“The same destiny overtakes all”
[Ecclesiastes 9:2-6]
Have you ever heard of "Paul Syndrome"? "Paul Syndrome" is a syndrome that hit the World Cup in South Africa. It refers to the syndrome produced by the "fortune-teller octopus" named Paul. Paul who lives at the aquarium of Oberhausen Marine Biological Museum in western Germany, predicted the scores of the World Cup match and they were 100% right. Paul predicted 100% right for the German soccer team for 8 games total including the championship (Internet). I also saw the news about this octopus on TV and the Internet, but I thought it was ridiculous. The reason for this was not only the octopus but also other animals that are called the fortune teller and the star astrologer. It was funny that in the betting business, there are also some businesses that have made a lot of money because of this fortune teller octopus Paul. After winning the finals, I saw the Spanish player on the TV saying “Long live Paul”. I just laughed.
Why do you think people see fortune-tellers? Isn’t it because they want to know the future? But the Bible speaks clearly that we can not comprehend the future (Eccle. 7:14; 8:7). Only God, who controls the past, present, and future, knows all about our future. But there is one thing you and I know clearly about our future. What is that? It is the fact that all of us will die ultimately. And no one will deny that the end of man is death. But what we do not know is that people will react differently to this definite future that we all know. How do you respond to your eventual death?
When we look at Ecclesiastes 9: 2-3, King Solomon, says four times, ‘There is one fate.’ What is he saying ‘There is one fate’ over and over again? It is death that is the end of all of us. In other words, King Solomon says that the end of all of us is death. Look at Ecclesiastes 9:2 – “It is the same for all There is one fate for the righteous and for the wicked; for the good, for the clean and for the unclean; for the man who offers a sacrifice and for the one who does not sacrifice. As the good man is, so is the sinner; as the swearer is, so is the one who is afraid to swear.” King Solomon tells us that the righteous and the wicked, the good and the sinful, the good and the clean, the unclean, the man who offers the sacrifice and the one who does not, all die in the end. There will be no one in this world who will deny this truth. Everyone knows that our end in this earth is death. Whether we are Christians or non-Christians, we all agree that death is our end in this world. But there are things that we Christians do not agree with non-Christians. It is what happens after death. In other words, Christians and non-Christians agree that death is the end in this Age, but they are differ concerning the The Coming Age. We Christians believe in the life in the Coming Age after the death. In other words, we believe in eternal life. But the non-Christians do not believe in the life of the Coming Age. They do not believe in eternal life. They do not believe the Bible’s teaching about heaven and hell. This is the difference between Christians and non-Christians.
What must we do? Unlike non-Christians, we who believe in the Coming Age, what must we do? We should listen to the words of Ecclesiastes 7:2 – “It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every man, And the living takes it to heart.” We should take this truth to our hearts that everyone’s end is dead in this earth. As we do so, we must live the rest of our lives with death perspective. How should we live in this world with death perspective? I would like to think of 2 things based on Ecclesiastes 9:2-6.
First, we must live in repentance of our sins that are in our hearts with a view of death.
Look at Ecclesiastes 9:3 – “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.” Since there is not much difference regarding the consequences of what the righteous men or the wicked men face in this earth, those who belong to this world, the wicked, take this as an opportunity to commit sins all the days of their lives(Park Yun-sun). For example, when the wicked perceive the righteous who believe in Jesus as suffering as they do, the wicked commit sins because they perceive that there is no distinction between believing in Jesus and not believing, And the reason why the wicked sin is more and more boldly guilty is because the punishment of God is not carried out quickly on the evil things that he does (8:11). Therefore, the wicked not only will not but also cannot repent of their sins even before death. Rather, in front of death they are bold to commit sin.
