All men face the same destiny
9
📚For I considered all this in my heart to declare all of this: the righteous and the wise, and their deeds, are in the hand of God. No man knows whether there will be love or hatred in all that awaits him.9:1 Solomon admitted that no one can understand what is going on in the world (Eccl 8:17), but this did not keep him from considering matters and reaching some conclusions. Notice again that what follows gives his thoughts, not God’s teaching. God revealed to us what Solomon thought but He did not put His stamp of approval on all of Solomon’s thoughts.⚜
2 📚All things come alike to all. The same event comes to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean, to him who offers sacrifice and to him who does not offer sacrifice; as it is to the good, so to the sinner, and to him who takes an oath as to him who fears to take an oath.
3 📚This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is the same event to all. Moreover, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and afterwards they go to the dead.
9:3 Eccl 7:20; Mark 7:20-23; Rom 1:29-32. A sinful life is like insanity. Men live as they please without God and without hope, violating God’s laws and their own consciences, seemingly not caring about God’s judgment and the punishment that awaits them. They are like men recklessly playing foolish games in a building burning and ready to collapse on their heads. In the light of the truth of the Bible, to run after the empty things of the world, to be filled with illusions and delusions of their worth, to chase after the wind and live for vanity is madness. Literal insanity means to be out of touch with reality. Spiritual insanity is to be out of touch with spiritual reality. The spiritually insane are deluded and regard their fantasies about the spiritual world as reality and reality as fantasy.⚜
4 📚For to him who is joined to all the living there is hope; for a live dog is better off than a dead lion.
5 📚For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything, nor do they any longer have a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
6 📚Also their love and their hatred and their envy have now perished; nor do they have any more share forever in anything that is done under the sun.
9:2-6 He means that all die, all go to the grave. He does not know what may happen after death but he thinks the dead remain in silence and ignorance. Compare Job 10:20-22. Apart from God’s revelation men may come to this conclusion, but the teaching of the New Testament is different (2 Cor 5:6-8; Phil 1:22-23; Heb 12:22-24; Rev 6:9-11; 7:9-10, 13-17). It is far, far better to be a dead Christian believer than a living unbeliever.⚜
7 📚Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
8 📚Let your garments be always white, and do not let your head lack oil.
9 📚Live joyfully with the wife whom you love, all the days of the life of your futility which he has given you under the sun, all the days of your futility; for that is your lot in this life, and in your labour at which you toil under the sun.
10 📚Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave 📖 where you are going.
9:7-10 Here are more conclusions of the natural mind of Solomon unaided by divine revelation. He thinks that since death ends men’s brief and meaningless life and they lie down in silence and ignorance, the best he can do is to work hard and enjoy life if he can. Solomon returns to this view again and again for he cannot see anything more worthwhile (Eccl 2:24; 3:12-13; 5:18-19; 8:15).⚜
11 📚Again, I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; nor is bread to the wise or riches to men of understanding or favour to men of skill, but time and chance happens to them all.
12 📚Also man does not know when his time will come; like fish caught in a harmful net and like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared in a bad time, when it suddenly falls on them.
9:11-12 He thinks man is a victim of chance and circumstance and has no control over his destiny.⚜
An example of wisdom
13 📚Also I have seen this wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me:
14 📚There was a little town and few men in it; and there came a great king against it and besieged it, and built great siege works against it.
15 📚Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and by his wisdom he delivered the city. But no one remembered that poor man.
16 📚Then I said, “Wisdom is better than strength”. Nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom was despised, and his words were not heeded.
Words on wisdom and folly
17 📚The words of wise men in quiet are to be heard more than the shout of the one who rules over fools.
18 📚Wisdom is better than weapons of war; but one sinner destroys much good.
9:13-18 He still considers wisdom a desirable thing, but he has no hope that the world will remember and reward the wise man.⚜