Ecclesiastes 9

Ecclesiastes 9:1-18

AND Ecc_9:1-18.THERE are two views of Ecclesiastes, current among interpreters, both of which I believe to be false.The first is the notion that Solomon seeks, in this Book, to voice the opinions of the unregenerate, and consequently sets down a philosophy of life that he himself knows to be false, and yet one that he finds extremely common among his fellows.The second view is that these chapters contain a somewhat desultory heap of current ideas and are more nearly a chain of worldly proverbs, loosely hung together, than they are logical processes of reasoning.By both views, the element of inspiration is belittled in our judgment, and we hold that they are essentially wrong.Ecclesiastes, when properly understood, presents every proof of revelation, and produces an unanswerable argument for God and righteousness. The ninth chapter is no exception to this claim. We want to treat it under the heads of Common Observations, Candid Reflections, and Natural Conclusions.COMMON “For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.“All things come alike to all: there is one extent to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificed, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.“This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.“For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.“Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:1-6).Learn then from this three things: First, God is above all and over all; second, His favors are all of grace, and third, Time is the limitation of man’s opportunity.First, God is above all and over all.“For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 9:1).This is the common opinion of believers, and it is an opinion buttressed by the Book. The logic of it rests in the fact that the righteous are the children of God, the wise are under His instruction, and the works of both enjoy alike His inspiration and approval.“For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright” (Psalms 11:7).“To him that soweth righteousness there shall be a sure reward” (Proverbs 11:18).But while all men who believe in a God expect from Him the moral course of directing the righteous and approving the wise and regarding the works of both, they are mystified by their own observations upon life, and Solomon expresses the mystery in this language,“No man knoweth either love or hatred by all this is before them.“All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.“This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all” (Ecclesiastes 9:1-3).In our judgment this great mystery is solved provided one great fact is kept constantly in mind, namely this:God’s favors are all of grace. Nature worshipers find no difficulty whatever in the facts herein stated. Believing as they do that nature is unconscious of her own operations and is controlled absolutely by compelling laws, they expect the rain to fall upon the good and upon the evil, upon the clean and the unclean, upon the sacrificial and the selfish, upon the man of pure speech and the man of profane speech.

But why God should show such indiscriminate favors creates a problem for a reasoning man, and he says, “Is there a God?” “and if so, is He indifferent to character and conduct?” “If not, why does He send rain upon both the just and the unjust?” In our judgment the answer is not far to seek.His gifts are all of grace. They are not bestowed upon the basis of merit; but they are born of an infinite affection.

He is more than the Creator of the earth; He is the Father of our spirits, and the true father does not permit his attitude toward his children to be wholly determined by either their character or their conduct.Down in his secret heart he may love the dutiful, obedient and righteous boy with an affection that is accentuated a bit by his appreciation of those values; and in that same heart he may pity another son who is equally bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and blood of his blood, because he is indolent, indifferent, disobedient, and possibly sinful. So, when it comes to spreading his table, he will not lay a plate for the good lad and lock the dining room door against the lazy and indifferent one; but instead, he will serve with his own hand, an equal plate to both, and, out of sheer pity and genuine love for the sinful one, may even show him a favor above that commonly bestowed upon the model son.That, in fact, is the real point of the parable of the prodigal. The elder brother believed absolutely that the father’s house ought to be closed, and the father’s table refused to the prodigal, and, if a fatted calf was to be killed at all, it should only be in behalf of the upright boy, and, if there was to be a feast and merry making, the friends of the righteous alone should gather about that festal board.Such a spirit ignores the entire sentiment of paternity. The weakest child mentally and the most deficient child morally is not by that weakness and deficiency excluded from a father’s affection. It is a rare thing that a rich father ever cuts out such children in the creation of his will; and when it occurs, it is only because he loves them to such an extent that he is afraid to turn into their hands cash that might curse them further. Therefore, the fact that there is one event to the righteous and the wicked, to the clean and to the unclean, to the selfish and the sacrificial, to the pure of speech and the profane, is not a proof that God disregards the difference between the righteous and the wicked, but is rather a perfect illustration of the plentitude of His grace.

