All will Die, So Live in Christ
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Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
than what has already been done?
13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
just as light is better than darkness.
14 The wise man has eyes in his head,
while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.
15 Then I thought in my heart,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said in my heart,
“This too is meaningless.”
16 For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
in days to come both will be forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise man too must die!
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Introduction
Introduction
As we’ve considered this book over the last few weeks, we’ve seen the extensive efforts of Solomon to find pleasure and meaning in life.
We’ve considered the great extents to which Solomon has gone in order to seek out and obtain meaning from the things of this world.
Last week we looked at Solomon’s great achievements in life, and how he sought to find meaning through his achievements, his wealth, great projects that he undertook etc.
Solomon applied himself to finding meaning in things that were on earth.
He made the effort to delve into the pleasures that the world has to offer.
He devoted a large portion of his time in life (many years in fact) to evaluating every conceivable form of pleasure available to man under the sun.
He searched out every activity and every detail of that which people believe brings happiness, and found all of it to be sorely incapable of achieving joy and meaning for a man.
His thinking is that since we are placed in this world to live our lives in the world under the sun, surely there should be some kind of ultimate pleasure and meaning that we should gain through life under the sun.
In verse 12 of Ecc 2, he turns his attention once again to a different possible source of gaining meaning / satisfaction in life, and this time it is through wisdom that he seeks to find meaning.
Already in Ecc 1:17, he had begun to consider this idea of wisdom as opposed to madness and folly.
He also came to a conclusion in Ecc 1:18 following his preliminary look at the opposing sides (wisdom vs. folly).
17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.
So his conclusion there was that wisdom, as well as folly, are a chasing after the wind.
But primarily his argument was that the more knowledge one has, the more grief one has.
1. Exploration Exhausted (v.12)
1. Exploration Exhausted (v.12)
As Solomon continues in his pursuit of a potential source of meaning in the world, of some source of joy or lasting and substantial pleasure in this life, he once again “turns his thoughts to consider wisdom”
As he considers this life, and all that he is searching out, he considers that perhaps he hadn’t considered wisdom and folly in sufficient detail.
Perhaps he had overlooked something in any previous evaluation of wisdom that needed further consideration.
Note that as Solomon writes here about “madness and folly,” he is speaking about one and the same thing.
“Madness and folly” are one aspect being compared to “wisdom”.
As an aside...
It’s interesting that Solomon goes to these various subjects repeatedly through this book.
His reasoning and evaluating of life is very little different from our own.
If you’ve every had to make a serious decision about something, and you’re considering different options in life, you weigh up the pros and cons of the decision you’re about to make, in order to determine the right way forward.
And very often as you do that, you will find that you keep going around in circles.
The same ideas and perspectives come up in your mind over and over, and you try to evaluate this decision in light of these different perspectives, pros and cons, and sometimes you just feel you’re getting nowhere.
That’s how Solomon is evaluating things. He keeps going over these things in his search for meaning.
But right here, as he now turns his thoughts (attention) to thinking about wisdom, and then comparing that with madness and folly, he is going to make some very important observations for us.
As he begins his look at this wisdom vs. folly, he begins by making an important observation in verse 12b...
“What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?”
This is a portion of the text that is notably difficult to translate (I won’t delve into the details of it…)
The likely meaning of the wording here by Solomon is that someone else will come after him, but they will add nothing more to the study of purpose and meaning, and can gain no further knowledge.
Everything that there is to know, really has been investigated.
One commentator writes this:
Be Satisfied 2. Solomon Hated Life (Ecc. 2:12–23)
we can leave our wisdom for the guidance of the next generation; but how can we be sure they will value it or follow it? “What can the man do that cometh after the king?” suggests that it is folly for successive generations to make the same “experiments” (and mistakes) when they can learn from their forefathers; but they do it just the same! There is nothing new under the sun (1:9); they can only repeat what we have already done.
In the case of Solomon, he had so exhausted the study of meaning under the sun, that the question was: “What more can the king’s successor do?!”
One further aspect of importance here as we look at verse 12 is that Solomon’s mind has most definitely been drawn to the thought of death.
When speaking as a king of a successor that is to follow, it typically meant that the king would be dying.
And so Solomon is thinking about his own possible death, and what the implications of that death are.
We’ll see more of that this morning through our text, and then also in future as we go through this particular section to the end of chapter 2.
2. Wisdom and Folly Compared (v.13-14a)
2. Wisdom and Folly Compared (v.13-14a)
In verses 13-14a, we will now see how Solomon proceeds to give his comparison between wisdom and folly.
