sermon in Ecclesiastes. It seems like a significant understatement to say that God has used this book in my life over the past year. I know many of you have experienced similar measures of God’s grace through our time in it as well.
In simplest terms, I think the main way God has worked in me through Ecclesiastes is in giving me a renewed and significantly deepened appreciation for the nature of His work in this world. I’ve long-believed that God is working good in all the mysteries of life, but Ecclesiastes has helped me grow significantly in my love for the mystery and trust in God’s plan for it.
Another way He’s used this book to sanctify me is in kindling a renewed evangelistic burden and giving a more helpful way to engage in evangelism. More specifically, I don’t know of a clearer example of what it looks/feels/is like to process life under the sun than Ecclesiastes. It is the mindset of everyone apart from Christ. Spending so much time in Ecclesiastes has given me perspective on and compassion for those who still think like that—who are trying to make sense of things and find joy in things apart from the ability to see many of the most important things.
I’ve spent a good deal of time thinking and praying about how to capture as much of that as possible in a summary sermon. As I did, two approaches kept coming to mind. The first is a higher-level look at the two big gifts God gives through Ecclesiastes (honesty about life under the sun and a profound awareness of the need for something more). And the second is a more down-to-earth example of how those things come together in real life.
According to my calculations, each has certain advantages in capturing the kindness of God in and through Ecclesiastes. But at the same time, each also seems to have certain disadvantages as well. Consequently, I spent much of the past couple of weeks feeling torn between the two approaches as they rattled around in my head and prayers. And then it dawned on me that I don’t have to pick. I can give you both.
With that, this sermon has two parts. In part one, we’ll consider the two main gifts of Ecclesiastes by taking a quick look at the whole book. And in part two, we’ll consider one particular passage in order to see the gifts combined and applied. In a sense, then, I’m going to give you two mini-sermons instead of one normal one.
The main idea of it all is the main idea of Ecclesiastes: Living life as God intends means living by wisdom and faith. Because life is under the sun, we need wisdom to know how the world ordinarily works and what it means to live in light of it. And because life is also above the sun, we need faith in God’s promises to live the full lives God made us for. The main takeaways are to God’s learn wisdom and live by it and learn God’s promises and live by them.
The Two Gifts of Ecclesiastes
The first mini-sermon—an overview of the whole book and the two main gifts within it. As we’ve seen, there’s a lot in Ecclesiastes. It covers a lot of ground in a number of different ways. It’s one of the most unique books in the entire Bible. Some of its content is easy to understand and apply. Much, however, is not.
When all is said and done, two things rise to the top. That is, once we’ve worked through it all, it seems to me that the key to Ecclesiastes is in recognizing the two main gifts God gives His people in it. The first—which we’ll consider first—is the most honest look I’ve ever come across concerning the nature of life under the sun; that is, what it is really like to live in God’s world.
Honesty About Life Under the Sun
So what is the world really like according to this ancient text? In an attempt to answer that question, throughout this past week I spent a good deal of time drawing to mind the various aspects of the honesty of Ecclesiastes that stood out to me (and you). And then I reread Ecclesiastes several times to the same end. Having done so, there are five primary aspects of Ecclesiastes’ take on life under the sun that God most seemed to impress upon us.
As we briefly reconsider each of these, Grace, I urge you to take this wisdom and find ways to live more fully in light of it. The world really is like this and taking these things into account is the only way to live as God intends.
- If all we can see is all there is, then there’s nothing but vanity/mystery in this life (1:2, 14; 2:11, 17, 26; 3:16; 4:1-3; 5:8; 8:16-17; 9:1; 11:8; 12:7).
Things ordinarily work in certain ways (which is why the Preacher commends wisdom so consistently), but because of God’s secret providence, there is nothing that can be truly counted on (which is why everything is maddeningly mysterious to him). And his vexation is only multiplied by the fact that he found no place to go to escape the vanity/mystery (1:2, 1:14; 2:11, 2:17, 2:26; 3:16; 4:1-3; 5:8; 11:8).
