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Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End
What if it is death that teaches us how to truly live?
Keeping the end in mind shapes how we live our lives in the here and now. Living life backward means taking the one thing in our future that is certain—death—and letting that inform our journey before we get there.
Looking to the book of Ecclesiastes for wisdom, Living Life Backward was written to shake up our expectations and priorities for what it means to live “the good life.” Considering the reality of death helps us pay attention to our limitations as human beings and receive life as a wondrous gift from God—freeing us to live wisely, generously, and faithfully for God’s glory and the good of his world.
176 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2017
About the author
David Gibson
11 books66 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
David Gibson (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is the Minister of Trinity Church in Aberdeen, Scotland. Previously he served as a staff worker for the Religious and Theological Studies Fellowship (part of UCCF) and as an assistant minister at High Church, Hilton, Aberdeen. Gibson has also published a number of articles and books such as Rich: The Reality of Encountering Jesus and Reading the Decree: Exegesis, Election and Christology in Calvin and Barth.
David Gibson (PhD, University of Aberdeen) is the Minister of Trinity Church in Aberdeen, Scotland. Previously he served as a staff worker for the Religious and Theological Studies Fellowship (part of UCCF) and as an assistant minister at High Church, Hilton, Aberdeen. Gibson has also published a number of articles and books such as Rich: The Reality of Encountering Jesus and Reading the Decree: Exegesis, Election and Christology in Calvin and Barth.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 382 reviews
November 24, 2019
Clear, pastoral, decisive - I loved the way Gibson wrote about my favorite book of the Bible. He refuses to let the reader tip into apathy that all is fine or into depression that all is pointless. He focuses on the end of life as the reason to live life well, and it is convicting and encouraging. In short, he pastors the reader and shepherds us through this book. Stylistically, I appreciated his ability to get to the point and avoid needless repetition. He says what he wants the reader to know and doesn't distract or talk down.
May 18, 2022
Living Life Backward is one of the best books about Ecclesiastes that I’ve read. A typical reading of Ecclesiastes (following especially from the classic books by Derek Kidner and Michael Eaton) looks at the book as contrasting under-the-sun life with God’s perspective on life. David Gibson feels that this doesn’t give sufficient weight to what the Preacher says about life. The Preacher is not wrong about what life here is like, even if there is another perspective on all of it. The point in reading Ecclesiastes is not to quickly dismiss the under-the-sun point of view as only true if you don’t see things through faith in God. Rather, Gibson says, we’re meant to face the darkness and pointlessness of life fully—essentially, seeing things from the point of view of our death, and working backward to determine the kind of life we should life until that day. It’s only when we take seriously everything the Preacher says about living under the sun that we can understand the best way to live.
It’s an excellent perspective on this fantastic part of the Old Testament. Just before reading this book, I’d read Phil Ryken’s Why Everything Matters. To me, it seemed that Ryken’s book is a good summary of the usual interpretation of Ecclesiastes; but Gibson takes things in a slightly new direction that I found very helpful. The chapter I’m thinking about most after finishing the book is chapter 9, “One Foot in the Grave,” in which Gibson looks at chapters 11 and 12 of Ecclesiastes. He points out that the Preacher is not just mentioning the pleasure of being alive for all the days we have, but he is actually affirming God’s command that we enjoy life in this world. Gibson writes that “pleasure is a divine decree that we ignore at our peril. For it is precisely in enjoying the world God has made that we show we have grasped the goodness of the God we say we love. Failure to enjoy is an offense, not merely an oversight” (136). This chapter was full of insights that I continue to ponder.
I have read quite a few books about Ecclesiastes, and Living Life Backward is the one I most highly recommend.
It’s an excellent perspective on this fantastic part of the Old Testament. Just before reading this book, I’d read Phil Ryken’s Why Everything Matters. To me, it seemed that Ryken’s book is a good summary of the usual interpretation of Ecclesiastes; but Gibson takes things in a slightly new direction that I found very helpful. The chapter I’m thinking about most after finishing the book is chapter 9, “One Foot in the Grave,” in which Gibson looks at chapters 11 and 12 of Ecclesiastes. He points out that the Preacher is not just mentioning the pleasure of being alive for all the days we have, but he is actually affirming God’s command that we enjoy life in this world. Gibson writes that “pleasure is a divine decree that we ignore at our peril. For it is precisely in enjoying the world God has made that we show we have grasped the goodness of the God we say we love. Failure to enjoy is an offense, not merely an oversight” (136). This chapter was full of insights that I continue to ponder.
I have read quite a few books about Ecclesiastes, and Living Life Backward is the one I most highly recommend.
