The teacher of Ecclesiastes brings us to the final conclusions regarding his look at life. Remember that this book began with the teacher trying to determine what a person gets for all of his efforts in life. What is the gain? What is the advantage? What is the benefit? Do you get the payoff for all that you put into this world? What we have seen throughout our study of this book is that the answer is no. But his conclusions have not been hopelessness and meaninglessness. Rather, the teacher has shown us that there are some benefits in life and you are to enjoy life as God has given it to you. But if you try to make the pursuits of this earthly world your hope, you will feel empty, depressed, and frustrated because God subjected this world to futility so that it will never give back what you are putting into it. This is an important conclusion that I do want to remind us about at this moment. If you feel empty, depressed, or frustrated by life, you are not doing something wrong. God made life work this way so that we would look to him who is the only source of true joy. As you try to find satisfaction in life, you will only find it in God’s hands. So what is the final word from the teacher? What is the end of the matter?
Strength For Life (Ecclesiastes 12:9-11)
In Ecclesiastes 12:9 the teacher explains that he has used his wise conclusions to teach people knowledge and discernment. Notice what he says in verse 11. These wise teachings are to act as goads and firmly fixed nails for your life. The use of this imagery is powerful. A goad was a pointed stick that was used to move a large, stubborn animals in the direction the shepherd wants the animals to move. The image of the firmly fixed nails is that you are able to hang heavy items on those nails. The image is similar to placing a screw into a stud in your wall so that you can hang heavy shelves or items. The point is that these are the teachings that you can hang your life on. These are the nails can hold the weight of the importance of your life. Further, these are the teachings that will push us from our stubborn living in the right direction.
I want us to carefully think about this. The teachings are given to each one of us so that we will hang our lives completely on these words and be moved in the direction that these words are prodding us to go. This is the intended power of God’s word. God does not ever describe his word as a soft feather tickling you to go the right way. Rather, God describes his word as a double-edged sword that pierces the soul (cf. Hebrews 4:12). God’s word pokes us and prods us and that makes us uncomfortable. But we are supposed to be uncomfortable. God’s word is intended to make us feel uncomfortable so that we will move the right way. Unfortunately we often choose to ignore these wise teachings because we do not like what they are telling us. But the teacher is telling us that we are going to waste our lives if we do not hang our lives on these words and if we do not allow these words to cause us discomfort and move us in the path of righteousness. These are the teachings that are given to us by the one Shepherd. See God’s word as a picture of your Lord functioning as your Shepherd who is leading you where you need to go so that you do not waste your life but find life in him.
Avoid False Directions (Ecclesiastes 12:12)
But now the teacher gives a warning in verse 12. Listen to what he says. “My son, beware of anything beyond these.” We need to hear this. Beyond the teachings that are given by the one Shepherd, our Lord, then be warned. There is no end to the making of many books and much study wearies the body. Now the point is not to say that you are going to be exhausted by how many novels various authors write. The teacher’s concern is not about fictional stories. His concern is for all the books that are written that try to give you wisdom for life. Everyone is trying to explain life. Everyone is writing books and blogs to tell you what is wisdom for life. There are endless reels and myriads of videos to teach you the way to find gain in life. There are endless courses to teach you how to understand yourself and look at the world around us. Please listen to what the teacher says. Beyond what the one Shepherd has given to us, beware and be warned.
Friends, far too many Christians are seeking worldly wisdom to make decisions for their lives. Far too many people who claim to follow the true Shepherd turn to psychology, philosophy, and human wisdom to help them with their life problems, with their marriages, with raising children, and with their own internal issues. Why would we think that human wisdom has the answers? Why would we think that self-help books will lift us from our problems? Why would we think that psychology is what we need to know to help people? Why would we claim that knowing philosophy is going to give us what we need for a right way to look at life? There is no end to all the false messages and human writings. If humans had the answers, then the books would not be endless. We would have a conclusive, definitive answer. But every generation thinks that they have the answers.
