Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
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A few days ago, the chronological Bible plan that we are walking through, had us in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Pastor Will and I were talking about it earlier and it was interesting. They had us read Ecclesiastes in two days.
Which was a lot.
And so I wanted to spend some time there tonight.
I hope that this will be helpful because Ecclesiastes is one of the more difficult books in scripture to wrestle with.
As you read it, you may be wondering— what in the world going on and so I hope that tonight could help shed some light onto the purpose of this book.
First, let’s talk about the title for a moment. The title, Ecclesiastes.
What does it mean?
Obviously, there are some modern terms that kind of get close to this word.
I’m sure you’ve heard the term ecclesiastical.
Or you may have heard the term ecclesiology.
Ecclesiology is the study of the doctrine of the church.
When someone says ecclesiastical, they are referring to something with regard to the church.
So if someone were to say ecclesiastical structure they would be referring to the structure of the church.
Now we understand the church to be not the building, but the gathered assembly of believers.
And so the title of the book Ecclesiastes comes from a Greek word meaning ‘one who addresses an assembly.’
So the book title literally means the preacher to the assembled people of God.
The Hebrew title is Qoheleth and anytime you see that word in the book. It is translated ‘The Preacher.’
So I say all that to say
This book is essentially a sermon from a wise preacher (traditionally understood to be Solomon).
And basically like any preacher, the sermon builds to the ending.
Throughout the book, everything is building to the passage that we are in tonight.
If I had to summarize what comes before this particular passage…
Basically in chapters 1 through 12 the preacher takes an honest look at life in this world.
Throughout the book, Solomon examines life “under the sun”—
In other words, life viewed from an earthly perspective.
He lives under the sun.
He looks at wealth and the building of wealth.
He looks at pleasure and the pursuit of pleasure.
He looks at achievement.
He looks at wisdom.
He looks at work.
And he looks at human relationships.
And he repeatedly concludes that none of these things nor the pursuit of these things can provide ultimate meaning.
As you read this book, it’s really kind of depressing.
Because everything that he explores on the backside of it, he says it’s all empty.
It doesn’t matter.
It’s vain.
The word translated “vanity” appears almost forty times in this book.
And that word vanity means wind or breath or vapor.
And we all know what that is right?
It’s something you can see for a short time, but it’s gone in a moment.
it’s vain.
And so, for 12 chapters, he has walked through the pursuit of life, and he has concluded that they are vain pursuits
And now, Solomon reaches his final conclusion.
And here as we enter into verse nine, there’s a narrator.
He speaks of the preacher.
Look what he says beginning in verse nine.
9 Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.
I. The Messenger Was Faithful to Teach the Truth (vv. 9-10)
The narrator describes Solomon.
And he list some characteristics of him.
He was wise.
He studied.
He searched out truth.
He arranged many proverbs.
Verse nine and 10 tells us that Solomon not only gained wisdom and grew in understanding and knowledge, but he also desired to communicate that wisdom and knowledge to the people of God with care.
We talked about this a few weeks ago when we walked through the purpose of proverbs.
Solomon was given wisdom by God because that’s what he asked for.
But he didn’t sit on this wisdom and not share it.
He was the one who sought to communicate the wisdom of God to the people of God because they needed it.
This is what any good preacher does.
The preacher does not possess knowledge of scripture for his own benefit.
The preacher does not seek to grow in knowledge and wisdom of the word and the Will of God in order to simply better himself.
For the sake of his own benefit or the sake of his own head knowledge.
No
Really everything that the preacher, the carrier of God’s truth, does should be selflessly done for the benefit of building up other people.
Solomon here before the assembly of the people has communicated the truth of God.
He has proclaimed the emptiness of every pursuit under the sun.
And the narrator here is telling us that he had done a good job
He had taken the wisdom given him from God and he had delivered it rightly to the people.
So if I had to summarize verse nine and 10 into a point for a sermon, it would be this
Verse nine and 10 established for us, the credibility of the preacher.
