Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Grave’s Instruction: Sovereign Wisdom for a "Good Life" in the Vapor (Ecclesiastes 7:1-12)

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The Grave’s Instruction: Sovereign Wisdom for a "Good Life" in the Vapor (Ecclesiastes 7:1-12) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine you have unlimited wealth like zero enemies
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absolute political power and an intellect capable of solving any
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problem on earth. Right the ultimate dream
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scenario. Yeah you possess the resources
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to build a literal utopia you construct a paradise right well
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one historical king actually achieved this exact scenario.
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Yeah I really did. He had everything a human being
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could ever want and his final conclusion.
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It was all completely utterly pointless welcome to reformed
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thinking today we're taking a deep dive into the wisdom of
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Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 verses one through 12.
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It is such a heavy section of scripture.
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It really is you know when we look at the world today society
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constantly sells us the idea of achieving your quote best life
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now. Oh yeah everywhere you look.
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It looks like a carefully curated social media feed you
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know you open an app and the pictures show perfect vacations
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unbroken smiles spotless homes. Right and a culture that points
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to this. Delusion and basically says
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there it is that is the goal. Yeah we're just bombarded by
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this relentless drive for self actualization where immediate
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gratification is treated as the highest good even within some
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highly visible church movements you find a human centered
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prosperity gospel promising health wealth and unbroken ease.
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Which is such a dangerous setup? Very dangerous but the author of
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Ecclesiastes who calls himself kohelith where the preacher
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shatters that entire framework. He brings US face to face with a
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sobering reality which is that death dismantles every earthly
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utopian dream. It is a total Wrecking Ball to
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our modern sensibilities. Yeah it really is so our mission
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for you the listener in this deep dive is to investigate how
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embracing your own mortality receiving painful correction
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practicing patience and rejecting nostalgia actually
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lead to substantial lasting joy in a fleeting world.
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Because it is not just about being depressed.
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No not at all instead of leaving us with nihilism this ancient
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text offers the true. Good life what the Hebrew calls
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to my Kava let's start by looking at the man who actually
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wrote these words because his resume changes how we process
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his conclusions. Absolutely the context is
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everything here. We are talking about Solomon
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writing near the end of his life he's not speaking from like
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theoretical observation in a university classroom.
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Right he lived it. He really did Solomon possessed
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unrivaled wealth total geopolitical peace intellectual
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brilliance and absolute monarchical authority.
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The historical records tell us silver was as common as stones
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in Jerusalem during his reign. That historical context is
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absolutely vital for understanding the weight of his
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words think about the sheer scale of his operation.
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It was massive. Very massive he had merchant
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fleets bringing in exotic goods from across the known world he
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had a standing army fortified cities and the administrative
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genius to manage a vast Kingdom without the constant threat of
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foreign invasion. Basically zero stress from the
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outside. Right Solomon.
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Sin had every conceivable resource to construct an earthly
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paradise if anyone could have achieved the modern world 's
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version of the best life now it was him yet his life stands as a
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historical illustration of total depravity.
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Which we should probably define for the listener?
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Good point so total depravity is a theological concept asserting
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that sin corrupts every part of the human person the mind the
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will the emotions all of it. It doesn't mean you're as bad as
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you could possibly be. Right right it just means the
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corruption. To every single part of your
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nature and Solomon is the perfect case study despite his
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divine wisdom despite being the one chosen to build the glorious
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temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem his heart turned to gross
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idolatry. It is wild to think about.
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It is he built high places for false gods to satisfy his
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foreign wives he possessed the purest theological knowledge
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available on the planet at that time yet his actions
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contradicted that knowledge completely.
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So he had all the facts but his will was still broken.
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Exactly I mean precisely so the wisdom we're reading in
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Ecclesiastes is the hard won repentant reflection of an old
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king he had tasted everything the world had to offer
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architecture agriculture music philosophy sensory pleasure.
