GRASP LIFE WITH BOTH HANDS WHILE YOU’VE GOT THE CHANCE
Ecclesiastes 9:1-12   1 Timothy 4:1-10

We live in a hostile world. It has been that way since we first sinned. Hence, Romans 8 says, “The creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it.” That is, it was subjected to futility by God. Hence it groans and suffers. And while it is true that we ourselves join that chorus and groan within ourselves also, it is not good us resenting that fact and settings ourselves against it. Things go wrong in a world where sin has been unleashed. Something is always cropping up to subvert and overturn one’s plans in a world that is set in rebellion against its God.

It is true that God has, in Christ, come down and overcome the devil. But God has not yet, and deliberately not yet, brought that victory to completion. Satan is defeated, that is true. But it is only his head, at present, that has been crushed. We still await the fulfilment of the promise that he would be completely crushed beneath our feet.

And a good deal of the art of life is learning to live with that; learning to live with incompleteness, learning to live with frustration, learning to live with things going wrong. And a good deal about the book of Ecclesiastes is about that also. We need to learn, to a great extent, to accept life and take it as it comes to us. And that requires constant change and adaptation on our part and fitting in, accepting things that don’t always go as we would like them to.

We come up against this again in chapter eleven in respect of plans and waiting for the right moment before we do things to get the best result. Our text this morning speaks about it in respect of enjoying life. Chapter eight had spoken about enjoying life even though it is full of inequity and injustice; even though, often, the wicked are rewarded and the righteous are passed over. Our text this morning speaks about enjoying life even though it is full of incompleteness and frustration and we will very soon pass away; and it just does not seem the right, the appropriate time, to enjoy life. If you boil it all down, our text is more or less saying, Grasp life with both hands while you’ve got the chance.

That might seem rather crass, even merely hedonistic. But behind it is a basic truth: whatever our circumstances, or even the circumstances of others, Paul tells us that everything God has created is good and they are not to be refused; rather, they are to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

So what does our Preacher say about all this? He speaks about grasping life and enjoying it with three things in view:
i)	the under-girding condition of life in the world;
ii)	the ever-present transience of life in the world; and
iii)	what should be, then, our proper over-arching approach to life in the world?
1.	THE UNDER-GIRDING CONDITION OF LIFE IN THE WORLD
All of life is lived under the shadow of death and none will escape this. The righteous and the wicked die. The clean and the unclean die. The one who offers sacrifice and the one who doesn’t bother to offer sacrifices will die. The one who fears God and takes his name only carefully and with reverence will die, along with him who attaches God’s name to every second utterance (vv.1-2).

“This is an evil I have seen under the sun,” says the Preacher (v.3). And it is, congregation, forgetting that life is lived under the Almighty as the sovereign Lord; living life merely under the sun as if that were all there is to it. That the good man and the sinner both died, undifferentiated, one the same fate for all, is an evil. And men and women see that in the world. “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead” (v.3).

The Preacher’s thought seems to be what he says elsewhere, that when wickedness is not quickly punished, people are encouraged to do evil. So here in the latter part of verse three. Men become disillusioned and their hearts become full of evil and even become insane, mad. Or maybe it means insanely evil? Please yourself; both are true and we see both all around us.

Did you notice the flow of the Preacher’s thought in verse two? Mere morality (righteousness versus wickedness) will not save anyone from death. Worshipping God ‘just so’ (in form perfectly; clean versus unclean) will not save anyone from death. A sense of sin and unworthiness (so he brings sacrifice) will not save anyone. Indeed, even true reverence for God’s holiness will not save anyone from death. Religion itself is useless to avert the flow of the consequences of sin in the world. 

As good as wisdom and righteousness are, neither can they save us from the consequences of sin, death, or even the consequences of sin in this life. “For I have taken all this to my heart and explain it that righteous men, wise men, and their deeds are in the hand of God. Man does not know whether it will be love or hatred; anything awaits him” (v.1).

The Preacher has greatly wisdom, yet wisdom has its limits. And even though wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness, since the wise man’s eyes are in his head while the fool walks in darkness, nevertheless, not even the wise and righteous man can be sure that he will enjoy love in life rather than endure hatred. That is an evil in all that is done under the sun. 

But we must remember that all that is done in this world is not just done under the sun, for above the sun is God. And we, like the Preacher, if we are to avoid that disillusionment that leads to insanity, must take to heart that even those who would most seem to have life sewn up and organised, the wise and righteous – their deeds, too, and the results of them, whether to enjoy love or endure hatred, are not in their hands but are in the hand of God.