August 30, 2023
This book is like getting kissed by a brick.. like “ooo kissy kissy” but then you’re getting SCHMACKED into next year… but with love, you know?
Okay okay quote from the book: “The day of death is better than the day of birth - not because death is better than life; it’s not - but because a coffin is a better preacher than a cot.” See? Schmacked. Absolutely whammied. Like a spiritual Mike Tyson.
Okay okay quote from the book: “The day of death is better than the day of birth - not because death is better than life; it’s not - but because a coffin is a better preacher than a cot.” See? Schmacked. Absolutely whammied. Like a spiritual Mike Tyson.
March 21, 2024
This book was EPIC! So good! Combined with the book Don’t Waste Your Breath (which is not on Goodreads yet) you have a great picture of what Ecclesiastes is all about. And despite its reputation for being a depressing or just bad book of the Bible these two books show how the truth is it is an incredible book with a message that, sadly, most Christians miss because of the reputation. What a great book about a great book!! Highly recommended
September 11, 2017
First sentence (from the preface): I am going to die.
Premise/plot: Living Life Backward is a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes. David Gibson addresses the contents of each chapter focusing on the big themes of the book. (It isn't exactly a verse-by-verse commentary. But all the big ideas of the book of Ecclesiastes are discussed and the text of Ecclesiastes is included so I don't hesitate to call it a commentary.) The main premise of this one is simple. Gibson writes, "I am convinced that only a proper perspective on death provides the true perspective on life. Living in the light of your death will help you to live wisely and freely and generously....I want to persuade you that only if you prepare to die can you really learn how to live."
Lesson from chapter one: "Ecclesiastes is a meditation on what it means to be alive in a world that God made and called good, yet which has also gone so very wrong, often in catastrophic ways."
Lesson from chapter two: "Death can radically enable us to enjoy life. By relativizing all that we do in our days under the sun, death can change us from people who want to control life for gain into people who find deep joy in receiving life as a gift."
Lesson from chapter three: "One of the ways we learn to live by preparing to die is by realizing that death means judgment and that this is a good thing. It gives my present actions meaning and weight, and it gives my experienced losses and injustices a voice in God’s presence. What is past may be past, but what is past is not forgotten to God, and because he is in charge and lives forever, one day all will be well. Every single thing that happens will have its day in court. This brings both comfort and challenge."
Lesson from chapter four: "If you can live in this world in such a way that the person or people beside you—your friend, your spouse, your children, your brother, your sister, the people God has put in your path—are your waking concern and your dominant focus, then you will find happiness."
Lesson from chapter five: "The ear is the Christian’s primary sense organ. Listening to what God has said is our main spiritual discipline. We need someone to tell us to listen because we want to look and speak more than we want to listen."
Lesson from chapter six: "Death is an evangelist. He looks us in the eye and asks us to look him right back with a steady gaze and allow him to do his work in us. Death is a preacher with a very simple message. Death has an invitation for us. He wants to teach us that the day of our coming death can be a friend to us in advance. The very limitation that death introduces into our life can instruct us about life."
Lesson from chapter seven: "To die well means everything I have in this world I hold with open hands because I love Jesus more than anything and anyone else, and I’m happy to go home to him."
Lesson from chapter eight: "There are better things to do than succeed, more important things to do than make it in the world, and there are worse things to do than fail."
Lesson from chapter nine: "Only Christ can make any life, young or old, truly beautiful or truly happy. Only he can cure the heart’s restless fever and give quietness and calmness. Only he can purify that sinful fountain within us, our corrupt nature, and make us holy. To have a peaceful and blessed ending to life, we must live it with Christ. Such a life grows brighter even to its close. Its last days are the sunniest and the sweetest. "
Lesson from chapter ten: "I want to suggest two ways to help you evaluate where you are in relation to these two things: the pleasure of the Bible and the pain of the Bible. They’re attitude testers, ways of taking your own spiritual temperature. First, you can measure whether you find the Bible delightful, not by how often you read it or by how much of it you read, and not by whether you find it easy or difficult to read, but by whether you approach the Bible expecting to be surprised. Bible delight is born when you expect it to teach you something you did not know already. The more childlike you are toward the Bible, the more likely you are to find it having just the right words for you. Second, a way to evaluate your relationship to the Bible’s pain is to ask yourself, when was the last time you submitted to it and acted on what it says, even when you did not like it? Have you ever obeyed it when you found what it was saying offensive? Reinterpreting the Bible to mean something different is always a moral exercise before it is ever an intellectual one. That is, if we do not like what the Bible says because it confronts us, then we will always find some way of changing what it means so it lines up with the world we want to live in instead."
