The Hatred of Life - Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

Ecclesiastes as Wisdom Literature and the Programmatic Question of Gain

Well this morning we return to our time in Ecclesiastes after having that short reprieve of the retreat where we were looking at some other passages related to our theme of putting away idols and as we return to Ecclesiastes Don't have much by way of review of getting us back up to speed other than simply reminding us of the programmatic question that began Chapter 1 verse 3 which is really animating the entirety of the book.

And that question is what prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the Sun that's that's in some ways the question of Ecclesiastes and it certainly has begun the investigations of Kohelet that have occupied chapter 1 verse 26 all the way through the end of chapter 2 as we.

As we're approaching the end of chapter 2 as we saw in our reading just a few moments ago We're coming up to the first of a series of what are called the carpe diem Statements and these are always tied to these vexing questions about meaning about gain about purpose and so we're going to break through that into a poem about the time that God has ordained for Mankind and then again looking at the haunting prospect of death in chapter 3 this morning.

We're going to consider death as. Well, it's more of an introductory view of what's coming in the weeks ahead. And the past few sermons we've looked at this quest of Kohelet. To make sense of life under the Sun to find out what profit a man has from all his toil Under the Sun a few weeks ago.

We had the message of the folly of wisdom of applying his mind To knowledge to study to try to figure it out and to see in the end how hollow and empty that application was. And then. Two weeks ago. We considered the pain of pleasure that as he gave himself over to every luxury and indulgence in life.

Hoping there he could he could somehow sate the thirst of his soul somehow satisfy eternity placed within his heart. We found that only led him to pain to a certain numb hollowness. It was the pain of pleasure.

The Hatred of Life in Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

And this morning we're going to consider rather challenging phrase that we find in verse 17. It's the hatred of life so from chapter 1 we're looking again at a testimony of Kohelet I the preacher I Kohelet was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

We turn our attention to chapter 2 beginning in verse 12. Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who succeeds the king only what he has already done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

The wise man's eyes are in his head. But the fool walks in darkness yet. I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all. So I said in my heart as it happens to the fool. It also happens to me and Why was I then more wise?

Then I said in my heart this also is vanity. But there's no more remembrance of the wise and of the fool forever. Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come and how does a wise man die as the fool?

Therefore I hated life. Because the work that was done under the Sun was distressing to me for all is vanity and grasping for the wind. So let's begin at verse 12. We'll walk through these verses and then build some application toward the end.

Kohlet writes. I turned myself. It's literally in the Hebrew. I I turned to my heart again. He's putting himself his life his heart on the autopsy table. He's dissecting and picking apart every strain every motive every glimmer of possible Answers to this vexing question of what there is to be gained.

He turned again within himself. He turns to consider wisdom madness and folly. He's now turning away from the things that he had pursued and sought to understand in verses 1 through 11. The things that make for happiness.

The things that make for love of life grandeur luxury amassing great wealth. Accomplishing great things. All the acquisitions and accomplishments that a king could possibly muster. He did it more than anyone before him and he found it bankrupt at the end.

So having pursued luxury and pleasure in this way, he turns an entirely different way. I'm going to turn against that and just consider wisdom and madness and folly. In other words, I'm going to seek the benefit of living wisely not self indulgently not luxuriously.

But living wisely you could almost say living stoically even to the point of madness. Why would someone put themselves through this he goes from indulgence to deprivation? From a sort of open-handed hedonism to now a very trained and focused Stoicism and he sees as a result of turning his heart over to wisdom verse 13 that wisdom Excels folly like light excels darkness.

Now. This is really important. Some commentators Think this is actually a setup that Kohelet is putting the wiffle ball on The post because he's about to bash a home run that this isn't actually his view at all.

His view is that wisdom too is vanity and grasping for the wind. I don't think that's true at all. This is wisdom literature and wisdom literature. Even the challenging straights of Ecclesiastes is meant to highlight and praise the virtue of wisdom.

And I think Kohelet understands the truth of this statement in verse 13 wisdom really does excel folly. That's really true. That's true simultaneous to the fact that ultimately wisdom also is vanity.

And.

We have to establish the truth of verse 13 and understand understand the conclusion of verses 16 and 17. It's because this is true that his heart begins to ache in verse 17. Wisdom really is better than foolishness.

