Ecclesiastes 12:9-14

Intro

Whats the big idea?

Ecclesiastes has been about life under the sun, East of Eden.

In this life under the Sun East of Eden, our Preacher has made many observations, and we have carefully observed all of them. Without question, the concept that our Preacher has placed in front of us more than any other is that of hevel - the word we have translated as vanity. This vanity, or vaporous, slippery, effervescent life, has become a plague upon humanity. The Preacher has made it abundantly clear to us that there is no escaping this vanity under the sun, we will find it wherever we are.

We have been shown that more money only leads to more vanity. I believe one of our own modern poets has grasped this idea when he said, “mo money, mo problems.”

We have been shown that filling your life with work only leads to more vanity.

We have been shown that building your dream house, dream career, dream life, it all just leads to more vanity as you approach the same event that everybody is approaching.

Death has been hanging over the head of the preacher as he preaches. This persistent problem has forced the preacher time after time to contemplate the question - if we are all going to die, does any of this even matter? And time after time the preacher has come to the same conclusion - in this life under the sun, everything seems to be so painfully inconsequential. Death comes for the righteous along with the unrighteous, it leaves the rich just as empty as the poor, it brings an end to all people, including you and me.

But tonight, we read the postscript to Solomon’s Sermon. Verses 9-14 appear to be the footnotes to put a bow on the book of Ecclesiastes. This is the conclusion, and the Preacher is going to take 12 chapters of Sermon text and boil it down to just a few verses, and really to just one or two verses as we will see.

But what I want you to notice is that after everything has been said, the Preacher has arrived at a conclusion that is far from Nihilism. The words of the Preacher here are NOT the words of a man who has come to the conclusion that nothing matters. These words are inspiring, refreshing, and rather than lull us into a sense of depression that assumes nothing matters, we will see that this sermon is meant to light a fire under us as we see that everything matters.

There is Purpose In Preaching

The Preacher Finds Meaning in Presentation

If nothing matters, why go through all the work of the presentation?

The Preacher Finds Meaning in Words of Truth

If nothing matters, why work so hard to present truth? Why teach at all?

These things do matter, and the Preacher understands that there is a purpose to this crazy thing called life that he’s been putting under a microscope in his sermon.

The Word of God is Fundamentally Tied to Our Purpose

Scripture Reading

Ecclesiastes 12:11 ESV

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.

Ecclesiastes 12:12 ESV

My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

The words of the wise...

The collected sayings...

given by one Shepherd

These are all ancient ways of referring to the divinely inspired Scriptures. Remember that our term “Bible” is just the greek word for book, and it has become a word for us by which we refer to the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, The Collected Sayings, and so on.

So we recognize that Pastor Solomon here is referring to the divine nature of the Scriptures God has given to us, and he says that these Scriptures do two things for us as it relates to our purpose in life:

The Word of God stings us

It urges us to act.

A goad is a tool that a shepherd would often use to poke and prod his animals to get them moving in the right direction.

this is interesting to think about as someone who’s never used a goad, because it makes me wonder what it would be like to be on the pointy end of that shepherds tool. Would it hurt? Would it be annoying? Would it be despised, something that causes distress? Are these things good?

the answer to all of those questions depends on whose hands the goad is in. If the butcher is wielding the goad, you have to imagine the sheep would despise the thing. In the hands of an unkind teenager only trying to terrorize the sheep, I’m sure they would come to hate the thing.

but if the goad is in the hands of a good shepherd, then there is some sense of safety and security in that sting. when the shepherd uses it not to bring you to your doom, or to annoy you, but rather to bring you to green pastures and still waters, the sheep come to appreciate that sting and follow its urging. When the goad tells you to go left, you go left, because that’s where the shepherd has deemed it best for us to go.

now think about the word of God as a goad. From beginning to end, the word of God is constantly poking and prodding into your sides, directing you in the way you should go and the type of life you ought to live. Whether it’s in the garden of Eden, or in the Ark narrative of Noah, or on the stone tablets of Moses, or in the covenant with David, or through the mouths of the prophets, or from the teaching of Jesus himself. Jesus summed up all of it by correctly interpreting the law the mean: you ought to love the Lord your God and you ought to love your neighbor.

so the word of God is a tool in the hands of our shepherd to get us moving to where we need to go.

but what if a sheep had broken legs? What good is a goad to a shepherd who has a flock of lame sheep, unable to walk anywhere?

Well thankfully for this flock of lame sheep that we all are, the Word of God is more than just a goad in the hands of our Shepherd.

To see what else the Word of God does, let us leave behind the sheep illustration and consider a different one.

The Word of God Stabilizes us

The Preacher also likens the Word of God to “nails firmly fixed.” It shouldn’t surprise us to see a construction analogy followed by a livestock analogy, because these are two of the most common themes we see throughout the course of Scripture.

For this one I want you to picture yourself not as a sheep, but as a house. And I want you to ask yourself the question; what is my construction like? How’s the foundation? are the walls straight, or bowed in? Are the bricks crumbling? Are the floors caved in? Am I holding together, or falling apart?

The Scriptures themselves teach that in our natural state from birth, we are in shambles spiritually speaking. We feel this through the course of our lives, too. We have experienced it ourselves, we have seen it in our kids. We have all these broken pieces that need putting back together, and if we know what can happen to a person when they are under neglect or bad construction.

Bad parenting can deal major damage to a person well past childhood. It is as though there is structural damage to the person, who cannot stand because of their poor foundation.