My thoughts: Living Life Backward is packed with rich insight on how to live life. It isn't necessarily restricting the "how to live life well" to how to live a Christian life. Ecclesiastes has lessons to teach everyone after all. It is a contemplative book; a book that can easily be misunderstood and misapplied. I loved so much of what Gibson had to say. I also loved the quotes that he shared.
Premise/plot: Living Life Backward is a commentary on the book of Ecclesiastes. David Gibson addresses the contents of each chapter focusing on the big themes of the book. (It isn't exactly a verse-by-verse commentary. But all the big ideas of the book of Ecclesiastes are discussed and the text of Ecclesiastes is included so I don't hesitate to call it a commentary.) The main premise of this one is simple. Gibson writes, "I am convinced that only a proper perspective on death provides the true perspective on life. Living in the light of your death will help you to live wisely and freely and generously....I want to persuade you that only if you prepare to die can you really learn how to live."
Lesson from chapter one: "Ecclesiastes is a meditation on what it means to be alive in a world that God made and called good, yet which has also gone so very wrong, often in catastrophic ways."
Lesson from chapter two: "Death can radically enable us to enjoy life. By relativizing all that we do in our days under the sun, death can change us from people who want to control life for gain into people who find deep joy in receiving life as a gift."
Lesson from chapter three: "One of the ways we learn to live by preparing to die is by realizing that death means judgment and that this is a good thing. It gives my present actions meaning and weight, and it gives my experienced losses and injustices a voice in God’s presence. What is past may be past, but what is past is not forgotten to God, and because he is in charge and lives forever, one day all will be well. Every single thing that happens will have its day in court. This brings both comfort and challenge."
Lesson from chapter four: "If you can live in this world in such a way that the person or people beside you—your friend, your spouse, your children, your brother, your sister, the people God has put in your path—are your waking concern and your dominant focus, then you will find happiness."
Lesson from chapter five: "The ear is the Christian’s primary sense organ. Listening to what God has said is our main spiritual discipline. We need someone to tell us to listen because we want to look and speak more than we want to listen."
Lesson from chapter six: "Death is an evangelist. He looks us in the eye and asks us to look him right back with a steady gaze and allow him to do his work in us. Death is a preacher with a very simple message. Death has an invitation for us. He wants to teach us that the day of our coming death can be a friend to us in advance. The very limitation that death introduces into our life can instruct us about life."
Lesson from chapter seven: "To die well means everything I have in this world I hold with open hands because I love Jesus more than anything and anyone else, and I’m happy to go home to him."
Lesson from chapter eight: "There are better things to do than succeed, more important things to do than make it in the world, and there are worse things to do than fail."
Lesson from chapter nine: "Only Christ can make any life, young or old, truly beautiful or truly happy. Only he can cure the heart’s restless fever and give quietness and calmness. Only he can purify that sinful fountain within us, our corrupt nature, and make us holy. To have a peaceful and blessed ending to life, we must live it with Christ. Such a life grows brighter even to its close. Its last days are the sunniest and the sweetest. "
Lesson from chapter ten: "I want to suggest two ways to help you evaluate where you are in relation to these two things: the pleasure of the Bible and the pain of the Bible. They’re attitude testers, ways of taking your own spiritual temperature. First, you can measure whether you find the Bible delightful, not by how often you read it or by how much of it you read, and not by whether you find it easy or difficult to read, but by whether you approach the Bible expecting to be surprised. Bible delight is born when you expect it to teach you something you did not know already. The more childlike you are toward the Bible, the more likely you are to find it having just the right words for you. Second, a way to evaluate your relationship to the Bible’s pain is to ask yourself, when was the last time you submitted to it and acted on what it says, even when you did not like it? Have you ever obeyed it when you found what it was saying offensive? Reinterpreting the Bible to mean something different is always a moral exercise before it is ever an intellectual one. That is, if we do not like what the Bible says because it confronts us, then we will always find some way of changing what it means so it lines up with the world we want to live in instead."
My thoughts: Living Life Backward is packed with rich insight on how to live life. It isn't necessarily restricting the "how to live life well" to how to live a Christian life. Ecclesiastes has lessons to teach everyone after all. It is a contemplative book; a book that can easily be misunderstood and misapplied. I loved so much of what Gibson had to say. I also loved the quotes that he shared.
December 14, 2022
This book breaks down the book of Ecclesiastes in a simple, understandable, encouraging, and convicting way. Highly recommend.
"Your death and the judgment to follow—the great fixed points of your
life—are the very things that can reach back from the future into today and
transform the life God has given you to live."