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What did he find? He found life under the sun to
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be hebel. Hebel that's such an interesting
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word. It is that Hebrew word
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translates to a vapor a mist or a breath.
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It looks substantial for a second like your breath on a
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freezing winter morning but the moment you try to close your
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hands around it it vanishes entirely.
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Oh that is a great image I'm trying to put myself to the
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shoes of his original audience though if I am an ancient
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israelite reading this I am living under the davidic
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covenant my nation is wealthy we have the temple.
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Right things are going well. Yeah really well but here is a
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king telling me that all of this physical prosperity is just a
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vanishing mist. This brings up a huge question
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regarding how they would have processed his intense focus on
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the finality of the grave. That is a very valid question.
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Right because an Old Testament audience did not have the clear
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blinding light of the New Testament regarding the
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resurrection of the dead they did not have the historical
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event of Easter morning to look back on.
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They had shadows and types but not the full picture.
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Yeah so if you do not have a robust theology of the
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resurrection clearly mapped out. Doesn't a hyper focus on death
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just crush you why would Solomon push his audience into such a
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dark corner. That is a crucial angle to
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consider in the Old Testament economy physical death was a
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looming terrifying specter the afterlife was veiled in
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shatters. It wasn't the bright hope we
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have. Today no it wasn't.
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You have the covenantal structure of deuteronomy 28
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hanging over the nation where obedience brings physical
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blessings and disobedience brings physical curses.
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And death was the ultimate curse right right.
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And the supreme curse of physical death stems all the way
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back to the fall in genesis 3 where God declares that dust
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will return to dust. Without the clear historical
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reality of an empty tomb shining backward through history death
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was the great crushing equalizer.
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It just flattened everybody rich poor wise foolish.
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Yeah it made Solomon 's exhortations to face mortality
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piercingly relevant he was writing to a covenant people who
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are currently experiencing maximum earthly prosperity yet
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he forces them into a severe spiritual crisis.
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He is intentionally bursting their bubble.
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Very much so. He intentionally strips away
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their nationalistic pride he takes the individual israelite
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who might be trusting in their wealth their military security
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or their lineage and forces them to confront their own
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unavoidable end he is demonstrating that physical
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prosperity cannot solve the fundamental problem of human
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mortality and divine justice. And the literary structure he
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uses to accomplish this is fascinating.
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The first 6 chapters of Ecclesiastes act as a relentless
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demolition project. A total teardown.
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Yeah he systematically destroys every avenue of human endeavor
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he tests intellectual pursuit and says it just brings grief he
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tests pleasure and wine and says it leaves you empty.
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Nothing works. Right he builds massive gardens
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and pools of water amasses unprecedented wealth and then
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writes vanity across the entire spreadsheet.
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He proves that the equation of earthly life cannot be solved
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from within. The mass just doesn't add up
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under the sun. But then Chapter 7 abruptly
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shifts the demolition stops and we get a rapid fire bombardment
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of proverbs but they are not normal proverbs they are these
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paradoxical better than statements why this sudden
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change in tactics why shift from tearing everything down to
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offering these strange comparisons.
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Having torn down the false idols of human security he begins to
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construct a paradigm for surviving this vaporous life
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we're familiar with the book of proverbs which Solomon also
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wrote proverbs gives general normative rules for skillful
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living it tells us how things generally work in God 's ordered
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universe like work hard and you will have food be honest and you
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will be trusted. Right general principles.
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But Ecclesiastes addresses the frustrating exceptions of a
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fallen world it functions as a theological counterweight.
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Simplistic formulas for prosperity.
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Oh I see. Yeah the world expects a proverb
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to say feasting is better than morning because that makes
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logical sense to our pleasure seeking brains but Solomon
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reverses the polarity of human expectation.
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He flips it completely upside down he.
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Forces the reader to slow down and weigh these paradoxical
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statements. He is saying since life is
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broken by sin and justice is often perverted the normal rules
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of acquiring wealth and pleasure will not save you he is
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recalibrating their definition of what is truly good.