Light really is better than darkness, but at the end the fool and the wise man died the same way. That's the heartache. That's the the vexing Frustration of life under the Sun so we start with the fact that wisdom excels folly and he uses as a metaphor to explain that that Excelling power that excelling virtue of wisdom that light is better than darkness.

This is manifestly true to our experience, isn't it? Have you ever had a power outage at night? I might my study. It's has no light. It's it's just bookcases and bookcases and bookcases. There's no light.

There's probably not enough air moving through there. I probably have black lung. For all that for the time that I spend. But I remember being in the study and we lost power. This is some years ago and everything went pitch black and all sudden I'm trying to mental map my way around The shelves so everything is instantly pitch black.

Yes light is better than darkness. Think about wisdom and folly in terms of navigating life. It's better to have light shed on your path in the midst of the darkness than to have no light at all. Of course, that's true.

Kohelet knows that to be true clearly light clearly wisdom is better than foolishness. Compared to fools the wise are able to actually navigate and make sense of some of the hardest challenges and obstacles in life.

The Psalms like like Proverbs hold out the glories of wisdom. And I think Kohelet for his part fully affirms this fully agrees with this. The upright are wise. Psalm 112 says light dawns in the darkness for those who are upright.

There's a certain light about the way they understand life and the way they walk through life. They're not walking in darkness. Light has shown on them. Light has shown them the way that they are to walk and so they're able to navigate their life through a dark world.

Toward God as a result of this light as a result of this wisdom. He gives another metaphor the wise man's eyes are in his head verse 14. In other words because of the mind. Because of this knowledge this wisdom that is possessed.

It's as if his head his mind his knowledge has given him eyes. He can see in a way that the fool cannot see he has eyesight. Through his knowledge through his wisdom the fool however walks in darkness.

Again, that's a bedrock affirmation. That the upright are wise the upright have eyes in their head that we are to walk according to the light of God's wisdom. And we are able to walk according to the light of God's wisdom.

This is an amen to that truth that resounds throughout the book of Proverbs, but here's the fundamental vexation. I Myself perceived the same event happens to them all. It's an interesting word. I myself perceived the same event happens to them all the same event.

It's a it's a very good translation to just say event the Septuagint takes up this Hebrew term and translates that translates it as TK, which is.

Fate.

Or chance. It's speaking to the mechanism of fortune the mechanism of fate. But really the term here needs to be stripped of that connotation. The Hebrew term Micra is simply the thing that happens. Simply the event itself.

It's not talking about what leads to that event. What causes that event? It's just the event itself. And what is the event? It's death. This is the first encounter we have with death in the book of Ecclesiastes.

It will not be the last the same event happens to them all. Thinking of death as an event an Inevitable event. It happens and and the idea of happening there is we don't necessarily know when or how it will happen.

But we know that it will happen. That's what's being captured here in verse 14. This event will happen to all. And it will happen as some event. John Golden gay and his commentary says this is the unpredictable predictability.

We know it's going to happen. But only the Lord knows the manner the hour the event of death. The specter of death the looming shadow of death. This is what causes Koholet to bear down into the misery of life under the Sun.

Whatever I do, however wisely I live. However, I apply my mind whether to pleasure or to knowledge whether to hedonism or stoicism. The same event the same ultimate prospect of death overshadows all. Look at look at what this leads him to verse 15.

So I said in my heart as It happens to the fool. It also happens to me. Why was I then more wise so I said in my heart this also is vanity. In in in Hebrew, you can add a personal pronoun for emphasis and we have that here.

It also happens to me. It's an emphatic Particle it happens to me it it it is even going to happen to me and that that's almost the shock or the scandal.

Of this me.

The king over Jerusalem. The one who had every manner of luxury and wealth and power. The one who increased his kingdom to almost virtually no end. The one who applied his mind to have wisdom that surpassed anyone who had come before him and perhaps anyone who would come after.

Even to me death is going to come. That's the scandal. It's the outrage. Some fool someone who hasn't done a splinter of the things that I've done with my life. Someone who doesn't even have a moment's Hesitation to walk in the way that I've walked.

They'll have the same Events that I will have in the same way that I will have it will both be in the same place at the end in April we went to Herculaneum, which is one of the ruins that was affected by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 and the interesting thing about Herculaneum is it was situated on the ancient shore of the Bay of Naples and so.

