LHC Midday Word: The Book of ECCLESIASTES

A common destiny for all

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous

and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands,

but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.

All share a common destiny – the righteous and the wicked,

the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean,

those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,

so with the sinful;

as it is with those who take oaths,

so with those who are afraid to take them.

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun:

The same destiny overtakes all.

The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil

and there is madness in their hearts while they live,

and afterwards they join the dead.

Anyone who is among the living has hope

– even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

For the living know that they will die,

but the dead know nothing;

they have no further reward,

and even their name 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.

Go, eat your food with gladness,

and drink your wine with a joyful heart,

for God has already approved what you do.

Always be clothed in white,

and always anoint your head with oil.

Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love,

all the days of this meaningless life

that God has given you under the sun

– all your meaningless days.

For this is your lot in life

and in your toilsome labour under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do,

do it with all your might,

for in the realm of the dead, where you are going,

there is neither working nor planning

nor knowledge nor wisdom.

I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift

or the battle to the strong,

nor does food come to the wise

or wealth to the brilliant

or favour to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.

Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:

As fish are caught in a cruel net,

or birds are taken in a snare,

so people are trapped by evil times

that fall unexpectedly upon them.

Wisdom better than folly

I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom

that greatly impressed me:

there was once a small city with only a few people in it.

And a powerful king came against it,

surrounded it and built huge siege works against it.

Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise,

and he saved the city by his wisdom.

But nobody remembered that poor man.

So I said, ‘Wisdom is better than strength.’

But the poor man’s wisdom is despised,

and his words are no longer heeded.

The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded

than the shouts of a ruler of fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war,

but one sinner destroys much good.

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Word by Word Meditation

by Fred Ursell

Ecclesiastes 9 : “common” (v.2)

What does everyone have in common? It’s our “common destiny” (v.2), and it’s “the same” (v.3) for “the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean” – without exception all “join the dead” (v.3), and (as far as Solomon could see) “the dead know nothing” (v.5). With no hope of a future life “a live dog is better off than a dead lion” (v.4). The king floundered in his limited perspective of just the here and now, not the hereafter. Death is “common” to all; the antidote of eternal life is commended to all! Take it today!