The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 9:5-6,
"The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun."
Solomon goes where most of us dread to go: he is so honest about this life that what he has to say could be couched with that famous movie phrase, "You can't handle the truth!" Here he points out that life under the sun is futile in that it is no more than a revolving door. We're in and then we're out of this life. We enter it, experience it, have our perspectives on it, reflected in our loves, our hates, our jealousies, but then we just vanish, we die.
How well do any of us know family members from three to four generations back? Think of all there was to their lives and now it is all gone. They have long since vanished, "even the memory of them is forgotten". Little is known of them, other than a spot on the family tree and maybe just several pieces of only very public information: who they were married to, where they lived, when they came over from the old world, what war they served in, date of birth, date of death, and not much else.
What were they like? Were they grumpy when they got up in the morning? Did they like children and dogs? What were their favorite meals? Did they have strong political feelings? Were they religious? Did they like the outdoors? Were they fun to be with, have a great sense of humor? There may be a few anecdotes, but the reality is that as a whole person, "even the memory of them is forgotten" when it comes to know what they were truly like. The same will happen to us. Our children and grandchildren will talk about us, but after time, we will all be forgotten, with few notable exceptions. Not much more than a space in some one's genealogy with a few facts preserved. That's about it.
Non-existence can be a terrifying thought upon reflection and that is just what we face from the perspective of "life under the sun." We come and after too few years, we go. Round and round the world spins and from this perspective our lives seem so small, so insignificant. Again, Solomon is clearing the decks for the coming gospel message. If we allow ourselves to be distracted by all there is "under the sun", we will miss what our hearts truly yearn for. We don't want to be just an entry in some future genealogy. We want to live and have our lives filled with purpose and meaning. This world cannot provide it, so life under the sun is meaningless as an experience to bring what it is our hearts yearn for.
But... God so loves us, even though we have turned our backs on him in sin and rebellion and gone our own way, he sent his Son to die for us, to reconcile us to himself. He offers us a place at the table in his family, abundant eternal life with meaning and purpose, eternal pleasures at his right hand! He offers us an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for each of us.
The world, "what happens under the sun", cannot bring us what we really want. But God can and loves us so much he provides it to us! All he asks is that we trust in him.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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