Title: It Depends on” How You View Things
Author: Rev. John
Last saved by: Andrew Nugteren

MOURNING IS BETTER THAN LAUGHTER
Ecclesiastes 7:1-14 (text)   2 Corinthians 4:5-18

INTRODUCTION
Since the end is better than the beginning, we'll go straight to the end to find the meaning, not only of life, but also of our text this morning. 
#	The NIV has the final sentence of our text: "Therefore a man cannot discover anything about his future." That is an interpretation and, in my view, quite incorrect.
#	The NAS/NKJ has: "So that a man may not discover anything that will be after him." The italicized words (ordinary script as printed here) are added to give the sense, the same sense as the NIV, and are, therefore, wrong. 
#	Remove the added, italicized words and you will have it correct, as per the old AV: "to the end that man should find nothing after him." That is not just my prejudice. It is also the view of my most learned OT commentary, Keil & Delitzsch. The meaning, therefore, is: God causes man to experience good and evil that he may pass through the whole school of life and, when he departs hence, that nothing may be outstanding which he has not experienced. 

We bewail missed opportunities. We speak of wasted lives, a life cut off in its prime, cut short, and untimely death. In one sense we may and almost must speak lie that. Death is death. God has no delight in it. It is evil and the fruit of evil, sin. Yet, according to our text, there is another sense in which we must say that life is good, it is complete. But how, you ask, is the death of a promising young person good? How is the short life of a baby who dies a few days old complete?

Perhaps, congregation, we have not yet learned to think biblically about something we as Reformed people talk about a lot; but which we live very poorly. Perhaps we have to learn to think about death also covenantally. Jacob, when the brothers took Benjamin to Egypt, said, "My life is bound up in the life of that lad." To which every woman who has had only a miscarriage, let alone a still-born or lost a child at an early age, will say, "Well, I know that very well!" And maybe also she says, "And I'd like to know why God took my child so young!"

I would like to return to that later, if I may. All I want to say now is, as we sang from Psalm 139 a moment ago;
'Ere into being I was brought
Thine eye did see, and in Thy thought
My life in all its perfect plan
Was ordered ere my days began.

Our text says, "Consider the work of God…. In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider – God has made the one as well as the other to the end that man should find nothing after him" (v.11a, 14 with the last clause from the AV).

1.	THE END IS BETTER THAN THE BEGINNING
"A good name is better than a good ointment" (v.1a). What on earth does he mean by that?
#	Well, a good ointment was often bought at great expense to embalm someone. A good name is better than good ointment because a good name is of more value than a well-embalmed body.
#	The word can also be oil rather than ointment. One also anointed one's head with oil. It was refreshing. It could also be referring to perfume, as the NIV has it, which brings us to the whole matter of make-up and how we present ourselves to the world. Sometimes the person we present to the world is not just our best face. Sometimes it is quite another person altogether and therefore we may be speaking about vanity full blown. Even dishonesty. But over against merely the best face we put on ourselves, a good name is a revelation of our hearts, the inner man, the real person.

Therefore, "A good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth" (v.1). For death strips away all these appearances and falsifications we put on. It humbles all of us, even if we have risen to greatness in life. Furthermore, Ellul quotes Maillot, "It was not up to us to be born, but it is up to us to die well." The end is better than the beginning because the end is the future that the beginning had in view all the time.

2.	GRIEF IS BETTER FOR US THAN PLEASURE
Or: someone else's end is better for us than pleasure! "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting" (v.2ab). 

Death should be a moment of truth. I have often been very angry at funerals because of the outright lies that are told by mourners are far greater than the false appearances the dead themselves put on when they were alive! I hear more untruth at funerals than anywhere else – and I hear a lot of untruth!

Well, it is not good to speak ill of the dead, you say. Alright then. But if you can't speak good of the dead truly, let's just say good about God! Indeed, even if we can say good about the dead, let's say more good about God. For only God is good anyway. Preaching should not only be about thirty minutes. It should also be about God – and not about men at all. And perhaps especially at funerals; and there fifteen minutes will do.

Well then, why is it better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting? "Because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart" (2cd). Do you often think about death? Because that is where everything comes together – or falls apart. Or at least, where things are seen to come together or fall apart. Do we take that to heart?

That is why mourning is better than feasting and sorrow better than laughter. Not because feasting itself is bad; or laughter. In fact, we were told only last week: "Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one's labour in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward…. this is the gift of God" (5:18-19). And rather than considering death, and therefore the purpose of life, "God keeps man occupied with the gladness of his heart" (5:20) so that he will not often consider the years of his life

What is going on here? Can the Preacher – or even God, perhaps – not make up his mind? The point is this: we are not to be morbid; we are not constantly to be thinking of death. Nevertheless, death is the end of every man and it is good for us at times to go into the house of mourning and take that to heart – we will all end up in a coffin.

