Join Dr. David Jeremiah as he takes a deep dive into the wisdom of Solomon, revealing truths about life’s greatest certainty—death—and how it should inspire a life full of joy and purpose. In this compelling episode, discover the profound insights from Ecclesiastes that encourage us to embrace life fully despite its injustices and complexities. Through personal stories and biblical lessons, Dr. Jeremiah urges listeners to live each day with enthusiasm, making the most of every opportunity and relationship.
In a perfect world, the job would go to the most qualified, the victory to the better team, and the award to the most deserving. But the real world isn’t always fair. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah continues his look at death with an encouragement to live life to its fullest, even when it’s less than fair. To introduce the conclusion of his message, the subject nobody talks about, here’s David.
SPEAKER 02 :
And thank you so much for joining us. I hope you had a good weekend. And we’re ready now for another week of study from the book of Ecclesiastes. We’re in the ninth chapter. We’re right in the middle of a message we have called The Subject Nobody Talks About. It’s really a discussion on the part of Solomon leading us in this discussion on death, what he has to say about it, and the wisdom that he imparts to us. We’ll talk more about that in just a moment. We’re coming down to the last few days of this month, which means our resource for the month will be soon over. I don’t want you to miss out on getting this book for your library, for your further study, maybe for a small group or research for a set of sermons or Bible studies. This 323-page booklet, 31 Days to Happiness, is available. The Study of the Book of Ecclesiastes. It’s available to you during the month of February for a gift of any size. This book will memorialize everything we’ve been talking about. It will give you a resource to go to when you need information. The book is filled with truth. It’s filled with all kinds of resources, and we want you to have your copy. So be sure and ask for your copy of 31 Days to Happiness when you send your gift to Turning Point today. We begin this week by continuing our discussion of the subject nobody talks about. We’re going to talk about it right now. I’ll never forget a funeral I had when I was a young pastor back in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I’d been asked to conduct the service of someone I’d never met, someone I didn’t know, and I had been assured that they had been godly and they came to me and the family said, we’d like for you to do this service. After the service at the mortuary, I was walking back to my car in the parking lot and a young woman came running across the parking lot toward me, screaming at the top of her lungs. I found out as she unleashed her anger toward me that I had mentioned her sister’s name in the service without mentioning hers. So here was her dad lying in a casket and she was mad because her name had been omitted from the service. What was she doing, friends? She was denying the reality of what had happened. She used the emotion of anger against me so that she didn’t have to deal with the emotion of reality and grief concerning her own father. And there are many other stories I could tell of the madness and evil that occurs sometimes at the time of death. Now, let me just tell you, death is not your enemy. It’s your friend. Don’t deny it. Number two, Solomon says, not only don’t deny it, don’t ignore it. Verses four through six. But for him who is joined to all the living, there is hope for a living dog’s better than a dead lion. 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. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished. Nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun. Here Solomon tells us about another approach to death. He says that we can hang our hope out there and say, well, we’re just going to hope against hope. And basically what he is saying, where there’s life, there’s hope. That’s where this whole phrase came from. Where there’s life, there’s hope. And he says that it’s better to be a living dog, which was a despised animal in Solomon’s day, than a dead lion, which was the king of the jungle. Solomon says, one of the ways you can deal with this is just go on ignoring it. Living like, hey, as long as there’s life, there’s hope. You know what? Hope is great, but hope will only be hope if it’s got reality mixed in with it. And the hope we have isn’t in this life. The hope we have is in the life to come. You can hope all you want to that you won’t die, but you’re going to die. Hope is not the answer in this life. Hope is the answer in the next life. Hope in Christ who overcame the grave. Now that’s meaningful hope, but hope that somehow you’re going to just… Keep going when everybody knows you won’t. That’s not real. And that’s not healthy. And that will not get you through life with any meaning that you can grab hold on. Notice Solomon’s description of a person who has died is reflective of man’s view of death without God. He says they know nothing. They have no more reward. They’re forgotten. They can’t love. They can’t hate. They can’t envy. They have no more share in anything that’s done under the sun. I’d rather think Solomon put that little… liturgy in there so that he would remind us that while those things can’t be done after we die, they certainly can be done while we’re alive. Isn’t that true? He suggests that we reverse these statements and discover that while we can’t do those things after we’re gone, because we are alive, we can receive a reward, and we are not forgotten, and we can love, and we can hate it, we can have envy, and we do share in that which is done under the sun. This is a perfect introduction to Solomon’s admonition to all of us concerning death. Now, the morbid part’s almost over. In other words, take stock of your time and do what you can do because there’s coming a time when you won’t be able to do it. Solomon doesn’t want us to face death so that we’ll be morbid and discouraged and oppressed. He wants us to look it square in the face and then take a step backward and say, now what does this mean to me now? And that is our introduction to the third response, which is