All Share a Common Destiny

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him.  All share a common destiny – the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.  As it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them.

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all.  The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge or wisdom.

“I have seen something else under the sun: the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”

- Ecclesiastes 9:1-2, 3, 10-11

Photo courtesy: thegospelcoalition.org

One destiny awaits every man – death.  Death is certain.  All men, as Solomon said, the living should take this to heart.  This is a good reminder for me that my life here on earth is temporary.  I am only a passing wind.  I am only a grass that grows and then withers.  It is a good reminder for us, for everyone, to live our lives wisely.  We only get to live once on this earth.  It is best to live this borrowed life for God.

While death is certain, the future is uncertain.  No one knows what would happen in the future, but time and chance, according to Solomon, happen to all.  God has given us, or shall I say, lent us His time and has given us chances in life.  Everyone has been given time and chance, not only to those who are swift, or strong, or to the wise or brilliant, but to everyone. Each person has been given a lot, a portion of time and chance.  It is best to use our borrowed time and chance wisely.  It is wise to use our time and chance for God.

Death is certain and the future is uncertain, but God is the source of life, and He holds the future.  It is wise, therefore, to live our lives for God.

[Journal entry: April 1, 2012]