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Let's look at the mechanics of that recalibration because the
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text moves away from structural arguments and hits US with a
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direct visceral comparison. Solomon writes that a good name
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is better than precious ointment and the day of death is better
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than the day of birth. Those are jarring statements.
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Really jarring he says the heart of the wise is in the House of
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mourning while the fool 's heart is in the House of mirth to a
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modern year saying the day of death is better than the day of
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birth sounds incredibly pessimistic.
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It sounds totally backwards to us.
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Yeah we celebrate birthdays we throw massive parties for
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newborns funerals are things we endure.
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What is the underlying logic that makes death superior to
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birth in Solomon 's mind? To understand the logic we have
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to look at the Hebrew word play Solomon employs he contrasts
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shem meaning name or reputation with Shimon meaning ointment or
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perfume. Shem and Shimon that is very
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close. Right they sound almost
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identical in the ancient near east.
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Sanitation was poor precious ointment was a highly sought
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after luxury item used to mask foul odors especially the stench
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of decay. So it was basically ancient
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deodorant. Basically yeah it was cosmetic
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Solomon is arguing that a good name a life marked by genuine
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integrity and covenant faithfulness is internal it
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requires no cosmetic covering that.
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Makes a lot of sense. At a funeral no amount of
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expensive perfume can hide the stench of a wicked character.
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The community knows who that person truly was.
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You can't fake it anymore. Right by tying the good name to
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the day of death he shows that a person 's true legacy is only
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finalized on their deathbed the day of birth is pure unwritten
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potential. You do not know if that child
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will grow up to be a tyrant or a Saint they.
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Haven't done anything yet. Exactly the day of death is the
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final verdict on how that life was actually lived the Ledger is
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closed. That analogy of the House of
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mirth versus the House of mourning makes me think of our
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modern culture 's obsession with escaping reality.
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Oh we are obsessed with it. We have endless entertainment
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options designed specifically to keep us out of the House of
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mourning we have infinite scrolling streaming platforms
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virtual reality. Anything to distract us yeah.
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On top of that we do everything possible to sanitize death we
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hide the dying away in sterile institutions when someone passes
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we use Mortuary science to put makeup on the corpse so they
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look like they're just sleeping peacefully.
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Which is just another form of that cosmetic covering?
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Yes we are a society built entirely inside the House of
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mirth but I want to push back on Solomon 's advice here if you
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are listening to this on your commute right now you might be
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thinking. Doesn't intentionally dwelling
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on death just lead to a miserable morbid depression.
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That is the natural fear sure. If I spend all my time thinking
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about coffins and funerals how do I avoid becoming completely
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paralyzed by anxiety? If we were analyzing this from a
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purely secular viewpoint where the grave is the absolute end of
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consciousness then yes dwelling on it would lead straight to
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nihilism and despair? It would be terrifying.
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But we have to factor in the theology of human corruption.
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Think about human nature we are fundamentally wired to stick our
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heads in the sand when it comes to our own expiration dates.
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We really are nobody wants to think about it.
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The unregenerate mind is fiercely dedicated to ignoring
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its own mortality because facing it requires facing the creator
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confronting the coffin shatters our denial and our self
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righteousness. It forces the issue.
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It forces a person to reckon with divine judgement when you
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stand in the House of mourning you are forced to ask.
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What happens next? Right you can't ignore the
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question anymore. By dwelling in the House of
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mourning your soul gets calibrated it strips away pride
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it produces a serious sober joy rooted in eternal realities
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rather than fleeting illusions. A serious joy I like that
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phrase. It is a severe mercy it teaches
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us to value the breath we have today not by frantically trying
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to squeeze pleasure out of it but by using it to honor God.
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It is the ultimate reality check the coffin preaches a louder
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more effective sermon than any human speaker ever.
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Could it cuts through the noise? It absolutely does.