don’t deny death. Don’t ignore death, but do embrace it. Now read with me verses seven through 10 and see if you don’t get excited as I did when I read this. Go eat your bread with joy. Drink your wine with a merry heart for God’s already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white. Let your head lack no oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life, which he’s given you under the sun, all your days of vanity. For that is your portion in life and in the labor which you perform under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. For there’s no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you’re going. Now, what is Solomon saying to his class? Saying, okay, we face death. Now, we looked it right smack in the face. And here’s what comes out of that. Four things. Four things that Solomon is saying. He’s not saying, okay, since you’re going to die, go out, eat, drink, and be merry. Hit the bars every night. Stay in a drunken stupor so you won’t have to deal with it. That’s not what he’s saying at all. In fact, look at the things he tells us to do. He tells us, first of all, that we should stop moping around and get up and enjoy the life that God has given us under the sun. Amen? Don’t let the days and months and years slip by without draining them of all the enjoyment God intended you to have. Now, I want to give you four things you should do because today we quit fooling around about all of the synonyms for death and we said one day we’re all going to die. Now, based on that, four things. Number one, eat every meal like you’re at a banquet. Eat every meal like you’re at a banquet. Verse seven, go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart for God has already accepted your works. Proverbs says… Better a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted calf with hatred. Proverbs 15, 17. There’s a lot in the book of Proverbs about coming to your meal with gladness in your heart. He says, you know what? You’re going to die someday, but man, you’re going to eat today. We’re going to eat lunch today. Eat your lunch like it was a banquet. You say, well, Pastor Jeremiah, you have no idea what we’re having for lunch. It’s not the food that matters. It’s what you think when you come to the table. And you know, to today’s generation, these sound like really strange words, don’t they? In Solomon’s day and in the Jewish culture, the meal was a very important time. We hardly eat a meal together at all. We are often in such a hurry we can’t enjoy the company of one another. We have invented fast food. And I’m not sure fast food’s good for us health-wise or emotionally either. In Solomon’s day, the evening meal after the long, hard day of work in the fields was a joyous and happy occasion. I think our fast food families could learn a lot from these Old Testament words. Get to the place where every meal’s a banquet. What Solomon is saying is this. Listen to me. He’s not saying go and, you know, do a lot of things so you don’t have to think about life and death. No, he’s saying let the fact that you see the shortness of life motivate you to take advantage of the life God has given you. Are you with me on that? How many of you know days and weeks and months can go by when you can’t even remember who you ate with or if you did eat? And Solomon says, make your meals like they were a banquet. That’s the first thing. Eat every meal like you’re at a banquet. Here’s the second thing. Celebrate every day like you’re at a party. Celebrate every day like you’re at a party. Let your garments always be white, verse 8, and let your head lack no oil. Now, in the culture of Solomon, special occasions were the focus of every family. Weddings and reunions and birthdays were times of great celebration when people would put on their dress whites and splash perfume all over their bodies. But note what the questioner is saying here. He is saying that we should be in a mood of celebration all the time. Let your garments always be white and let your head lack no oil. In other words, don’t celebrate just on special occasions, celebrate every day. You are alive. You have much to celebrate, so live joyfully and make every day a festival in life. You know, I think that’s one of the benefits of this book we’ve been studying. Oh yes, it’s philosophical and some people say it’s a bit deep, but it causes us to wake up and smell the flowers and realize that life taunts us into becoming a part of its drudgery when God wants us to enjoy the life he has given us. The Bible says in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 4 that we’re to rejoice always in the Lord and always rejoice. Isn’t that interesting? Because if you listen to some people today, if you have to deal with the issue of death, you can’t be joyful. No, Solomon says it’s exactly the opposite. Once you realize that you have a certain number of years on this earth and you understand, as we’ve already learned, that God wants these days to be enjoyable for you, take stock of where you are and quit moping around and go have a good meal with a friend and get up tomorrow and put on your best clothes. whites or whatever, scarves or whatever, and go out into the world with a spring in your step saying, thank God I’m alive. I’ll tell you, that’s one lesson I’ve learned, to thank God every day for a good night’s rest and for the joy of waking up on the top of the earth. Amen. All right, now here’s the third one. This is gonna be a stretch for some of you, but hang on to this. Eat every meal like you’re at a banquet. Celebrate every day like you’re at a party. Enjoy every day of marriage like you’re on your honeymoon. Verse nine. