# 507 Ecclesiastes – In search of meaning in life. 7:1-6 ‘Teach us to number our days!’

When we get to Ecclesiastes 7, Qoheleth’s style of writing seems to change. As Kidner writes:

“With his sure touch the author now brings in a stimulating change of style and approach. Instead of reflecting and arguing, he will bombard us with proverbs, with their strong impact and varied angles of attack. The opening ones are provocatively cheerless; the rest (for the most part) provocatively cool and canny.” (# 59)

In some ways it reminds us of Psalm 90 when it says:

Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away…
Teach us to number our days,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:10,12)

And so Qoheleth writes:

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.

So what is Qoheleth trying to say here? Well despite this being fairly negative, there is actually a positive side, believe it or not. Kidner comments:

This positive side “is spelt out most clearly at the end of the next verse [verse 2], especially in the saying, the living will lay it to heart. In other words, the day of death has more to teach us than the day of birth; its lessons are more factual and, paradoxically, more vital. At a birth (and, to draw on the next few verses, on all festive and joyful occasions) the general mood is excited and expansive. It is no time for dwelling on life’s brevity or on human limitations: we let our fancies and our hopes run high. At the house of mourning, on the other hand, the mood is thoughtful and the facts are plain. If we shrug them off, it is our fault: we shall have no better chance of facing them.” (# 59)

Hard truths to accept, but no one wants to find out life and death truths too late! And one of these vital truths is as Hebrews 9 says:

²⁷ … people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 

But the good news comes next when it says:

²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.  (Hebrews 9:27-28)

Qoheleth is certainly not against enjoying life as he says a few times in this book, but he is suggesting that it is actually from the tough times that we learn that which is really vital to living well in this world that God created and that in a right relationship to Him and others. It is also these tough times which cause us to reflect on the truth that our lives are actually quite short as the psalmist said in Psalm 90, and we need to give thought to what comes next.

Let me ask you a question. If we are going to die tomorrow, what should we do today?

Now let me suggest an answer. That all depends on what happens on the day after tomorrow!

In other words, “what we believe about life after death decides how we behave during life before death.” (# 61)

And the One to come too in order to discover about life after death is the One who died and who rose again, Jesus!

As Paul writes in Romans 8:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  (Romans 8:1-2)