What Ecclesiastes Teaches About Death
Death often comes unexpectedly, but Ecclesiastes calls the living to take mortality seriously. Solomon’s reflections remind believers that death is not the end of existence, but the completion of a faithful journey in the hands of the Lord of life.
- Ecclesiastes compares birth and death by looking at the starting line and the finish line of life.
- Solomon teaches that the house of mourning can make the heart wise.
- Believers can face death with courage because of the resurrection and eternal life in Christ.
By David Faust
Death often catches its victims by surprise.
An unsuspecting driver slides behind the wheel of her car, unaware that a fatal accident awaits her. A middle-aged man ignores his shortness of breath, not realizing a massive heart attack will soon end his life. The average American’s life expectancy is 78, and Scripture predicts, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures” (Psalm 90:10). Even if you live to be 100, you’re living on borrowed time.
Birthday or Death Day?
In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon offers surprising insights about death.
“A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth” (Ecclesiastes 7:1, New International Version). Really? The day you die is better than the day you were born? Most of us celebrate birthdays, not death days.
Is Solomon just in a foul mood? Is he like Job, whose suffering led him to ask, “Why didn’t I die when I was born? Why didn’t I die as I came out of my mother’s body? Why was I placed on her knees? Why did her breasts give me milk? If all of that hadn’t happened, I would be lying down in peace. I’d be asleep and at rest in the grave” (Job 3:11-13).
Ecclesiastes is a soul-searching book that voices thoughts rarely spoken out loud. But Solomon isn’t just being cynical. He is comparing the starting line (birth) with the finish line (death). Birth is the start of an unpredictable and difficult journey, but for believers, death marks the completion of the journey and brings a welcome release from this world’s sorrow and frustration. Ecclesiastes 7:1 starts by emphasizing the value of a good reputation: “A good name is better than fine perfume.” At birth a person’s character is unproven; at death it’s possible to leave behind the legacy of a life well-lived.
Funeral Home or Banquet Hall?
Solomon continues with another surprising observation: “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” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Would you rather attend a funeral or a party? Solomon continues, “A sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasures” (7:3-4). What can we learn from these verses?
How Believers Should Face Death
Acknowledge the reality of death. Unless Christ returns first, all of us eventually will die. “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). We shouldn’t be like careless drivers speeding toward a cliff with no guardrails. We don’t have to be morbid and joyless; but it’s foolish to deny the sobering reality of our own mortality.
Prepare for death. Why did the apostle Paul say, “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21)? Late in life, what gave him courage to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7)? He trusted in the Lord of life! He put his past sins, present problems, and future destiny in the hands of the Lord who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25). In baptism, Paul already had been buried and raised up with Christ (Romans 6:1-4; Colossians 2:12). He believed “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Don’t be terrorized by death. “Neither death nor life . . . nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). Believers see death not as our demise, but our deliverance—not the end of our existence, but moving into a far better existence.
Helen Keller was physically blind but intellectually observant. She said, “Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there’s a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.”
This is the sixth in a series of articles based on the book of Ecclesiastes.
Author: David Faust
David Faust serves as contributing editor of Christian Standard and senior associate minister with East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the author of Not Too Old: Turning Your Later Years into Greater Years.