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which he has given you under the sun. All your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life and in labor which you perform under the sun. Solomon, you remember, had violated marriage in his life. he’d had a wife in his youth and then he got caught up with the women of the world and he got sucked into polygamy by all of the strange gods that came into his life. And he now stands at the end of his life and he says, let me tell you what I wish I had done. I wish I had lavished all my love on the wife of my youth and enjoyed her all the days of my life. Marriage was created to bring joy into the lives of husband and wife. When there’s mutual commitment and love, nothing can compare to the happiness in your home. Aren’t these great thoughts? Eat every meal like you’re at a banquet. Celebrate every day like you’re at a party. Enjoy every day of marriage like you’re on your honeymoon. And the last one is, go to work every day like it was your last day to work. Verse 10. I want you to listen to me now. Listen to what he says. Verse 10, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might. For there’s no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you’re going. I read that by the time a person is age 50, if he has worked full time since college, he will have put in 56,000 hours of work. What if all that time could be devoted to God? Well, how could that be? By simply changing your attitude. You don’t have to be a pastor or a missionary or a minister of music or anything else to devote your life to God. Just get up every day and say, Lord, this is your day. I devote this day to you. And all that I do, I want to honor you. If it’s cleaning floors or whatever it is you do, do your thing for God. a word from prize-winning Irish poet, Evangeline Patterson. She sums up her life like this. She said, I was brought up in a Christian environment where because God had to be given preeminence, nothing else was allowed to be important. I have broken through to the position that because God exists, everything is important. You know, that’s a profound change, isn’t it? I think some of us have been on that journey. I probably started out the same way, that since God is the most important thing, only the things that you can tie directly to him, like service and ministry, only those things are important. No, no. She said, I finally grew up and realized that since God is everything, then everything is important to me. And it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as it’s honoring to the Lord, you can do it with a full heart. Because life is short and unpredictable, Solomon urges us to approach our chosen work with passion and excitement. We are to live life wide open with enthusiasm for each opportunity we are given. That’s the way God wants us to live. Colossians 3.23 says, whatever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not to men. He’s reminding us that life is a gift. And I know some of you don’t believe this, but work is a gift. Work is a gift. In fact, While I was reading the book of Ecclesiastes, I came across this verse which we’ve already studied and it just had so much new significance to me. I want to read it to you again. Verse 20 of chapter 5. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life. Why? Because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart. You know, that’s why I don’t worry about whether I’m going to live to be 80 or 65 or 70. I’m so busy with the joy of my heart. Days go by and I love the life that God has given to me. If you want to sit back and count your days, go do it. But I’m going to tell you a better way to live is do your work with all your heart, whatever your hand finds to do, give it everything you’ve got and live your life with the joy of your heart and you won’t be thinking at all about dying. You’ll be thinking about the life God has given you right now. Solomon has told us about the certainty of death. And it seems like what he’s saying is, okay, since death is certain, you got to concentrate on life, especially those of us who are Christians, since we know what comes after death, that Christ has already cared for that. But now he throws a monkey wrench into the gear here. He says, I know that what I’ve tried to tell you is that you need to live life, but he said, let me just be honest with you about life. And this is what I love about Solomon. He doesn’t candy coat anything. He doesn’t try to give us what he knows we want to hear, like a lot of preachers do these days. You know, all the positive stuff with nothing that will make you feel bad. Get the warm fuzzies every Sunday when you go to church. You know, that’s what some people believe. Solomon’s not of that irk. He says, let me tell you now, there’s some things about life you need to be aware of. Couple things. Number one, in this life, the best man isn’t always rewarded. And this is a very famous part of this passage of scripture. We all know this. In chapter nine, these are some famous words. Verse 11, I returned and I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill, but time is. And chance happened to them all. For man also does not know his time like fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare. So the sons of men are snared on an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them. What is he saying? He’s saying, well, I’m not telling you to go out and do everything exactly right and be perfect and all of that. And in this life, you will be rewarded. How many of you know that doesn’t happen all the time? And how wise of Solomon to help us comprehend that. The race is not always to the swift. The best man doesn’t always win. Life isn’t fair. Can I get a witness? Oh, how hard it is for us to understand that. Life isn’t fair. It’s a profound paragraph. This is the way life is. The best man doesn’t always win. He’s not the fastest nor the strongest nor the wisest nor the smartest nor most skillful man who always wins. Solomon says that sometimes what happens to us is not about our abilities or our readiness for the task, but it’s about the timing or the opportunity that might happen. He calls it the chance. He’s not talking about gambling here. He’s talking about the fact that sometimes life just happens. You can’t figure it out. In this life, there isn’t anything you can control, and death is the thing that reminds you of that. Let me give you a little biblical illustration. Who was the biggest guy in the Bible? Goliath. He’s killed by a boy that had a sling. Who was the wealthiest man in the Bible? Solomon. He messed his life up with disaster. Who was the fastest guy in the Bible? Joab’s brother. He chased a guy who was bigger than him and ended up being run through by a spear. Who was the handsomest guy in the Bible? David’s son, Absalom, of whom it was said there wasn’t a flaw in him from the bottom of his foot to the top of