The Story:Death: It lingers in the minds of mortal men and haunts their every waking moment (Heb. 2.15). No man can know or determine when his spirit will leave him and he will die. Just as uncertain are the events that can hasten death – war and various evils. If you trust in evil to give you happiness in this life, you will be dismayed to learn that evil will not save you from itself. Solomon says that he understood this even as he was wandering around in the shadows and swamps of his “under the sun” existence. And Rehoboam knew it, too; it simply wasn’t convenient for him to keep it in mind. Like a good dad, however, Solomon was impelled to remind his son of the ultimate issues of life, and to warn him yet again that his foolish lifestyle would not avail him in the face of man’s ultimate threat.

The Structure:Our contemporary generation prefers to avoid the thought of death. We euphemize it – “passing away” or “crossing over.” We do our best to postpone it by staying in shape, eating right, and masking or cutting away the indicators of advancing age. Preaching today avoids much talk of death and what comes after. We understand that the modern world scorns those who “preach hellfire and brimstone.” We prefer to focus on the bright, happy, hopeful side of the Good News. But the Good News is only truly good against the bad news that it is appointed for men once to die, and then the judgment (Heb. 9.27). But then comes the Good News again: Christ has borne our judgment, so that we need not fear dying and may live every day to Him.

Are we doing our contemporaries a favor if we pedal away from what they fear the most, because we fear to be scorned by bringing it up?

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “In Your Face: Ecclesiastes 8,” simply click here.

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.