How would you respond if you knew that your death was imminent? For example, how would you respond if your doctor told you that you can only live six months or a year? I think there can be at least two reactions: (1) Trying to do whatever I want to do within the days to live, or (2) Looking back at myself in front of death and repent my sins that I committed against God. And I think that the first of two reactions is likely to be more reactive than the second one. The reason is that those who do not believe in Jesus can never look back on themselves before death and give true repentance to God. So if we include these non-believers as well as believers who want to do what they want to do in front of death, like non-repentant and non-believers, the first response seems to be more than the second. The biblical basis is that when we see the Israelites at the time of the Old Testament exodus, we can see how they were so stubborn, the stiff-necked and refusing to repent, so that they were in the wrath of God. I think we are no different from them. Even before death we are slow to realize our sins and repent. My personal thoughts are that there are more people who try to live their lives as they would like to do instead of repenting their sins before their death. If we live our life like this even before our death, then “there is madness in their(our) hearts while they(we) live, and afterward they(we) join the dead” (9:3). We must not die this way. Instead, we must repent our sins that are filled in our hearts before we die.
When I thought about death, I thought about what Pastor Warren Wiersbe said. He said that death is like "X-ray power of death" (Wiersbe). This means that death is like an X-ray that lets us see things in our minds, just as we do X-rays when we go to the hospital and do health checks. So, just as the X-ray shows what is in us, death gives us the opportunity to repent before God by bringing out the full sins that are in our hearts. In other words, God uses the means of death to make us the holy people of God by making us to repent ours sins. Therefore, when we live in this world, we must live in repentance of the sins filled in our minds with a view of death. We must live our remaining lives by laying down our sins that are in our hearts before the cross by connecting our death to the death of Jesus on the cross. We must diligently lay down our sins before His cross. As we rely on the power of the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross, we must lay down all our sins in front of the cross. Even though we have been sentenced to death, we must live the rest of our lives on this earth as we repent of the iniquities in our hearts. In doing so, we will be able to receive death worthy of God's sight as God's holy people.
Lastly, we must live with hope in our hearts with a view of death.
Look at Ecclesiastes 9:4 – “Anyone who is among the living has hope --even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!” What do you think about the word “a live dog is better off than a dead lion”? For the Jews, "dog" was the most despicable animal (Walvoord). And as we know, the lion is king in animal kingdom. Nevertheless King Solomon is saying that a living dog is better than a dead lion. What does it mean? It means living is better than dead. Why is living better than death? The reason is that once a person dies, there is no chance to live right again, but to those who is still alive, they have opportunity to repent and hope to be right before God (Park Yun-sun). Therefore, the living dog is better than the dead lion. Therefore, we who are alive are better than those who are already dead, no matter how famous they were, no matter how wealthy and powerful they were.
How shall we live today? We must live to know that we are going to die. Look at Ecclesiastes 9:5 – “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.” As King Solomon is saying here, the dead do not know anything. To the dead, there is neither love nor hate nor envy (v. 6). Since they are already dead, “never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun” (v. 6). In a word, there is no hope for the dead. The dead do not have the understanding to look at the reward and act (Park, Yun-sun). The dead have no hope, and their names have been wiped out. But the living has hope. What kind of hope do the livings have? Since they know they will die, they have hope of awakening and to live with a new determination and resolution (Park Yun-sun). Do we have such hope? Do we know that we will die? And knowing that we will die, do we live with a new determination and resolution? We must repent when we have the opportunity to repent. There is not always an opportunity to repent. Knowing that we will someday die, we must turn away from sin when we are still living. And we must walk the right way in the right relationship with God. Never miss God's opportunity for repentance, and do not regret it too late. Let’s not try to repent when it is too late to do so and we regret it. That is useless. After we die, we can not repent or regret. The opportunity to repent is now.
The same destiny overtakes all of us. Whether we are righteous or the wicked, all of our end is death is this earth. Knowing this, how shall we live in this world for a given time? We must live to repent of our sins that are filled in our hearts. We have to live in repentance, dependent on the power of the blood of Jesus on the cross each day before our holy God, with a view of death while we ponder the death that functions like an X-ray that shows things in our hearts. We also have to live with hope in the mind with a view of death. We are the ones who have the hope in the Lord to determine to live a new life. In this hope, we must walk in the right path of the Lord with new resolution, repenting as the living ones. When we walk in the path of the Lord, we have hope in the future. Let us remember that the living dog is better than the dead lion.