his head. He died hanging from a tree by his hair. The people with the greatest gifts often end up with the most tragic endings, especially if they’re not wise. And what Solomon’s trying to say is, look, I want you to get this whole thing wrapped up in this package. There’s a certainty out there called death and we’re all going to face it, but don’t let it destroy your life. Live your life every day with rejoicing because God has given you life. But then while you’re doing that, don’t get so enamored with life that you think it’s a perfect picture because it’s not perfect. the best man doesn’t always get rewarded. And then he gives us a little story at the end, and I’m gonna have to cover this real quickly, but the last thing he tells us is that in this life, a good man’s not always remembered. Let me just read it quickly. This wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it, besieged it, built great snares around it, and there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor wise man. And I said, wisdom’s better than strength. Nevertheless, the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. Words of the wise spoken quietly should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools. Wisdom’s better than the weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. What is Solomon saying? Again, life isn’t fair. Here’s a poor man in a city who saved the whole city from an oncoming king who was going to destroy the whole place. And when it was all over, they didn’t even remember him. And all they talked about was the ruler who came against him. The evil ruler got more press and the wise poor man didn’t even get mentioned. Have you ever felt like you’ve been forgotten? Everybody here has had that at one time or another. Felt like you’ve been forgotten. You did the right thing. You did it the best you could. You know it was right and it was good and godly. And nobody even noticed. That hurts, doesn’t it? It really hurts. But just get used to it. It’s the way life is. And Solomon is saying, yes, I want you to understand about death. But I also want you to understand the reality about life. Best guys don’t always win. And good people don’t always get remembered. You say, well, pastor, what am I supposed to do? Let me tell you what you do. Here’s the whole key. Live your life every day with this realization that this is a good life that God has given us, but it’s only a preparation for the greatest thing he has for us. He told his disciples one day, he said, let not your heart be troubled. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Do you have any idea what God has planned for you? And the very fact that this life leaves you hungering for more and empty where you want to be full is the realization that there’s something inside of you, there’s a hunger inside of you that can never be filled in this world. The only way you can ever get that satisfaction is through a relationship with the eternal almighty God who sent his son into this world to die on that cross so that you might have life everlasting. And here’s what I’ve discovered. I still have some of the same struggles you all have with trying to figure out how life works, but I’m constantly reminded that this world is not my home. I’m just a passing through. Amen. C.S. Lewis once put it this way. He said, God has provided many ends for us along life’s journey, but he’s made dead sure that we never confuse any of them for home. One of these days we’re going home. I’ll tell you what, it’s exciting, isn’t it? And for all of us who are Christians, absent from the body is present with the Lord. And my concern is that you understand that yeah, you can muddle through life if you want to without having any outside perspective on it. But the book of Ecclesiastes is teaching us that life is only good when God’s in the picture. And if you don’t know God, this is the day. One of these days, somebody will read your obituary And if you’re a Christian and you’ve already gone to heaven, it’ll be a joyous time. But if you haven’t made your peace with God through Jesus Christ, it will be a time of great sorrow and despair for all those who know and love you. Let me ask you a question. If you were to face that day we’ve talked about, you had to stand before God and he would say to you, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? I’m going to tell you the only answer that will ever be accepted on that reckoning day is because I have accepted your son, Jesus Christ, as my Savior who paid the penalty for all of my sin. And he is my Savior. And Almighty God will say, welcome home. The purpose that we have, the ultimate overall purpose that we have as a ministry is to tell people about Jesus Christ. Through the teaching of His Word, which is centered on His life, we present Jesus as the only alternative to life and happiness and eternity in heaven. If you don’t know Him, use this opportunity to make sure you invite Him into your life. You can do that. You don’t need a preacher to be with you. You just need to bow your head and ask God to forgive you of your sin and and invite Jesus Christ to come and live in your life and be your Savior, He will do it, and you will soon, very soon, know the difference. The Bible says, old things will begin to pass away and all things will become new. I hope you’ll take advantage of this invitation to make that decision today. Let us know when you do it. We have some things we’d send you that will help you in your initial walk with the Lord. And we’ll see you right here tomorrow. Hey, tomorrow we’re going to talk about fools rush in. Be sure and listen. We’ll see you then.
SPEAKER 01 :
The message you just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Your notes of encouragement mean so much. We invite you to write to us at Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David’s book, 31 Days to Happiness. It’s filled with Solomon’s wisdom and it’s yours for a gift of any amount. You can also stream more than 1,200 of Dr. Jeremiah’s messages on demand on any screen with our streaming service, Turning Point Plus, for a monthly gift of any amount. Visit turningpointplus.org for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue Searching for Heaven on Earth on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
