Sermon Discussion Questions:
1. Read through Eccl 12:9-14. Why do you think the author spends so much of his closing words this way?
2. Can you think of the last time the Bible was a "goad" to you? How do you respond when you find something in the Bible that you don't like?
3. Read through Matthew 7:24-27. Observe what Jesus is telling us--what do you notice? What does it look like to apply it?
4. What is a human being? How does this help understand what sin is?
5. How would you define what "the fear of God"? “[The fear of the LORD] is that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.” (Charles Bridges).
What can you know about God, about life after death, about yourself…apart from the Bible?
William Henry Green was a professor of Biblical studies at Princeton in the 19th century. He wrote this: “Who can tell us whether this awful and mysterious silence in which the Infinite One has wrapped Himself portends mercy or wrath? Who can say to the troubled conscience whether He whose laws in nature are inflexible and remorseless will pardon sin?
Who can answer the anxious inquiry whether the dying live on or whether they cease to be? Is there a future state? And if so, what is the nature of that untried condition and condition of being?
If there is immortal happiness, how can I attain it? If there is everlasting woe, how can it be escaped? Let the reader close his Bible and ask himself seriously what he knows upon these momentous questions apart from the teachings of the Bible.
What solid foundation has he to rest upon in regard to matters which so absolutely transcend all earthly experience and are so entirely out of the reach of our natural abilities? A man of superficial faith may perhaps delude himself into the belief of what he wishes to believe. He may thus take upon trust God's unlimited mercy, His ready forgiveness of transgressors, and eternal happiness after death, but this is all a dream.
He knows nothing. He can know nothing about it, except by direct revelation from heaven.” (William Henry Green, The Pentateuch)
Leave a man to himself, and he will have hunches about God, about life after death, about judgment. He will have a sense of guilt, of shame, of value. He may say things like, “I like to imagine God like…” or, “I bet heaven will be like…” But as he scans the starry skies above and his cloudy heart within, he will admit—if he disciplines himself to actually think about it—that he does not know. How could he know? The answers lie beyond what he can know himself.
Hamlet spoke about life after death as “the undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn / No traveler returns.” No one knows what it is like on the other side of death because once you slip into the dark forest, you don’t come back. But what if a traveler did return? Better yet, what if the Lord light who dwells in the Kingdom on the other side of the wood, were to send communication through?
The Bible is God mercifully and lovingly refusing to leave us to our own resources. It is Him speaking from the other side, revealing who He is, what He has done, and what we can do to find eternal life in Him. As we know come to our final section of Ecclesiastes we will find the resources that are offered to us in God’s Word to prepare us for not only the complexities of life, but the end of life as well.
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
- Eccl 12:9-14
A Good Preacher
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. 10 The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth. - Eccl 12:9-10
Here we have a good summary of part of what any good teacher of God’s Word is—this applies especially to a pastor, who must be “able to teach” to fulfill his office (1 Tim 3:2; 5:17). But this could also apply to the parent thinking about how to teach his kids the Bible or the person leading a Bible study or the Christian trying to faithfully share their faith with others. The great commission is given to all Christians, not just professional pastors—thus all of us bear a responsibility for thinking about how to teach others God’s truth. And the Preacher offers us a model.
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. - 12:9
The Preacher is a sponge that soaks up wisdom and knowledge in order to be wrung out for others. He isn’t a man who absorbs, absorbs, absorbs…and never shares. He does not practice intellectual gluttony. He learns, grows in wisdom, and then turns around to teach others. But his knowledge-pursuit isn’t thoughtless or haphazard. He carefully weighs, studies, and arranges the many proverbs he learns—he considers how to apply his wisdom in different circumstances, when to recommend one course of action over another, when one proverb applies here but not there, scrutinizes his aphorisms to see if they are helpful. In other words, he puts in diligent effort in his studies as an act of service to others. Teachers study so that they can lovingly serve others.
The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth - Eccl 12:10
Part of his process is not only in searching out knowledge in its crude form, but then taking the raw materials of knowledge and fashioning and shaping them into the refined form of “words of delight.” He puts work into crafting sentences with beauty and eloquence. So, the Preacher can tell you: You’re going to die soon, so get right with God. Or he can say: “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before…the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken.” (Eccl 12:1, 6). The Preacher cares about not only speaking truthfully, but speaking beautifully.
