Sun 9:30a Class; 10:30a Worship; 11:35a Communion
Bible Bites
The House of Mourning
I attended a funeral today in Cullman County, Alabama, of a brother of one of our members of the local church here. As I looked about the cemetery among the tombstones I saw several markers for some for whom I have conducted services.
Such occasions furnish opportunities for reflection. Ecclesiastes 7:1 — "Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men; and the living will take it to heart" (NKJV). "It is better to go to a funeral than a feast. For death is the destiny of every person, and the living should take this to heart" (NET).
The text is not being morbid, but rather is stating reality. It is not wrong to go to a birthday party, or a wedding. But one is not usually thinking about the brevity of life and the reality of death at a house of feasting. The very nature of death and funeral services forces us to do some sober reflection. When Solomon said "the living will take it to heart;' he is showing that it is the living, not the dead, that now need to learn some vital lessons at the funeral.
Once during a callin radio program I was asked, "Where is that passage that says God promises us only 70 or 80 years?" I responded, "I think the text you are looking for is Psalm 90:10, which states, 'The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.' But the verse does not say God promises us 70-80 years; He does not even promise us tomorrow." Moses, who wrote Psalm 90, went on to say, "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (v. 12). Life is brief at best, even if one lives to an "old age"; thus the urgency of making it count by living for God and the doing of His will.
— In Biblical Insights, January 2015