Essentially, he is saying he has told you the truth.
He’s about to deliver the punch line at the end of the sermon and he wants to make sure that we haven’t fallen off the wagon yet.
Illustration: Have you ever been around someone so negative and pessimistic that you really just don’t want to even be around them any longer?
I know that you have people in your life where your your general attitude towards them is, I cannot please that person.
There’s some people that will find something wrong with chocolate cake.
And so with those people we use terms like consider the source.
We take it with a grain of salt.
In other words when someone is so negative or so bent in One Direction their credibility begins to suffer.
They never say anything positive than you begin to discredit them as having anything true to say at all because we know not everything is negative.
Up to this point in Ecclesiastes it really has been an exercise in negativity.
Everything that he has talked about is vain and empty.
It’s all vanity.
Work is vanity
Pleasure is vanity.
Achievement and success is vanity.
Money and material possessions are vanity.
Relationships are vain.
So if we’re not careful, you may be listening to all this thinking that you know how the sermon is going to end.
Well, his main point so far has been everything is worthless.
I guess this sermon is going to be about how worthless everything is.
But we would be wrong to conclude that.
Some have attacked the book of Ecclesiastes saying that it should not even be a part of the Bible because of how negative it is.
I think these verses inverse nine and 10 effectively put that argument to rest.
The Bible tells us here that everything that he said he is taking great care and saying it.
And what he has written, he has written in truth.
In other words, don’t tune what he’s saying out.
Because what he’s about to say is going to be life changing.
So he’s come to the punch line of the sermon.
If everything is vain.
If everything is a vapor.
If everything is like your breath, you can feel it for a moment, but then it’s gone.
If there is an emptiness to everything that we see in this world then:
What is sure?
What is steady?
What stands the test of time?
What can we trust?
Look in verse 11
11 The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd.
After all the negativity, after saying, everything is vain.
After saying that every pursuit is empty, the preacher finally says that something is sure.
He says the words of the Wise are like goads.
They are like firmly fixed nails.
A goad is a rod that was used for probing animals.
Essentially its use is to not kill or injure the animal, but to prod them along in the right direction.
It’s a strong instrument. You had to be in order to accomplish its purpose.
Because traditionally a goad was used in cattle prodding.
So when you have to turn a big stubborn animal.
You’re gonna need a sturdy object.
He says hear the words of the Wise are like a goad.
He also says that the collected sayings are like firmly fixed nails.
In other words, they’re not going anywhere.
These things are sure.
These things are driven home and they are steady.
And what is he talking about?
The words of the Wise. The collected sayings.
What’s he talking about?
He’s talking about the word of God.
In fact, we know this because he ends verse 11 by telling us that all these words come from One Shepherd.
They are given by one Shepherd.
From the rest of the Bible, we understand that the Shepherd of Israel is God.
The Lord, as our Shepherd gives us his word.
The Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, testifies to the fact that the words we have contained in scripture are ultimately words given by God.
Yes, men wrote them down as they were inspired of the Holy Spirit, but God himself was the one who gave them.
The ultimate source is God.
And so if you summarize verse 11.
The message of the preacher here acted as a goad probing us in the right direction.
Do you ever listen to a sermon and feel prodded?
Do you feel as if God himself by his divine word, places his finger on the exact pressure point in your life that you’re struggling with in the moment?
If so, good.
Praise God for that.
Now the question becomes what do you do when prodded?
When prodded do you remain unmoved?
Or do you move in the direction that the Bible is seeking to push you?
The message is like a goad.
But also, The message of the preacher here in Ecclesiastes in a world, full of things that are uncertain and ever fading, the word is like a firmly fixed nail that hasn’t moved.
It’s firmly driven.
There are so many things that have changed in my life.
I can walk you through many technological advances that have really shaped my life and even the way we go about life in general today.
Some of it good some of it bad.
