A day is coming in which all earthly projects will seem trivial. When we leave this world, our unfinished business will witness to the vanity of our lives. A man forms plans for developing a new business but never gets time to implement them; a house remains unoccupied which he was building for his retirement, a shed lies at the bottom of the garden without a roof to finish it off and his wife and children left behind cannot complete the task on their own. But what are all these things compared to the awful loss of a soul unprepared to meet the Lord? Those who remain after the dead have gone sense the powerlessness of their plans.
Death cuts us off from this world as effectually as if we had never been here. It is as if the past had perished. Although the living grieve for the dead, they cannot bring them back, no matter how hard they try. Man is utterly powerless over death and must just bow to its inevitable advance. Let this truth sink into our minds. There can be no good news until we understand the full extent of the bad news. Does man think about his situation in this world? No, for the most part he does not, but it is to his great advantage to do so. Of course the Christian knows that Christ is risen from the dead, and of course Solomon knew what his own father had prophesied this (Psalm 16:8-11), but it is his purpose in this book to wrestle with souls; to present arguments why life without God is so worthless. Therefore he adapts all his reasoning to this end and helps the unbeliever to see what sort of a world they are left with if they reject God.