Though that is now far receded because of the the gradual buildup of that volcanic deposit. You're actually able to visit the site. Which is about maybe a mile away from the shore as it stands today. And you're able to see the ancient boat docks and in those ancient boat docks are clusters of skeletons.

Now those not actually the real skeletons, which I didn't know till after and I was a little disappointed. They're plaster replicas. I'm like, this is amazing. Let you walk right up to him and it's like yeah they're just replicas, but they're they're telling you exactly where the positions of these bodies were as.

These were largely bodies of a few young men perhaps slaves women and children. They were Skeletons found on the shore of men probably going out into the water as they were waiting for help to come from boats across the bay.

That never made it and they were all huddled together in the backs of these boat docks and of course instantly. The pyroclastic flow washed over them and before they could even mentally process what was happening to them.

They were they were dead instantly and you survey Dozens of these skeletons and you realize. It doesn't matter who was virtuous who was foolish who was mighty who was wise. Who was proud and contemptuous?

Who was humble and meek? The same fate came to them all. Who was rich who was poor. Who accomplished a lot who didn't. Who built their life? Well who wasted their life the same fate? Found them all. This is what Kohelet is grappling with as it happens to the fool.

It's gonna happen to me the same event will happen to us both. So why am I more wise? Why am I applying my mind to this knowledge? Why should I live in this way? How can I make sense of it all? He's more vexed more burdened by this reality.

Why was I then more wise? There's some wordplay going in there.

The the word.

There's a comparative word being used. Why was I more wise that the word in Hebrews you throne? It's to an advantage or to a profits to a gain. It's not the first time we've come across this language again.

It won't be the last but there's a wordplay because the Advantage over the fool the the Yitron over the fool. Is nil? There there is no advantage over the fool. Wisdom in the end has not been able to provide an advantage again for life under the Sun.

The wisest man of all will fare no differently in the end than the fool. Men again that the programmatic question is chapter 1 verse 3 what gain what profit is there? And he's saying in terms of wisdom that I gave my whole life over to There's no advantage.

There's no gain under the Sun not speaking ultimately. Really important we understand that because he's established wisdom is better than folly. You should order your lives according to wisdom. But if you think you'll ultimately secure meaning or gain or advantage in this life under the Sun by wisdom.

You're a fool.

There's no ultimate security. No ultimate achievement. No ultimately meaning or satisfaction. Even in living wisely in life under the Sun. So again, he doesn't have a cynical response to wisdom. He has a very realistic response to wisdom in light of.

Death.

It doesn't matter how wise you are. It doesn't matter how that wisdom Practically is a benefit to you and a benefit to others. As a result of you you will end up in the same place as the fool. The same event will happen to you and You too, like the myriad masses that have gone on before us will be forgotten the time under the Sun.

This is the scandal. This is the outrage. What gain is there under the Sun. What advantage is there. Why have I devoted my life to this. Why did I think I could actually achieve or secure something like this?

There's nothing permanent under the Sun that death will not erase. Even if I build a legacy I won't be around to appreciate or enjoy that legacy under the Sun and I won't be able as we'll see next week.

I won't be able to control what the generations do with that legacy. Perhaps the fool will take all that I've built and mustard and burn it to the ground. Spurn it for the flesh or for the world or for the evil one.

He realizes there's nothing that the shadow of death won't ultimately reach. So what his heart is yearning for what his life is searching for cannot be found even in wisdom. Verse 16. There's no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever.

All that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. You could almost translate all that now is is already forgotten. He's seeing that even right now. I can already start to see that I'm being phased out.

People are already starting to detach their memories. They're already starting to lose the sense of my presence. He's starting to see that as he's looking back on his life as an old man I can already see in real time that I'm presently being forgotten.

My kids don't call. My grandkids aren't around that much right now. I can see I'm already in the process of being forgotten. He's experiencing that. How does a wise man die. This is again. Just the the gritty.

Judo of.

Kohelet where we think we have the right answer and it's a bubbly cotton candy answer and we want to rush immediately to the good news of a glorious hope and trust me I want to rush there too and Kohelet just doesn't want us to rush there.

He wants us to grapple. He asked this rhetorical question. How does a wise man die? And with all of our Proverbs right lobe mentality we go the wise man dies uprightly with peace and joy in his heart.

And he goes no he dies like a fool. You see how he's taking us to the ground again and again as soon as we're surging upward to think we we can finally figure It out. I think I finally found the thing that will secure meaning he sweep kicks us and takes us down to the mat again.