“My only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own, but belong – in body and soul, in life and in death – to my faithful Saviour, Jesus Christ,” we confess in Lord’s Day 1 of our Catechism; and that I live in the providence of God, which is “the almighty and ever present power of God, by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures (so that) all things … come to us, not by chance, but from his fatherly hand” (Lord’s Day 10).

That, people of God, is the under-girding condition of life in the world that we must rest in if we are to grasp life with both hands and enjoy it. But there is something else we have to come to terms with also if we are to do that. 

2.	THE EVER-PRESENT TRANSIENCE OF LIFE IN THE WORLD 
Maybe life is not going too well with you at the moment. Perhaps there is sickness, or family problems, fears about relatives in distant lands. That is quite understandable. Perhaps you have financial problems, fears for the future, worries about where your children are headed in life, job worries, worries about the Church, whatever.

The Preacher comes at us in a pretty hard-headed fashion: where there is life there is hope. There is the lion, the king of the beasts – but so what to his majesty when he is dead? There is the dog – no loved pet in ancient Israel; just a scavenger and barely tolerated, a picture of all that is common and low. Gentiles were dogs, outcasts. Yet, better a live contemptible dog that a dead majestic lion. How does out text put it? “For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything, nor have they any longer a reward, for their memory is forgotten. Indeed their love, their hate, and their zeal have already perished, and they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun” (vv.5-6).

As difficult, even as sad as life might be, “the living still … have a share in life. But the dead” – you will not quickly forget a loved one, but your turn also will come and then your loved one will be forgotten. “They no longer have any reward for their memory is forgotten”; and all they were in life, all for which their immediate loved ones and friends will still remember them – “their love, their hate, their zeal – their joie de vivre – have perished.” It all comes to an end and “they no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun.”

I am not trying, carelessly, to open wounds here, and nor is the Preacher. His point, and mine too, is that it comes to the righteous and the wicked. It is soon enough, therefore, going to happen to every one of us, young or old. What differences does forty years make in the history of the world? Let alone eternity. So what is the point of this? Just the same as what I said a moment ago. Our lives are not just lived “under the sun;” they are lived in the “hand of God.” Let that be a comfort to you about your loved ones.

But think this about these things also. If our lives are in the hand of God, then they are a gift – a gift from God. Life is part of the creation of which every part is good and “not to be refused, but to be received with thankfulness.” We do not have long to give God thanks for this gift. We may hope for 70 years but we all know very well that we might not have another moment. Will you dwell on the difficulties and fears and worries of life and not give God thanks that he is so gracious as to send his rain and shine his sun on the wicked and on the good? And so fill all their hearts – as well as hours – with food and gladness? So Paul told the pagans of Antioch in Pisidia.

Receive life; enjoy it – you have only a limited time to do so. And indeed, you may have to turn around the next minute and weep, either over your own sadness or that of a friend. But sadness must not rule life; and life is very transient. How will you face God if you lived life in unthankfulness, in a negative way? Life, however transient, is a gift from the hand of God. And granted, there is a time to die, to uproot, to kill, to tear down, to weep, to mourn, to give up as lost, to hate, and a time for war. Nevertheless, what should be …

3.	THE PROPER APPROACH TO LIFE?
Granted also that, in a very important sense, “the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting”, “and the living need to take that to heart.” Nevertheless, our general, over-arching approach to life should be one of joy and thankfulness. Grasp life with both hands while you’ve got the chance. 

And what are we to grasp? Ah, well,
#	the pleasures of the table: “Go then, eat your bread in happiness, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart; for God has already approved your works” (verse 7);
#	and festivity: “Let your clothes be white all the time, and let not oil be lacking on your head” (verse 8); and
#	 the pleasures of love: “Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun” (verse 9). 

Life is to be enjoyed brothers and sisters, and these are the good things God has given us. Now, for sure, within a proper framework and with restraint. Peter tells us, “Be of sound judgment and of sober spirit” … “not pursuing sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousings, drinking parties, dissipation, nor running to excess.” Nevertheless, says the Preacher, life and the good things of life are a gift of God. “Eat your bread in happiness and drink your wine with a cheerful heart.” For long ago, God has permitted and even given these things; they are therefore approved by him. And if they are given and approved by him, we must receive and enjoy them. Not to do so is ingratitude. 