We’ve all felt this, haven’t we? Life is hard a good deal of the time. It often doesn’t make sense. There are times in which it seems like we will lose no matter what we do. Wicked people prosper while “good” people suffer. Lying, cheating and stealing sometimes gets you ahead and sometimes telling the truth, playing by the rules, and coming by things justly leaves you in the dust.
We pray and nothing happens, we serve others only to have them angry with us for not serving differently or more, we try to do what’s right only to get punched in the face, we do our best to honor God and we end up getting some kind of debilitating or terminal disease.
You simply haven’t lived long enough or aren’t being honest if you can’t acknowledge these things. The world is like this and Christians ought to be the first to admit it (because we know why it is this way). Indeed, if all we can see is all there is, then there’s nothing but vanity/mystery in this life. - Nothing on earth can truly satisfy by itself (1:1, 3, 4, 8, 11; 2:1-25; 5:10, 19; 6:1-8; 8:14; 9:11).
Another truly remarkable aspect of the Preacher’s report in Ecclesiastes is that he tried finding lasting joy in everything, all the way. He went further up and further in, in every realm this world has to offer, than any of us ever will, and he didn’t find true satisfaction in any of it. To name a few: Not work (1:3; 2:18-23), not legacy (1:4, 11; 2:16), nothing we can see or hear (1:8), not wisdom (1:1; 2:12-17; 6:7-8; 9:11), not in worldly pleasure (2:1-11), not money (5:10; 6:8), not justice systems (8:14).
To be clear, there is a kind of joy in each and every one of those things. Indeed, there is even a good kind of joy available in each of those things. Ecclesiastes is honest about that, but it is also honest about the two errors of seeking joy in them.
First, none of those things were designed by God to provide true and lasing satisfaction and therefore none of them have the ability to do so. They simply cannot, no matter how much of them we get or how long we have them. They will always, eventually show themselves to be empty.
The second error is in failing to recognize that joy in a thing is a separate gift from the thing itself. We mistakenly think that if we only had this or that, we’d be lastingly happy. But not only will they never provide lasting happiness (as we just saw), but they won’t provide any happiness if God doesn’t grant it (2:24-25; 5:19; 6:1-5). As frustrating as it is to lack the things we want, it is exceedingly, abundantly more frustrating to have the things we want but not the ability to enjoy them. That all by itself is worth $10,000,000.
The desire to be satisfied is a God-given desire. Ecclesiastes makes us wise to the fact that while the desire itself is good and inevitable, everything hinges on where we seek to have it satisfied—for it is only in God Himself that can. Nothing on earth can truly satisfy by itself. - There is nothing new (1:5-11).
A third description of the true nature of things according to Ecclesiastes, a third part of God’s first gift in Ecclesiastes, is a time and money and stress and comparison saving one: Everything just comes back around and around and around. Boy-o-boy, do we see this in fashion and decorating trends and music and politics. But we also see it in doctrinal errors and points of emphasis and practices within the Church. We are a people who are constantly forgetting to pass on the lessons learned by those who have gone before us, and so we are a people who are constantly reinventing every wheel and making every mistake over and over.
Everything you are experiencing today has been experienced (in some form) from the beginning. Grace, if you are going to live in this world as it is, you must understand there is nothing new under the sun. - No one knows the future (2:19, 22; 6:12; 7:14; 8:7; 9:12) and death comes to everyone (2:15-16; 3:19-20; 6:6; 8:8; 9:2-3; 12:1-8).
This is a harsh lesson to learn, perhaps, but it is one that we cannot live well in this world without learning. We need this wisdom and God gives it to us in Ecclesiastes. We love to make plans about what things will be like in the future, but the Preacher helps us to see that nothing is truly in our control and the only thing we can be certain of concerning our future is our body’s failure and death.
How much sadness and anger have we felt by fixing our joy and well-being on something turning out a certain way—even a good thing—only to have it fail to turn out that way? The Preacher taught us the same lesson that James would centuries later, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’… 15 Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15).
Similarly, as we’ll come back to in the second part of this sermon, how much fuller would our lives be if we lived in light of the fact that we will certainly die? How much humbler would we be? How much less money would we spend on junk? How many careless words would be with withheld? How many less hours would be wasted fretting?