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And that concept of cutting through the noise leads right
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into the next stinging reality the text presents Solomon says
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it is infinitely better to endure the painful rebuke of a
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wise counselor than to listen to the flattering songs of fools.
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Which is another massive reversal of what we want?
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Oh totally we live in an algorithmic world that thrives
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on constant validation we block people who disagree with us
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online. We curate our friend groups to
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only include voices that sing our praises and validate our
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life choices. We build echo chambers.
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Yeah we treat any form of correction as a toxic attack on
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our identity. And Solomon uses a brilliant
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auditory and visual simile to expose the absolute bankruptcy
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of that validation seeking mindset.
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He compares the laughter and the songs of fools to the crackling
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of thorns under a pot. Another great image.
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Once again we see masterful Hebrew word play between Sir
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meaning pot and hassiram meaning thorns he is comparing the empty
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noise of flattery to the empty noise of a useless fire.
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I love the mechanics of this imagery if you have ever built a
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campfire you know exactly how this works on a physical level
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right. The kindling phase.
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Yeah if you throw dried pine needles or dry thorns onto a
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spark they catch fire instantly. You get this massive loud
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snapping crackle the flames shoot up high into the air.
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It puts on quite a show. It looks incredibly impressive
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for about 3 seconds but then it vanishes thorns offers zero
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sustained thermal mass. They burn up too fast.
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You cannot boil a pot of water over a flash fire of thorns and
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you certainly cannot cook a meal to sustain your body.
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It is all flash and no substance.
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Now apply that mechanism to the visible church today the
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application is devastating we see a lot of seeker sensitive
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pragmatism that aims to entertain rather than feed the
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flock these movements offer flashy entertaining songs in the
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metaphorical sense they produce a brief noisy emotional high.
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Like the crackling thorns. Exactly like the thorns of the
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music swells the light slash people feel a rush of adrenaline
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and they leave feeling validated.
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But it lacks the robust theological substance to
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actually sanctify a Sinner it. Doesn't cook the meal.
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No it lacks the thermal mass to sustain a Christian through a
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tragedy by Tuesday morning that emotional flash fire has burned
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out and the person is spiritually starving.
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Wow that is a heavy diagnosis. The wise person in contrast
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actively seeks the surgical strike of truthful correction
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from scripture and from godly friends.
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No matter how much it stings in the moment that correction
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yields lasting godliness. It is the hardwood logs for the
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fire. Right the wound of a faithful
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friend provides the slow burning fuel necessary for long term
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spiritual survival. That is a tough pill to swallow
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but it makes complete sense we need to actively ask for people
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to point out our blind spots rather than just seeking
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applause. We have to invite that
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constructive pain. We need to invite people into
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our lives who love us enough to tell us when we are wrong.
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So if the campfire of cheap entertainment leaves us starving
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what happens when that superficiality infects the
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higher levels of a society. That is where it gets really
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dark. Because Solomon does not just
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critique the individual fool. He pivots to the systemic
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corruption that drives even the wisest people crazy the text
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shifts to the internal ethical dangers of societal corruption.
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A very natural progression for a king to make.
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Yeah Solomon notes that oppression drives a wise man mad
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and a bribe destroys the heart he follows that by saying the
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end of a thing is better than its beginning and patience is
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superior to pride. Let's look at the mechanics of a
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bribe why does he say it destroys the heart rather than
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just saying it breaks a legal statute.
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This section is a massive warning about how systemic sin
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rots the human intellect and the conscience we often think of a
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bribe as just an external transaction.
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Like slipping cash in an envelope to bypass a regulation
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right. But Solomon says it destroys the
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heart which in Hebrew thought is the seat of the will and the
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intellect. A bribe promises temporal gain
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but the mechanism is that it quietly purchases the
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conscience. It rewires you on the inside.
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It does it bends the inner moral compass away from the fear of
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God when a society operates on extortion and bribery it creates
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an environment of oppression and as the text says living under
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relentless systemic injustice can drive a wise person to the
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brink of madness. Because you see the wicked
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prospering while the righteous suffer.
