Dancing Before the Grim Reaper

Sometimes God gives you glimpses of what life in heaven will be like.

You know what you're doing in life? With that simple meal, the joy of your spouse and home and family, the excellence with which you take up whatever the task is, you are actually tasting, you are preparing for, you are sampling an appetizer, you're getting a glimpse of life beyond the curse, life beyond the grave. While we're here on earth, God wants us to enjoy the good gifts He's given us. He wants us to live with heaven in mind, but while we're here, we savor His blessings, enjoy the love of family and friends, and we serve with vigor.

And then, at God's appointed time, we each will wing our way to that celestial city where the dancing and the feasting and the singing and the serving and the loving and the thanking and the worshiping will go on and on and on in uninterrupted eternal joy. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey has a message for you called Dancing Before the Grim Reaper. Here's Stephen. The headline of newspaper articles around the country published the news that Coleman Mockler Jr. died unexpectedly at the age of 61. Even though he was a household name when he died just 30 years ago, you probably have never heard of him. A graduate of Harvard with an MBA became the treasurer of a company that had been founded in 1901 by making razor blades called the Gillette Company. His rise in that corporate world was meteoric. Within two years, he was the vice president, then the senior vice president, then the executive vice president, and then within nine years of being hired, he was the chairman of the board and the CEO. When he would take this company into a global presence under his leadership, the stock value of Gillette increased 50 fold. He was celebrated in the business world, quoted as a guru of business management. He would go on to earn millions in salary and on Wall Street. At the age of 61, he announced his early retirement. He was going to step down, so to speak, while he was ahead.

He would bask for the rest of his life in the glow of his successes. Forbes magazine put him on the cover of their next issue, published with his picture. I've seen a copy of that magazine cover.

He's shown holding a razor in his hand with confidence written all over his face. That magazine edition was going to hit the newsstands in one week, but Forbes decided to send him an advance copy to enjoy. When it was delivered to corporate headquarters, his office staff and all the executives stood and clapped and whistled as he carried the magazine back to his office to read. In many ways, this was the best day of his life. He had no idea it would be his last. With his staff applauding, he stepped into his office, shut the door, had a massive heart attack, and crumpled to the floor, he was gone.

When the medics arrived to carry him out, he was still clutching that Forbes magazine with his photo on the cover in his hand, a magazine issue that now seemed terribly and ironically one week too late. Since Solomon is now in his old age, most of his powerful spirit control advice has come at the end of his life, at his retirement, so to speak, which is now in view. In chapter 9, where we pick it up again at Ecclesiastes, he begins reminiscing on two of his most favorite subjects, life and death. Solomon essentially says, let's talk about your deeds. They are a reminder of God's authority. And with that, he begins chapter 9 and verse 1.

Notice. But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God, whether it is love or hate, man does not know, both are before him. In other words, Solomon is going to leave it to God to judge his deeds and determine what was commendable and what was worthless, what was worth loving and what was worth discarding. Now, what Solomon highlights here for us is a reminder that all of our deeds are, notice again, in the hand of God, in the hand of God. Now, that doesn't mean we're puppets. That doesn't mean we're on strings. God is the puppeteer. It doesn't mean we're not responsible for our actions and our deeds.

We are. But God has woven our actions, good and bad, into his purposes so that everything works out according to his divine plan. Nobody throws a monkey wrench into God's purposes. I guess you could say that what Solomon is saying is that God really does have the whole world in his hands.

Keep in mind that those hands are now nail scarred. The world he created crucified him. They washed their hands of him. But the sovereign Lord, make no mistake, who created the world and loves the world and was rejected by the world is still in charge of the world.

Here's the good news for the believer. The Savior who called you and redeemed you is capable of taking care of you. He will never wash his hands of you.

He will never walk out on you. Solomon says, let's talk about our deeds. They are a reminder of God's authority in his hand.

Secondly, now let's talk about your death. It's a reminder of God's appointment. Notice verse 2. In the same, or it is the same for all, since the same event, mark that, the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, that is ceremonially, religiously clean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice, those who come to the temple regularly and those who never show up. As the good one is, so is the sinner. And he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event, here he goes again, happens to all.

All die. And just in case we don't think we deserve to die, he adds in verse 3, the hearts of the children of man, that is a human race, are full of evil and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. We are in need of a savior. The Bible says there is none righteous. No, not one, Romans 3, 10. For all have sinned and what?

Fall short of the glory of God. That's heaven, Romans 3, 23. And just in case you're not convinced you're a sinner in the company of the one Solomon's referring to, keep in mind that the penalty for sin is an appointment with death. The Bible also says it is appointed unto man once to die. You don't think you're a sinner? Are you going to die? You're going to die because you're a sinner. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, Romans 6, 23.

