Life Sucks! Ecclesiastes 3-4

Ecclesiastes 4:2-3 (ESV)

And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun.

Before we can understand the above passage (which sounds awful depressing) we need to remember what the writer has begun to talk about in the previous passages.  He has been writing on a theme about injustice and oppression from the most powerful against the less powerful:

Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 (ESV)

Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.

Ecclesiastes 4:1 (ESV)

Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.

From this point the writer writes the above verses because of this oppression (that can’t seem to be defeated).  He states that the dead are better than the living.  He goes on to conclude that even the unborn are better than the dead or living.  

When oppression rules the earth the oppressed don’t have many places to hide.   The entire cannon of scripture, of course, can answer this quandary, but the writer of Ecclesiastes is making a point in this book.  He is trying to get the reader to realize that life is hard (vain) and that there are NO solutions found in this life to cure the ills of this life.  That is why the book concludes as follows:

 Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (ESV)

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

This is why he writes these verses about an unborn child better than the living or the dead.  He is telling us that without a perspective that our entire duty on earth is to Fear God, nothing else matters.   We get caught up in this life and it is all vain.   A person would be better never born if that person is going to reject the Fear of the Lord.