Living Life Backwards (Ecclesiastes 1)

Living Life Backwards:
Ecclesiastes - Living in Light of the End
Ecclesiastes 1

INTRODUCTION:
I am going to die. I have a fatal condition known as humanity and that means that at some point. I am going to die. And so are you.

Thankfully, I am ready to die. And I hope you are too.

Perhaps you have heard of Christopher Hitchens, a virulent atheist up until a few years ago. He died in 2011 so he is no longer an atheist but now it is too late. Anyway, in his biography Hitch-22, Hitchens quotes a Scottish poet named William Dunbar: “The fear of death distresses me.” Then the atheist writes: “I would not trust anyone who had not felt something like it.”

The one thing that concerns me about death is making sure Rachel is taken care of financially when I’m gone. She has graciously depended on me to provide the bulk of our income for the last 30 years and I would not want her to have to pinch pennies the last 30 years of her life because I’m gone. Other than that, death does not distress me. I don’t want to spend money dying, but it doesn’t distress me. Would I miss watching Theodore and Laurel growing up? From this side of the grave, I would have to say yes, but I trust that once I am in Hades, what is going on in this world will not be of any concern to me.

I believe that if we have the proper perspective of death, then we can have the proper perspective of life. When we look at death - and preachers look at death quite often! like a few other occupations out there - it should help us to live wisely, to live freely, to live generously. It should help us to have big hearts and open hands and appreciate the small things and not fret over the big things.

This is what the book of Ecclesiastes is all about. As Solomon works his way through the message of Ecclesiastes, he tells us that life is messy. Life is complex. But when you get to the end and you cross the valley of the shadow of death, then everything will be set right. Death will put everything into perspective and if we meditate on our own death, that vision can also put our lives into perspective.

Like most of you, I live my life looking forward. I make plans. I have a spreadsheet that has some major plans on it through the year 2038: states to visit, state parks to camp in, sermons to preach, Bible classes to teach. Our lives are naturally directed forward.

But Ecclesiastes teaches us to live our lives with the end in mind. There is one thing for certain. We will die. And with that end in mind, everything we do and all the decisions we make should be made. Our end is what puts our lives in perspective.

You and I, as Christians, know for sure where our destination is. And we can know for sure that we are going to get there. Ecclesiastes tells us how to fit our priorities and our goals into that perspective. It is only when we know we are going to die that we can really know how to live!

THE GIFT - 1:1-11:
A missionary for the Church of the Moravians, known as Ludwig von Zinzendorf, said, “Preach the gospel. Die. Be forgotten.”

Does anyone remember who the first preacher for the Swartz Creek church of Christ is? Honestly, it will not be long before no one will remember me. What that means is that one day, let’s say 60 years from now, in the year 2085, no one here will likely remember that I preached here.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

One of the joys of being around toddlers is watching them user their imagination. My older brother had an imaginary friend named “Bop-bop.”

But there is a huge difference between the imaginary world and the real world. And sometimes when we see and hear children playing in their imaginary world, it makes us sad to know that one day, their perspective is going to change drastically. Because there is real pain in the real world. There is real frustration in the real world. There is real confusion in the real world. There is real death in the real world.

Ecclesiastes, then, is a message from God acknowledging that He knows we live in a real world. Ecclesiastes was written by the “Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” King Solomon best fits that description and that’s what the ancient Jews believed.

So Solomon tells us right off the bat that “all is vanity.” All is vanity. Everything in life is pretty much a merry-go-around. Out of the 73 times “vanity” is used in the OT, Solomon uses it in Ecclesiastes 38 times. “All is vanity.” Everything is futile. Everything is like tying to grab the wind. Look at the words of Psalm 39:5-6, 11; 144:3-4.

James, of course tells us that life is a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14).

As we get older, we realize just how true the statement is “Time flies the older you get.” We are born, we live, we die, and it seems to happen so quickly. It is hard to believe that Rachel and I have been married 30 years. Where did that time go?

So Ecclesiastes is reflections on the brevity of life.

LIFE IS ELUSIVE:
Theodore loves it when Meeko blows bubbles. Sometimes he just watches them float away and sometimes he tries to catch them.

Solomon will say 9 times that life is “striving after wind.” You can’t hold on to life nor more than you can’t hold on to wind. All of us have had moments in our lives that we wish we could just pause and experience it perhaps over and over again. Or maybe go back in time and reexperience events in our lives all over again. But you can’t. You can’t pause life and you can’t rewind life. We cannot control life.

Why does it seem to rain right after you wash your car? Why do you get into one lane of traffic which turns out to be the slowest lane of traffic? Why do good people die early and the dictator dies a natural and peaceful death? Why do you go to college and then have a hard time finding a good job? Or a job in your area of interest? Why do we make investments that turn out to be a flop?

How many sand castles have been washed back out to sea with the tide? And that is a fitting metaphor for life. Psalm 103:15-16.

In our lives, we pretend and act like Solomon doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We live as if we’re in control and then when something happens, we get mad or sad and depressed and the problem the whole time is that we haven’t been listening to Solomon! Ultimately, have our lives amounted to much?

Ecclesiastes 1:3. What is the answer to that question? What of lasting value comes from what we have done? Ultimately what I leave behind will be what?

Look at 1:4-11. The one thing we will leave behind when we die… is dirt. Dirt - exactly where it was when I was born. And now the dirt goes on without me. My life has come and it has gone. Rachel, Jewell, and Ana will follow the same course of life - they will leave behind the universe and the merry-go-round still turns.

We labor, we toil, and we die. The earth just keeps going. Life is a vapor.

Notice especially 1:9.

Humans long for something new, something novel, something earth-shattering. Something to break the cycle. But there isn’t anything. Everything we have today is the same thing that Solomon had, even if the technology is different. But its all the same. We never experience enough to the point we are satisfied. We never learn enough until we are satisfied. We never build enough until we are satisfied.

If we, in fact, make it to a manned mission on Mars, the next question will be: What’s next? There will come a time when no one remembers you or me or the person in the White House.

PREPARE TO DIE
And this reality is the same whether you believe in God or not! It’s the same whether you are a follower of Jesus Christ or not! Even for us as Christians, life is still a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

The advantage for the Christian is not that we can stop the merry-go-round; it is that we know the merry-go-round is not all there is.

Again, when we look at life from the perspective of our death, then we really can know how we need to live. The perspective of death helps us to change our perspective of every aspect of our lives and how we see ourselves in this world. If we, in fact, do not live forever on this earth and if, in fact, we will not make any kind of lasting impression on this earth, how should we live?

I will have future lessons from Ecclesiastes on this theme - but the first point Solomon is making for us is that we need to accept death in order to learn how to live. Douglas Wilson wrote: “A wise believer is a man who knows the length of his tether.” How much energy do we devote to trying to ignore the tether?

Life has a repetitiveness built into it and we cannot change it. We cannot escape from it. All the rhythms of nature - and we are moving into the summer season - teach us that we are just a small part of the created world and we don’t have much impact on it.

In C. S. Lewis’s short story titled The Screwtape Letters, he has the devil talking to a minion and he tells him that humanity is enthralled with the new, which is the source of heresy and folly and infidelity. We do like new things; I like starting a new book. I like starting a new study, a new class.

Solomon will talk to us in Ecclesiastes what we should and should not expect out of life. There is no gain chasing the wind. There is no need to chase the wind. There is no gain to chasing the wind.

What is most important? Ecclesiastes 12:13-14…

Take home message: Want to live a fulfilling life? Start by fearing God and keeping His commandments - it's a game changer for every person.