Wisdom in the Face of the Greatest Unknown

This Sunday we continue our series in Ecclesiastes. In this provocative book King Solomon reminds us that much of our lives is vapour or breath- difficult to grasp and impossible to control. In chapter 9.1-12 we meditate on death. Death is a power that overwhelms the righteous and the wicked, striking at an unpredictable time. The certainty & unpredictability of our own deaths makes it difficult to grasp the point of the virtuous life. If all die anyway, why not just live selfishly? Why work and achieve? Here King Solomon offers wisdom. God is the great and good Creator and Giver. He gives us life, every good gift, and opportunity for each to do good in our limited days on this earth. Our life and work has value because he gives it. Our mortality, then, is no excuse for aimless, selfish living. And we who know Christ know more than King Solomon. For we see One who broke open death, took the spirits of his people into heaven, and promises resurrection life in a new world. In Christ we see the great God of new creation. Now we know: everything matters; every good gift points to eternal life; and every good work may bear eternal fruit.

 

Reflection Questions Ecclesiastes 9.1-12

1. If you feel comfortable, share a story of a close encounter with death. How did you feel in the midst of it? 
2. The main theme of Ecclesiastes might be that our knowledge and control in different dimensions of life is vapour or breath (‘hebel’ in the Hebrew). That is, what we know or can control is limited, like trying to grasp breath in your hand. This theme runs through the book, and is introduced in chapter 1. The word ‘hebel’ is sometimes translated vanity or meaningless (see underlined below), but ‘breath’ or ‘vapour’ is a better translation.

 1:2    Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.…14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. 

(ESV Bible)

Unsurprisingly, death too is a force King Solomon can’t fully understand or control, it too is ‘hebel’, according to the wise King (Ecclesiastes 3.19).

What is it about death that King Solomon finds particularly evil (read Ecclesiastes 9.1-6)?

3. Solomon only knew the Old Testament  -pre the coming of Christ-  version of death. This is called ‘Sheol’ and is described as a place of soul or spirit rest (Ecclesiastes 9.5-6, 10, or see Psalm 6.4. Commentator D.K. Innes explains: 

‘Sheol was below the surface of the earth (Ezk. 31:15, 17; Ps. 86:13), a place of dust (Jb. 17:16), darkness (Jb. 10:21), silence (Ps. 94:17) and forgetfulness (Ps. 88:12). Sometimes the distinctions of earthly life are pictured as continuing in Sheol (Is. 14:9; Ezk. 32:27), but always it is a place of weakness and joylessness.’ (Source: New Bible Dictionary). 

If this is all King Solomon can see in the future, how might fear of death influence him? 

4. What wise advice does Solomon give in the face of death (Ecclesiastes 9.7-10)?

5. From the standpoint of God the creator and giver, his gifts (health, beauty, clothes, work, marriage) are to be celebrated for as long they last in this world (Ecclesiastes 9.7-10).

How can you: thank God for a gift you have take, for granted?Better honour the good gift of a physical body? Work with all your heart?

6. How does the story of Easter change what we know about death and the life beyond?