Feasting and laughter are good. They are the gift of God. But we pervert all God's gifts and therefore they must all be enjoyed in moderation – feasting and laughter as much as any. For there we drink and there we talk. And with a little alcohol perhaps having loosened our tongues, we talk much. And, says the Proverb, "in the abundance of words, sin is not absent." And our good pleasure soon becomes excess and folly and nonsense and may even hurt; or worse!

Furthermore, feasting is often associated with beginnings – births, baptisms, engagements, weddings; even Professions of Faith! And at beginnings we are full of expectations and promises and hopes. Like Ms Clark last Saturday night: "We will deliver."  For the rest of us, we just say, "We will see."

But are these things not right at these celebrations of beginnings? Of course, they are right. But how many of those expectations and hopes and vows and promises are not fulfilled? So we read, "Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad a heart may be happy. The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure" (vv.3-4). A heart may be made happy. As Kidner comments, "The joy of life must not be riot and tumult, but a joy tempered with seriousness."

3.	THE REBUKE OF THE WISE IS BETTER THAN THE SONG OF FOOLS
"It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than for one to listen to the song of fools. For as the crackling of the thorn bushes under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. And this too is futility" (vv.5-6).

Lightness, joy, laughter – they are attractive to us. But in the end it can all be a very great snare, like the crackle of thorns burning under a pot – or "nettles under a kettle," as Luther translated it. They burn brightly, high and clear, and so they attract us. But they're all bright with little heat. Like fine words without love, mere clanging cymbals. A good, solid log burning slowly as embers would do a lot more good. The Puritans knew about this very well. They took life seriously. That's why they achieved so much. And don't believe the caricature: they were not killjoys. 
Young people, in the round of fun and sport and laughter and entertainment, which in moderation are not wrong in themselves, do you sometimes resent a parent or elder who might speak to you soberly, or even rebuke you? Don’t be a fool. The rebuke of the wise is better than the song of fools and there are an awful lot of fools in this world. They may burn brightly and clearly, but they are soon burnt out. Whereas those solid, slow-burning parents and elders, by God's grace, will still be there. Why give them the grief of being there just to pick up the pieces?

Delitzsch says no-one understands v.7; he confesses that he doesn't know the purpose of ki, translated in our Bibles as "For"; he thinks v.7 was preceded by something like Pr.16:8. So v.7 speaks of the duties of a judge and the corrupting influence of power, used oppressively, on its user. AV takes makes transitively not reflexively, so Ellul has it say, "Oppression drives a wise man mad." So the poor in desperation accept any ideology and when they revolt, madness and massacres may result.

If we put all this together, that the end is better than the beginning; that the consideration of someone else's end is better than mere fun and laughter; that a solemn rebuke and check is better than the silly egging on of laughing fools; what is the Preacher telling us?

Answer: Enjoying this world's pleasures is a gift of God, yet it is to be enjoyed in moderation and the pleasure must not be allowed to degenerate into folly. For life is, at bottom, a serious business and those events or that person who comes along and checks your fun, whom you might think a spoil-sport, is doing you a favour. Therefore

4.	WORK PATIENTLY TO LIFE'S CONCLUSION
If the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth, and the end of the matter than the beginning, then, of course, the rebuke that keeps you looking to that end instead of getting distracted by silliness along the way is better. Therefore, work patiently and steadily to life's conclusion, to life's goal. "The end of a matter is better than its beginning; patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit" (v.8).

With that in mind, may I come back to this business of lives cut off short, as we say? Yes, why did God take my child? Why did God bring that bright beginning, that new initiative that was so promising, to an untimely end? And so on.  We have seen already that there is no incomplete work with God. There is nothing to add to it as there is nothing to take from any work of God.

But may I say, quite apart from the fact you might not like the answer God might possibly give you to that question – it could have been a chastisement; as God took that son David had by Bathsheba. And if you are offended by that comparison, then perhaps God sent that as a thorn in the flesh as he did to Paul to keep him from pride. And if pride is your problem, then perhaps, you being as holy as Job of course, God gives you the honour of keeping faith in the midst of great adversity to teach who knows what great spiritual beings some great lesson. But at any rate, God has done a proper and good and complete work with it. But quite apart from all that, the fact we ask why is another problem we have. We Westerners always want to know the cause of things: why did this happen? Actually, Easterners, many Asians do so too – even as Christians still. We cannot rest in the providence of God; we cannot live with unanswered questions. That is haughtiness. But the Preacher has told us that a patient spirit is better.