The Lord is long-suffering and gracious, “abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). Little wonder that the Psalmist contemplating His grace, cried out, “Oh how great is Thy goodness”.

That is why the same Psalmist, in spite of his sins and shortcomings, could say and candidly believe, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life?”, and why he could on another occasion declare, “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord”.Paul, however, reminds us in Romans 2:4, that it is “the goodness of God” that “leadeth thee to repentance”, and doubtless this very thing that puzzles men and makes them to wonder whether there be a God at all, namely, His favor upon the wicked, the sinful, the debased, is the very basis of hope, the ground itself from which regeneration springs, the benediction that has power to break down the stubborn wills of men, to shame them out of their sins and bring them to a Saviour.But Solomon reminds us of the fact that even grace has its limitations.Time is the only opportunity of man.“Also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.“For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.“Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 9:3-6).There are many people who have wondered at this phrase, “A living dog is better than a dead lion”. The Self-Interpreting Bible says of this verse, “The dead lion was the guardian emblem of the throne of Solomon. Yet a living dog, though an unclean and despised animal, could, by mere barking or assault, have done more to guard the monarch than the twelve dead lions by which ascent to Solomon’s throne was protected.”But the main point of the whole argument is this, that while there is life there is hope; and in the Book there is no promise of a second probation. As John in his First Epistle said, “There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it”,In other words, now is the time acceptable with God. There are no promises of salvation for the hereafter. They all obtain for the present, and so far as we know, for the present only.It is said that Latin civilizations have been held back and practically defeated by the constant use of one word, “manana,” “tomorrow.” We have proverbs to the effect that “procrastination is the thief of time;” “a stitch in time saves nine;” “never put off till tomorrow what you can do today;” “make hay while the sun shines;” “he who hesitates is lost.” Apparently Solomon would sum them up and show that a man will either make peace with God in this present time or he will never make it at all.

The coffin affords no opportunities of decision for Christ. The graveyard is no profitable place in which to preach the Gospel.“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation A.

J. Gordon, Boston’s great Bible expositor and soul-winner, tells us that at the close of a morning service, a messenger met him and said, “Will you come with me at once to see a young man who is near the end?”“I hurried to the place, was shown to his room, and, as I took my seat, I said, ‘My dear friend, I see you are very ill. Are you prepared for what may be before?’“His answer was, ‘Oh, if I only were,’ attended with a look of despair, breathing with importunity. Then he added, ‘If I could only be spared two or three weeks. I would get ready, but the doctor has just left, and he tells me that I can live but a few hours.’‘“Three weeks,’ I said, ‘in order to be saved? My dear boy, let me tell you how you can be saved in three minutes.’“ ‘Oh, could I?’ was his answer. ‘Then tell me.’ “I opened the Word and read to him, ‘As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name’ (John 1:12). ‘If I offered you this gold watch,’ I said, ‘how long would it take you to receive it?’“ ‘I could take it at once,’ he said.“ ‘Then will you take God’s gift of eternal life at once?

When you have a gift offered to you, do you buy it or beg it, or wait a long time to accept it?’“His answer was in the negative.“ ‘Then,’ I continued, ‘God has given you His Son, and offers you eternal life in Him, and the Scriptures say, “He that hath the Son hath life”. Will you take Him now?’“ ‘How can I?’ was his answer. ‘Tell me the way.’“I turned to Romans 10:9, and said, ‘Here is the way: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”.

Now if you want to be saved, just accept Jesus as your Saviour now and tell Him that you do so.’ “I left him, confident that he had believed, and early in the evening I went back again. I was shown into the room where the conversation had taken place. There lay the same young man, but now in the still sleep of death. I looked, and the calm of Heaven was on his face. The watchers said, ‘If you could only have stayed, doctor, and heard him talk. He called us all in and said, “It is wonderful!

