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Daily Devotions

Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 
Day 
Day 111

"No one has power in the day of death"

Text: Ecclesiastes 8:8

THE WAR WITH DEATH

A king will do anything in his power to defend his kingdom and his subjects. But there is a war with death that sobers the strongest soul.

“No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit,
And no one has power in the day of death.
There is no release from that war,
And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.”
Ecclesiastes 8:8

1. “No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit”

a) Solomon was aware that Man has two essential elements:

i) The mortal body (the flesh)

ii) The spirit (the soul)

b) There is no power over the spirit.

i) One cannot exercise any control of the spirit.

ii) There is no power to retain the spirit to make it do your bidding.

c) “To retain the spirit”

i) Parents cannot retain the spirit of the children.

ii) Kings have no power over the human spirit.

iii) The average person is often not even aware of the existence
of his spirit, let alone exercise power over it.

2. “And no one has power in the day of death”

a) If one’s power is limited with reference to the spirit, one has even less power in the face of death.

b) In fact, he has no power at all when one comes face to face with death.

c) This was a bitter and sobering reality.

3. “There is no release from that war”

a) Solomon depicts this as “a war”.

b) This war with death must be fought.

c) There is no release from this war with death.

d) All must give battle, even if it is a losing warfare.

4. “And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it”

a) The wicked deals with death.

i) He puts people to death.

ii) He may be likened to an “agent of death”.

b) But when death comes to the wicked:

i) The wicked cannot ask Death to lengthen his life.

ii) He will succumb to death.

VICTORY OVER DEATH

The Apostle Paul wrote triumphantly about the conquest of death!

“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’
‘O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?’
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 15:50-58