Mourning Better Than Feasting?

Ecclesiastes 7:2-3: "It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart."

Boy, these verses sound like the ultimate "downer." If one were to open the Scriptures for the first time and read this passage, he might think, "Well I was hoping to find some encouragement from the Bible, but all I get is this depressed guy telling me that I need to be sad rather than happy because death is staring me in the face."

We must remember that this writer of the book of Ecclesiastes had it all. According to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, he had all the pleasures of life; he completed great building projects, and he collected vast amounts of silver and gold. In 2:10, he said, "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure." Again, this guy had it all according to earthly standards, but as he surveyed the temporal reality of life, he realized that everything that he acquired would be handed over to someone after him.

A better way to understand the writer's words in the verses cited above is to see that the writer wants each reader to have a proper perspective on life. Those "fools" as he calls them, seem to deny the ephemeral nature of life; they progress through it not stopping with sobering reflection to understand what life is all about. In the gaiety of their haphazard pursuits, they live for the moment . . . their motto is "Who cares about tomorrow, for today I can have it all."

By encouraging the reader to mourn instead of feasting and laughing through life, the writer wants people to stop and think about life's ultimate purpose. Life certainly is not about the fulfillment of our selfish desires, but it is an understanding that I am created with a purpose, which is to glorify God. Contrary to eastern mystical thinking, we only have one shot at this life. We are given a set number of days to be all that we can be for the Lord and His kingdom (Psalm 139:16). And YES, we are all staring death in the face. For some of us, it will be sooner than later, but for all of us, it will beckon us to follow in due time. Thus, no matter how much we enjoy life, we always are brought back to this ultimately reality. It sobers us and forces us to repeatedly ask, "Am I fulfilling my purpose in life?"

I believe that the writer of Ecclesiastes gives us an idea of what we should be pursuing in 7:1: "A good name (Hebrew: shem) is better than find perfume (Hebrew: shemen). In this literary passage of alliteration and assonance, the writer wants to drive home the point that material acquisition and consumption is not the purpose of life, and the man who is consumed with such superficial passions is the ultimate fool. Instead, a man should be driven by the understanding that he must live a life of obedience to a Righteous and Holy God (see Ecclesiastes 12:13); fortunately, his reflection upon his eventual death should motivate him to ask the tough but right questions about life. And if he is willing to contemplate these realities, then what has been said by the writer is true: "mourning is better than feasting."