The paycheck for being a sinner, the payout, the wages you earn, go ahead and open that envelope. It has one word stamped on it for us all, and it reads D-E-A-T-H. Solomon writes here in his journal, I've laid this to heart. I've meditated on this. I've examined this.

I'm admitting the truth of this. There is this one event that's deserved by all, and no one can avoid it. The good person experiences it, and the evil person.

The religious person and the atheist, the guy who never curses, and the man who can't stop swearing. Morality does not protect you from mortality. But people don't want to talk about it. People don't want to talk about death out there because they'd like to believe it's never really going to happen. Death is unthinkable. Beloved, death is not unthinkable.

It is inevitable. Is it interesting that Solomon, as he nears the end of his life, keeps coming back to this? This is not the first time he's talked about it. Some of his parting advice to his son is going to ignore it, and to us will we. Is the truth about life and death. Now what Solomon does here next is he adds two elements that reveal why the unbeliever doesn't really want to talk about it. First, because they know deep down, they know, they aren't truly confident about life beyond the grave.

Notice what he says here in verse 4. But he who's joined with all the living has hope. That word hope can be translated confidence. In other words, as long as you're alive and you're only thinking about living, you don't want to let your mind wander into the subject of dying. You get this sense of confidence. There's bravado out there. In fact, everyone knows, Solomon goes on to say in the last part of this verse, that a living dog is better than a dead lion.

What does that mean? Well, dog in ancient days wasn't a household pet like we have today. It was a mangy scavenger, unwanted. In fact, for those of you that are older in the faith, you probably picked up on the fact that throughout the Bible, dogs are used symbolically of evildoers, sinful people. In fact, all the way to the last reference, which happens to be the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22. John writes that the dogs, the evil unrepentant, the dogs will not be allowed into heaven.

I know you cat people are loving this right now. This is hard for me to teach, but it's the truth. They're a metaphor for wicked people. The lion was all the way back in Genesis, linked to the royal line of the house of Judah in Genesis chapter 49. The lion becomes the emblem of the Messiah.

He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. So what Solomon is saying here is that it's better to be a wicked sinner who's alive than a noble lion who's dead. Because no matter how brave you might want to be, you'd rather be anything but dead. The unbeliever, if you have conversations, and I hope you do because you're to be the gospel light out there, you'll find that they will admit they're troubled. They aren't confident about life. All the while, they'll deny, they'll suppress the truth God implanted in their hearts that there is a Creator. They want to deny Him and they want to deny any thought of death. Not only do unbelievers realize they're not confident about life beyond the grave, there's a second thing he mentions here. They realize they won't be remembered after they've gone to the grave.

Notice what he writes in verse 5. For the living know that they will die. They know in their heart of hearts they're going to die. But the dead know nothing, they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.

Generally speaking, this is absolutely true. Out of sight and out of mind, your family certainly will remember you, but the community at large, your world at large, Solomon is the richest, most famous, wisest man on the planet, and he says, don't count on it. Now, you might expect Solomon to follow all this depressing reality up by telling you, go find a quiet place, go find a room somewhere. Be as quiet as you can, enjoy as much as you can, and die.

But he doesn't. What he really tells us to do is to get ready to live. Let's talk about your deeds. They are under God's authority.

Let's talk about your death. It's according to God's appointment. Now, thirdly, let's talk about your direction.

It's a reminder of God's approval. The next verse gives you a series, by the way, of imperative verbs. You can put exclamation points over and over again in this last section. It begins with the word go. You could translate it, come on. You could translate it, get going. You could translate it, let's go. You'd think after all that he said, he'd say, oh me, let's just quit. He gets to the end of that, and he says, now, let's go. Let's get on with it. And here's his first imperative in the list.

We'll put it this way in principle form. Go on and enjoy the simple things in life. Look at verse 7. Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Believer, this is wonderful news. You're not living, we sang it, you're not living under condemnation.

No condemnation, now I dread. You're free to live and free to enjoy the simplest gifts of life. I love the fact that Solomon doesn't say here that what you need to really enjoy life is a palace and a lot of gold and really fast horses out there in the pasture and a lot of building projects and parks and all of that. No, he says, what you need to do to get on with living is just start with a good meal. In fact, notice even the meal that isn't really all that fancy. It's bread and wine.

That's something they eat great. Go for it. Enjoy it. He talks about your wardrobe next in verse 8. Let your garments be always white.

Let not oil be lacking on your head. This is a metaphor for rejoicing. White garments are the garments of the wedding and the festival and the reunion.

