Ready for Impact (10 minutes)
Take time to introduce yourselves to one another (over drinks or snacks if possible). Then ask group members to answer this question:
- How do you think those who’ve had a serious brush with death tend to view their lives afterwards? (You could think about fictional or real-life people, famous people or those who you know personally).
Over the course of this term, we’re exploring the ancient book of Ecclesiastes. Though Ecclesiastes comes from a very different culture and time to ours, it touches on some of the most profound issues of humanity.
Ask for a volunteer to read Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 to the group, praying a short prayer that, however much they’ve come to know God, they’d know him better as a result of your time together.
Watch
You might want to warn to your group that today’s session concerns themes of dying and death.
You can download this video to watch offline.
Impacted by the Word (20 minutes)
Suggested questions to help your discussion.
- Do you find the Teacher’s tone bleak – or something else?
- The Teacher says that death is an ‘evil’ – an ‘outrage.’ What leads him to say this? (verses 1-3, 11-12)
- A wild dog isn’t normally considered better than a lion. How does this help you understand what the Teacher is saying in verses 4-6?
- What might verses 7-9 say if they were directly written to today’s students?
- Now notice verses 7 and 9 say about God. How should these truths about God lead us to live full lives today?
- Read Luke 7:11-15. This is another account of Jesus raising someone from the dead. After her son is raised, how might the widow have felt different about death and life? How might she have viewed Jesus?
- What truths about death and life do you particularly need to hear today?
Some people understand the Teacher’s words in verse 1 to be saying that, on the basis of looking at the world, no-one can be sure what God really thinks of them. Does he love them or hate them?
A better reading is probably that no-one can be sure if there is love or hate ahead of them in their earthly lives. It’s possible to live a good and wise life – and yet for your life to still be characterised by sadness and hatred from others. Additionally, however a person has lived, their life ends in death.
The Teacher conveys a sense of exasperation: a good person can apparently have a sad life and die early, whilst evil people can have relatively happy and long lives. Death seems to make a mockery of it all. It is only the broader picture of a final judgement and the hope that is held out by Jesus in the resurrection that this meaninglessness begins to be addressed.
In verse 10, the Teacher speaks of ‘the realm of the dead.’ This ESV preserves the name given by the ancient Hebrews to this place: ‘Sheol’.
Sheol is mentioned 66 times in the Old Testament. It often refers to the literal grave in which dead people were buried (see, for example, Psalm 18:4-5, 88:48; 2 Samuel 22:5-6). Since no-one escapes death, no-one escapes Sheol, however they have lived their lives. Sometimes a form of life is pictured as continuing in Sheol (see Isaiah 14:9; Ezekiel 32:27) but it is always depicted as a place of utter joylessness.
We cannot draw straight lines between what’s said about Sheol, and the more developed biblical teaching about life after death, either in hell or the new creation. Here, for example, the Teacher says that no-one works in Sheol – but we know that God’s people will work in his new creation, and find it satisfying (see Isaiah 65:21-23).
The Teacher’s basic point is that, so long as we are lying in the grave, we cannot feel (verse 6), work or think (verse 10). These are gifts to us that God calls us to enjoy whilst we can. God’s people will one day enjoy them again in the new creation – but that does not diminish from the fact that these aspects of being alive are nonetheless non-renewable gifts from God to us today.
Impacting Our Hearts (5 minutes)
After speaking of the one certainty we all face, the Teacher reminds us that life is superior to death (see verse 4). He then speaks of finding things to enjoy in this life (verses 7-10).
- What are some things you could actively enjoy today or tomorrow?
- How might they make you more thankful to God for his simple gift of life?
Ask someone to pray in the light of your discussions for the group.
Impacting the University (10 minutes)
There are, of course, many other ideas about death and life. Watch this video entitled ‘What should we think about death?’ produced by Humanists UK (2 minutes).
Discuss:
- What common ground might the Teacher have with the makers of this video?
- Where might he disagree with them?
- If you’re persuaded by the Christian story of life and death, how might you speak and live it out attractively amongst your friends?
Take time praying in the light of your discussions. Pray especially for anyone you know that is particularly struggling with the reality of death at the moment.
Wrap-up – think TACOS 🌮
- Thank You – Thank everyone for coming, and ask someone to thank God for your time together in prayer.
- Ask – Ask those who are new to reading the Bible if they’d like to explore Uncover, a set of sessions in Mark’s Gospel, allowing them to investigate one of the earliest accounts of Jesus’ life alongside one of you.
- Church and CU – What does the CU have planned ahead? And what help would group members value in finding a local church?
- Others – Who else could you invite to join your CU Impact Group next week? These friends don’t need to be followers of Jesus and may really appreciate being invited.
- See You Soon – Tell the group where and when you’ll meet next week, and arrange who will bring snacks. (You might like to alternate healthy and less healthy weeks!). See if anyone would be up for sharing a meal or hanging out socially in the meantime!