Ecclesiastes 7:1-8 - The Better Things of Life
- Chad Werkhoven
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
Life's better things look much different than you expect.
Ecclesiastes 7:1–6 (NIV)
7 A good name is better than fine perfume,
and the day of death better than the day of birth.
2 It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart.
3 Frustration is better than laughter,
because a sad face is good for the heart.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.
5 It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person
than to listen to the song of fools.
6 Like the crackling of thorns under the pot,
so is the laughter of fools.
This too is meaningless.
7 Extortion turns a wise person into a fool,
and a bribe corrupts the heart.
8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
Heidelberg Catechism
Q&A: 42
Q. Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die?
A. Our death does not pay the debt of our sins.
Rather, it puts an end to our sinning
and is our entrance into eternal life.
Q&A 57
Q. How does “the resurrection of the body” comfort you?
A. Not only my soul
will be taken immediately after this life
to Christ its head,
but even my very flesh, raised by the power of Christ,
will be reunited with my soul
and made like Christ’s glorious body.
Summary
Maybe you've concluded that the book of Ecclesiastes is depressing and pessimistic as we've read through portions of it this week. It's not, but you could be forgiven for thinking so. So far, all that the Teacher, an enigmatic narrator modeled after the life of King Solomon, has done is demonstrate that nothing in this life under the sun has any true and lasting meaning. It's all a chasing after the wind.
But the sharp eyed reader has also found some diamonds along the way that indicate that despite life's apparent meaninglessness for those trapped under the sun, bits of true enjoyment and genuine meaning can be found when you slow down and realize that God grants these good gifts to those who please Him.
In our short passage today, the Teacher isn't yet ready to designate anything on earth as good, but he does go so far as indicating that some things are better than others. But these better things in life are quite surprising:
It is better to:
...have a good name than fine perfume;
...arrive at death rather than be born;
...go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting;
...be frustrated than to laugh;
...heed the rebuke of a wise person than to listen to the song of fools;
...get to the end of the matter rather than its beginning;
...be patient rather than to have pride.
Dig Deeper
I often read through this passage as I meet with the immediate family right before a funeral. Going to a funeral probably won't make anyone's top ten list of fun things to do - or even top one hundred for that matter - but heading to a house of feasting sounds pretty good. Yet the Teacher makes clear that you should switch the value of these two opposite experiences. The Teacher explains exactly why this is the case: Death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.
As a preacher, I get to speak to people in all sorts of settings and environments: Sunday after Sunday in the sanctuary, in classrooms, and gatherings both large and small around town. Since preaching is two-way communication, I'm watching you just as much as you're watching me (which is why every church has its own preacher, rather than one video message piped to thousands of congregations). So I'm measuring and monitoring the level of engagement while I speak.
Most of the time, most of the people are engaged, but it's only natural that all people occasionally tune out at some point only to tune back in a few moments later. But this isn't the case at a funeral - there everybody is locked into every word. We spend every other moment in life trying to distract ourselves from the reality that death is our destiny, but as people sit in the physical presence of death, they can't hide from this cold, hard truth any longer.
It's the words you hear in the house of mourning that make it so much better than the house of feasting. As Jesus' disciples exclaimed to Him, you have the words of eternal life - where else could we go? It's there in that moment, when you're heart is at its thirstiest, that your Father fills it up with the satisfying living water of the gospel, reminding you that the one who believes in Christ will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Him will never die (John 11:25-26).
What could possibly be better than that?
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who sets before us that which is better;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will pursue life's better things, even though they look so different than expected;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