"We are each, in all our earlier years, building the house in which we shall have to live when we grow old. And we may make it a prison or a palace. We may make it very beautiful, adorning it with taste and filling it with objects that will minister to our pleasure, comfort and power. We may cover the walls with lovely pictures. We may spread luxurious couches of ease on which to rest. We may lay up in store great supplies of provision upon which to feed in the days of hunger and feebleness. We may gather and pile away large bundles of wood to keep the fires blazing brightly in the long winter days and nights of old age. Or we may make our house very gloomy. We may hang the chamber walls with horrid pictures, covering them with ghastly spectres that will look down upon us and haunt us, filling our souls with terror when we sit in the gathering darkness of life’s nightfall. We may make beds of thorns to rest upon. We may lay up nothing to feed upon in the hunger and craving of declining years. We may have no fuel ready for winter fires. We may plant roses to bloom about our doors and fragrant gardens to pour their perfumes about us, or we may sow weeds and briers to flaunt themselves in our faces as we sit in our doorways in the gloaming. All old age is not beautiful. All old people are not happy."
"Your death and the judgment to follow—the great fixed points of your
life—are the very things that can reach back from the future into today and
transform the life God has given you to live."
"We are each, in all our earlier years, building the house in which we shall have to live when we grow old. And we may make it a prison or a palace. We may make it very beautiful, adorning it with taste and filling it with objects that will minister to our pleasure, comfort and power. We may cover the walls with lovely pictures. We may spread luxurious couches of ease on which to rest. We may lay up in store great supplies of provision upon which to feed in the days of hunger and feebleness. We may gather and pile away large bundles of wood to keep the fires blazing brightly in the long winter days and nights of old age. Or we may make our house very gloomy. We may hang the chamber walls with horrid pictures, covering them with ghastly spectres that will look down upon us and haunt us, filling our souls with terror when we sit in the gathering darkness of life’s nightfall. We may make beds of thorns to rest upon. We may lay up nothing to feed upon in the hunger and craving of declining years. We may have no fuel ready for winter fires. We may plant roses to bloom about our doors and fragrant gardens to pour their perfumes about us, or we may sow weeds and briers to flaunt themselves in our faces as we sit in our doorways in the gloaming. All old age is not beautiful. All old people are not happy."
February 21, 2022
One of the best pieces of Christian non fiction I’ve ever read. If you’re like me and have no idea what Ecclesiastes means half the time, this is the book. Gives incredible perspective on how to live in light of death.
October 4, 2022
This book!! READ IT! It was so good I’m about to re-read it.
“Your death and the judgment to follow-the great fixed points of your life-are the very things that can reach back from the future into today and transform the life God has given you to live”
“Your death and the judgment to follow-the great fixed points of your life-are the very things that can reach back from the future into today and transform the life God has given you to live”
November 13, 2021
There once was this guy, to pick a random name let’s just call him SAM, who tried to explain Ecclesiastes to me. He did a bad job. This book did it better. Would definitely recommend for people who struggle to grasp the meaning of such a seemingly cynical book (aka me). Everyone should go read this book now because Ecclesiastes says we’ll all be dead soon anyways.
August 14, 2019
Ecclesiastes was not written by Eeyore
Read Ecclesiastes again without assuming the author (The Preacher) is glum and despondent. Instead, hear words of delight. Feel the Shepherd’s goad as it jabs at tender spots, moving you to consider words of truth you might prefer to avoid.
Read Ecclesiastes again without assuming the author (The Preacher) is glum and despondent. Instead, hear words of delight. Feel the Shepherd’s goad as it jabs at tender spots, moving you to consider words of truth you might prefer to avoid.
August 1, 2020
The book of Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the Bible. I'm not sure that I've heard anyone else say it, but the book is important to me because I often get too caught up in this world (often is too nice of a word) and I need the reminder of Ecclesiastes that all is "vanity." Living Life Backward is written by David Gibson a pastor in Scotland, and I loved how the Scottish part of him would come out in the book. The book is super-quotable and just helped my love for the book of Ecclesiases grow even further. Gibson does an excellent job of reminding the reader that this world is not our home and our focus should always be focused on eternity. We need to focus on our destination - eternity - to live the proper Christian life. If we're not thinking about our death, then we can never enjoy the gifts that are in front of us each and every day. The book truly describes the message of Ecclesiastes (as said on page 98), "It's an invitation to be a person who realizes that living a good life means preparing to die a good death."