There is a way to use eloquence or beautiful language to mislead others or deceive them. You can distort reality by speaking about something with exalted language. But you can also distort reality by failing to speak about awesome, important things with awesome, important language. You may exaggerate what the Christian life looks like, may distort the experience—but you can never exaggerate God. You can never over-sell the nature and character and beauty of God. One day, “Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty,” (Isa 33:17). But now, we see God through the ear, through hearing. Faith comes by hearing. So, if we want to reveal God as He really is, and He is beautiful and glorious, we ought to consider how to speak in such a manner that accurately conveys that reality.
Matthew Henry, the 17th century Bible commentator, notes: “Ministers should study, not for the big words, nor the fine words, but acceptable words, such as are likely to please men for their good, to edification.” The point isn’t to draw attention to your words—the point is to speak in such a way that your words are accurately conveying the gravity, the beauty, and the magnitude of what you are speaking about. And that changes depending on who you are talking to. I do not talk to my 5 year old at home the way I speak now in a sermon. But when I am talking with my 5 year old, I am thinking about how to take the enormous truths of God’s Word, and finding a manner of speech that will arrest my child’s attention with God: you think Jupiter is big? God is even bigger! And when I am writing sermons, I put work into thinking about how to use language to remove the distorting lenses the world has given us, so that we may see the horror of sin, the beauty of Christ, and the joy of heaven.
Jesus was the greatest teacher of God’s Word.
If you want to grow in your ability to teach others about God, you’ll need to put in effort. God’s Word is true and beautiful, so those who teach and preach God’s Word should study and speak in a way that corresponds to it.
A Good Book
11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. 12 My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. - Eccl 12:11-12
Zooming out from reflecting on the words of Solomon alone, the narrator now reflects on the collected sayings of all the wise men. The Preacher’s words are words that bring delight to those who listen to them…but that isn’t because he is always telling us easy, pleasant things. Sometimes the words of the wise are a bath of relief and beauty. And, other times, their words are like a “goad.” A goad is a sharpened stick that shepherds would use to prod sheep or cattle who began to veer off the path. Sheep are stubborn and sometimes only listen to sharp end of a stick. Sometimes, we are stubborn and need a sharp rebuke to sting us so that we don’t veer into destruction. And you have probably felt that sharp poke a couple of times as we have read this book together: Our best efforts will all one day be forgotten, there are some crooked things in life that we will never be able to set straight, and death will come much sooner than we think.
Those are sharp stabs that correct false assumptions we have. Sin has clouded our minds and shaped our hearts so that, left to ourselves, we do not veer naturally into the channels of truth and godliness. We have powerful longings and cravings that feel like well-worn ruts that are safe, familiar, and desirable. But the words of wisdom tell us those are actually dangerous, foreign to our true nature, and to be avoided. How you respond to God’s Word when it contradicts your deep, familiar desires, reveals what you really believe. Who is more reliable? Whose perspective is going to lead to real life? You? Or God?
We don’t mind it when other people are stung by God’s Word—sometimes, you listen to a sermon and think: Man, I wish he/she was here to listen to this one. Your faith in God’s Word is not revealed by how much you think other people should submit to it’s hard words, but how much you submit. Your actual belief in God’s Word is revealed by what you do when it contradicts you, when it offends you, when it takes what you assume to be true about God, about the world, about yourself, and tells you: you’re wrong.
When was the last time you let the Bible tell you: you’re wrong? When was the last time you read something or heard something taught from God’s Word that you let curb and correct your assumptions? Maybe about how you spend your money, your time? Maybe how you are to treat your enemies? Your responsibility for the poor and mistreated? Your commitment to your fellow church member when you just want to be comfortable? One way we know that God of the Bible isn’t just a figment of our imagination is that He can offend us, correct us, and set the agenda for us. As Augustine said, “If you believe what you like in the Gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”
Why should you listen to those painful words? Three reasons:
One, they are reliable. The words of the wise are like nails firmly fixed. Like a nail sunk deep into a timber, you can hang your life on them, or like a nail fastens a board down, they will bring security and stability to your life.
Two, they come from the good Shepherd. Ecclesiastes tells us that the words of the wise have a source higher than themselves. They are given by the one Shepherd. The Bible repeatedly depicts God as a Shepherd over His people: the 23rd Psalm, the 34th chapter of Ezekiel, and of course, our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. When you read God’s Word, when you gather on the Lord’s Day to hear His Word preached, you are not just hearing the perspective of middle-eastern king speaking from the bronze age—you are hearing God Himself speak. Scripture comes to us through the channel of persons, but its source is directly from God. This is why they are reliable and you can throw yourself upon them with abandon.