And I want to say something further about this. We’re all looking at Zimbabwe – among many other parts of the world. And some are thinking: will South Africa be next? And there they have close loved ones. And when we see things like this, we’re inclined to feel guilty about our own position and ease and comfort and safety. And we tend to feel we shouldn’t be enjoying life so much. I believe we ought not to feel that way. For God has given us these things and they are, therefore, necessarily, good and not to be refused but rather received with thankfulness.

Of course, we must not forget these other people. God forbid. We must “weep with those that weep.” We must “pray for all men everywhere … that (God’s people) may live quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness.” But then when God has answered that prayer in our case, we must thank him and enjoy the answer and the good things his answer brings. The same sort of thing was going on in Jesus’ day, but he “came eating and drinking.”

And not only life’s pleasures, but also one’s life-work. “Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or wisdom in Sheol where you are going” (v.10). God gave us the command to cultivate the earth and subdue it. That involves hard work, planning and wisdom. But there is none of all that after we die. So carry out that command of the Lord now, while you can. Grasp life with both hands while you’ve go the chance.

And grasp your work and any opportunity for success while you’ve got the chance, because “I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise, nor wealth to the discerning, nor favour to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all. Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net, and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them” (vv.11-12). Time and chance happens to all except, of course, it is not chance with God. Whether we are righteous or wise, or not, our deeds are in the hands of the Lord.

To win in life, to succeed, is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither bread necessarily to the wise, nor wealth to the discerning. It will not necessarily be men of ability who rise to prominence even though, according to Proverbs, that is the general rule and we may hope and pray for that. The earth shakes under many fools!

None of us know our time and none of us may sit back and think that, because of our great abilities, we will be able to engineer things to go our way in our good time. The Lord disposes our lives and our successes and failures. “Whatever your hand (lawfully) finds to do, therefore, do it with all your might.” It is the gift of God for today and not necessarily for tomorrow. Even as Jesus said, “Work while you have the day for the night is surely coming when no man can work.”

CONCLUSION
Grasp life with both hands while you have the chance. But if that is true in regard to the best of this life’s rightful pleasures and work that is commanded of us, surely it is so much more true about real life, about eternal life? Of which all these things are just a little preview.

Even love and marriage, one of the best of God’s good gifts, which is likened to the love Christ has for his Church for whom he died, is set fair and square within the transience of life. No, congregation, not even love and marriage, perhaps the best of the good things of this life, escapes this transience, or provides meaning to life. And if you demand that of your marriage, then it is going to break. “Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which he has given to you under the sun.” 

“I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly,” said Jesus. If we are to grasp the opportunities of this life with both hands and enjoy them when God gives them to us, how much more eternal life? How much more salvation in Jesus Christ? If it is true that “the race is not to the swift, the battle to the warriors, nor bread to the wise, nor favour to men of ability, but time and chance happens to all,” how much less so is eternal life and salvation to those who think they can manage life and think about eternity and think about God when they life as if life were in their hands to order as they please?

If man in general does not know, why should ever-so-smart you know, that you will receive love and not hatred? Indeed, just because you display that proud and arrogant attitude – that your life and your deeds are in your hands – why should God not reject you? For “God gives grace to the humble, but the proud he withstands to their face.” If “righteous men and wise men and their deeds are in the hand of God” (v.1), to do with as he pleases and their outcome is not wrapped up and secured by their attempts at righteousness and wisdom, why should God not reject you who think God will come when you deign to look to him in your good time?

Psalm 95 (vv.7b-11) says, “Today, if you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness; when your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation, and said, They are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know my ways. Therefore I swore in my anger, Truly, they shall not enter into my rest.”

“Today is the accepted time, today is the day of salvation,” not tomorrow. You say, Tomorrow, we will go here and there and do this and that. “You fool,” says God, “Do not boast yourself of tomorrow, for you do not know what tomorrow may bring.” Maybe even tonight God will require your soul of you.

People of God, time and chance, as it looks to us, happens to all. And at the moment, this moment, this morning, time and chance is given to you; no more, not even this afternoon, or this evening. You might have a car accident on the way home. You may suffer a heart attack. Or the Lord may come and you will be calling the rocks and hills to fall on you and cover you – for whatever good that will do. There will only be one result then: “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth” and eternal regrets. 

But this moment, time and chance is still given to you and God still calls to you: “Look to me, all the ends of the earth, and be saved.” “Today is the accepted time; today is the day of salvation.” Why will you die? Today, grasp life with both hands while you have the chance.
      Amen.

John Rogers, Reformed Church of the North Shore, 30th April, 2000