Favorite quotes:
p. 25 - "Our constant connection to digital media and screen-based forms of communication is suffocating our ability to be people of substantial depth."
p. 32 - "A hundred years after your death, the chances are, no one will ever know you lived."
p. 36 - "People who follow Jesus often lose sight of the world to come. We become resident Christians rather than nomadic Christians. We become fully integrated in this world rather than viewing ourselves as passing through, and we do this by living as if our greatest treasures are here and now."
p. 57 - "We are not built to understand the big picture, precisely because we live in time and God does not."
p. 95 - "Birth is all about potential, but death, for the believer, is all about fulfillment."
p. 110 - "To die well means everything I have in this world I hold with open hands because I love Jesus more than anything and anyone else, and I'm happy to go home to him."
p. 130 - "A life fully lived is a life receiving the reward of today as a gift that you don't deserve and one that God has given you to enjoy. One day it won't be possible. Death is coming. So do your bucket list - not your to-do list."
Favorite quotes:
p. 25 - "Our constant connection to digital media and screen-based forms of communication is suffocating our ability to be people of substantial depth."
p. 32 - "A hundred years after your death, the chances are, no one will ever know you lived."
p. 36 - "People who follow Jesus often lose sight of the world to come. We become resident Christians rather than nomadic Christians. We become fully integrated in this world rather than viewing ourselves as passing through, and we do this by living as if our greatest treasures are here and now."
p. 57 - "We are not built to understand the big picture, precisely because we live in time and God does not."
p. 95 - "Birth is all about potential, but death, for the believer, is all about fulfillment."
p. 110 - "To die well means everything I have in this world I hold with open hands because I love Jesus more than anything and anyone else, and I'm happy to go home to him."
p. 130 - "A life fully lived is a life receiving the reward of today as a gift that you don't deserve and one that God has given you to enjoy. One day it won't be possible. Death is coming. So do your bucket list - not your to-do list."
February 6, 2022
This book requires rumination (which I am very thankful the author included reflection questions for), a steady pace, and endurance.
The author’s reflection on Ecclesiastes is one profound enough to alter your entire worldview. I found it to be motivating, challenging, blunt (“Do not be the kind of person who can be bought...Extra cash? What are you going to do with it? You could always use it to line the walls of your coffin. Let your coming death protect your heart.”) and beautiful (“To have a peaceful and blessed ending to life, we must live with Christ. Such a life grows brighter even to its close. Its last days are the sunniest and sweetest.”)
There is no way to walk away from this one without a deep set urgency to "live immediately."
Reread:
December 2019
December 2020
December 2021
The author’s reflection on Ecclesiastes is one profound enough to alter your entire worldview. I found it to be motivating, challenging, blunt (“Do not be the kind of person who can be bought...Extra cash? What are you going to do with it? You could always use it to line the walls of your coffin. Let your coming death protect your heart.”) and beautiful (“To have a peaceful and blessed ending to life, we must live with Christ. Such a life grows brighter even to its close. Its last days are the sunniest and sweetest.”)
There is no way to walk away from this one without a deep set urgency to "live immediately."
Reread:
December 2019
December 2020
December 2021
February 3, 2018
I put this on my to-read list thanks to it being WORLD Magazine’s accessible theology book of the year. In this book, Gibson presents well-organized analysis, examples, and practical applications about the truth and themes found in the book of Ecclesiastes - most importantly, he explores the question how do you live the “good life” now knowing that you will inevitably die? Gibson’s writing style was structured and readable and occasionally comic; I particularly liked chapters 7 and 8. My only complaints were a lack of depth and Gibson’s occasional over-generalizations and over-simplifications of the ideas found in Ecclesiastes.
April 26, 2021
Wow. Can’t recommend this book highly enough. So so good.
“Far from being something that makes life in the present completely pointless, future death is a light God shines on the present to change it. Death can radically enable us to enjoy life. By relativizing all that we do in our days under the sun, death can change us from people who want to control life for gain into people who find deep joy in receiving life as a gift. Life in God’s world is gift, not gain.”
“Far from being something that makes life in the present completely pointless, future death is a light God shines on the present to change it. Death can radically enable us to enjoy life. By relativizing all that we do in our days under the sun, death can change us from people who want to control life for gain into people who find deep joy in receiving life as a gift. Life in God’s world is gift, not gain.”
May 23, 2022
This is the first supplemental Christian book I've ever read and despite how long I took to read it, it was worth every month. This book has changed my perspective on how to look at life in the best way possible. I have learned a lot about myself, my faith, and how to live from just one book about death. I enjoyed how this book broke down verses and made them understandable.