No one knows the future and death comes to everyone and all who live well in this world know those things. - Getting the most good pleasure out of whatever good God gives, whenever He gives it (2:24; 3:12-13; 3:22; 5:18; 8:15; 9:7-10; 11:8-9).
Finally, in light of the fact that the world is this way, the Preacher’s conclusion was that wise people will live in such a way as to get the most good pleasure out of whatever good God gives, whenever He gives it.
Don’t store God’s good gifts up because moth and rust can destroy them and thieves can break in and steal them. Enjoy them as He gives them. Have friends and family over to celebrate the Lord’s blessings. Give generously to those in need now. Run the race while you still have health. Celebrate God’s kindness whenever you receive it. And all of that because we have no idea how long any of it will last.
Living wisely in God’s world means having that mindset and Ecclesiastes helps us to see that.
All of this to help us understand what the world is really like so that we can live in the world as it truly is. A failure to understand or apply the Preacher’s wisdom in these matters always makes life harder. In this way, Ecclesiastes really is a call to get and live by wisdom it contains.
However, as helpful as that is, that’s not the main gift of Ecclesiastes. Despite having more wisdom and more power to live in light of it than anyone, the Preacher’s constant vexation is a reminder that we still need something more. Under the sun wisdom is necessary, but never enough. And that leads to the second gift of Ecclesiastes.
The Urgent Need to Get (and Keep) Our Heads Above the Sun (2:24-25; 3:11, 14, 17; 5:19; 6:1-5, 10; 7:13, 14, 20, 29; 8:11-13; 9:1-6; 10:5; 11:9; 12:14)
Vexation, confusion, and dissatisfaction drip off of nearly every paragraph in Ecclesiastes. There is joy to be found in this world, the Preacher knew, but it is temporary and fleeting. For the Preacher, as we saw, it is meant to drive us to fear God, keep His commandments, and find whatever joy God gives. But with God’s help, it is really easy to see that this solution ultimately falls short. And that’s the second gift of Ecclesiastes—one the Preacher gave without (seemingly) fully realizing it.
The second gift of Ecclesiastes is its power to drive our gaze upward. It’s meant by God to show us the complete inadequacy of life under the sun to provide lasting joy, in order to stir our souls for something more. Like the OT Law, it is meant to force us to look outside of ourselves and above the sun.
In that way, truly heeding the under the sun wisdom of the Preacher—wisdom acquirable through ordinary means, through the use of our senses and reason—necessarily results in recognizing that there must be a different kind of wisdom, a fuller perspective, and something entirely different if we are to be satisfied. God has made us with eternity in our hearts, which means having an innate understanding of the something-still-to-be-desiredness of the Preacher’s conclusions andan innate understanding that there really, truly is something more.
The Preacher got very little of this, but he did get some. He knew through God’s supernatural revelation that God is sovereign (3:14; 6:10; 7:13, 14; 9:1), that God makes everything (10:5), that God put eternity into our hearts (3:11), that God made mankind good (7:29), but all have fallen into sin (7:20, 29; 8:11; 9:3-6), that stuff and ability to enjoy stuff are two, separate gifts (2:24-25; 5:19; 6:1-5), that God judges everyone (3:17; 11:9; 12:14), that it will be well for those who fear God (8:12) but not for those who don’t (8:13), and that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments (12:13).
That’s not a lot, but it is important stuff—all of which combined, conspires to get our eyes above the sun.
All of that has made my soul sing over the past year. It’s so obviously true. It resonates deep in my bones. Not to sound melodramatic, but it has been one of the most significant spiritual gifts God has given since my conversion. I’ve always thought of C.S. Lewis as uniquely able to describe the things we’ve always experienced, but never known—like the taste of air. Ecclesiastes has been that for me in the way of why life is as it is.
And in all of that, we are made restless until we come to rest in Jesus. Ecclesiastes, more than anything I’ve encountered in some time, has helped me know the unique necessity, supremacy, and sufficiency of Jesus by showing me the utter inadequacy of everything else. Thanks be to God.
