Ecclesiastes Chapter Nine, One Event For All

Ecclesiastes 9:2 All things come alike to all: One event happens to the righteous and the wicked; to the good, the clean, and the unclean; to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath as he who fears an oath. [3] This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

As was explained in rather painful detail in the previous chapter, so now does the preacher launch into another lament about the frailty of human life and its inevitable end. Verse 2 begins with a sweeping universal incrimination: one event happens to all. Focusing on the single word, “all,” one can deduce that the preacher is inferring a universal theme, from which no member of Adam’s race is exempt.

Since the theme of mortality and death is replayed in this book, the word “all,” is explained within the confines of its context; there is nothing more explanatory necessary. All means all, as in everyone everywhere at any time life exists on planet earth in its current state. All is used as an adjective in this verse, helping to define the word “things,” repeated when we are informed that these “things,” come alike to “all.” What is the second all? The righteous, the wicked, the good, the clean, the unclean, he who sacrifices, he who does not, the good and the sinner, as well as those who do or do not take oaths. In short, the preacher compiles a bucket list that portrays humanity in a few sweeping descriptors, focusing primarily on the religious or irreligious. Another good example of the use of this adjective may be found in 2 Corinthians with an identical definition as far as usage goes.

Paul writes, “because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all,” 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15. The context in this passage implies that when Jesus died on the cross He  died for all of mankind. And when He did, mankind died with him, so to speak. That is, we do not find ourselves in Heaven or Hell due to our sin, but because of whether or not we believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior. Paul confirms Jesus’ salvific authority, reiterating that He did indeed die for all: that is all people everywhere for all time. The passage involves the universality of Christ’s efficacious atonement. Though not all believe, Christ technically paid the purchase price for humanity in toto. So when we come to a passage in Scripture where the author is speaking about Jesus being the Savior of believers, or the elect, we must view it in light of other statements, such as this that reveal the Lord as the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe, 1 Timothy 4:10.

As a bit of an aside, I would like to insert a quote from a commentator named David L. Cooper, stating, “When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise,” When Gog’s Armies Meet the Almighty in the Land of Israel.

The simplest contextual, exegetical usage for the word then, would be its universal application unless the passage clearly bears it out to be otherwise.

Now what is this one event the preacher refers to? He goes on to relate that these contrasted people on either side of the moral and spiritual spectrum both suffer this event. It is entirely universal, indiscriminate, and disregards motive and merit. The saint is no more impervious than the sinner. Sin will not shield the one that indulges in it; in fact it is sin’s illegitimate child, brought into the world through lust and passed on like a transmitted disease to all of Adam’s progeny. No one and nowhere is safe.

Having established the victims of this event, the preacher goes on to further explain that of all things done under the sun, this one is evil. Why? Because piety or cruelty does not absolve humanity from its embrace. He reiterates that this one thing happens to all.

Moreover, he expounds on the fact that the hearts of men are full of evil. Picture a glass. Pour water into that glass until it reaches the utmost peak of the rim so that not the slightest bit of the glass’s interior remains untouched by what occupies it. This is the heart of man according to the preacher. We first glimpse this awful truth about unregenerate man, or the natural man back in Genesis. “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” Genesis 6:5. What was the result of this perverse thinking? “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth,” Genesis 6:11, 12. James agrees with this assessment, telling his readership that the lust they produce due to fleshly desire prevailing in them gives way to war and fighting, James 4:1-3. The prophet Jeremiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9. So the heart of man is continually evil with every intent and thought, while simultaneously being incurably deceitful and wicked. So when we are provoked in this day and age to listen to our hearts, we are in fact being instructed to give heed to a deceiving evil doer. In short, the heart is a villain, wanting what it wants with a passion that supersedes sense and reason or any consideration of right and wrong. We in turn then begin to bend right and wrong to adjust to our wants as perception warps to accommodate our fixations. The heart is deceptive, and will tell us anything we want to hear to lull us into chasing our dreams, no matter how filthy, perverted, and twisted they may be.

The genuinely good news about our fatal condition is that God will do what man cannot. Of Israel, when they are spiritually regenerated as a nation, He says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them,” Ezekiel 36:26, 27. The national regeneration of Israel, when they finally see their Messiah in glory and repent, reflects what the Christian experiences with the new birth. God does for us and in us what no religion can provide, which only affects and reflects external conditioning rather than internal transformation. The heart is not mended; it is replaced. The evil heart is removed to give way to a living, beating heart that is energized by the Holy Spirit of God who will be in the believer.

First the preacher says the heart is full of evil. Then he admits that the heart is likewise mad. There is madness in the human heart. Emily Dickinson is quoted for having written, “The heart wants what it wants, or else it does not care.” The unregenerate heart wants what is selfish and self-serving. It is driven, according to the preacher, by madness. The new regenerated heart wants not what it wants, but what God wants, both for us and for those around us. The preacher, restricted to examining life under the sun, says that the heart is full of madness while we live. There is no escape from it. It taints our words, molests our thoughts, corrupts our motives, pollutes our deeds. Nothing remains untainted. This is the crux of what Paul wrote when he opined, “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good,” Romans 7:21.

At last, the preacher reveals the end of our dalliance with madness and evil. We go to the dead. Now this is the most basic, rawest expression of physically dying. There is nothing spiritual here to salvage. The preacher isn’t talking about Sheol or Heaven. He is referring to an open grave, a casket, and shovels filled with earth. The body is still, cold, and already decomposing. Our hearts are no longer filled with madness; the body is instead empty, void of any vestige of the life that formerly animated it. Now we hide it away as a final, respectful nod to the tortured person that once was alive, maddened and evil as he was, all the while being painfully aware that we too will be subject to this fate: a war we cannot be released from, Ecclesiastes 8:8.