April 15, 2024
GO READ THIS BOOK
Gibson approaches Ecclesiastes with the perspective that life is lived when we live in light of our death and that we enjoy life by recognizing gifts instead of grasping to gain. So freeing to see this book as a book that’s actually out to free you instead of depress you. Such a great way to understand the gospel as well, Christ has given us everything and we can freely live out of that. Being a Christian is freeing not constraining and Ecclesiastes shows that if you’re willing to read brutally honest truths about how small, unimportant, forgettable, and out of control that we are. I can confidently say I love Jesus more because of this book and the book of Ecclesiastes.
Gibson approaches Ecclesiastes with the perspective that life is lived when we live in light of our death and that we enjoy life by recognizing gifts instead of grasping to gain. So freeing to see this book as a book that’s actually out to free you instead of depress you. Such a great way to understand the gospel as well, Christ has given us everything and we can freely live out of that. Being a Christian is freeing not constraining and Ecclesiastes shows that if you’re willing to read brutally honest truths about how small, unimportant, forgettable, and out of control that we are. I can confidently say I love Jesus more because of this book and the book of Ecclesiastes.
March 13, 2023
What a faithful and encouraging perspective on Ecclesiastes! Learning to live by preparing to die is how the teacher would have us live.
June 30, 2024
Der Hype um das Buch war mir zu krass (allein auf GoodReads über 2000 Reviews). War ein nettes Buch, dass das Predigerbuch für den pastoralen Kontext fruchtbar macht. Nette Ausführungen, waren aber weder besonders neu oder revolutionär noch besonders deep. Mir schienen die Hebräischen Denkwelten zu wenig betont worden zu sein - stattdessen sprach er zB immer wieder vom sündigen Menschen - was eine eher untypische Redewendung für die Hebräische Bibel ist. Insgesamt gebe ich dem Buch eine 3,5.
August 31, 2017
To die well means I realize death is not simply something that happens to me; it happens to me because I am a sinner. I realize that in a sense I cause my own death. To die well means I realize that every time I see a coffin, it preaches to me that the world is broken and fallen and under the curse of death-and I am a part of it. It means I realize that I am not owed three score years and ten by God. It is only because of his mercy that I am not consumed today. To die well means realizing that from the day I was born I lived under the sentence of death, and I am amazed that God spared me as long as he did. It means I have been heading for death from the moment I was born. It means I have been laying up treasure in heaven, and that is where my heart is. To die well means everything I have in this world I hold with open hands because I love Jesus more than anything and anyone else, and I am happy to go home to him.
Ecclesiastes is a great teacher of reality and facing our limitations. I will be honest, the beginning of this study challenged me that it gripped my heart in that I am holding on to things that have no eternal value. That life is a gift and how do I value that gift from the creator. How easy it is for us to know this in our head but to live it in the mundane of life can be challenging. Our search for significance and happiness many times is a search of self instead of a pursuit of God and who he is.
Is our pursuits in what we gain and not the gift? Think on that for a moment. Do not answer that quickly. After reading this study, you may have a different answer than before your started. There is so much wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes - what appears gloom and doom is really joy and glory. About what true enjoyment really is. As Gibson so eloquently expresses, you can not truly enjoy what you worship. Enjoyment comes from the putting true reality in place. That God is control and worthy to be worshipped. The man who makes sex his God, and who worships it, discovers that actually what is normal, pleasurable, soon becomes inadequate and not enough, and he becomes chained to a path whereby he begins to enjoy only perversion-which of course is no enjoyment.
Death is a teacher of how we are to live this life now. What really matters and our reality. Death reorients us to our limitations as creatures and helps us to see God's good gifts right in front of us all the time, each and every day of our lives What if the pleasure of food is a daily joy that we ungratefully overlook? What if our work was never intended to make us successful but simply to make us faithful and generous. What if it is death that shows us that this how we
are meant to live?
If I were to nominate the best Christian book this would be it. It left me undone to the core and stirred my heart. I highly recommend.
A Special Thank You to Crossway and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
Ecclesiastes is a great teacher of reality and facing our limitations. I will be honest, the beginning of this study challenged me that it gripped my heart in that I am holding on to things that have no eternal value. That life is a gift and how do I value that gift from the creator. How easy it is for us to know this in our head but to live it in the mundane of life can be challenging. Our search for significance and happiness many times is a search of self instead of a pursuit of God and who he is.
Is our pursuits in what we gain and not the gift? Think on that for a moment. Do not answer that quickly. After reading this study, you may have a different answer than before your started. There is so much wisdom in the book of Ecclesiastes - what appears gloom and doom is really joy and glory. About what true enjoyment really is. As Gibson so eloquently expresses, you can not truly enjoy what you worship. Enjoyment comes from the putting true reality in place. That God is control and worthy to be worshipped. The man who makes sex his God, and who worships it, discovers that actually what is normal, pleasurable, soon becomes inadequate and not enough, and he becomes chained to a path whereby he begins to enjoy only perversion-which of course is no enjoyment.