Falling into the wrong crowd of friends can encourage bad habits, leading to neglect of the structure of the person. Rather than setting the mind on things that are lovely, good, and pure, time is spent on things that are miserable and corrupting. This can lead a person to exist like a house that has been neglected by its owners, with its nails falling out and roof caving in.

Going to the wrong people for advice as an adult can lead to the same thing as well.

We are all broken houses, and we are all in need of good rehabilitation, and this is the other function of the Word of God according to the preacher.

The Word of God points us in the right direction, but it also builds us up into functional houses.

And this whole construction analogy takes on a whole different depth of meaning when you consider who said it: Solomon, the son of David.

Surely Solomon treasured the word of God to his father David when he made covenant with him. He would remember that the Lord said to David,

English Standard Version Chapter 7

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

and

English Standard Version Chapter 7

And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

Now Solomon is speaking as the Son of David here, but we know that this covenant promise of God was pointing us to another Son that would truly and fully fulfill this covenant. Solomon built a temple for the name of the Lord, but Jesus was going to build a Church for the name of the Lord. And I don’t mean a physical building that would use physical stones and cement, but Jesus was going to build a church using living stones. In his covenant to David, God was prophesying that Jesus was going to build us up into a unified church that lived to glorify the Lord our God

So I have said that the Word of God stabilizes, but another way of saying this is that the Word of God causes us to stand firm in the covenant faithfulness of our God.

the Apostle Peter picks up and confirms this later on in one of his letters when he says,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Hold on to that verse because we’re going to come back to just how important that statement is, but for now let it be said the God’s Word stings us and stabilizes us. It guides us and builds us up.

And now let us see how this is a job that only God’s Word can accomplish.

The Word of God is all that can be fully trusted

Ecclesiastes 12:11–12 (ESV)

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

As a people, we have a Shepherd who takes care of us. We have a Shepherd who guides us through the vanities of this life, a shepherd who builds us up and causes us to stand firm. The means by which our Shepherd does this is his Word, which he has graciously given to us.

He has given even his own Spirit, who helps us to understand the Word that he has given.

He has given to the church faithful preachers who can expound the Word and administer it to God’s people.

And yet - we have outsourced our shepherding.

We have outsourced its role as guide by looking to other sources to show us the way to go.

We entrust our guidance to popular talkshow or podcast hosts.

We entrust our guidance to psychologists

We entrust our guidance to so many books, hoping that we will find security or purpose after we’ve collected a personal library

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t listen to podcasts, or speak with psychologists, or read books, but I am saying that these things need to be put in their place as subordinate to the word of God.

If we listen to a podcast for guidance, but the podcaster can’t properly interpret or understand God’s word, they cannot lead you where you need to go. They cannot build you into what you need to be.

If we listen to psychologists that do not believe in or submit to the God who made you and sustains you, the God who shepherds you, then they cannot lead you where you need to go or build you into what you need to be.

If we read a thousand books that do not properly handle the word of God, they cannot lead us where we need to go our build us into what we need to be.

Even if we do fall in love with theology books and podcasts and everything else, but we begin to neglect the Word of God itself, we have to be so incredibly careful that we aren’t following a voice that didn’t come from our shepherd.

We aren’t in need of a new voice to guide us, or a new builder to fix us. What we need is faithfulness to our One Shepherd who has already spoken, already provided for our need.

The Word of God is fundamentally, intrinsically tied to our purpose in this life under the sun, because it points us to another life; life under the Son.

By life under the Son, I don’t just mean heaven. I don’t just mean what happens after you physically die. I mean the new life that is yours in Christ, which has already begun and will continue into eternity.

I mean the new life you have been given by the Spirit of Christ, which has made you into a person who properly fears the Lord and lives for him. In a world that so often seems like vanity, this is your purpose.

Fear and Obey God as you approach Life Under the Son

English Standard Version Chapter 12

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.

The end of the Matter, All has been heard

When you read through Ecclesiastes, you might expect that line to be followed up with something like, “nothing matters, do what you want.”

But that would be to misunderstand the spirit of Ecclesiastes. That would be to miss the most important thing here.

True enough, life under the sun, the giant ball of burning gas in the sky, has been subjected to so much vanity. There is so much that doesn’t make sense, so much that hurts. So much that feels unfair, or random, or hopeless. But even all of that has a purpose, and its to get you to see that you need to escape it. Thankfully, God has made a way of escape for you, he has made a new life for you, a true purpose for you.

This is life under the Son, the eternal Son of God, our Savior, Redeemer, Shepherd. In him, we have been given new life, resurrection life. In him, we have been redeemed from the vanity, set free from the monotony, cured of the meaningless cycle.

In him, we are able to truly fear God and obey him.

In him, we no longer fear judgement, but have hope of everlasting life.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

For all those who have faith in Christ, our every sin has been accounted for. Every secret thing you’ve done has been paid for. Jesus has given account and confessed to every wrong you’ve ever committed, and has credited to you every good work he has ever done.

In Christ, you are truly free of the vanity. In Christ, your live has meaning, purpose. Christ has given you the Word of God to guide you and construct you into this new person. He has given you faithful preachers to administer it to you.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Are you still living life under that ball in the sky, enslaved to the endless vanity, looking to worldly things that will only keep you as a slave?

Or are you living life under the Son of God, truly committed to serving him and submitting to his Word?

He has redeemed you from the vanity and made a new life for you to walk in. Do not neglect such a great salvation.

Main Idea: Life does have purpose, and that purpose is singular. The Word of God exhorts us and empowers us to fulfill that purpose.