13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
just as light is better than darkness.
Solomon begins his evaluation by bringing a comparison between wisdom and “mad folly”
Before we even consider this comparison, I want to emphasize that the wisdom that Solomon speaks about here is not necessary God-oriented wisdom.
This is not the “fear of the Lord” wisdom that we read about in Proverbs 9:10.
This is merely a kind of morally wise living in the world.
Applying good common sense and general understanding to the way in which you live your life in the world.
But even so, as Solomon evaluates wisdom in the world, he comes to the important conclusion that wisdom is indeed “better than folly”
As we live our lives in this world, says Solomon, it is better to live in a wise manner than in a foolish manner.
This idea of wisdom being better than folly is regularly conveyed by Solomon through the book of Proverbs.
8 The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways,
but the folly of fools is deception.
35 The wise inherit honor,
but fools he holds up to shame.
14 Wise men store up knowledge,
but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.
In fact, much of the book of Proverbs is aimed at leading people away from a poor manner of life that is bound up in folly, and into a good manner of life that is found among the wise, which leads to life.
We need to remember that the book of Proverbs is a book that speaks in general terms, looking at things as a guiding principle, rather than as a rule.
But from what Solomon is saying here we should understand immediately that there is great advantage to living with wisdom in this world.
So Solomon states that wisdom is better than folly
The comparison that he uses is that of light and darkness.
Just as light is better than darkness, so wisdom is better than folly.
That’s no small comparison!
Solomon confirms this in verse 14 of our text when he says these words in verse 14a:
The New International Version (1984) Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless
The wise man has eyes in his head,
while the fool walks in the darkness
The wise man has eyes in his head.
That’s a very plain way of saying that the person who is wise is able to properly see where he is going in this world.
As a wise man conducts his life in this world, he lives in such a manner that he sees things with clarity and understanding.
As such, the wise man is able to make decisions that are helpful, to walk in a manner that is fruitful, and to make great advancements in society.
This is the way that we most certainly would want to be living our lives in the world.
By way of contrast, the fool walks in darkness.
It is as if the fool has no eyes, and is not able to see, and thus walks around and gropes around in the darkness of life.
The fool is a person who makes decisions that are to his detriment because he fails to perceive that which is needed in order to make wise decisions.
There is a game that our children would enjoy playing at home, at night time, called Kitty, Kitty, Meow, Meow.
In this game, you would go into a room and turn off all the lights. Curtains would be closed, to make the place as dark as possible.
One person would then be “on” and would have the task of finding and catching others that were playing the game, who had to move around in order to avoid being caught.
As the person who was on went around trying to find the others, they would call out “kitty, kitty” to which the other players had to respond “meow, meow”
Well one particular night this game got going in our house, and within 2 minutes of playing it, there were 2 separate collisions as children ran around in the darkness trying to escape this person who was on, and promptly collided with each other.
Blood was spilled, cries rang out, and we promptly put a stop to the game!!
The fact is that it was foolishness to walk around (let alone run around) in the dark without being able to see where you’re going.
The inevitable result is that you bump into things and cause yourself harm.
Furthermore, you have no way of seeing the danger that is approaching, and you end up being harmed without warning or foresight.
Solomon’s evaluation is such that he says that there are those who are fools in this world, and they are like those who literally have no eyes to be able to see where they are going.
They walk around in this world and stumble and fall over all manner of obstacles in the path of life, and they do not have the foresight to determine that the path they are going is destructive for them.
With such a stark contrast between what is wise and what is foolish, we are left with absolutely no doubt in our minds that Solomon here truly is exalting the excellencies of wisdom.
We shouldn’t miss this.
Wisdom in the world is essential to us living in a decent and proper manner without having all sorts of harm inflicted (physical, spiritual, emotional…)
Wisdom is as far superior to foolishness as the light is to darkness.
Let me ask you at this point, are you one who is living as a wise person in this world?
Or are you one who is living as a fool in this world?
3. The Fool and the Wise Overtaken (v.14b-16)
3. The Fool and the Wise Overtaken (v.14b-16)
Having outlined the two different methods of walking around in the world - either as a wise man, thus walking in the light, or as a fool, thus walking in darkness - Solomon goes on to drive his actual thesis home.
In verse 14b he says this...
The New International Version (1984) Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.
There is a reality in the world that will lead to effectually nullifying the benefit that wisdom brings to a person in the world.
The same fate is going to overtake both the wise man and the fool, and that fate is none other than death itself.
In other words, for all the benefits that you may gain through being wise in the world, you are yet going to suffer the same fate as the fool.