One thing that I am really thankful for is that the word of God has not changed.
It remains unmoved, firmly driven like a nail.
The word of God is sure and it’s steady.
And the reason why it’s firm and steady because ultimately, it is from God.
Ultimately Solomon’s wisdom is not merely human wisdom.
It comes from the good Shepherd himself.
I’ve said many times this book is not a book among other books. It is the book that serves to judge all other books.
In fact, he goes on here to speak of the limit of human wisdom.
In other words, he’s gonna tell us that not every word written down is like the word of God.
Look what he says in verse 12.
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.
I think what he is saying here is Human wisdom has limits.
I don’t think he’s saying that studying is fruitless.
I don’t think this is a a text against the publishing of books or writing good things for the people of God.
I think it’s talking about the futility of human wisdom.
Our world is filled with endless opinions.
If you don’t believe that, just take a stroll on Facebook.
If you don’t believe that, just go pull up YouTube one day.
There are people who are self-proclaimed Facebook or YouTube experts on things and they will give you their opinion on something very quickly.
They have no problem telling you who to vote for, how to care for your kids, how to cook, how to clean, how to parent.
We live in a DIY world.
Where everybody thinks that they can fix something by watching a YouTube video.
But it’s not always that simple.
Also, there are many people who will give you their opinion about the things of God.
There are many people who are self proclaimed biblical experts but all they really have is a YouTube channel or a podcast where they say provocative things and seek to draw in a crowd who will listen to them.
Social media and the Internet has given the most ignorant people, the loudest voice.
We have access now to more information than ever before because anybody can post information about anything on the Internet.
I want you to think about it for a moment.
In generations passed, in order to publish something someone would have to deem it worthy of publishing or you yourself would have to have the ability to self finance whatever that you were publishing.
Because in order to publish, you had to print it.
Printing especially back in the day was expensive, and so there was a limit to the stupidity and ignorance that could be flooded into our world.
And so because of this, in the river of information. there was at least some sort of a dam that was built up, preventing people’s opinions from just flowing out into the world.
But now—- With the advent of the Internet, which has come to be known as the information super highway, when all that came, the dam broke.
And now there is more information out there than ever before.
Because now everybody has a platform on which to speak.
Some people see this as a good thing.
Because now everything’s exposed.
Anybody can say anything.
Anybody can make any claim.
Anybody can challenge what has been generally perceived to be true
Anybody can come up with a theory about this or that.
Let me just remind you here from the truth of God’s word that there is only one thing that is sure like a goad, pointing you in the right direction.
There is only one thing like a fixed nail that does not move and is sure and it is the word of God.
Only God’s Word provides ultimate answers.
We live in an age of information overload. Solomon reminds us that wisdom is not found in endless research… wisdom is found in receiving God’s revealed truth.
So if you’re going to dive in to researching and studying something.
Research and study that what you know to be true the word of God.
So if you’re following along with the outline.
You have the credibility of the messenger.
We have the credibility of message.
So what is the message of this messenger?
What is the punchline?
What’s the invitation at the end of the sermon?
What is the final verdict according to this messenger with regard to life and what it means?
Look at verse 13.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
This is the climax of the entire book of Ecclesiastes.
The end of the matter
All has been heard.
And when he says this, he’s talking about all of his wisdom for the last 12 chapters have been placed on the table.
He has done a thorough examination of every pursuit in the world.
And he comes to the end of the sermon and he says
Do you want to know what the purpose of life is?
It’s this.
A. Fear God and Keep His commandments.
Our purpose in life is to fear God.
This doesn’t mean that we are to live in terror of God, although I do think that we should have a proper fear in the literal sense of God and his power.
Mainly though, when he says fear he’s talking about properly recognizing who God is in light of who you are.
The right response in the outflow of the fear of God is Reverence. Submission. Worship.
Again, this comes down to Recognizing God for who He is and ourselves for who we are.
And he says the purpose of life.