Oh, it is wonderful! That minister said I could be saved in three minutes, and it was so.”‘ A lady present said, ‘I have never seen so triumphant a death in all my days.’ Blessed be the God for a Gospel that can save us in three minutes.” But let us attend to Solomon’s words, that it is now, here in this life and possibly for some of us, in this day, or never!CANDID Believe that every good gift is from Him.“Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works”.The basis of true happiness exists in a belief in the grace of God and in His unfailing goodness.Campbell Morgan, in one of his books, tells the story of the Scotch lord who gave to his old servant a little farm. But when the presentation was made, Donald, with all the canniness that characterizes a Scotchman, looked up into the face of his lord and said, “It is nae gude to gie me the farm; I have nae capital to stock it.”His lordship looked at him and said, “Oh, Donald; I think I can manage to stock it also.”And Donald said, “Oh, well; if it is you and me for it, I think we will manage.”And then Morgan applies that. If we had to make our way alone, our future would be the occasion of forebodings indeed. If we had to look to ourselves as the source of good or greatness, we would have occasion of deepest discouragement. But, if we are looking to Him as the One who will accept us, put upon us the seat of His approval, and lend to us that prosperity which He alone can impart, then we may eat our bread with joy and drink our wine with a merry heart. God with us, all things are possible!But, God with us, involves another thought, and Solomon has not failed to express it, namely,We should keep our garments white and our hands busy.“Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.“Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” (Ecclesiastes 9:8-10).White garments are the symbol of spotless character; an anointed head of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; loyalty to wife, of obedience to the Divine demand; and industry is the mark of a faithful servant.

In these three verses (Ecclesiastes 9:8-10), Solomon sums up both a holy and an aggressive life, and he makes holiness basal alike to joy and faithfulness.Hillis in his, “The Influence of Christ in Modern Life”, truly remarks, “Always the revelation from without implies a mind from within, keyed to its level. The speaker and the listener must have one faculty in common.

The water and fin, the air and the wing, beauty and the eye, melody and the ear, go in couplets. The eloquence of Burke asks an informed hearer; the beauty of Phidias asks a refined taste; the wonder of truth and goodness in God asks a responsive nerve of truth and goodness in man. For the impure, God is simply invisible. But happy, indeed, are the pure in heart. Upon them hath dawned the beatific vision. They see God.”And yet, as He is the source of our strength, so He is the only source of whiteness of soul.

John, in his Patmos vision, saw a“Great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;“And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.“And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,“Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?“And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest.

And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.“Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His Temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them” (Revelation 7:9-15).It is a marvelous combination of clean character and consecrated service, the great characteristics of the saved.Face, then, the fates of chance with unshaken faith.“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.“For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them” (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12).The evident meaning of Solomon, here, is that you can’t say that the swift will always win the race, or the strong will always come off best in battle, or the wise will be provided bread, or the understanding riches. It does not always so fall out. In fact, often all appearances are to the contrary. Job, the best man of all his time, will lose his property, witness the destruction of his children, and will suffer in his body beyond description. Joseph, one of the best men of all times, will be flung into prison under a false charge, and Jonathan, the noblest son that ever drew breath of life, will be hated by his own father. However, the fact remains that in the end time, righteousness will receive its reward, and iniquity will come to judgment.Dr.

Talmage, the celebrated Brooklyn clergyman, was riding one day in a railway coach, soon after the decease of a favorite son. His grief was constant and acute, and he could not feel that anyone had ever suffered so acutely as he.In a seat near him sat a gentleman, who, Dr.

Talmage thought, possessed one of the most cheerful faces he had ever seen. “How happy that man is compared with me!” he mused. “I will get into conversation with him; perhaps he may console me, or cheer me up a little.”The dialogue ran upon general subjects for a little while, and then turned upon Dr. Talmage’s great loss.“I cannot help envying you,” said the preacher. “You seem, from your appearance, as if you had not a trouble in the world.”The other gentleman looked grave, and a spasm of grief went over his countenance. “I never saw a sadder face, for the moment,” said Talmage, in relating this incident.“My dear sir,” he inquired, “will you tell me where you are going?”“Why,” replied Talmage, “home, to Brooklyn, New York. I get there this evening, if all goes well.”“I suppose to a wife—perhaps a mother—a live son—a daughter or two?”“O yes! I have all those awaiting me.”“Now I will tell you where I am going. All my family are dead but one, and that one is my wife; and I am making my regular weekly visit to her at an asylum. She is hopelessly insane.

