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"A good name is better than precious ointment"

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:1

THE VALUE OF A GOOD NAME

The reputation of a person is of great significance. It is not easy to earn a good name but its worth is inestimable.

“A good name is better than precious ointment,
And the day of death than the day of one’s birth.”
Ecclesiastes 7:1

1. “A good name is better than precious ointment”

a) “Precious ointment”

i) It could refer to a prized product like perfume.

ii) These ointments were generally beyond the means of the average person to purchase.

iii) These ointments were difficult to produce.

iv) Many of these products had to be imported.

b) “A good name”

i) It is difficult to earn a good name.

ii) It would take many years before one obtains an honourable name.

iii) A good reputation is however of great value.

iv) It is of even greater value than costly precious ointment.

2. “And the day of death than the day of one’s birth”

a) The day of one’s birth is often greatly celebrated.

i) The entirely family would celebrate the addition of a new family member.

ii) Well-meaning friends would also celebrate the birth of a baby.

iii) The celebration of the arrival of a baby is always in the hope that the baby would turn out well and be a credit to the family.

b) Challenges in life

i) It is not wrong to celebrate the birth of a baby.

ii) But one does not know how the child would turn out.

iii) He may have to endure hardship all his life.

iv) He may become a wicked person.

c) “The day of death”

i) Death is usually greeted with gloom and sadness.

ii) But death need not always be thought of in this dismal manner.

iii) Death can be the end of suffering.

iv) Death of a wicked dictator brings relief to the suffering.

3. What Solomon was seeking to do

a) He sought to add perspectives to traditional thought.

b) He sought to find some meaning to the problem of death which had plagued him.

c) He was not suggesting that one should celebrate death in the wrong sense of the word.