Death is a teacher of how we are to live this life now. What really matters and our reality. Death reorients us to our limitations as creatures and helps us to see God's good gifts right in front of us all the time, each and every day of our lives What if the pleasure of food is a daily joy that we ungratefully overlook? What if our work was never intended to make us successful but simply to make us faithful and generous. What if it is death that shows us that this how we
are meant to live?
If I were to nominate the best Christian book this would be it. It left me undone to the core and stirred my heart. I highly recommend.
A Special Thank You to Crossway and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
February 20, 2023
David Gibson’s Living Life Backwards is an enjoyable and practical call to live life in light of reality. The reality that Gibson reveals through Ecclesiastes is that life is often elusive, repetitive, seemingly unjust, and that death is inevitable. Rather than escaping these truths, wisdom in the present world involves acknowledging these actualities and embracing one’s finite creatureliness. Living well in light of this, the main premise of the book of Ecclesiastes that Gibson puts forth is this: to realize “life in God’s world is gift, not gain… So embrace life for what it is rather than what you’d like it to be. Live it before God with reverence and obedience. This is the pathway to joy.”
This book provides value to my Christian life in way of refreshment and a charge. There is something freeing about the fact that we are not in control of our life but God is, that our time will come and go quickly, and that all of life is a gift from God in the first place. I tend to live in the future, with the next exciting possibility or task ahead of me, and this book, through the filter of Ecclesiastes, is a call for embodied presence in the here and now. I was struck by how when we take the time to honestly dwell on death and the limitations of life, this actually causes someone to be a person to have depth of soul and depth of character in the present.
This book provides value to my Christian life in way of refreshment and a charge. There is something freeing about the fact that we are not in control of our life but God is, that our time will come and go quickly, and that all of life is a gift from God in the first place. I tend to live in the future, with the next exciting possibility or task ahead of me, and this book, through the filter of Ecclesiastes, is a call for embodied presence in the here and now. I was struck by how when we take the time to honestly dwell on death and the limitations of life, this actually causes someone to be a person to have depth of soul and depth of character in the present.
August 14, 2018
This is an excellent book that explains Ecclesiastes in a fascinating and accessible way. It has made me think about death and dying a lot more than I usually do. But that's a good thing, a main goal of Qohelet himself! The reality of death should not be one I ignore in denial but one I face and then make decisions in light of. Gibson is a great writer and I highly recommend this book.
January 17, 2023
I had to slog through the first half, but somewhere in the middle the fog cleared for me. Based on the book of Ecclesiastes, this book forever changed how I will read Ecclesiastes. I used to think of it as a book of doom-and-gloom. Instead, David Gibson shows how the book celebrates life and God's good gifts. Gibson circles around gratitude and digs deeper into how Christians can view life and joy. I loved this book. Even though the first few chapters didn't immediately grab me, I'm thankful for the thoughtful reflections the book stirs. Thank you, David Gibson.
March 26, 2019
Loved it, especially these chapters: Doing Time, From Death to Depth, and One Foot in the Grave.
Thanks to my dear friend Robin Z for recommending it to me. Our discussion afterwards was really good. This is a wonderful book to read with a group friends (each chapter ends with some discussion questions -that I didn't do).
Thanks to my dear friend Robin Z for recommending it to me. Our discussion afterwards was really good. This is a wonderful book to read with a group friends (each chapter ends with some discussion questions -that I didn't do).
June 7, 2022
Gibson’s work through the book of Ecclesiastes is a fantastic call for Christians to live in light of the inevitable death that every human shall face. It’s a perfect example of how the book has often been misunderstood and needs to be revisited to fully understand the beauty of living and enjoying the gifts of the Lord.
June 2, 2023
Excellent. Every Christian should be familiar with the message of Ecclesiastes, and Gibson is a worthy guide.
Also read in 2017.
Also read in 2017.
November 6, 2023
A brilliantly written book which challenges us to see life as gift not gain in the light of the death we will all face.
March 29, 2023
Lots to think on and process at this time
August 12, 2024
Because David Gibson is the author of several well-loved books (such as “The Lord of Psalm 23”), I have been looking forward to reading “Living Life Backwards: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End,” which he wrote in 2017. In the preface, Gibson expresses his mission for the book, of which he desires to convince the reader:
“. . . that only a proper perspective on death provides the true perspective on life. Living in the light of your death will help you to live wisely and freely and generously. It will give you a big heart and open hands, and enable you to relish all the small things of life in deeply profound ways.”