Three, there’s an exhausting amount of options out there. “My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” I don’t think that the author is warning us of study in general or of reading other books besides the Bible. But he is telling us that there is only one Book that should be the center of gravity for all our focus, and serve as the final arbiter of truth. I benefit greatly from reading widely. But there is an overwhelming amount of resources out there. And if you feel like you need to read everything to have a handle on life, you’ll weary yourself with study. There is only one book that is like firmly fixed nails, coming from one Shepherd—make yourself an expert in that book.
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” - Matt 7:24-27
“I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” (Augustine)
A Good Life
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. - Eccl 12:13a
We have reached the end. You have heard the Preacher’s message. You have listened to his meditations on what life is like under the sun: nothing is new, nothing satisfies us completely, nothing can be ultimately controlled; wealth, knowledge, power, laughter, food and drink, marriage, work, friends—all are good gifts from God given to be enjoyed and used wisely, but all are insufficient for eliminating the vanity of life. We come into life assuming that we are helicopter pilots, free to navigate where we want, when we want, when in reality the Preacher has come to tell us that we are passengers on a train, incapable of changing its course, getting off, or altering its speed. Modern life may give us the illusion of infinite customization and control over life, but it is just that—an illusion. We will still find ourselves in unfixable problems, dark moments where we are forced to admit that we don’t know what to do, and where our best laid plans come to ruin. So much of the Preacher’s message has been simply a sharp needle to pop this soap bubble illusion.
But, what then are we to do? What do we do when the bubble pops and we are left in the dark? Solomon, like all wise men, wants to help us live a good life. And Solomon has had lots of positive things to tell us in his book, about how to enjoy the many gifts of life, how to use wisdom, work, lament, etc. But here, at the very end, we are given the clearest resources for how to live a good life, even when you encounter the black night of ignorance, uncontrollability, and uncertainty—especially when the soap bubble is popped. What do you do?
Two things: be a human being, and remember judgment.
Be a human being
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. - Eccl 12:13b
The word “duty” is supplied by the english translators, but it is not present in the Hebrew. The Hebrew text literally reads: Fear God, keep his commandments, for this is the whole (or entirety, or sum, or all) of a human being. The english word “duty” makes this sound like our fearing God and keeping his commands are an activity that we do in addition to who we are. But this verse is saying: Here is what it means to be a human: fear God, keep His commands. Thus, to fail to do so, we literally dehumanize ourselves. Reflecting on this, Augustine wrote:
“What could be briefer, truer, better for the soul to know? For this is all a person is—a keeper of God’s commandments. Not being such, he is, so to say, nothing at all, because instead of being constantly reshaped to the image of the truth, he remains bogged down in the likeness of shadow.” (City of God 20.3)
This is why C.S. Lewis, in his fictional account of heaven and hell, The Great Divorce, imagines the souls of the wicked as wraiths, insubstantial ghosts, and heaven as somehow more materially dense and real than earth. You are made in the image of God, that is the blueprint of a human being. So when we deviate from God, you veer away from Ultimate Reality into non-being. Not non-existence, but the marrow of life is hollowed out, scraped and spread, like the embers of a fire being raked apart till the heat cools and eventually dies. And the opposite is also true: if you feel thin and spiritually emaciated and hunger for substance, for meaning, for life—then here is what you must do: fear God and keep His commandments.
What does that mean? Think of those two as the root and fruit. Charles Bridges writes: “[The fear of the LORD] is that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.” The fear of God is an “affectionate reverence”—it is a love mingled with awe at the terror and beauty, the mercy and justice, the glory and the humility of God—”by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.” When you fear God you don’t view him the way a criminal views the police; that kind of fear is driven out by love. No, you view Him as Father, and yourself as His child.