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Exactly this massive cognitive dissonance leads directly to the
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discussion of pride and patience the proud person believes they
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are sovereign over their own life.
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They think they're in the driver 's seat.
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Because they believe they are in control they lack patience when
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God 's Providence thwarts their will or when they face systemic
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injustice they demand immediate vindication.
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Which brings up a terrifying phrase in the text Solomon
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writes? Anger lodges in the bosom of
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fools the word lodges implies taking up permanent residence
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like a tenant signing a long term lease.
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It is not just a passing emotion.
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Right why is anger described that way why does it just move
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in and refuse to leave if you look at human behavior anger is
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exhausting it raises your blood pressure it ruins your sleep why
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would anyone let it lodge permanently.
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Because the unregenerate heart hugs anger as a comforting
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friend. Let's examine the psychology of
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entitlement. OK let's hear it.
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The quick tempered proud person feels fundamentally entitled to
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a smooth uninterrupted life when they are inconvenienced when
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their plans fail or when they are wronged by the oppression we
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just talked about they Rage Against their circumstances.
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They feel justified in their rage.
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They feed that anger protected and treated as justified
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insight. They believe their outrage
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proves they care more than others.
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Like it makes them morally superior to be mad all the time.
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Exactly true wisdom however recognizes a different reality
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wisdom acknowledges that trials delays and even injustices are
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governed by a sovereign God who ordains them for our
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sanctification. So patience isn't just sitting
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around. No patience is not just passive
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waiting it is the active posture of trusting the end result to
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God it trusts that God governs the beginnings the middles and
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the ends of our lives. And he will bring the end of a
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thing to a just and perfect conclusion even if that
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conclusion happens after we die. The wise person evicts anger
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because they trust the judge of all the earth to do right.
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It is well. Said I think we all know someone
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or maybe we have to admit we have been that person who wears
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their constant outrage like a badge of honor they think their
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perpetual anger makes them discerning or highly moral.
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When the text actually calls them a fool?
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It is a harsh mirror to look into.
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That requires some serious self examination for you the listener
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if you pause right now look at your own internal landscape what
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anger are you giving free rent to what grudge are you
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protecting. Such an important question.
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Now shifting from our anger about the present Solomon hits
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on our delusions about the past this feels incredibly relevant
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to our current cultural moment he strictly forbids
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romanticizing the good old days. He says it is not from wisdom
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that you ask why were the former days better than these.
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This raises a fascinating theological question why is
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nostalgia considered an actual sin here.
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Yeah, we usually treat nostalgia as a harmless, warm feeling.
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We do, but Solomon targets it because it represents a massive
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theological error. Asking why the former days were
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better is a failure to recognize that human depravity has
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infected every single era of history.
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We look at the past through rose colored glasses.
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Age in a psychological editing process, our brains naturally
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delete the struggles, the systemic sins, and the pain of
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the past, creating a fictional sanitized golden age it.
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Is like we only remember the highlights reel.
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Right. And more severely, this kind of
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complaining functions as a direct attack on the doctrine of
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divine Providence. Oh wow, how so?
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Well, Providence is the belief that God is actively upholding,
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directing, and governing all creatures and actions.
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Complaining about your current era is an implicit indictment
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against God's active sovereign decree right now.
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You're basically judging God's timeline.
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You are essentially telling the creator of the universe that he
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got the timeline wrong and that his current governance of the
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world is flawed. So when we sit around wishing it
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was still the 1950s or the 1990s, or even just 10 years ago
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before some major personal life change, we are completely
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missing the point. We look back at a decade and
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think things were simpler then. But they weren't.
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Right, they weren't. We just weren't the ones
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carrying the complex burdens at the time.
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Or we willfully ignore the societal evils that existed
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then. My thought on this is that
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nostalgia acts as a blinder. A blinder to the present?
