Put It All Together

I've talked about Ecclesiastes 9:1-10 in sections, but now I'm going to combine everything so you, the reader, can get a clear picture of what Solomon is talking about.
In verses 1-3, we learned about death and how imminent it is.  How our lives are so short and fleeting.
In verses 4-6, we learned that it's better to be weak and alive than powerful and dead.
In verses 7-10, we learned that we need to live our lives with a passion.  That we need to glorify God in anything and everything that we do.
How does this apply to you?
This is the meaning I took from Ecclesiastes 9:  Life is short and we need to enjoy it while it lasts.
This meaning seems superficial, but it's really not.  Again, it doesn't imply that we can abandon all responsibility and have parties all the time, because immediately after "enjoy your life" it says to work at everything with all of your might.
The thing is, our lives are so unpredictable, we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.  Our lives are so delicate, we don't know what's going to end them, or even when.  Tomorrow is a gift so many people take for granted.  We schedule things for tomorrow, we push homework off until tomorrow, and we act like "tomorrow" is set in stone.  We think, "Of course there's going to be a tomorrow."  The truth is, we don't know that.  We don't know what to expect.
I speak for every procrastinator when I say that "later" and "tomorrow" are my best friends.  I don't like to do things now - I like to save them for later.  But I might not have "later".  I might not have "tomorrow".
Some of my extended family members aren't believers in Christ.  I see them about once a year, if even that.  And when I'm with them, I can feel God pushing me to talk to them, to tell them about my faith.  But I get scared and think, "I'll do it when I'm older."
What if I don't get any older?  What if my family never hears about Jesus because I took my future for granted?
The children in Connecticut had their lives taken away from them.  They never got to experience what it was like to drive a car or go to high school.  They didn't get "tomorrow".
What makes us so different from them?
Live every day like it's your last - because it very well might be.

Blink of an Eye

A glowstick might not last longer than a day, but for the short amount of time it glows, it shines.

30 Days

I suppose I should explain the title of this blog.
Fruit flies live for approximately 30 days.  This seems like a ridiculously small amount of time to us, but what do our life spans look like from God's perspective?
Yet we can still praise and honor God with our lives, as short and insignificant as they are.  We can still decide to follow Jesus and become a disciple of him, giving him our everything.

Enjoy It

Ecclesiastes 9:7-10
7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.
9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain[b] life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,[c] for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

We're going to die - as I'm sure you already know.  It's a universally accepted fact.  Maybe not a liked, popular fact, but a fact nonetheless.  You can't let that eat away at your life, though.  You can't keep dwelling on the inevitable.  Live your life!  Enjoy what you have!  Your life is so short - why waste it?  Why throw it all away?  Glorify God with every passing moment you experience.
But don't get the wrong idea.  When Solomon says to "drink your wine with a merry heart", he doesn't mean get drunk.  He's not telling us to sin while having fun - he's not excusing sin.  He's simply telling us to enjoy life and to work at everything we do with all of our strength.  Why bother putting half-hearted effort into anything when our lives are so brief?
In verse 9, Solomon writes the word "vain" for the first time in chapter 9 of Ecclesiastes.  Keep in mind that he has used this word beforehand, though.  Scholars have found that every time Solomon uses the word "vain" or "vanity" (in the NIV version, "meaningless"), it translates to the same word in Hebrew - hebel.  I've already gone over this word in a previous post, but I want to stress its meaning again.  Hebel: mere breath or vapor.  So when Solomon uses the word "vain" in the ESV and KJV, he doesn't mean useless.  He's simply stressing the point that our lives are short.
In verse 10, Solomon mentions the word I talked about - Sheol.  Like I said, it's what people in Solomon's time, the time before Jesus, thought the dwelling place of the dead was.  The place where lost, forgotten souls drifted.
In verse 8, Solomon says, "Let your garments always be white.  Let not oil be lacking on your head."  Don't take these sayings in the literal sense.  Back in Solomon's time, people would wear white when they were dressing up.  They'd put oils and perfumes on their heads when they wanted to smell nice.  Both of these actions were signs of celebrations.  Solomon's talking about throwing a celebration!  The fact that you're alive is cause enough for a party!

Death of a Lion

Ecclesiastes 9:4-6

4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Back then, in ancient Bible times, a dog was considered . . . pathetic. It wasn't useful because it couldn't drag a cart behind it or serve as food, and it wasn't powerful because it was tiny, flea-bitten, and one of the least menacing things ever. But a lion? A lion was something to be feared – something to be in awe of. It had a majestic mane and sharp teeth and claws. It was huge, muscular, and the king of the jungle. 

