May 12 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 12—Ecclesiastes 12:18–22

¹⁸I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. ¹⁹For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. ²⁰All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. ²¹Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? ²²So 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?

Devotional:

Qoheleth develops a most unpleasant philosophy of death. He claims that God uses it to humble people. Always in the back of his mind is the idea that humans are set against the purposes of God. God responds by reducing man to dust. His objective is to make us see just how lowly and miserable we are in our attempts to exalt ourselves against God Almighty. "God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts" (3:18).

Since man makes himself like God, man is made level with the beast. Self-promotion brings demotion and abasement. Death is the termination of all human ambition, and when it comes, the sinful and warped human creature is shown to be what it really is: weak, frail, and anything but exalted.

In 3:20-21, echoes of the creation story are present. The breath that Yahweh breathed into Adam is the animating principle of all living beings. This is not to suggest that there is no difference between human breath and animal breath, but in both cases the creature is more than flesh and bones. Life is a mystery, and it cannot be fully grasped. We can only draw comparisons. Take, for example, an airplane. It can fly, and in this sense is not unlike a bird, but no matter how intricate the design, and no matter how much technology you pack into it, it has no breath. It is a lifeless machine. At its very heart, it does not even come close to God's design and creative power. Only he can make living beings, and he does it by the breath of God. This is a reality that, when duly contemplated, causes us to tremble at him. What a God he is!

But we are told that death has a way of reducing man to the level of a beast, namely, below his original status. The logic of 3:20-21, which has attracted a good deal of scholarly attention, is to forge total solidarity in death between animals and humans. We are reduced to the level of the animal. Once again, he who exalts himself shall be humbled.

The divine verdict, and our acceptance of it, also lies at the heart of the gospel of Christ. Rom. 1:16-17 says, "[The gospel of Christ] is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, …. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith.'" The "righteousness of God" could here be rendered "the righteous act of God," because it focuses on the cross, where God's verdict against sin, injustice, and wickedness is revealed. If you are a child of God, then you accept this verdict from God and place yourself under his judgment. At the same time, we hear God's voice of vindication, since he also raised Christ for our justification. This brings joy into our hearts that not even death can take from us. In fact, death, the last enemy, will be conquered (1 Cor. 15:54).

The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.