‘The living should take this to heart’
[Ecclesiastes 7:1-4]
On Thursday, April 20, 2008, there was interesting news in South Korea YTN 11 o'clock night news. The news was about some people taking pictures for their funerals, writing their last will letters, reading that letters in a mortuary room. I saw most of them crying when they were reading down their letters. Not only did they read down their letters, but they actually went into their coffins in the mortuary room. Then the other person slowly poured the soil over the coffin with a shovel. When I was watching that moment I thought if a person who was inside the coffin heard that sound of the soil, he would probably felt real about his death. The response of those who experienced their dying process was "I wanted to live more." And they said that they remembered their family members the most when they were going through that dying process. I heard the person who is the director of the death experience center came out and said, so many people are interested about their own well-being but not many people were interested in well-dying. He said that was why he started this program. You might think that what a strange program that is. But personally I thought it was a good idea to have that kind of program. I think it is good if we could feel our deaths more realistically so that we can prepare to die.
In Ecclesiastes 7:2, King Solomon says that "the living should take this to heart." What is "this" here? Here, “this” is the destiny of everyone which is death. Look at Ecclesiastes 7:2 – “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart.” We have to think about our death. We have to ponder about the fact that someday we all have to our end in this earth, which is death. From this point of view of death, we have to think seriously and momentarily about how we shall live. How can we do that? King Solomon gives us good way in Ecclesiastes 7:2. What is that good way? It is to go to a house of mourning (v. 2). In other words, going to a funeral is a good way to think about death. There is no better way to think about our own death than to go to a funeral. As we mourn the death of the deceased, we can imagine what death we will face in this world. I personally have a thought to attend my funeral and often feel my death more realistically. My thought is to live well in order to die well. In the end, death at a funeral gives me an opportunity to think about how to live well.
But what is the problem? It is that our instinct prefers to go to the house of feasting rather than the house of mourning. This means we like laughter than sadness (v. 3). In other words, we like to enjoy the physical pleasure than to visit those who have lost their beloved one (Park Yun-sun). But as King Solomon had already said in Ecclesiastes 2:11, physical pleasure is useless. In other words, going to the feast house and enjoying worldly pleasures is of no benefit in God’s perspective. Rather, King Solomon says that what is beneficial is to go to the house of mourning and experience grief. Why does he say that sadness is better than laughter? It is because “a sad face is good for the heart” (v. 3). What does it mean? It means that our hearts are softened by the sorrow of the death (Park Yun-sun). And when our hearts are soften, we will not purse this worldly pleasure and waste our lives in vain. Instead, we will humble ourselves before the Lord and will be in obedience to the Word of God and live a profitable life in the sight of God. So this is what King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7:4 – “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.”
Our hearts should not be in the house of pleasure. In other words, our hearts should not be in the house of feasting where we can enjoy physical pleasure. Rather, our hearts must be in the house of mourning. We should like to go to the funeral better that the wedding. And we should go to the funeral and think about our death before the death of the deceased. We also have to go someday when the Lord calls us. The reason is because death is the destiny for all of us (v. 2). Therefore, we should think about our death and how we should live beautifully today. We have to leave the "good name" in this world (v. 1). What is the best beautiful name? We must keep in mind that it is the Name “Jesus”. We who believe in Jesus should imitate Him so that at our funeral we can leave the memories of Jesus likeness to our children's hearts, in the hearts of our descendants and our neighbors. Therefore, at our funeral, there must be true praise when our children, descendants, or even neighbors think about our names. Furthermore, the people should gratefully praise God in thanksgiving as they mourn over our death.