You will end up precisely where the fool ends up, no different.
10 For all can see that wise men die;
the foolish and the senseless alike perish
and leave their wealth to others.
This is the reality that every person living in the world is called to come face to face with.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
Every person in the world born of the man Adam, is subject to the curse brought into the world through Adam as the head of humanity, the first man.
Death is the inescapable reality of every person in this world, without exception.
In verse 15 of our text this morning, this sobering reality hits Solomon himself.
15 Then I thought in my heart,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said in my heart,
“This too is meaningless.”
Here is a man who prayed to God Almighty and asked Him for wisdom to be able to lead that great nation of Israel.
And as he prayed and asked for this, so God was pleased to grant that request and to bestow upon Solomon greater wisdom than had ever been found in all of human history.
His wisdom was marveled at and celebrated by surrounding nations.
His wisdom was hailed by his own subjects of the kingdom.
They marveled at his ability to apply wisdom to very tricky situations, such as two mothers each claiming the same baby, when one of their babies died (1 Kings 3:16-28).
But as Solomon considers all of this gifting of wisdom that God bestowed upon him in his life, he realizes that with the certainty of death that faces each and every person, he really is no better off, at the end of the day, than a fool.
The fate of the fool - which is the death of that fool - is going to come to him also, the most wise man on the planet.
And so he says in his heart, this too is meaningless.
4. The Depressing Conclusion (v.17)
4. The Depressing Conclusion (v.17)
In fact, Solomon goes further, and drives this all the way to its very depressing conclusion!!
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Solomon got to the point where he thought to himself that he hates his very life.
He’s the man with all that anyone could ask for, but it hasn’t brought him any true and lasting joy.
He evaluates that he is the wisest man on the face of the planet, but for all his wisdom he is no better off than any other fool in the world, because as that fool will die, so will he die.
And he’s driven to a point of despair.
Solomon fails to make sense of this world and all that is in it, and he literally hated life.
If you go further on to Ecc 4:2-3, you’ll find these words of Solomon...
2 And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
3 But better than both
is he who has not yet been,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.
His words echo those of Job, who after he had lost everything that he had built up over years, even as a faithful servant of God, essentially cursed the day of his own birth as he was overcome with bitterness and pain through all that had happened...
1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:
3 “May the day of my birth perish,
and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!’
4 That day—may it turn to darkness;
may God above not care about it;
may no light shine upon it.
5 May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more;
may a cloud settle over it;
may blackness overwhelm its light.
6 That night—may thick darkness seize it;
may it not be included among the days of the year
nor be entered in any of the months.
7 May that night be barren;
may no shout of joy be heard in it.
8 May those who curse days curse that day,
those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9 May its morning stars become dark;
may it wait for daylight in vain
and not see the first rays of dawn,
10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me
to hide trouble from my eyes.
Solomon, like job, came to the conclusion that life was terrible, truly terrible.
So terrible in fact, that they considered the unborn, those who never existed, as in a far better place than them.
Far more blessed than them.
Application and Conclusion
Application and Conclusion
I wonder where you are in your faith journey.
I wonder where you are in your earthly journey, and to what extent the words of Solomon resonate with you.
Even if they don’t resonate with you, because you are going through a positive season of life, let me assure you, his words should be listened to!
As he stated in verse 12, “what more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?”
What more will we learn that is different or better than what Solomon has learned through his own experiences and life?
Nothing more.
But where should that drive us.
Within the context of what Solomon is saying here, how may we as the church be encouraged and challenged today?
A.1. Because death is inevitable, live with true wisdom in the world
A.1. Because death is inevitable, live with true wisdom in the world
Solomon’s comparison here was between a wise and foolish person in this world.
The same fate awaits both of those.
But I want to encourage us this morning to live with true, God-fearing wisdom in this world.
A wisdom that looks beyond the here and now, and looks to eternity.
The great event that Solomon realised is the great equalizer in this world is death.
But the Gospel message is that death does not have the final say.
In fact, the Gospel is the good news that has been preached in the world.
The good news that sin has been dealt with in Christ.
The good news that the greatest consequence of sin - which is death - has been dealt with in Christ.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
The “all” in that statement by Paul is referring to those who are in Christ.
It refers to those who have true wisdom in this world - whose eyes have been opened to receive the truth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to ask you this morning: are you living with true wisdom in the world?
When Paul addressed the men of Athens, a city which had countless idols set up to all their gods, Paul said to them:
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
Paul addressed the idolatry of those in Athens, and clearly told them that in the past God overlooked such ignorance, but that now, since Christ has come into the world and has died and been raised again to life, God commands all people everywhere to repent!!
