Page 138 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

14.5 Let’s Personalize this Lesson….

Ultimately, everyone anticipates judgment. Even if a person has only a vague notion of an
afterlife or does not believe in an afterlife at all, each human is constructed with a conscience.
Each knows something of right and wrong and considers life precious enough to warrant an
accounting of some sort (11:9-12:1). Solomon has built much of his argument on the universal
expectation of justice. Every deed will be judged whether good or evil/bad (12:14). Since this
is true, come to the Shepherd.

The Teacher invites us to consider the pagan life. Each day holds a certain amount of joy. A cup of coffee,
the soft voice of a baby, the beauty of the night sky, the scent of a woman’s perfume, and much more
are pleasant. We all enjoy what is represented by “eating and drinking” mentioned so often in
Ecclesiastes. Yet even the best of this life is spoiled by the reality of death. An aged parent succumbs like
the end-of-life picture of a “golden bowl broken” (12:6). A friend dies in a car accident or from an
untreatable disease. We stand at their graveside feeling keenly the threat of death for ourselves. Can all
the thoughts and memories and feelings of a person be gone completely? The theologian and pastor
John Piper gives a fitting illustration.

Picture two skydivers. They are both free-falling. Their speed is the same. They both
seem to be free. They are not entangled in any cords. They are not restrained by any
safety wires. They are as free as birds – it seems. But there is one crucial difference: only
one of them has a parachute. Does this change the sense of freedom that they enjoy?
Yes. Both are free to fall with gravity, but only one of them is free not to. The other is a
slave to gravity, and gravity will kill him in the end. If he can somehow deny that he has
no parachute he might be able to have an exhilarating experience. But if he realizes he is
doomed, he will be enslaved through fear during his entire fall, and all the joy of this so-
called freedom will vanish. He must either deny the reality (which will mean slavery to
illusion), or succumb to fear (which will mean slavery to terror), or be rescued by
someone with a parachute. So it is in this world. Apart from Christ, we are subject to
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slavery all our lives through fear of death.

Here is the perspective of the person without Christ. The grave is the end, or, at best, they hope for a
comparative judgment day. They might say, “I am not any worse than anyone else.” But such expressions
are mostly for others to hear. Conscience strikes them in their quiet moments. As they hear the words of
a funeral message, they experience great fear for themselves. The book of Ecclesiastes is a call to
evangelism.

The Teacher reveals other truths in the practice of a life of faith in the Messiah. His recommendation to
eat and drink, to enjoy one’s family and work, sets a low standard. Fighting for a cause is folly. Giving up
the comforts of home for country or religion or the well-being of strangers is a poor bargain. The
pleasure lost in sacrificing cannot be regained. Only faith in the Messiah will motivate one to sacrifice.
The promise of an eternity with God in complete joy is the only promise worth giving up legitimate
pleasures now. Again, John Piper gives an apt and powerful illustration of the function of hope.

221 Piper, The Purifying Power of Living by Faith in Future Grace, 356.
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