All of mankind face death. This daily devotional looks at what it means to join the living.
Nuggets
- Choosing to accept God’s gift of salvation changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- We don’t know that we are spiritually dead until we realize we need Jesus as our Savior.
Devotions in The Meaning of Life series
It was always God’s plan that we should not have to face spiritual death long. Even before we were created and committed the original sin, the Plan of Salvation was waiting for the fullness of God’s time to be implemented.
Solomon quickly turned from his discussion of facing death to the hope od joining the living. Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
We Choose to Join the Living
“But there is hope for whoever is joined with all the living, since a live dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything …” (Ecc. 9: 4-5 CSB)
Choosing to accept God’s gift of salvation changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
Hope is the expectation, also called a living hope, based on the confidence that, because of our relationship with God, our names will be found in the book of life.
What Solomon is talking about here is hope for spiritual life over spiritual death.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- The consequences of sin are spiritual death and separation from God.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Glossary
We’ve talked before about there really aren’t degrees of sin. All sin, regardless of what we consider its severity, is a rejection of God.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
That being said, the Homilist interpreted verse 4 an interesting way. He wrote, “Some sinners ARE MORE CONTEMPTIBLE THAN OTHERS.”
Resource
See, I would have interpreted verse 4 to mean live dog was someone who had joined the living through a profession of faith and the dead lion as being someone who was still facing death. When we add verse 5, that makes sense if Solomon was talking about a discussion of spiritual death.
But then, I can see where the Homilist is coming from. Even though the outcome — rejection of God — is the same, the nature of the person committing the sin is different.
A murderer is different than a liar. A thief is different than an adulterer.
The sin could be, as the Homilist said, based on circumstances. What we would call extenuating circumstances doesn’t negate that we committed the sin.
We sin based on free will. Free will is the ability within us to make decisions, which determine actions that produce character.
The bottom line, though, doesn’t change. Sinners will be judged and condemned to an eternity in hell if they do not ABCD. That lion will be dead.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Part of it, too, is that I wasn’t aware of the symbolism of the lion and the dog. Bray said that the lion was the symbol of something brave and kingly. The dog symbolized something base and contemptible.
Resource
Bray is correct in saying that God is not looking for a show. We must make a choice to fully change our character to be more like His. We can’t ABCD, and then not start on the Sanctification Road.
God isn’t interested in us buying into the ceremony of religion. He doesn’t want us going through the motions. He wants the relationship.
Hughes didn’t differentiate between the contemptibleness of the sin. He just noted that, once dead, we no longer have hope. He wrote, “Life is the period within which all is possible that is requisite and required. A dead lion is helpless and hopeless, a living dog is able and hopeful.”
Resource
Once we take our last breath, we lose our free will. Our choice has been made. If we haven’t chosen Jesus as our Savior, all hope is gone.
Hughes argued that what Solomon was talking about here was how we live our lives. We can’t be a good person and think we will get into Heaven. We have to ABCD.
We Choose to not Face Spiritual Death
“For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything. There is no longer a reward for them because the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate, and their envy have already disappeared, and there is no longer a portion for them in all that is done under the sun” (Ecc. 9: 5-6 CSB)
We don’t know that we are spiritually dead until we realize we need Jesus as our Savior.
Solomon expanded on what he meant by saying that the living understand what the dead don’t. It is one of those passage that we really have to know what we are talking about.
The way I read it isn’t exactly the same way Hopkins interpreted it in the one sermon I found. But I think we are coming at it from different directions.
What I got from Hopkins was that we are so busy living, we don’t pay attention to dying. It is only when we come up with an illness that we acknowledge the mortality of this body. Sometimes, it comes when a loved one dies.
Still, we aren’t given a ticket with a date and time stamp on it. We don’t know when we are going to take our final breath. We don’t know how it is actually going to shake out.
Ooo, baby. Hopkins wrote that, even when we know the end is coming, we sometimes are in denial. We still don’t prepare to meet our Maker.
Hopkins wrote, “There is a double necessity of death on account of sin. As a punishment. As a purgation of it.”
Resource
I take it another way, especially if we didn’t grow up in a church environment. We aren’t going to have any clue about spiritual life/spiritual death until we start searching for God.
Remember, a spiritual life is totally opposite to our normal physical, sinful life. We aren’t going to be born with knowledge of it.
We are going to have to actively search for God. We are going to have to make a conscious decision to follow Him.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Making the Connections
I really liked Hughes’ sermon. He said some things that I really needed to hear/read.
Hughes wrote, “The past of life will not satisfy and meet the present demands of human need and Divine requirements. Every day creates its duties — every day brings its wants; the provision of the day covers the need of a day, as the work of the day covers the obligation of a day. The present will not cover the future, no more than the future can cover the present — every day must provide for itself; if it does not, it is a day of want, for the blessings of yesterday and to-morrow are partly dead things to us to-day.
Resource
Ooo, baby. Aren’t we always trying to build and grow? Haven’t we said that is what the Sanctification Road is about?
What if it isn’t a continuum leading us to be closer to God? What if it is the circles, and we begin the circle again each day?
When the circles interlock like the picture shows, the doing and the suffering does kick us up to the being. The being invites Satan to tempt us, kicking us down to the suffering.
The doing is probably something different than we would think. It isn’t works based — although we have to show through our actions that we are disciples of Christ.
The doing, in my opinion, is us showing we have made the choice to join the living. We have to show we are doing for the right reason — because we are honoring Sovereign God.
How Do We Apply This?
We are programmed by society to shoot for bigger and better. We are to try to climb the ladder to be the head honchos, the experts, the innovators, and the influencers.
God says, no. That isn’t His definition of success. Hughes wrote, “The small used rightly is better than the great unused.”
Resource
Instead, Hastings gave us a great snapshot of what a spiritual life looks like. He wrote, “Spiritual life is characterized by peace through faith in the one great sacrifice, effort after purity, love of the Word, and practice of prayer and charity toward all.”
Resource
Did you see that? Loving others is at the of the list. We are going to get a pass from the other four things by just doing the one.
- Do what God calls us to do, whether we see it as a big thing or a little thing.
- Don’t put off doing what God calls us to do.
- Trust in God, not what this world offers and promises. The world is helpless.
- Don’t judge from appearances but from character.
- Use the talents God has given us.
- Be content with what God has given us.
- Work to grow our goodness.
- Prepare for eternity because this life is temporary.
Resource
We don’t want to continue facing death. We want to join life by putting our faith and trust in God.
Father God. It humbles us that You designed the Plan of Salvation before You even created us. You sent Your Son to die on the crisis while we were still sinners (Rom. 5: 8). Still, You allow us to choose whether or not we will accept Your gift of salvation. Lord, we accept Your gift of life. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.