The Gifts of Ecclesiastes Combined and Applied (7:1-4)
I mentioned at the beginning that I’ve felt torn between which of two approaches to take in summarizing Ecclesiastes. That was the first—looking at all of Ecclesiastes in order to see the two big gifts God gives through it (honesty about life under the sun and a profound awareness of the need for something more). Now, briefly, we’ll turn to the second—a more text-specific example of how those things come together in real life—much of the same stuff, but from a different angle.
The second mini-sermon—a closer look at a particular passage (7:1-4) and the way it points to the two main gifts.
I saw the power of this approach in a funeral message I gave not long ago. Honestly, I was somewhat surprised by how much it resonated with me (and, I think, those at the funeral). It’s rooted in 7:1-4, but what I do with this passage—by God’s supernatural design—can be done with just about every other one. By “what I do,” I mean taking a specific claim in Ecclesiastes and working it out to its natural conclusions. Every time you do that, with the Lord’s help, you’ll end up amazed by the wisdom, wondering how you missed it initially, and eager to live more fully in light of it.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 … the day of death than the day of birth. 2 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
Like many passages in Ecclesiastes, the meaning of this passage might not be immediately obvious. In fact, it probably not only seems a bit confusing, but also exactly the opposite of what we’d expect.
“The day of death is better than the day of birth.” No one really thinks that, do they?
“It is better to go into the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.” How could that be the case?
“Sorrow is better than laughter.” Why is that?
“The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” What kind of wisdom would lead someone to conclude this?
To understand what the author of Ecclesiastes is getting at, to be amazed by it, and to get out of it all that God means us to, we need to wrestle with these questions until they yield. And to do that here, we need to remember who the Preacher is and what he did.
He was a king in Jerusalem. He had an unimaginable amount of money and tremendous wisdom to go with it. And the key to the whole book is that God directed him to use all of his power, money, and wisdom to try to make sense of the world and to find lasting joy in it.
With that, the Preacher set about trying to find meaning and lasting pleasure in all kinds of things familiar to us.
2:1-11 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” … 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine… 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves … I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.
10 … And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them …
He used all his power, money, and wisdom to get whatever he wanted, hoping to find lasting satisfaction in those things. Pleasure, wine, houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, fruit, pools, servants, great possessions, all kinds of animals, silver, gold, and other treasures, entertainment, and endless companions. And insodoing, by God’s design, he forces us to recognize this same pursuit in ourselves—albeit to a lesser degree.
The Preacher got all and more of what so many of us are trying to find happiness in. If we hadn’t spent the past year in Ecclesiastes, you might be surprised by what he found once he got it all.
11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
He found that nothing on earth could satisfy him. To say it another way, he found that all of everything still wasn’t enough to satisfy him for more than a short while or to provide any real sense of purpose.
He wasn’t quick to give up though. He tried something else. He wanted to see if people who were wise faired any better than those who were foolish, if those who studies a lot had better lives than those who didn’t, so he paid careful attention to everyone around him.
His conclusion: There’s a little bit to gain from wisdom, but “the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, ‘What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise’” (2:14-15)?
The Preacher didn’t find what he was looking for in pleasure or wisdom.
Still not willing to give up, he threw himself into his work. He wondered if there was lasting satisfaction to be found in his job—accomplishments and promotions and recognition and raises. The result was, once again, very much the same, “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool” (2:18-19)?
True joy and meaning weren’t in pleasure, wisdom, or career.
Still not done, the Preacher considered the idea that the meaning of things and lasting joy might not be found in his own individual pursuits, but in being part of a larger society. But the closer he looked, the worse it got.
3:16 … I saw … that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.
And
4:1 I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.
In courtrooms and churches, places that should have been marked by justice and goodness, there was wickedness. And where people ought to have been fighting for those being mistreated, he found that they were left alone in their oppression. Government and institutional religion couldn’t satisfy him either.
The Preacher saw that there was no discernable meaning or lasting satisfaction in wine, building, planting, playing, harvesting, acquiring, money, entertainment, or sex. Neither were they found in wisdom, work, or the institutions of men.