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Yes, it. Blinds you to the present
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mercies and the specific duties God has ordained for you today.
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If your head is constantly turned backward looking at a
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timeline that no longer exists, you cannot see the path God has
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laid at your feet right now. You become paralyzed.
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You become completely useless to your family, your church, and
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your community in the present tense.
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That is the exact danger. The world's primary problem is
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not that it has moved away from your preferred political or
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cultural decade. No, the problem is much older
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than that. The world's fundamental problem
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is rebellion against God, which was just as lethal and prevalent
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in those former days as it is today.
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You are called to be faithful in the precise moment God placed
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you. You meant to that.
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Following this warning against nostalgia, Solomon moves to a
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comparison between wisdom and money.
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He uses the metaphor of a shadow or shelter.
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OK, so he is bringing wealth back into the picture.
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He is a realist. He does not say money is
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inherently evil. He acknowledges that money
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provides A temporal shadow from earthly hardships.
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It is a useful buffer. It Shields you from the
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scorching heat of poverty or sudden emergencies.
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It is a highly useful tool, but he draws a sharp, impenetrable
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line regarding its ultimate value.
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Right, because money has severe built in limitations, let's look
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at the mechanics of what money can actually accomplish.
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Money can buy a high end, technologically advanced
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mattress, but it cannot buy a peaceful night's sleep for a
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guilty conscience. That is a great way to frame it.
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It can buy the best medical care in the world, access to top tier
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surgeons and cutting edge treatments, but it cannot
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guarantee your health or add a single second to your lifespan
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beyond God's decree. It hits a hard wall.
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It can buy a massive house, but it cannot generate the love
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required to make it a home. Money is restricted entirely to
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the physical plane. Precisely it is restricted
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wisdom is vastly superior because it preserves the
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spiritual life of its possessor. Which money cannot touch.
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Money cannot deliver the human soul from the wrath to come.
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It cannot cleanse a guilty conscience.
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You cannot bribe the divine tribunal God.
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Doesn't take cash. No, he does not.
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Biblical wisdom, which begins with the fear of the Lord,
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operates on a completely different level.
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It guides a person safely through the vanity of this
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fallen world. It gives you a map through the
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mist. It teaches a person how to live
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before God with sober judgement, moral restraint, and deep
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gratitude. It teaches you that your bank
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account will be left behind for someone else the exact moment
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you take your final breath, but you're standing before God is
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eternal. So let's bring all these threads
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together. What does this all mean for us?
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If we just stop right here at the end of verse 12, we are left
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staring at a very heavy, demanding list of rules.
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It is a crushing list if you try to do it on your own.
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Be wise, dwell on your own death, take a painful rebuke
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without complaining, don't harbor anger, don't be
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nostalgic, and don't trust your bank account.
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If we leave the conversation there, we are stranded in a
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desert of sterile moralism. We are just Pharisees at that
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point. We are just trying to pull
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ourselves up by our own moral bootstraps in a vaporous world,
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and based on what we discussed earlier about total depravity,
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we already know our internal operating system is too
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corrupted to actually accomplish this.
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Florida State. We will fail, guaranteed.
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We will fail, so we have to cross the redemptive historical
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bridge from Solomon, who wrote this wisdom but tragically
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failed to keep it himself, to the greater Solomon Jesus
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Christ. This is the turning point, where
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the dark, heavy backdrop of Ecclesiastes allows the Gospel
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to shine with blinding brilliance.
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Yes, let's get into this. Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled
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every ounce of this wisdom through what theologians call
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his active obedience. Let's explain the mechanism of
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that term for those who might not know.
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Active obedience means that during his entire earthly
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ministry, Jesus lived the flawless law, keeping life that
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we were commanded to live but could never achieve He.
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Didn't just die for us, he lived for us.
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Exactly. He built the perfect moral bank
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account. He received the rebuke and scorn
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of sinful men without ever retaliating or sinning.