I was first drawn to this book for the “memento mori” topic and the focus on the book of Ecclesiastes. Gibson’s writing style does not disappoint, weaving together the biblical text with his reflections and commentary in an engaging way that flows seamlessly.
Highlights:
“Ecclesiastes teaches us to live life backward. It encourages us to take the one thing in the future that is certain—our death—and work backward from that point into all the details and decisions and heartaches of our lives, and to think about them from the perspective of the end.”
“We're built for home, for a place we cannot see yet, and so when we get that flashing moment of nostalgia, it's like tiny pinpricks of that eternal home breaking through into our present life.”
“Along with Job, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes is a meditation on what it means to be alive in a world that God made and called good, yet which has also gone so very wrong, often in catastrophic ways.”
“…never forget that it is God who controls the times. It is God who rules the universe. And so although you can live well, and die well, and know some things truly, you cannot know all things completely.”
Total: 5
Readability: 5
Impact: 5
Content: 5
Enjoyment: 5
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and was not required to leave a positive review. All opinions are my own.
“. . . that only a proper perspective on death provides the true perspective on life. Living in the light of your death will help you to live wisely and freely and generously. It will give you a big heart and open hands, and enable you to relish all the small things of life in deeply profound ways.”
I was first drawn to this book for the “memento mori” topic and the focus on the book of Ecclesiastes. Gibson’s writing style does not disappoint, weaving together the biblical text with his reflections and commentary in an engaging way that flows seamlessly.
Highlights:
“Ecclesiastes teaches us to live life backward. It encourages us to take the one thing in the future that is certain—our death—and work backward from that point into all the details and decisions and heartaches of our lives, and to think about them from the perspective of the end.”
“We're built for home, for a place we cannot see yet, and so when we get that flashing moment of nostalgia, it's like tiny pinpricks of that eternal home breaking through into our present life.”
“Along with Job, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes is a meditation on what it means to be alive in a world that God made and called good, yet which has also gone so very wrong, often in catastrophic ways.”
“…never forget that it is God who controls the times. It is God who rules the universe. And so although you can live well, and die well, and know some things truly, you cannot know all things completely.”
Total: 5
Readability: 5
Impact: 5
Content: 5
Enjoyment: 5
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and was not required to leave a positive review. All opinions are my own.
April 11, 2024
Fantastic! Lots of good quotable nuggets. Gibson points out that the Preacher’s use of “vanity” doesn’t communicate meaninglessness but rather that everything is a breath, “The merest of breaths… the merest of breaths. Everything is a breath” (20). And so, in discovering through Ecclesiastes that life is short, elusive and repetitive; and death is imminent; we are taught how to truly live.
“[The Preacher] is not just saying there’s no gain after we’ve chased the wind; he will insist there’s no need for the chase in the first place. There is no gain to be had under the sun, and that’s precisely the point. None need be sought” (32).
“Far from being something that makes life completely pointless, future death is a light God shines on the present to change it. Death can radically enable us to enjoy life. By relativizing all that we do in our days under the sun, death can change us from people who want to control life for gain into people who find deep joy in receiving life as a gift.” (37)
Would highly recommend for anyone teaching through Ecclesiastes! Also, for anyone not teaching through Ecclesiastes.
“[The Preacher] is not just saying there’s no gain after we’ve chased the wind; he will insist there’s no need for the chase in the first place. There is no gain to be had under the sun, and that’s precisely the point. None need be sought” (32).
“Far from being something that makes life completely pointless, future death is a light God shines on the present to change it. Death can radically enable us to enjoy life. By relativizing all that we do in our days under the sun, death can change us from people who want to control life for gain into people who find deep joy in receiving life as a gift.” (37)
Would highly recommend for anyone teaching through Ecclesiastes! Also, for anyone not teaching through Ecclesiastes.
June 2, 2024
3.5 stars.
“Stand by a graveside and learn how to live.”
Gibson plods along Ecclesiastes and slowly digests death and much of what it can teach us. We will all die. Instead of attempting to delay or deny it, we’d be better served to live in light of it. Death reminds us that life is a gift that ought to be enjoyed daily. Far from nihilism, Ecclesiastes teaches us the only way to enjoy life in a manner without an expiration date.
“Stand by a graveside and learn how to live.”
Gibson plods along Ecclesiastes and slowly digests death and much of what it can teach us. We will all die. Instead of attempting to delay or deny it, we’d be better served to live in light of it. Death reminds us that life is a gift that ought to be enjoyed daily. Far from nihilism, Ecclesiastes teaches us the only way to enjoy life in a manner without an expiration date.
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