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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Ecclesiastes 8:10
Comments
Solomon had observed the final end of the wicked. Their lives contrasted greatly with their deaths. In the end the grave had claimed them and exerted its power over them so that they lay still under its domination, all activity reduced to nothing. The silence of the grave contrasted with the momentary bustle of their lives. How authoritative is death and in the case of the wicked; there is no answer to it. No word of God will command them to live again and to escape death’s cruelty; they will not be clothed with a resurrection body which will reverse death’s sleep. They will not stand justified in the presence of the Son of God and be called to enjoy his presence. They will only know his condemnation for ever.Solomon of course knows perfectly well that the righteous sleep in the same grave and to all intents and purposes seem captured by the same cruel hands of death, but in their case death will not have the final say and its chains will be broken, thus negating its sentence on them – faith sees a difference.But what of the lives of the wicked? While they lived, many appeared to be religious and went to and fro between their homes and the temple. They mingled with others in religious duties; though they had no heart for worship, they assumed that their hypocrisy would never be discovered. All this was a pretence which death has now uncovered. They performed these duties only to be seen by men for there was no real love in their hearts for God. What did they gain? Very little, for those before whom they put on their performance soon forget them and their glory has not lasted?
Application
Men and women in various ways try to build a reputation on earth and exert themselves for a reward that they cannot enjoy more than a few years. Their worship is vanity, their righteousness is vanity, all their efforts to win the praise of men are vanity, and indeed their whole lives are vanity and death is the instrument that final exposes the vanity. True religion is not something that can be fabricated. All worship acceptable to God must be by the Spirit. There is therefore no alternative but to come to God and seek him with all our hearts. True conversion involves dying to sin, and there is no way to avoid this. May God help men and women to let go of the vanity to which they cling and come to him for life.
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