The brevity of life for all

Second truth from this chapter is The brevity of life for all (certainty of death)

V3 says, “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all (that is death). Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.”

The certainty of death. Solomon’s Ecclesiastes keeps returning to this subject. I cannot ignore the truth of this book. I think some people are careful when choosing words to comfort someone. We use the words such: “he is now asleep in Jesus”:,” he has gone to a better place” , “he has changed his address,” “went to be with the Lord.”

You know the number of minutes in an hour, right? You know the number of hours in a day, right? But you do not know the number of days in a lifetime, right? Your lifetime could be 7 days or seven years or seven thousand days more. You never know, right? But our God holds and knows the future, right?

Now, did Solomon say “eat, drink and be merry for we are going to die?” Before you will answer that let us see some verses:

Ecclesiastes 2:24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God” (Solomon did not say for “tomorrow we die” but to enjoy what God has given while you are alive.

Luke 12:19 And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry."' The context is about the rich fool who built bigger barns to store his goods and say “take life easy.” But he has no God, his god was his belly. In that context Jesus said” 15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

1 Corinthians 15:32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Perhaps Paul had a literal wild animal or he is using a metaphor concerning his enemies in Ephesus who incited against him by Demetrius according to Acts 19:23-24. Paul in this context was saying to the Corinthians, that if there is no resurrection what’s the use, we might as well “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.” But of course, Paul believed in the resurrection. Paul directly quoted that from Isaiah 22:13 “eat, drink for tomorrow we die” Reflecting the hopelessness of the backslidden Israelites.

Going back to Ecclesiastes, Solomon was not saying, “let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” In fact, he was giving us a better perspective of life under the sun. Those who say “for tomorrow we die” are those people who have no hope. Our hope is in the living Saviour who died and rose again. All by grace and by grace alone. Heaven is a Gift!