No, the wise man dies just like the fool dies. The same event happens to them all. Have you actually grappled with this. There's actually a little particle here. That's not translated. It's simply translated as and and how does a wise man die?

It's actually a particle that it's heck in Hebrew. It could be translated. Oh.

Or alas.

It's a particle of mourning. It's often used in Psalms of lament Alas oh How does a wise man die?

He's mourning the fact.

That this shadow of death will find the wise and the fool alike. There's nothing that he can achieve or accomplish or devote his life to under the Sun that will ultimately secure Meaning or purpose in life under the Sun.

Nothing can outrun death. And so what's the conclusion of this all the greatest challenge of this section verse 17? Therefore I.

Hated life I.

Hated life. Because the work that was done under the Sun was distressing to me for all his vanity and grasping for the wind.

The.

Exasperation that he experiences about the prospect of death makes Kohelet hate life itself. Now again, thank the Lord Ecclesiastes doesn't end here, you know the end. We've got a lot more to go and as as this book in its wisdom begins to unfurl We're gonna be brought to see all sorts of things that counterbalance this fatigue and lament about life.

He'll come to realize as we'll see that though there are moments of Grappling with despair. There's also a great appreciation and a resounding glory in the goodness of life as life. We'll find that especially as we head toward the end in chapter 11 where the lament becomes that he has to leave life.

That that life is as it were being slowly Taken from him from his purview from his his house as it were as he describes his body his life like a house. That's beginning to fall into disrepair. But a lot of commentaries and in fact It was distressing to me to see how many commentaries I think wanted to do damage control on verse 17.

Let me read the verse again. Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the Sun was distressing to me. Now we're gonna see in verses 18 and following next week that work and toil is a really important focus.

It already began earlier in this chapter with all the great works and toil that he had devoted his shoulder and his strength to building. And we're gonna see that again. This is this question about toil.

What was the purpose of toil under the Sun? What could be gained in the things that he built? Commentaries take verse 17 and they they want to answer the questions about toil with verse 17. I think that's a big mistake.

This is a conclusion To everything that we've been considering from verse 12 forward. Therefore I hated life as as is often said. What is the therefore therefore? It's therefore verses 12 through 16. What's the lament what's the pressure point of verses 12 through 16.

It's the events that happens to us all that it that happens to the wise man and to the fool. That same event that cannot be outlived or escaped whether one lives wisely or foolishly. Whether one builds carefully or recklessly.

They'll die alike. This is the conclusion therefore I Hated life because of the work that was done under the Sun it was distressing to me. What's he distressed about? Well, he's not jumping ahead to the toil in the labor and he's not going backward to verses 1 through 11 to think about the Things he had built.

We're still in the immediate context of verses 12 through 17. But Kohila what Kohila is talking about in the work done under the Sun. I don't think that's the best translation. It's the deed done under the Sun.

Let's take it's it's it's it's the verb Assad to do or to make it's the thing that is done the deed done under the Sun not toil. Not building not labor. It's the event of verse 14. I hated life. Because of this deed because of this event that happens to all I Am despairing of life because I know that this is coming for me.

It's the unpredictable Predictability. I hate life because that distresses me. The fact that though I live in wisdom that event is going to happen to me that deed is going to be done. It's going to be done to everyone under the Sun.

That's what he's grappling with. You have an ancient target an ancient commentary. The target of Solomon and and they gloss it in this way. I hated all evil life. Because it's so unthinkable for even an ancient Commentator to think that somehow in wisdom literature there would be a hatred of life.

Oh, that doesn't sound right? No. No. No, you love life, right? You just hate evil that's done in life. You hate evil life. That's not what Kohelet says he's thinking about the the reality of death and it says.

Therefore I hated life again that That sweep kick that takes us down to the mat. Have we grappled with it? Do we want to rush to the Sunday school answers or do we want to grapple with the thing that is vexing Kohelet as I said over the past few weeks.

We don't get to that that mindset that insight that awareness of what Kohelet is Despairing we also won't be able to get to the treetops of his joy of the hope that he has. We have to go into the depths if we would rise to the heights and this really is the depth.

I.

Hated life.

There's an old adage that goes back perhaps to Socrates. The unexamined life is not worth living. All right, it's not worth living your life unless you're examining it making sense of it. I.