But God has left me my life, my honor, and my faculties; and I am trying to keep patient and cheerful, with the hope of meeting them all again in a better world, by and by.”Talmage rose, and took the stranger by both hands. “I surrender!” he exclaimed. “My sorrow is as nothing compared with yours. I have learned a lesson, and I hope God will aid me to profit by it.”The poet has expressed a great truth in these words: “Careless seems the Great Avenger: History’s pages but record One death struggle in the darkness ’twixt false systems and the Word;Truth for ever on the scaffold, wrong for ever on the throne; But that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.”What then areTHE NATURAL ?Solomon reaches them and declares that wisdom is better than strength, more eloquent than loud words, and a greater defense than weapons.Wisdom is better than strength!“This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:“There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:“Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.“Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor marts wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard” (Ecclesiastes 9:13-16).The Bible is replete with illustrations of this fact. There are more victories of faith, recorded in the same, than there are of armies. Power belongeth unto the Lord, and vain is the expectation of the help of man. Wisdom often exceeds the strength of a thousand of them.There is a fine illustration of this fact connected with the story of the building of St. Peter’s in Rome. It is said that when they were ready to raise the Egyptian oblisque to its place in the square facing St.

Peter’s, the work was undertaken in 1586, and the day was marked with great solemnity of procedure and attended by throngs. High mass was celebrated at St.

Peter’s, and the architect and the workmen had received the benediction of the pope. The blast of a trumpet gave the signal, and the engines were set in motion by an incredible number of horses, but after fifty-two unsuccessful attempts had been made, the huge block still refused to move, though the ropes seemed stretched to their utmost, when a man in the crowd cried out, “Wet the ropes!” The advice was instantly followed, and the ropes began their contracting. It lifted the great oblisque to its place, and it came to rest upon its pedestal. “Wisdom is better than strength”.Wisdom is also more eloquent than loud words.“The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools” (Ecclesiastes 9:17).For this fact let us bring an illustration from Old Testament Scripture. Naaman was a mighty man. He was captain of the hosts of the king of Syria, and was a “great man with his master, and honourable, ** he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife”.She had noticed the sadness of Naaman’s countenance, and after she had advised calling the Prophet, she had overheard a conversation in which he had reported his disappointment that Elisha the Prophet, who was sent of God to effect his healing, should not have performed certain impressive ceremonies and spoken in great words, but rather gave the very humiliating advice that he dip himself seven times in Jordan.

But the little maid’s confidence in God and His Prophet was unshaken, and finally other servants stirred by her suggestion dared to approach Naaman and say, “If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean”.

Wisdom is more eloquent than words.Wisdom is also a better defense than weapons. The text is, “Wisdom is better than weapons of war”. This also has its illustration. I bring you one of historic fame.The army of Themistocles, the famous Athenian general, was about to engage in a naval battle. At sunrise the warships were ready. Every man was at his place. An hour passed, and no command to move had come. Hour succeeded hour, and silence reigned, and the soldiers grew restive, and said, “Is he not going to fight at all?

Is it possible that our general is afraid?” Finally nine o’clock came, and with it there sprang up a breeze that was known to rise at the same hour each day, and for which Themistocles had been waiting, that instead of having one-half of his men at the oars, the wind would do the most of the propelling, and he could have the overwhelming majority of them in arms and ready to strike when the enemy was met. This wisdom of waiting the exact moment when nature itself would join his forces brought him the victory of the conflict; and it is an illustration upon which Christians do well to meditate. The wind is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. When He moves us, we can go in the strength and the power of the mighty God Himself, and in that power we can win against all opposing forces, against the forces of Satan and of hell.It was some such thought as that that Isaac Watts had in mind when he wrote, “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, With all Thy quickening powers,Kindle a flame of sacred love, In these cold hearts of ours.“Look! how we grovel here below, Fond of these earthly joys;Our souls can neither fly nor go To reach eternal joys.“In vain we tune our formal songs; In vain we strive to rise;Hosannas languish on our tongues, And our devotion dies.“Dear Lord, and shall we ever live At this poor dying rate,Our love so faint, so cold to Thee, And Thine to us so great?“Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, With all Thy quickening powers;Come, shed abroad a Saviour’s love, And that shall kindle ours.”