The World is a Graveyard

In Ecclesiastes 1-4 we read, One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. If you want to see a visual of verse 4, go take a walk through a graveyard today. It's a fruitful exercise, friend.

I did this recently. I spent about 45 minutes walking around the graves of the dead from previous generations. I took the time to read their gravestones and reflect on the lives they lived.

Some died young, some died old, some died in between, but they all died. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. So says Solomon, life is short, you only have one go-round to live it.

The last chapter of Ecclesiastes is chapter 12, and that describes a funeral procession as seen in verse 5. Because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. Here is the picture of man. We see the knees begin to tremble, and the eyes begin to grow dim.

In a steady deterioration of old age, until at last in verse 7 we read, Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. So the book of Ecclesiastes begins with a graveyard and ends with a funeral. What lies in between is the record of a man's life.

In this case, King Solomon, a man who had it all, experienced it all. He lived large. He tasted every pleasure life had to offer.

He goes on to describe the great works of his hands, the vineyards and the gardens. He established the labor. He performed the entertainers.

He provided for his amusement, the lust for life was so great and whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them, meaning he had the means and the power to go live life to the fullest. But he soon found out that this world was but an empty bubble full of regret and dissatisfaction for all his days or sorrows. The only steady factor was the unchangeable fact that God was unchangeable himself.

For it was God who keeps the world in order. And the only way that Solomon could find true happiness was in knowing that in God's providence all things would be worked out according to his purpose. For there was an appointed time for all things, a time to be born and a time to die.

He saw that man had no preeminence over beast for they each ended up in death. Solomon concludes his discourse with a brief sermon for after all he goes by the name preacher. In verse 13 of the ending chapter he preaches, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. Solomon had seen all this world and what it had to offer and not only had he seen it, he tasted it and he found a man's life lived in this world to be only vanity if lived unto himself. After King Solomon has laid out all his follies before our eyes and admitted all his guilt in living a journey of futility and emptiness, he puts it all into proper perspective and he ends his sermon with thunder and lightning and asylum warning of a coming judgment for all mankind.

For God shall bring every work into judgment and every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil. And as I reflect on Solomon's large life as seen in this book, all I can say, friends, is this. Only one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last.