Used to years ago.

Just just to keep my my bayonet sharp. I would listen to a podcast where it was a group of Philosophy students, they're all godless atheists and their podcast was called the partially partially examined life.

And they would talk through Philosophical movements and figures and just try to talk about the big questions of life through that and it always amused me. You know our life is worth living because we're partially examining life.

We're doing the best we can to make sense of it's like you're fool. So you have a podcast of folly. If the unexamined life is not worth living. What is Kohelet discovered? You know what the examined life isn't worth living either not under the Sun that is very uncomfortable for us to sit with isn't it?

No wonder commentaries and Sermons, they want to somehow get past this. Oh, he possibly couldn't possibly mean he hated life. Of course, we're framing everything with this concept of under the Sun that is without God and without hope.

Kohelet has pursued wisdom. He knows wisdom is better than folly. He loves wisdom. He's devoted his life now to wisdom. But the bankruptcy of life under the Sun means that he now hates life itself. It's a ironic Contrast and counterpoint to Proverbs 8 where wisdom is personified and wisdom says all those who hate me love death.

Well, if you hate wisdom you hate life. You hate wisdom you must love death because you're gonna live in the ways of death and toward death. But here's what Kohelet saying. I love wisdom. I gave my whole heart of my whole life to wisdom and you know what?

I don't love life. I hate it. I feel your discomfort. I Feel this discomfort. Kohelet has a hatred. He's vexed you could put it this way. He's angry. How do we make sense of this?

I.

Don't think we do what the Targum of Solomon does and say no. No, he just hates the bad things in life. That's not what he says. He gives an all-encompassing Phrase here. I hated life. He doesn't qualify that he doesn't add footnotes so that it it has a blunted edge.

No. He hated life. How do we make sense of this. I I think we have to understand the big picture of what Kohelet is grappling with try to approximate What he's seeing and why he's reacting in this way.

And the question is not You know as Kohelet viewing things rightly How should we counsel Kohelet like the friends of Job. The question is are we even on the same playing field as Kohelet? Do we even understand where the issues are?

Are we? Experiencing and thinking about life and all of these deep ways and all of these raw ways that Kohelet is thinking about it. Here's an attempt at an answer to make sense of this this hatred. This anger because I don't think Kohelet is the only one Who hates life who is angry or vexed about life under the Sun when he comes up against it?

I think we actually see that same hatred that same contempt disgust seething loathing for life in the Lord Jesus himself. Mark Gospel of Mark chapter 1 beginning in verse 40. Now a leper came to Jesus and implored him and kneeled down to him and said to him if you're willing you can make me.

Clean.

Here's our translation. Then Jesus moves with compassion stretched out his hand and touched him and said I am willing be cleansed. And as soon as he had spoken immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed again.

I want you to see the scene. That this picture of absolute defilement this this decay this this disease that causes the body to to enter into atrophy as noses and earlobes and fingertips turn black and begin to rot away as any sense of the nerve endings begins to Decay as there's no longer this sense of vitality, but rather just a slow decay of death.

Here's this man who's a leper who's lived in this realm of uncleanness keeping his distance from the people of God who comes on this the sorry heap of misery and Contagion and defilement and he comes to Jesus and he implores Jesus.

He kneels down in front of Jesus and says you can make me clean if you're willing. And we read then Jesus moved with compassion. That's our translation. Was it was it compassion that Jesus was moved by?

Actually think not only is it a Dilemma of translation but there's actually some textual variants to this where It seems the original reading would have been the word for anger for groaning. For contempt or you could even translate for loathing.

Jesus moved by loathing. Now you can see why in the transmission history. That's a very uncomfortable. It's just like Koholet. Koholet hates life. That doesn't sound very biblical. That's not good. Jesus loathing angry.

Oh, no. No. No, he's not that way toward lepers. But I think I think the anger I think the loathing the contempt is right on. This is the son of man who is filled with anger and disgust at the effects of sin.

He's looking at the devastation and destruction that sin has brought into this world. He's angered by the fact that here's his son of Abraham who in body and soul has been Separated from the people of God and that leprosy is just symbolic of the corruption and decay that God never intended.

Everything that he made was good image bearers were meant to be glorious immortal beings. The son of man knows that more than anyone else and when he sees the effects of sin of Life under the Sun the pervasive groaning of the world.