A Lion's Death

This is the way every warrior dreamed of dying back then.  They wanted to go out with a bang, just as Boromir did.  It was considered a great honor to die in the heat of battle, because stories of the soldier would be told to his children's children about how victorious he was in life and about how magnificent his death was.
And yet Solomon disagrees. He says that it's better to be a live, mangy dog than a dead, incredible lion. It's better to be a homeless beggar living on the streets than a wealthy actor lying in a coffin.
 He says that at least the living know they will die. The dead? They won't know anything! 
 At least, that's what people in Solomon's time thought. They didn't know about heaven or hell. “Sheol” is what they called the abode of the dead – a place where spirits kind of lounged around. If you know anything about Greek mythology, it's like the Fields of Punishment down in Hades.  The shades in Sheol had no memory of what it was like to live.  They had no emotions or desires.  They drifted around in a half-aware state, not able to remember who they were.
So, even though we're going to die, at least we're alive today.  At least, right now, we are living and breathing.
As glorious as it might be to die in battle, to die while taking down a legion of Uruk-hai, it's better to live to see another day.

So Little Time

Ecclesiastes 9:1-3

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,[a] to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

Let's face it. This is depressing. You don't see any bumper stickers with the words, “Ecclesiastes 9:9b – And after that they go to the dead.” People don't comfort others in mourning with the book of Ecclesiastes.

Solomon, the king who asked God for wisdom, was going through some tough times while he wrote Ecclesiastes.* He wrote it just after he'd made a terrible mistake and married many foreign wives (something that God did not approve of), but just before Israel divided into two countries, Israel and Judah. Solomon was probably in a cynical mood when he wrote this book.

Let's observe verses 1-3.  In verse two, Solomon begins listing the characteristics of different people.  This doesn't mean that he's singling out the people who fall into those categories - he's using the contrast between each characteristic to help define his meaning.  Each attribute is paired with its opposite (eg. "righteous" and "wicked") to show the differences between them.  Solomon wants to show the reader that everyone - the good and the evil - are going to die.

The line "under the sun" is repeated a lot in this passage.  When Solomon uses it, he's referring to everything that exists - every living and non-living thing.  Earlier in the book, he states that there is "nothing new under the sun".

Solomon says in Ecclesiastes chapters 1 and 2, “Life is vanity.” He repeats this over and over again. In the NIV version, the line is, “Life is meaningless.” However, “meaningless” is not an accurate translation of the word originally used. The word Solomon wrote down was the Hebrew word “hebel”. It means “mere breath” or “vapor”. The main point Solomon is trying to get across is that life is short and that we will all die, whether we are good or bad, Christian or non-Christian. We're gone in the blink of an eye. We die so fast, so easily. All it takes is one car, one bullet, one cancer cell, one slip, and then we're done.

But don't worry. There is hope.

Which will be in my next post.

*Solomon supposedly wrote Ecclesiastes. No one is actually certain who wrote it, or even when. For the sake of this project, I'm assuming King Solomon wrote it during this time.

Glowsticks

I hate glowsticks. I really do. Sure, the concept of glowsticks is fun. A stick that glows in neon colors. Really, it's ingenious. When I was a kid, glowsticks were the second coolest thing on the face of this planet (the first obviously being Mario Kart). So when I was handed a glowstick, I got this huge grin on my face and bent the thing in half, watching in awe as it slowly lit up.

Glowsticks are fantastic creations. I'm not denying that. They're pretty and just plain cool. They have so much potential – you can connect them to other glowsticks and create a long, multicolored line of light, you can loop one around your neck and call it a necklace (although, to be fair, it looks and feels more like a noose), and you can keep one in your room as a nightlight – albeit a pathetic one.

But, as fun as glowsticks are, we have to be very careful with them. When that glowstick was given to me, I cracked it a little too forcefully. I guess I didn't know my own six-year old strength. Before I knew what was happening, something wet and sticky was oozing over my hands and gluing my fingers together (which may or may not be the reason I don't like glowsticks anymore).

Even if we don't break the glowstick, though, it's not like it lasts for more than a day. We never take a glowstick, thinking, “Great! I'll be able to use this for my birthday party next year!”

Glowsticks don't last.

And, as much as we are loathe to admit it, neither do we.

Ecclesiastes 9:1-10

9 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. 2 It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil,[a] to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. 4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head.

9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain[b] life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,[c] for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.