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He endured the greatest oppression, extortion, and
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systemic injustice at the hands of the religious Sanhedrin and
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the Roman governor Pontius Pilate.
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Yet he never once harbored sinful retaliatory anger in his
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bosom. He lived outpatients personally.
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He did. He never idolized the past.
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Instead, he set his face like Flint toward Jerusalem to
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accomplish the exact agonizing present will of the Father.
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He lived the wisdom of Ecclesiastes perfectly.
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And when we talk about the House of mourning, Christ did not just
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visit a funeral to learn a moral lesson.
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No, he went much further. He allowed himself to be
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murdered. He entered the ultimate House of
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mourning. The tune itself.
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He was laid in a rock. You grave.
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Yes, and this brings us to the mechanism of his passive
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obedience. He did not just observe death as
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a bystander, He tasted it for his people.
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Let's define passive obedience too.
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Passive obedience refers to Christ willingly absorbing the
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penalty for our sins like a lightning rod absorbing A
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catastrophic strike. He endured the infinite divine
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wrath and died a substitutionary death on the cross.
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He took the hit for us. He paid the legal penalty for
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our folly, for our pride, our hasty anger, our historical
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complaining, and our idolatry of wealth.
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All the things we just covered in Ecclesiastes.
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All of them. But the glorious truth of the
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Christian faith is that he did not stay in the House of
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mourning because of the historical reality of the empty
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tomb. Death no longer has the final
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crushing word over those who belong to him.
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The grave is empty. The sting of death has been
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completely extracted. Therefore, the believers good
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name, that flawless unblemished reputation required to stand
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before a perfectly holy God, is not achieved by their own
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scrubbing and effort, it is received reunion with Christ.
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Let's make sure that concept is crystal clear for the listener.
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When we say imputed righteousness, we aren't just
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tossing around a heavy theological dictionary term.
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It is the most practical truth in the world.
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Think of it as a legal forensic transfer of funds.
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Christ's perfect moral bank account, His flawless
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reputation. The good name we discussed
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earlier is legally credited to our spiritually bankrupt
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account. We get his credit score.
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The Ledger is cleared not because God simply ignores our
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massive debt, but because Christ paid it in full with His blood,
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and then He gave us His infinite surplus of righteousness.
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We receive this through faith alone.
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Faith alone that is key. God pardons us and accepts us as
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totally righteous solely because of what Christ has accomplished
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on our behalf. That changes how we view
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everything Ecclesiastes has thrown at us.
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We no longer obey these commands to earn our salvation.
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We pursue this wisdom out of profound gratitude because our
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salvation is eternally secure. OK, let's synthesize this for
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everyone listening. Living the quote better life now
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does not mean chasing the world's cheap illusion of a
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flawless, pain free Instagram filtered existence.
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That is just crackling thorns it.
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Means refusing to waste your fleeting, vaporous breath on
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foolish laughter, proud anger, corrupt game, or sentimental
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complaints about the past. It means embracing the sober,
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grounded joy that comes from trusting A sovereign God who
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governs every detail of your life.
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A God who knows what he is. Doing it means knowing that the
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painful, broken things have Earth actually grows strangely
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bright when viewed through the lens of Christ's grace.
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You don't have to fear the House of Mourning anymore, because the
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grave has been conquered by the greater Solomon.
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That is the true toff, the true good life.
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As we conclude this deep dive, I want to leave you with a final
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thought to Mull over. Yeah.
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Please you. Consider the specific things
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that 'cause you the most daily stress, anxiety, or intense
29:19
frustration right now Think about the financial pressures
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keeping you awake, the relational conflicts making you
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angry, or the perceived slights to your reputation.
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We. All have a list.
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If you were suddenly standing in the House of mourning, looking
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at your own inevitable end, how many of those overwhelming,
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massive anxieties would instantly reveal themselves to
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be nothing more than the loud vanishing noise of crackling
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thorns?