Qoheleth and the Reality of Death

I have it in mind to one day start a blog on the realities of this fallen world, with particular emphasis on death. But considering my track record of posts on this blog, it would be unwise. Nevertheless, it is a topic that I would like to write about on occasion, and one that I feel is often cast aside in western evangelicalism. As I’ve D.A. Carson proclaim multiple times, death has become the last taboo. We can talk about divorce, religion, politics, sex, and homosexuality as normal issues—but if death is brought up, you can bet that the conversation will become awkward in a hurry.

In a class on exegetical method last year, each student in my class was called upon to study a chapter in Ecclesiastes. It turned out to be a valuable endeavor, and helped to deepen my view of the Bible and of the world. This particular book has often been misjudged, and to the degree that it is, we are missing out on truths that will deepen our root in Christ.

Qoheleth, the “preacher” of Ecclesiastes, has often been viewed as a pessimist. This may be due to drastic statements like these: “And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun” (4:2-3).

The reality is that life “under the sun” is frustrating at best and evil at worst. Yesterday my wife cleaned my son’s bottles so they are ready for today. And today, she will clean them again. And tomorrow the cycle will continue. This is life—and it can be quite frustrating (read chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes). But this confronts the easiest aspect of life. What’s worse yet is that my wife will get older. And, Lord willing, she will die before our son. He will then face life without a mom that loved and cared for him many years. This is not a possibility but a reality that is also part of life’s cycle.

But what’s worse yet, children may die before their parents. Parents may never even hold their baby while they live. Ecclesiastes was written during a time when the infant death rate was 50%. That is, every time a woman went into labor she had death hanging over her head. And surely in a time when larger families were the norm, we can presume that most parents dealt with dead babies.

It must also be noted that this is natural evil. This does not even tap into the particular evil of slavery, murder, holocausts, genocides, etc. In fact, it is this category of evil that leads Qoheleth to make the negative statement above. And is he not right? Is it not better to have already died than to go through such oppression as the holocaust and never receive comfort (4:1)? Indeed it is.

It’s not that Qoheleth views life in pessimism—it’s that life is pessimistic. He sounds pessimistic because he’s preaching of a pessimistic world. We must get our minds around this in order to live rightly for the glory of Christ.

The puritans got this. As my professor for this class proclaimed, “The puritans were not sadists!” Take what Noel Piper wrote regarding Jonathan Edwards:

For Jonathan, the reality of death led automatically to the need for eternal life. He wrote to their ten-year-old Jonathan Jr. about the death of a playmate. “This is a loud call of God to you to prepare for death….Never give yourself any rest unless you have good evidence that you are converted and become a new creature. (This was on pg. 33-34 of Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God. The Edward’s quote is from George Marsden’s biography of Edwards, pg. 412)

Evil is a reality in this present world, and it ought to be recognized for what it is, or else we might miss the call to cling to Christ for the redemption of our sinful souls and the redemption of this sin-cursed world.