After all of that, the Preacher was left with just one more area to explore. What about righteousness, he wondered? Those who are good must be better off than those who are evil, right? They must be happier and they must have greater purpose. That’s what God wants, after all, isn’t it?
In other words, the Preacher wondered if there is meaning and happiness in being a good person. What he found is, for those unfamiliar with Ecclesiastes, often surprising as well.
7:15In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.
What’s more, he wrote, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins” (7:20).
The Preacher found that there really isn’t anyone who is truly good and on top of that, people who are more good often die early and people who are more bad often live longer because of the evil things they do.
The Preacher looked and looked and looked for meaning and satisfaction on earth. He looked under every rock and behind every tree, but he could not find true meaning or lasting satisfaction anywhere. And so he concluded…
9:2-3It is the same for all, since the same event [death] 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… and after that they go to the dead.
In the end, his conclusions were that life “under the sun” is filled with hardships, lasting joy is impossible to find, meaning is elusive, everything is wrapped in mystery, and then, no matter what you do, you die.
All of that makes us wonder how to make sense of all of this. Is this all there is; you live and die and do your best in-between but with no real gain? Is there any real meaning in any of it? Is there any hope for after it?
And all of that brings us back to the Scripture passage, now able to answer the questions we asked.
Death and funerals and sorrow and mourning are better than birth and parties and laughter because they open us up in ways that times of worldly comfort and ease never can to the reality that if there is meaning, hope, joy, and significance to be found, it must be found somewhere else. Times of hardship provide for us, by God’s design, a unique chance to be honest with ourselves (about our fears and emptiness and need for God’s help) and open to things that matter. Suffering and death reveal to us what we already know, but work really hard to ignore: that we need something outside of ourselves and even outside of this world if we are ever going to be made whole.
And in one of the more dramatic ways I’ve ever experienced, I saw that at the funeral. I know that I can’t perfectly read people’s hearts and minds, but in a truly noticeable and unusual way, from what I could tell, the people at the funeral were listening to these ideas exactly as the Preacher described. It seemed clear that being in a house of mourning really did crack open the blinds to things above the sun for them. They could see that their earthly pursuits were ultimately empty, that there was something more, that there is a God who is near and will judge. And that opportunity is worth a thousand hollow laughters and well-cooked steaks and silly jokes and Amazon deals and secular relationships.
And then, just like that, like a puff of smoke, it was gone. The service ended, a meal began, and the window closed—back to being distracted and blinded by the things of earth.
Again, Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 doesn’t give us the full answer to the meaning of life, but it does show us where to look to find it. It is a blind-parter. It gives truths that open up cracks, making above the sun realities visible if we’ll look through them. And in those few verses, we find one of the many ways Ecclesiastes points us to our need for Jesus and His unique ability to provide for us what we usually seek in everything but Him.
Many years after the Preacher wrote Ecclesiastes, one of his distant relatives wrote another letter. In it, he spoke of trying to find meaning and hope and joy in many of the same things the Preacher did and finding them equally hollow. But unlike the Preacher, this man, the Apostle Paul, did find what he was looking for.
Philippians 3:7-11 But whatever gain I had [all the things the Preacher had], I counted as loss [he too found them entirely lacking] for the sake of [Jesus] Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [Paul found in Jesus what neither he nor the Preacher could find in anything else].
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, [he gave up all of the money and prestige and power and worldly wisdom that he once held onto so tightly, because he recognized that they were like trash compared to Jesus…and here’s the key…],
not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law [from perfectly obeying God’s commands], but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection…
After trying most of the same things the Preacher did and finding them lacking just as the Preacher had, Paul found true hope and joy and meaning in Jesus. Even more, he found salvation from his sins and everlasting life in Jesus who continues to offer Himself and all of those things in Him to all who will receive Him in faith. Again, that’s what Ecclesiastes is ultimately given to us by God to do—to drive us to Jesus, the one place that our greatest longings—true meaning, purpose, joy, and reconciliation with God—can be found.
May we continue to learn from Ecclesiastes and turn to Jesus, therefore, Grace Church. May we learn and live in light of all of its under the sun wisdom and may that drive us to faith in the above the sun promises of God in Jesus.