Why is this so urgent? Because there is a day of judgment approaching.
How prepared are you dear friends for this approaching day of judgment?
The wisdom that we must live with in this world, in light of the inevitability of death, is a wisdom that understands the judgment of God for all those who refuse to repent of their sinful ways and trust in Christ for salvation.
While the people of Athens were involved in pure physical idolatry (which perhaps is not all that common in our society) the great problem in our society is rejection of God through apathy and a general ignorance of God.
There is a thought in our society also that we can merely go to church, be good people in general, live a better life than others, and that this is good enough for God. He’ll be happy with me.
If that’s your idea of what pleases God, then you’re in a dangerous place.
God has never called us to be better than the average person.
God has never called us to simply be kind to others, do our best, and come to church from time to time.
God calls us to repent of our sin.
All of the evil and sin that is bound up in our hearts must be confessed before our Holy God and repented of.
Have you repented, and is your life showing the fruit of this repentance?
Because death is inevitable, live with true wisdom in the world.
A.2. Because death is inevitable, live with humility in the world
A.2. Because death is inevitable, live with humility in the world
Let me begin by suggesting to you that our hearts are far more prone to seeking satisfaction in the world than we would care to admit.
Stop with the senseless idea that you can be better, or need to attain to the level of another.
Don’t compare yourself with other people… it only leads to jealousy, bitterness, pride, or some other evil to exist in your own heart.
Solomon came to the realisation that he as a wise man - the wisest man on the face of the planet in his day - was ultimately going to be met with the same fate as the most foolish man of his day.
Whatever the measuring gauge is for you comparing yourself with someone else in the world - it is foolishness.
She is more beautiful than me (or I’m more beautiful than her…)
He / she has a life that is so much better than mine…
Look at what they get to do, that I’ve always dreamed of doing.
Look at how many holidays they go on, and how long they can go for
Look at how much money that guy makes, but he works half the time I work.
Look at how smoothly everything goes in the world for that person… everything seems to just work out well for them..
Look at … look at.... look at…
We are continually looking at others in the world and comparing our situation to theirs…
And the sad reality is that we always tend to do this upwards (to those better off than us, in a better position than us)
And we think “if only I was there”
But friends, do you not realise that death is approaching?
Death will entirely level the playing field…
Death will introduce to the person an entirely different economy, and entirely different way of calculating that which is valuable and that which is worthless.
And all of these material things that I’ve mentioned… every single one of them… is useless in that new economy, in and of itself.
Absolutely useless.
Because death is inevitable, we must live with humility in the world.
Humility in the sense that we must not compare ourselves to anyone or with anyone, but rather, we are to live in right relationship with God.
The Christian life is one that must be lived out in humility and due consideration for others within the body.
Without this, the body of Christ will be destroyed.
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
A.3. Because death is inevitable, surrender the throne of your heart fully to Christ
A.3. Because death is inevitable, surrender the throne of your heart fully to Christ
The Gospel message is not that we should merely repent.
Repentance is central and critical to the Gospel.
But repentance of sinful ways is the turning away from the life of ignorance.
But are called to live towards Christ.
In our sinfulness, our hearts are not directed towards God, but rather to pleasing ourselves.
Either we live for ourselves in our sinfulness, or we live for Jesus Christ, and for His glory and purposes in this world.
Either our lives are about us, and about what we do, and about what we can achieve, and about what we desire to achieve, or our lives are about Christ, and about what He desires, and about what we should be doing to bring Him greater glory, and about how we can do what we do in such a manner that all that we do brings Him greater glory.
We are called to surrender ourselves to Christ.
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
To each and every one of us sitting here today, it doesn’t matter...
what you’re wearing
what job you have
what car you drive
what school you go to
how intelligent you are
how beautiful or handsome you look
how unattractive you look.
Those don’t matter.
Because you, like me, like the person sitting next to you, and like all other people, are going to die.
Your heart will fail.
The end of your life will come.
To dust you will return.
But that won’t be the ultimate end.
It’s at that moment that you will give an account of your life before God.
If that moment of your own death were to come today, and you appeared before Christ, would you be able in all good conscience to say: Christ, I lived my life for you.
When it’s all been said and done,
There is just one thing that matters,
Did I do my best to live for truth,
Did I live my life for you?
None of us here today can say that we’ve done this perfectly.
I do want to urge you today to recognise that ultimately, your life is going to come to an end, and you will give an account to Christ.
Live your life today as if Christ is all.
Obey the law of Christ.
Be filled with the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control etc...
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.