In the Bible, the fear of God is often connected with obeying God’s commands. One of the promises of the New Covenant is that God will put this holy fear in His people so that they will obey His commandments (Jer 32:40). By my favorite story of these two realities coming together is when God gives the Law to Israel at Sinai. God reveals Himself in fire and darkness and by shaking the very foundations of the mountain—it is a terrifying sight to behold. And then, He speaks out of the flame scorched mountain. And by the end of the Ten Commandments, the people crawl over to Moses and beg him to tell God to stop talking, because if He continues, they will perish from the sheer weight of glory being revealed. It is too awesome. Too beautiful. To wonderful. And, reflecting back on that scene a few years later, God tells Moses this:
They are right in all that they have spoken. Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever! - Deut 5:28-29
Our greatest danger is not that we will hate God, that we will ally ourselves with the forces of darkness to do nefarious deeds in league with Satan. No, that is far too obvious. Church, our greatest danger is to so domesticate and dehydrate God that He becomes functionally useful, but not ontologically terrifying and beautiful. He becomes a spiritual tic-tac to freshen up our lives; a vitamin; a helpful assistant to bring about order in our lives and health to our families; an effective behavioral modification tool for society. We like God. We like Jesus! He is always there for us, just like all our other aids and supports and endeavors in life—and you know what, when everything else lets us down, we can always pop in an extra dose of God to take the edge off!
But a God to be feared? A God who, as with Abraham with Isaac, can command us to give up what is most precious to us? A God who, as in Job, can ordain blindingly confusing suffering yet still tell us to trust? A God who, as with Moses, demands to be worshipped and will brook no rivals or abide by any alternatives? A God who is so blazingly beautiful and terrifyingly awesome that were He to reveal Himself in His full splendor, sinners would perish at the very sight of Him? That is a different matter altogether. There is good reason that Solomon told us back in the chapter five that when we fear God, we become quiet when we gather for worship…who babbles in the presence of this God? One indicator of holy fear is reverent silence in His presence.
This wonderful, good, and holy God has made you in His image. Made you to know Him, to love Him, to obey Him. And, wonder of wonders, this holy God has condescended and took on flesh so that matchsticks like us won’t be destroyed by the pure fire of God. Jesus Christ, the image of God, was the quintessential human being—no one feared God and kept His commandments more perfectly than Jesus Christ. But Jesus was more than just a man; He was the Son of God. God, the terror atop Mount Sinai, is also the babe in the manger and the man bleeding on the cross for the sins of His people. And He died on that cross to pay for our sins, to reconcile you to God, and to remake you in His image so that you can actually be a human being now.
In the ten million choices you will need to make in life, when you know what to do and when you don’t, what do you need? An internal disposition of the heart that is humbly and affectionately inclined to your Heavenly Father. You may not know how to fix your disobedient children, what job to take, who to marry, what to do tomorrow—but if you cultivate a fear of God in your heart, you will be inclined to wisdom, and to obey God’s commands in this or that decision.
Remember judgment
For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. - Eccl 12:14
The author’s first reason for heeding his words is firmly situated in the here and now: this is what it means to be human, and to be anything less than that is inherently a punishment, and to embrace it—to be human—is inherently a reward. Now, he further grounds why you should pursue true humanity not in a present experience of punishment and rewards, but in a future one—in the future punishment and reward: the final judgment.
God will bring every deed into judgment; every secret thing, whether good or evil.
What does that mean? Good or evil? We tend to associate God’s judgment exclusively with evil things, do we not? In what way does God judge good? Are Christians judged by God? Paul seems to think so:
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Cor 5:10)
“For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;” (Rom 14:10)
Paul also teaches us: “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1), and John tells us that “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins…By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18” (1 John 4:10, 17)
The Christian will experience two judgments.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:11-15)
The books contain the record of your deeds, great and small, public and secret. But notice: there is another book, and your eternal destination hangs on what is in that book! The book of life. That book, earlier in the book of Revelation is given another name. The book of life “of the Lamb who was slain” (Rev 13:8).
Jesus was slain for your sins, judged for your law-breaking. The terror of judgment day descended upon the cross on Good Friday. The wages of sin is death, but thanks be to God, the free gift of God through the work of Jesus Christ is eternal life!
Which leaves us only with the “good” to be judged. We must receive what is due. That is, what we will be rewarded with.
“If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.” - 1 Cor 3:14
"Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward. - Mark 9:41
In the ten million choices you have to make in life, most of them are unseen. When you choose to restrain anger, make lunch for your children, practice patience, attend a prayer gathering when you don't feel like it--people don't see the internal struggle you face as you make those decisions. Frankly, you aren't even aware of all the good deeds you are doing. But Someone is. God sees all of your good deeds and keeps a meticulous record of what you have done so that on the Last Day, He will measure out to you the exact, precise reward that your life has earned. You aren't earning your salvation, of course. But you are earning some kind of reward that you will experience in the New Creation.
