1 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. 
3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. 5 Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. 6 Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place?
7 All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. 8 For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? 9 Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.
10 Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. 11 The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? 12 For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?
— Ecclesiastes 6:1-12, ESV

I have a morbid fascination with obituaries.  It goes along with my general obsession with newspapers.  Dad was a newspaper man, for a few of my younger years I was a newspaper man, and I remain a newspaper man as a subscriber and avid reader.  I scan three or four papers every day, sometimes more, and the one section I never fail to examine is the obituaries. 

Obituaries are short summaries of life, and death.  Some are sad, especially when a young life is cut short.  Some seem peaceful, recounting a long life with a large list of loved ones left behind.  Most mention some kind of faith.  A few mention membership in a particular church.  Because of their brevity and propensity for flattery, it is almost impossible to tell from an obituary if the dearly departed was a genuine Christian or not.

What if God wrote the obituaries?  He would write them with succinct brevity, sublime poetry, and sincere honesty.  Consider a couple of hypothetical examples.

“Here lies the body of Mary Lee, who passed away at 93, she was saved by grace at 23, faithful to her church and family, now she rests in Heaven with Me.”  

“Jack Spratt fell on his back and passed away of a heart attack.  He made a lot of money in various businesses, he had three wives and several mistresses.  He neglected his children and never knew Me, he made no time for church or charity.  His life is now spent, like a subway token, and when he died, he busted Hell wide open.”

I’ve never read an actual obituary like that, have you?  At least not until I read Ecclesiastes 6.  Like every other chapter of Holy Scripture, this one was written by God, through His observant servant Solomon.  It records the obituaries of at least four men who, like Jack Spratt, lived lives of disrespect for God and disregard for their fellow man.  

All four lives are marked by “vanity,” a key word in Ecclesiastes.  It speaks of brevity, which describes the length of every life.  It speaks of idolatry, which we should all flee from vociferously.  But mostly vanity means wasted, a wasted life, which is one you do not want to live.

Here lies the money man, the family man, the talking man, and the average man.  Avoid their mistakes, if you can.  Turn from their sin and trust in the Lord.  He will give you a better life, more than this world can afford.  

The Money Man

Here lies the money man, in vs. 1-2.  His life begins and ends with “evil,” and is declared “vanity.”  What was so wrong with the way he lived?

He lived for money and made the dollar his almighty.  God gave him what he wished for, which is often a most dangerous thing.  His three wishes came true, “wealth, possessions, and (self) honor.”  But his pride, greed, and lust dulled his senses so that he could not enjoy what he had, but simply clamor for more and more.

Harvard University recently studied wealth in America (they should know, right?).  Of the 4,000 millionaires they surveyed, only about 10% were satisfied with their wealth.  90% just wanted more, and more, and more.  

If you love money, and all you can think about is getting more and more, then you are wasting your life.  You will most likely be miserable in this life, and definitely miserable in the life to come.  Like Simon Peter said to Simon the Sorcerer, “May your money perish with you” (ref. Acts 8:20).  Actually, you’ll perish, forever, while someone else spends your money.

The Family Man

Here lies the family man, in vs. 3-6.  His life is lived in double “darkness.” and is declared “vanity.  What was so wrong with the way he lived?

In the Jewish culture of the Old Testament, the more children you had, the more you were perceived to be blessed by God.  This man had a hundred, hypothetically speaking, but in reality “his soul was not satisfied.”  He fathered children, but was not a good father to his children, and it came back to bite him on the backside.  

How do I know he was a terrible father?  What kind of father is not even given a funeral by his family?  This man “has no burial,” and like “a stillborn child” was not remembered by his own children.  I have known a handful of people whose lives were so wretched, their own children refused to attend their funerals.  That’s a wasted life.

What good is a family if you do not love them, but only love yourself?  What good is a church family, if you don’t join them, in worship and service?  We are all headed “to the one place,” to the grave.  Do not go there having neglected your family, biologically or spiritually.  

The Talking Man

Here lies the talking man, in vs. 7-9.  He was known for “his mouth” and his “appetite” for self-aggrandizement was never “satisfied.”  What’s so wrong with the way he lived?

This man had little but boasted as if he had much.  This man accomplished little but boasted of accomplishing much.  This man ignored wisdom and played “the fool.”  We have all known these kind of braggarts, and we all know they are wasting our time and their lives.

I call him the talking man, but in today’s society he could just as easily be called the social media man.  He posts and boasts, constantly.  His religion is self-promotion.  The sad thing is that for all his posts and all his boasts, no one really pays attention to a word he says, on earth or in Heaven.

So, he eventually dies, in “vanity and a striving after the wind,” yet another wasted life.

The Average Man

Here lies the average man, in vs. 10-12.  He was just like everybody else in his world.  What goes around comes around.  He makes a little money, like the money man.  He has a family, like the family man.  He talks, “more words,” like the talking man.  And like those other men, his is “a vain life.”

What makes it “vanity” and “vain.”  Read the obituary.  There is no mention of God or the gospel.  There is no devotion to Christ and the covenant community.  There is no grace, no faith, no repentance, no mention of eternal life, only more and “more vanity.”  

Henry David Thoreau famously wrote, “The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.”  This is true.  Most people live, not like sheep of The Good Shepherd, but like sheep herded and headed for slaughter.  The world traps them in this secular pen of money and appearances and transitory relationships and they live the average American life.  Then after “the few days of this vain life,” all that awaits them is the grave, located “under the sun,” the place where God is not.

An Ecclesiastes Philosophy of Life

If you do not want to end up on the obituary page of Ecclesiastes 6, soak up the spiritual and eternal lessons from every other chapter in the book.  Eventually, you will get to the end, when the Preacher says:

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” 
— Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

We will have much more to say on this subject when we reach Ecclesiastes 12.  But for now, in the light and darkness of Ecclesiastes 6, know these things:  

God will judge how we use our money.  God will judge how we treat our family.  God will judge the words of our mouths compared to the character of our hearts.  God will know whether we lived as true Christians or average Americans.  

And, God will one day write our obituary, of either an eternally valuable life, or simply one of “vanity,” a wasted life.  How will yours read?