He's filled with anger. He hates it. We see the same thing in John chapter 11. Jesus came and found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem about two miles away. Many of the Jews came and joined the women that were mourning around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.

Martha as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming went to meet him. Mary was sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And we already know from earlier in this passage the Lord delayed his coming seeing he intended to demonstrate That the spirit of resurrection the spirit of life.

Martha, of course in the midst of mourning is you could almost say is filled with a little bit of indignation and anger herself. Lord if you had been here, that's an accusation. It sounds a lot like the disciples in the boat in the midst of the storm saying you don't care that we're drowning.

Like you don't care that my brother was dying. I know the kind of healings that you could do. Do you not even care about Lazarus? He's gonna let him die. If you had come you could have healed him.

She's angry.

She's angry she's saying my brother didn't have to die. He didn't have to be rotting in that tomb. We'd have to be gathered in a circle weeping if you had been here if you had done something about it.

And she catches herself even now I know. Whatever you ask of God God will give you. Jesus says to her your brother will rise again. Of course, you have that beautiful interchange. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know it.

I've been taught. Well, I remember the catechism. I know at the end he'll rise and Jesus says no. No Martha. I am the resurrection. Well, she goes and she finds Mary and Mary comes out in the midst of the mourners and you can tell these to her sisters.

They say the same exact thing. Mary says Lord, he would not have died if you had been here and Jesus saw her weeping. Verse 33. Jesus saw her weeping. Saw the Jews who came with her weeping our translation.

He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. That's a that's a gloss. He was angry. He loathed in his spirit and was in deep distress. Then he goes to the tomb Verse 35 and he weeps. This this is Kohelet.

He knows that this is not how life was meant to be. Life under the Sun is not being lived in the way that God intended wise men Should be able to walk in a glory that never encounters the prospect of death.

But death comes to the fool and the wise alike that fills him with an anger. It wasn't supposed to be this way. It didn't have to be this way. We weren't born to die and rot in tombs. It fills him with vexation.

He says I was distressed. That's how Jesus is feeling at the tomb of Lazarus. He's he's angry. He's filled with rage in his spirit and he's distressed and he goes to the tomb and he weeps. He delayed his coming and as he just told Martha, but a few moments ago Lazarus will rise.

He knows that Lazarus will rise again. But he's still filled with anger. He still weeps at the tomb he sees the the disfigurement of death and It fills him with a contempt and a disgust in that moment of life under the Sun.

He could say I hate life. In other words, I hate the effects of the fall. Under life under the Sun. I hate what sin has done to humanity to human beings to the groaning world. Remember that Ecclesiastes is a commentary on the meaning of the fall.

The whole book is framed about life under the Sun. Because man has been alienated from this life-sustaining presence of God the whole earth has been made subject Feudal as a result of God's curse. There's a toil now that can never Satisfy.

God's good design will not be fully realized in life under the Sun. Looming over every aspect of the highest joys of man as the inevitable prospect of death when Kohelet meditates and studies that He ends up feeling contempt and disgust about life under the Sun.

I hated life. I'm distressed about this deed that's gonna happen to every single one of us. It didn't have to be this way. It should not have been this way. I hate the effects of sin on life. Now I would contend to say we just don't even grapple with that as a prospect.

We might think about death or at least we know we should think about death more than those outside who want to do everything they Can to escape thinking about death? I Don't want to think about my end.

I don't want to think about the the rushing certainty of my mortality a fact that there will be a day when I close my eyes for the last time and draw my breath for the last time and Enter past the verge of Jordan into this unknown world this unknown experience.

Man who has eternity in his heart does everything he can to distract himself. He does what Kohelet does he gives himself over to pleasure and indulgence. I'll just keep myself happy. I'll keep myself laughing.

He doesn't want to go to the house of mourning. He doesn't have to think through the light of wisdom about the certainty of death. Or he turns himself over to other forms of indulgence or turns himself to things that become snares for him.

He he turns to the bottle to numb his senses and keep himself somewhat aloof to the folly of his ways. That's how that's how man deals with the prospect of death. We're Christians. We know the reality of death.

We look death straight in its eyes without fear and peace and I would say Generally, that's true. But it's usually because we're not thinking about death in all the ways that we should. We might think about death, but we think about death and we answer it with the Sunday school answers the pre-programmed answers.