They represented joy. Go on and enjoy the simple things of life. Secondly, go on and enjoy your relationships in life.

Look at verse 9. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your fleeting, quick life that he has given you under the sun because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Enjoy that relationship. Enjoy your wife. I don't know about you, but this COVID thing has given me a lot more time at home, especially in the early months. I was able to spend more time with my wife than she ever wanted. I mean, dreamed. No traveling to meetings, just Zoom.

On at 8.30, off at 9.30. All that time captured. We've had a blast. She's taught me how to play Yahtzee and Rummy Cube. The only way I can beat her is to cheat. I'm kidding. Settle down here.

Sort of. But she won't let me keep score. Solomon does it right here.

I want you to notice this. Live with your wife. Put up with your wife.

No, he says something much more profound. Enjoy life with your wife. You're not using her.

You're enjoying life with her. And isn't it interesting, did you notice, that the man who had 700 wives comes to the end of his life and changes everything with a stroke of his inspired pen from the plural to the singular. He had forfeited throughout life a loving relationship with a wife for multiple wives and concubines.

And now, as an old man, it's almost as if Solomon is as much as admitting that he finally knows better. This advice could be broadened, of course, in application to include children and parents and grandparents, extended family. This is how to enjoy life.

Let's go for it. Make the most of your relationships. You're not ignoring, by the way, the reality of the grim reaper. You're not trying to avoid the reality of the grim reaper. You're effectively dancing before the grim reaper, in spite of the grim reaper. Even though you know the grim reaper is coming, it's the appointment of God, though.

You understand that no longer. Under condemnation, you can learn to dance before him. You're in a festival mood. You are seizing life as God unfolds it with an attitude. The New Testament, by the way, correspondingly encourages to rejoice in the Lord always and again. Say it with me.

And again, I say, rejoice. That means put on the festival garb every day. You're not denying the difficulties of life. You're just choosing to make the most of life.

That's what Solomon is saying. Go on and enjoy the simple things in life. Go on and enjoy the relationships you have in life.

One more. Go on and enjoy every facet of life. Now, in case you think Solomon is leaving something out, he writes in verse 10. Whatever, circle that word in your Bible. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom and shield that is the grave to which you are going. Now, he's not in this text trying to deny the afterlife.

He's simply emphasizing that we need to maximize the potential of life. And I love that first word, that inclusive word, whatever. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. When God made all that is creative and lovely and imaginative and glorious and he came to the end of it and Genesis 1 gives the summation of the triune God in verse 31, behold, look, it is very good. Yes, sin marrs it, but there's much to be enjoyed. Whatever it is of God's world, whatever your hand finds to do, so long as it doesn't violate a command or character of God, enjoy whatever your hand finds to do, enjoy whatever. One of my commentators in my study said, you know what that means? It means go ride a bike, go visit the Grand Canyon, learn a musical instrument, visit the sick, cook a meal for the hungry, read a book, laugh with friends, run a marathon, call your parents, play with your kids, write a letter, travel to somewhere you've never been before. Get on with it.

I thought it was interesting, D.O. Moody writing more than 100 years ago caught the sense of Solomon's command correctly when he wrote this, I believe the religion of Christ engages the whole person. Why shouldn't a Christian play tennis? Don't imagine, he writes, that you have to go live in a cave to be consecrated. Whatever you take up, take it up with all your heart.

You know what you're doing in life? With that simple meal, the joy of your spouse and home and family, the excellence with which you take up whatever the task is, you are actually tasting, you are preparing for, you are sampling an appetizer, you're getting a glimpse of life beyond the curse, life beyond the grave, where you will feast at the marriage supper of the lamb and you will enjoy the fruit of the orchards that grow along Main Street in the Father's house bearing fruit every 30 days. This is where you will have relationships with the entire family of the redeemed, enjoy to the fullest, where we will serve with everything we are and everything we have our Redeemer, where we will live in a sense with uninhibited dancing and unimaginable triumph and unspeakable glory and grace that we cannot yet imagine, but we get a sample, we get a taste down here. So go on, learn to dance before the grim reaper. Savor, enjoy, taste, serve, love. And then, at God's appointed time, you will wing your way to that city where the dancing and the feasting and the loving and the serving and the thanking and the worshiping will go on and on and on with uninterrupted eternal joy. So enjoy lunch today.

I recommend not just bread, but a lot of butter. What a great reminder today. Thanks for joining us here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey, and you can learn more about us if you visit our website, which is wisdomonline.org. In addition to equipping you with these daily Bible lessons, we also have a magazine that includes articles to help you dive deep into various topics related to the Christian life. The magazine also has a daily devotional guide that you can use to remain grounded in God's Word every day.

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