Finding Empathy for the Lost

A second reason to study the book of Ecclesiastes today is: it helps us empathize with the lost people around us.  Jesus says the lost are “like sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless.”  Their lives are meaningless and vulnerable to destruction, but it’s hard for us to keep that truth in our head when many of them seem to be doing better than we are.  When the truths in Ecclesiastes become part of us—they equip us to look at someone like Donald Trump and be genuinely heartbroken for him.

They remind us that everything this fallen world values is rendered meaningless by death, among other things.  For instance, today Trump is a real estate magnate, cultural icon, celebrity and high profile political consultant.  And none of that will matter one bit to him, the moment he passes from this life to the next.  And on his deathbed as he peers into what is for him an unknown eternity, he will say with the writer of Ecclesiastes that it has all been vanity.  In 50 years all his big, impressive buildings will probably have been purchased by someone else and everything with his name on it will have been removed and replaced with the name of the next wealthy owner.  In 100 years, he may be the subject of college term papers written in Economics class on the American economy 1980-2020.  And in 200 years, he’ll be nothing more than an asterisk on the pages of history and his life will be completely irrelevant to anyone living on this planet.

Because Ecclesiastes is inspired by God,  that tells us this is the way he looks at people who are vainly pouring themselves into the sieve that is this world.  And if this is the way God views these lost people, that should be our attitude as well.  There are people all around us dying every day… having lived completely empty lives.  They may be externally happy, prosperous and well respected—but apart from God—their lives are vanity—a vapor that is here one minute and gone the next.  The miserable plight of the lost breaks God’s heart and as we come to see that plight more fully in Ecclesiastes, by God’s grace it will break ours as well.