October 21 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Ecclesiastes 7:1–12

Devotional

The book of Ecclesiastes counsels us that it is better to enter the house of mourning than the house of feasting. We are to remember that we all will die. We also will enter the grave. We are to think about our end and then we will also think about our beginning. Ecclesiastes wants us to realize that since we will die we must prepare ourselves for this inevitable change before it is too late.

If we are wise, we will pay attention to this heavenly counsel and follow up on it. For this counsel is directed to our well-being. Then what we read in the text—“the living will lay it to his heart”—will be fulfilled in our lives. Only those who are alive will do this, for they alone are still in the time of grace. Only the living still have time to meditate on man’s beginning and end. This reflection must take place so that we become spiritually alive and see with spiritual, living eyes that we have to die. This all must be done before we actually die, for then it will be too late.

The words in Ecclesiastes are important, for we read “the living will lay it to his heart.” He lays it up in his heart. He does not lay it up in his mind, because with our mind we know that death will come, but the mind is so affected by sin that it will reason theoretically about death, yet in the meantime still ignore it. The mind will reason about the end of one’s life without any heart knowledge.

The text says, “The living will lay it to his heart.” It does not say that the living will lay it up in his emotions. Certainly the emotions can be deeply affected, but if our consideration of death is only some display of emotion, then we soon will forget that we were in the house of mourning. Emotions are fleeting; feelings are temporary.

What we read is that the living will lay this in his heart. For the heart is the central part of our life. What weighs upon your heart will weigh heaviest in your life. You take your heart along with you wherever you go. Now it is God’s purpose that we meditate on what we see in the house of mourning and that this would weigh upon us until grace has entered our life. That is the grace of Christ Jesus.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.