Ecclesiastes 9 – 10
Verse 9:3 has Solomon making a great point:
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.
Doesn’t matter if we are kind and righteous or evil and selfish we all die. I know “everlasting life” is preached, and often gets applied to our bodies, but in reality our bodies age, decay and eventually die. The life after death is the soul or the energy that drives the body and not the meat suit we have been assigned. Solomon is just stating the fact that 1 out of 1 person born, eventually die.
The only choice we has for life after death is how we spend it. Do we live life as God desires with the love of Jesus and spend our eternity with God or do we chose to dismiss the almighty and spend existence in a lake of fire. There appears to be two choices and one needs to be selected before you die. Personally I would suggest earlier since life on earth is easier to handle knowing the true living God.
Verse 9:1 is difficult to understand on the surface:
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 favour to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.
We read this and say the race is won by the fastest, the one who crosses the finish line first. Even when talking marathons and Lelisa Desisa winning time at Boston this year of 2:10:22 he was the swiftest. If you have never run a 4:58 mile try it; sure a marathon is an endurance event and finishing is not to the swift, but winning is!! But in reality it’s not about victory but enduring the life we are in. It’s not a race or a battle, although at times it seems like a never ending war, but rather a day to day experience that we need to enjoy.
To “live life to the full” like Jesus wants us to, it’s not always about winning, but rather serving. Our victories can be measured in salvations and not in blue ribbons. I can say after 20 years of racing all the trophies are long gone, but the salvations I know live on even after death. I just pray my impact has been good, since my taking a knee and praying someone through salvation is non-existent. I hope my life has influenced others to come to Christ. I know my children were led to Christ, but Pastor Bobby had them take the knee.
Verse 10:19 took me by surprise:
Bread is made for laughter,
and wine gladdens life,
and money answers everything
I struggle with money and my obsession with it. It’s not that we are rich or overly abundant, but I just pray for a windfall to help eliminate the debt so we can live with margin and not stress. Now if I had followed the 10/10/80 rule since college, retirement would be a reality. We would be in good shape and out of debt, I believe assuming we did not blow it all in a failed business. And now Solomon confirms this with the last line, “money answers everything.”
Please understand Solomon is not saying love money or put money before God. He is just saying it doesn’t suck. Those who give everything and live with the poor are noble. But I wonder how much more they could have influenced the world remaining in their position and using their earnings to help others continually. That is a question we all must ask and honestly I don’t know what would have been in their hearts. Maybe the money was distancing them from Christ and giving all was need to break those chains.