I’m going to stick with Solomon and the theme of life and death in the next few devotional thoughts! Someone’s got to treat this unpopular subject — might as well be me! After all, I’m “retired” and therefore I can’t be fired — just ignored!
Notice with me again what Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 7:1: “A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.”
That’s a bizarre statement: “The day of death better than the day of birth.” What the heck is he talking about?
If we look at these words in view of his opening statement (where he compares a person’s good reputation to fine perfume), we see exactly what’s on Solomon’s mind: he’s contrasting two significant days in human experience — the day a person receives his or her name (“day of birth”) and the day that name shows up in the obituary column (“day of death”). The life lived between those two events will determine whether that name leaves behind a lovely fragrance or a foul stench.
If a person dies with a good name, his or her reputation is sealed and the family need not worry. In this sense, the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth: the life is over and the reputation settled (assuming no hidden scandals).
Abraham Lincoln said of himself, “Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.”
That was his life-aim and the memory of Lincoln matches this. Even his Southern “enemies” mourned his death (or at least the way his life was forfeited).
BTW: Some of you have no doubt heard how Dr. James Dobson’s mother was asked what she would like inscribed on her headstone. She said to write “I told you I was sick!”
Now, what happens when a person dies with a bad name? Their reputation is likewise sealed. In this case the day of one’s birth is better than the day of one’s death: He started out with a good name and turned it into something shameful; his or her reputation is settled. “His name really stinks” gets the point across.
Judas Iscariot is a good example of this. When he was born he was given the good name “Judah” which means “praise”. By the time he died he had turned that honorable name into something despised.
A tombstone in an English village cemetery has the following inscription: “Here lies a miser who lived for himself, And cared for nothing but gathering pelf, [wealth; riches] Now, where he is or how he fares, Nobody knows and nobody cares.” Solomon wrote in Proverbs 10:7: “The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.”
Solomon says How we live matters; our reputation in life and in death is all that we take with us; it’s all that we leave behind.
