Two Ways to Die Before Your Time

15  All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and
there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness.

16  Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
{destroy…: Heb. be desolate?}

17  Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time? {before…:
Heb. not in thy time?}

There are two ways to die before your time.  You can accelerate the day of your death by playing the fool
and throwing yourself into wickedness.  "Live fast and die young," is the way the world puts it.  Sometimes a
man is like a meteor that flashes across the sky and  burns out with ashes falling upon the earth.  He tempts
God and throwing his wickedness into His Face and defies man and his order.  He dies young.

There is another way to die before your time and it is more like the first than you might think.  You can
accelerate the day of your death by playing the fool and being too righteous and too wise.  Many a man has
chosen to die upon a hill that was not worth defending.  Jesus put it this way, "Do not strain out the gnats and
swallow the camels."

The history of the world is filled with the sad stories of those who died for nothing, who threw their lives
away on trifles.  Along side of the glorious history of the martyrs who counted the Lord Jesus as worthy of
the sacrifice of their lives is the sad history of those who threw their lives away on error or trifles, on heresies
and foolish opinions.  Dying for a cause does not necessarily make you a heroic martyr; it may mean you are
a stubborn and arrogant fool.

It is better to die for something than to live for nothing; it is tragic if you both live and die for nothing.