Further, notice the that the teacher does not say that these books will help you. Rather, these books and videos are going to exhaust you even further rather than help you. There is not one place in the scriptures that teaches us that if we need help, or if we need wisdom, or if we need understanding, or if we need healing to turn to human writers, human knowledge, human psychology, human wisdom, or human philosophy. God never says to find your help in other people’s wisdom. God always says that the answers you need are in him. The only true help humans can provide is when they point to God and his word and come from God and his word. Otherwise, beware and be warned. Just because a person wrote a book about life or because a person is a doctor who studies people and thoughts does not make that person right. They do not carry authority over the wisdom of God. Beware and be warned. God’s teachings are all we need for life and godliness.
A Whole Person (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
In fact, this is the conclusion that the teacher draws for all who will listen to him. Here is the end of the matter. Here is the conclusion to be drawn. This is the big take away. What is the way to have gain? What is the advantage for life under the sun? Fear God and keep his commands. Your purpose for life is to fear God and keep his commands. Everyone is looking for the meaning of life. Fear God and keep his commands. Everyone wants to know what the pursuit is in this life that will actually satisfy and pay off all the effort you put in. Fear God and keep his commands.
Now here is the important question. Do you believe this? Will you believe this? Every faithful person in the scriptures is telling us that the reason for life is to fear God and keep his commands. The whole of life is not to own as much as you can. The whole of life is not be rich. The whole of life is not work as hard as you can so you can go up the corporate food chain. What your soul is seeking is a life that seeks God and keeps his commands. This book is your life. This book is the way to life. This book is the answer to your life’s purpose and your heart’s desire. So what do we do with the book that tells us what we need for life and true satisfaction? Do we read it? Do we study it? Do we meditate on it? Do we give it priority in our lives? Do we spend more time doom scrolling or reading the word? Do we spend more time entertaining ourselves or reading the word? Do we spend more time listening to the news or listening to God through his word? We cannot fear God if we do not know God. We cannot seek God if we do not look to his words. The teacher is telling us that nothing else matters. Fearing God is the hub and core of your life that everything else revolves around and flows from.
Friends, I do not know how to convince us of this truth. God is not a hobby. God is not an afterthought. God is not an occasion. God is not something we do when it is good for us or when we need him. God is to be as necessary to us as the air we breathe. God is to be to us like water is to a fish. Here is how Jesus said this:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35 ESV)
Jesus says that he is life. He is the life you are looking for. If you will truly come to him, you will not hunger or thirst in life again. You will be satisfied in him. The whole of a person is to fear God and keep his commands. Now many complained that Jesus said this (cf. John 6:41). So Jesus said it again and he said it stronger.
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51 ESV)
Then the people complained even further that Jesus would say that you would have to eat his flesh. So Jesus said it again and he said it even stronger.
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (John 6:53-56 ESV)
Your whole life is Jesus. Life is only in him. Everything you want and everything you are looking for is only in Jesus. Fearing God is the whole of every person. So let me ask if this is true for you. Is your food and drink Jesus? Is your life all about him? This is what our lives are to be all about or we do not have life at all.
Trust God (Ecclesiastes 12:14)
The final point is in Ecclesiastes 12:14. The whole of every person is God and every action we do will be brought into judgment. Every secret thing will be brought into judgment. Every decision for self will be judged. Our spirits will return to the One who gave them. What will that judgment look like? There are no secrets with God. He knows why you are here and why you are not here. He knows what you will sacrifice for him and what you will not sacrifice for him. He knows if you hunger and thirst for him or for other things. He knows. Friends, he knows. What the teacher is saying is what Jesus said very simply in his introductory sermon in Matthew’s gospel.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6 ESV)
Don’t waste your life doing things that are going to bring you into judgment. Do not waste your life seeking things in this world that cannot satisfy. Do not waste your life giving yourself to sin. Do not waste your life by neglecting the Savior because you want to rule over your life. God knows your heart. God knows what you are seeking. God knows what you desire. God is the firmly fixed nails to hang your life on. God is the goad to push you from your stubborn ways to the path of life, joy, and satisfaction. Do not waste your life resisting God and his ways any longer.