Episode Details

Pray

Read: Ecc 3:16-4:3

Meditation

Verse 21 is one of those awkward Ecclesiastes sayings. It’s one of those verses that makes Christians want to avoid the book altogether – and plenty, it would seem, do just that. I want to take a moment to explain it. Let’s just start by reading it together: “Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?”

Straight away you are probably thinking, hang on, the New Testament talks about an afterlife. Is Solomon saying there is no afterlife here? What does he mean?

Well, he means exactly what he says.

Let me put it this way. If someone from your church, let’s say, was to die in the next few seconds, would you be able to tell me where their spirit is? No, you would not, would you? In verse 16 Solomon makes the point that he is observing life under the sun. And from life under the sun, we literally cannot see the spiritual realm. What happens to animals when they die? We do not know. That is Solomon’s point in verse 21. We have no idea. What about the spirit of a man? You do not know for sure. It may have gone up to heaven, it may have gone down to hell.

That is not to say we cannot have assurance or confidence that a faithful believer has gone to heaven. In God’s grace, we can have confidence. But only God knows categorically where a person goes. That is Solomon’s point. From where we are standing, we do not categorically know a person’s eternal destiny. There is a level of mystery in the afterlife for us, and we need to acknowledge that and leave it with God.

Some commentators say that Solomon is denying the afterlife altogether in this verse, as though he were some kind of cynical agnostic. Perhaps you have thought that yourself. There are three reasons why that reading is deeply flawed. First, it clearly contradicts other very clear passages of Scripture. If you say Solomon does not believe in the afterlife, you deny the infallibility of scripture. That interpretation is therefore heretical. Second, Solomon has already spoken about the afterlife in this passage. In verse 17 he refers to God’s coming judgment. He would not speak of judgment if everything ended with death. Third, Solomon plainly admits the afterlife later in the same book. Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, “the spirit returns to God who gave it.” To read verse 21 as a denial of the afterlife is irresponsible exegesis and a pathway to heresy.

So Solomon has taken us on a journey. He has shown us that injustice and suffering exist. He has shown us that judgment is coming. He has shown us that none of us are innocent, and he has pointed us towards righteousness.

As we wrap this up, there are two pieces of application. Really, we have been on the gospel journey together. The problem of suffering should lead us to repentance and restoration with God. But Solomon also gives us insight for living with injustice in the world as Christians, because even after we are saved, injustice remains.

The first application comes in verse 22: “So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?” At first glance, this feels almost random. Solomon has been talking about oppression, injustice, death, and judgment, and suddenly he says, go and rejoice in your work. But it is not random at all. It is profoundly helpful. It shows us how to live by faith in a world full of oppression.

There is great injustice in the world today. But what can you do about it? Of all the oppression and evil that exists, how much can you actually change? The truth is, very little. We cannot even stop ourselves from committing injustice half the time, let alone fix society. Even people in positions of power are largely impotent in the face of it all. That is not to say they cannot do