Ecclesiastes 7:1 - The Worth of a Good Name

Ecclesiastes 7:1
A good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.

Message: The Worth of a Good Name

Time: Ecclesiastes: Solomon's authorship is not stated. Solomon's reign as king of Israel lasted from around 970 B.C. to around 930 B.C. The Book of Ecclesiastes was likely written towards the end of his reign, approximately 935 B.C.

What the Lord is Saying:

From TableTalk:
It takes a lifetime to build, but it can be destroyed in an instant by one bad decision. [We all see this, but especially when we are young. Derek sees this in school when he skips a class or walks out of a class or quits the soccer team or changes team. One action messes up everything. This happens at work even as it sometimes takes one mistake to change people's view of you.] A good name usually refers to a good reputation. The Bible sometimes portrays people who had a good name in public but whose private behavior invalidated their reputation. [This is a hard truth for society. The private lives of people are becoming more apparent in society with the transparency that is taking place through social media as it gives "the" media easier access to people's real thoughts. But, in general, the stars or the people that we look to that have gifts that society deems as not easily replaced often have a more transparent life and so their reputation is easier to be tarnished. This is election time right now and the goal often of competing candidates is to find something in a person's private life to make the other person appear not to be a good candidate.]

Ointment - From Smith's Bible Dictionary 
Some of the ointments have been known to retain their: fragrance for several hundred years. They were a much-coveted luxury, and often very expensive. [Because of our easy of going to a store and buying what we need I think we lose the significance of some substances. There was a time when something like an ointment took much time to be formed and therefore it was considered a luxury item. One idea here is a good ointment was something sought after, that people wanted. We all want a good name and we need to be careful in life of our actions.]

[This first verse of chapter 7 ends with "the day of death is better than the day birth." Often times it is the funeral that results in a lot of people showing up. There aren't droves of people showing up at a hospital to welcome a new baby. The baby needs time to become a person of value.] The day of death provides the dying person with a chance to reflect on his own heart, and it causes loved ones to reflect on their final destiny and their need of heart transformation if they are to experience life with God forever. 

Promise: A good name is not securely established until the day of death.