We are so quick to demand answers from God. God never gave Job any answers and could we understand them if God gave answers to us? Paul might say, "Who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? The thing moulded will not protest to its moulder, Why did you make me like this, will it? Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways!" (Romans 9:20; 11:33)

"Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools" (v.9). A Christian is one who, by definition, lives with unanswered questions for, as Augustine said, the first, second and third principles of Christianity are humility and humility and humility.

The Hebrew, and therefore the Christian, does not so much ask, Why? What was the cause? as he asks, What is the purpose? What is God doing here? What is God teaching us? Because the Hebrew, and therefore the Christian, is always looking forward, in hope, to the future, to the end, to the goal.

That is why dwelling on past difficulties or misfortunes is wrong as well as useless. That is why a lot of modern counseling is bad for you. The only good of knowing why something bad happened in the past is not so we may sit on our ash heap and wallow in self-pity, but so that we may not make the same mistake in the future. In the future, that is the point. The Hebrew and the Christian is one who looks in hope to the future. Therefore, we work patiently to life's conclusion. And therefore, 

5.	RECEIVE, WITH WISDOM, WHAT GOD GIVES US IN LIFE
"Do not say, Why is it that the former days were better than these? For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this" (v.10).

"They don't make them like they used to," we say. And if you're old enough to remember the cars of forty years ago, you'll be thankful they don't. Because they don't break down and get punctures like they used to either! And at that age, I'm almost old enough to begin thinking the old days were better, but the Preacher tells me not to' So I will not. Perhaps the evils of the past were just different from those of our own age and fell on a different sector of society. At any rate, let us not forget what the Preacher told us back in chapter one: "That which has been is that which will be again."

"Wisdom along with an inheritance is good and an advantage to those who see the sun. For wisdom is protection just as money is protection. But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors" (vv.11-12). 

Both wisdom and money are a protection against evil times in their different ways. We all like to have a little money in the bank for a rainy day. But wisdom is the better of the two, for with wisdom you can make money; while money without wisdom, well, "a fool and his money soon part."

And to receive an inheritance from one's parents and have the wisdom to increase it as well, rather than frittering it away on riotous living like the prodigal son, or merely conserve it like the wicked servant with his one talent – to have money and wisdom to increase it is a blessing indeed.

But you've never received anything like that. Life seems never to have a run a straight course for you. And certainly there have been more days of adversity than inheritances dropped in your lap. There are two things to do with that. 
#	First of all, "Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what he has bent?" (v.13). If life has been more bent than straight for you, don't forget that, ultimately, it was God who bent it; we need to live with it; we need to accept it. 
#	And remember those other words from chapter three: it is a beautiful purpose God intended with it; and it is complete; nothing is lacking from it. And it is only complete with all that is in it. Take away even just the most hurtful aspects and it will not be a perfect work of God and God is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works.

The other thing we have to do with life is this. "In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider" (v.14ab). Prosperity, adversity. God is in it all. "– God has made the one as well as the other to the end that man should find nothing after him" (v.14cd).

Some will tell you there is a second chance after death – you may hear the Gospel again and have another opportunity to repent towards God and believe in Jesus Christ. Roman Catholics with tell you you will complete your penance, you will finish paying for your sins in purgatory after death. The Bible says, "It is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). And either you will be declared justified in Jesus Christ or you will be judged as one condemned. 

Congregation, the full experience of life is life as God gives it to us. In this life he speaks to us and offers us salvation. Therefore, consider, take it to heart – your experiences of prosperity and joy; but even more so your experiences of adversity and mourning. In the griefs we suffer, the rebukes we are given, the knocks we receive in life, God is bringing us to the goal – death; and after death the judgment; either to be condemned or vindicated in Jesus Christ. 
Receive life with patience. Don't be quick to demand of God an explanation of his dealings with you. Receive them as the discipline of a loving Father training us for eternal glory.

Man's life is laid in the loom of time to a pattern he does not see,
	while the Weaver works and the shuttles fly till the dawn of eternity.
Some shuttles are filled with silver threads and some with threads of gold,
	while often but the darker hues are all that they may hold.
But the Weaver watches with skilful eye each shuttle fly to and fro
	and sees the pattern so deftly wrought as the loom moves sure and slow.
God surely planned the pattern: each thread, the dark and fair,
	is chosen by His master skill and placed in the web with care.
He only knows its beauty, and guides the shuttles which hold
	the threads so unattractive, as well as the threads of gold.
Not till each loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly,
	shall God reveal the pattern and explain the reason why.
The dark threads were as needful in the Weaver's skilful hand
	as the threads of gold and silver for the pattern which he planned.

THE LOOM OF TIME, Anonymous
 Amen

Rev. John Rogers, Reformed Church of the North Shore, 5^th December, 1999