ALWAYS GIVE YOURSELVES FULLY TO THE WORK OF THE LORD – Part 1
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote to me as follows:
Ecclesiastes 9:10: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."
What is your understanding of this?
This confuses me: Does this mean that when we go to heaven (respectfully I say) we are going to be like "zombies" or is it referring to the time between death and the rapture?”
I want to share my response to this person with you but in this writing I also want to share with you something different and because the one flows out of the other, I share this with you in a short series of two writings from the Word.
Firstly:
Although there are people who preach that there is a place of refuge/safeguarding/limbo[a] or sleep or something like that after death, I certainly do not believe in such a thing and we are certainly not going to be “zombies” after we depart this world.
Primarily I want to share with you what the Word tells me will happen when I depart from this life. I am certainly not going to a place of ‘limbo’, or in a state of sleep, or in a state of safeguarding.
I am going to share the following with you from the Word to support what I am saying and that is; I will go directly to Jesus and if I have not repented, directly to hell.
To start with, while Jesus was hanging on the cross with two other men, all three of them were going to depart this life shortly:
LUKE 23:40-43
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Jesus doesn’t say to the man on the cross next to Him that it will happen one day, He says that He will be with Him in Paradise today. As I say always to people, God says or does not do anything just because He wants to do so or say it. When Jesus says “still today”, then you certainly know that it will happen today.
Another example:
MAT 17:2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
MAT 17:3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus
Moses and Elijah departed this life many many years ago before this occurrence and here they are visiting Him before Jesus walks to the cross. And they were true people, so real that Peter wanted to start preparing proper accommodation for them.
Moses and Elijah had also lived hundreds of years apart on this earth and there they appear very much alive and also as if they were very old friends.
Further my great hero Paul says the following about the matter about where we are going when we depart this life, and of which he is very certain where he will be when he departs, and I am also very certain where I will be – with Jesus:
PHI 1:21-23
21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know!
23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far;
Then also I am very certain that when I depart this life, there is only one of two places that I can go to and that is Heaven or hell.
Jesus also shows us very clearly through His telling of the story of the rich man and Lazarus and as I always say, I say again – Jesus is the only person who has walked on earth, who has in-depth knowledge of both these places:
LUKE 16:22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him (to Heaven) to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.
LUKE 16:23 In Hades (hell), where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
When Lazarus opened his eyes on the other side of the grave he was in the same place as Abraham, and as a matter of fact, Abraham was fully conscious. When the rich man opened his eyes he was in a place that you cannot describe anything but hell. And he was also fully conscious.
I explain in more detail from the Word regarding; where we are going after we have departed this life in the following two writings that I have written namely:
“What happens to me after the grave” and “What happens to us on the day of judgement”, what I will send to you on your request.
In saying this; How do I view “Ecclesiastes 9:10”?
Let’s read this section again and I quote from the NLT:
ECC 9:10 Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
We all are on our way to eternity and all of our bodies, so to say, will end up in the grave at some point. Sometime between now, after you have read this writing, and somewhere in the future, you will leave your body and then your body, like all things on this earth that breath, will cease:
ECC 3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
What the preacher is saying to us in “Ecclesiastes 9:10” is this – Do not waste time and opportunities that our Lord gives you in this life – what you should do under His guidance – or spend it on useless things.
ECC 9:10 “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, … “
So you see – If you take this section in context and read it in conjunction with the whole Word and from what the Word wants to tell us about the afterlife, it is very clear what He wants to convey.
What the preacher clearly does not do here, is to compare this life with the afterlife.
What he wants to do, is to show us that you must take all your chances on this earth to do what you must do, before your body ends up in the grave. Because, this you must remember – It is not you that ends up in the grave, it is your body.
You, as the Word clearly shows us and what you have already read, before your body even ends up in the grave, have already ended up in Heaven or in hell. As I have already shown you, I say again; What the preacher is doing here is to show us is that you must use all your chances to do what you need to do on this earth before your body ends up in the grave.
ECC 9:10 “…for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.”
Certainly you are not going to be a “zombie” or something like that.
How wonderful!
Listen to what the Word says to you, child of God; who you are going to be as a child of God, and what your status will be in the afterlife as a child of God, while your body in your grave, whatever kind of grave you have, cease to exist.
ROM 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
ROM 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Because we know!
ROM 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
ROM8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Therefore my friends:
ECC 9:10 "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, (that is where your body are going) there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom."
Remember to do this as a true follower of Jesus, should do it:
COL 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
Also:
PHI 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Greetings,
Sakkie
Footnote:
a Lie of the land – 1. the topography of the land 2.
the way in which a situation is developing or people are behaving.