The thing that is not empty.
Is this:
Live your life in the fear of God.
This is the consistent instruction from Solomon to us
He said this I’m Proverbs 1:7
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Fear God.
A few years ago, I heard the story of a preacher who had had a health scare.
Something happened with his heart and they had to call 911 to his home.
And he was there with his children and his wife inside his home.
And according to his story, the ambulance and the paramedics had gotten there and they had brought the the cart to take him from his house to the ambulance to take him to the hospital.
But they were trying to stabilize him inside the home before they moved him even to the cart.
And in situations like that, it can be a high-pressure situation, especially for the medical professionals.
Well in the middle of saving this pastor‘s life, something went wrong, and one of the guys that was working on him, started cursing, and even started cursing, using the Lord’s name.
And this preacher, almost unconscious looks at the paramedic and said young man, you need to fear God.
And apparently, after he said that he went unconscious.
That was the last thing he said for a few days.
After he woke up, he didn’t even remember that happening, but his children were there, and the paramedic had went and talked with them afterwards, and they were able to share the gospel with him.
But I think that story captures really the heart of the message of Ecclesiastes and the message tonight.
You see the preacher was fighting for his life.
But there was something more important even to the preacher in that moment in his own life, and that was this young man’s eternal soul, and that he would truly fear God.
You know in this life, there are a lot of things that we work for and we get upset about and we run after but more important than any of that is that we fear God.
There’s a second part to this verse and these are tied together.
He also says
B. Keep His commandments
True fear of God produces obedience to God.
Throughout Ecclesiastes Solomon has shown what life looks like when people seek meaning everywhere except God.
Now he gives the answer.
C. This is humanity’s purpose
“For this is the whole duty of man.”
The point of life is not earthly pleasure.
It’s Not financial success or wealth or accomplishments.
The point of life is knowing God and living for His glory.
Fearing God and keeping his Commandments.
You could summarize Ecclesiastes this way:
In the first 12 chapters he has proven, and he has shown without a shadow of a doubt that
Life without God is vain and empty.
But now he has pointed us in the right direction and that is this
Life lived in the fear of God has purpose.
and ultimately everything on this earth and everything in our life does matter because one day there’s coming a moment where we will all stand before God judges, and righteousness and in perfection.
Look at verse 14
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
This is the way this book ends.
This is the end of the sermon.
Fear God keep his Commandments.
Because one day, God’s gonna judge.
Do you wanna know what we should center our life around?
Do you wanna know what we should live toward and for?
The day of the Lord.
The time when God will judge all things done in secret and in public.
Why should we fear God and obey Him?
Because judgment is coming .
Verse 14 doesn’t say God might bring judgment.
It doesn’t say God could bring judgment.
No.. What does it say?
God will bring judgment.
Judgment is certain.
But not only is judgment certain…. it’s also complete.
What’s he going to bring under judgment according to verse 14?
Every deed.
Even secret things.
Nothing is hidden from God.
Whether good or evil.
God sees all and judges perfectly.
This final verse explains why everything does matters.
The whole book has been focused on a worldly thought process that only lives for this world.
And if you only live for this world, then nothing matters.
But the believer doesn’t live for this world.
We live life for eternity.
Throughout Ecclesiastes life can seem confusing and unfair.
The wicked prosper. The righteous suffer.
But Solomon ends by reminding us that God’s final judgment will set everything right.
And so there is a purpose to life.
But it’s not found in the pursuit of this world.
It was found in a fear of God and keeping his Commandments and living and light of the day that we will meet God face-to-face.
John D Rockefeller owned standard oil company.
He was a rich man.
John D. Rockefeller famously answered the question "How much money is enough?" with his signature reply: "Just a little bit more."
I read an article today that said this..
While the quip has long been viewed as a sign of greed, historians suggest the oil tycoon was making a philosophical point: the relentless human pursuit of wealth is a moving target, and no material amount can fully satisfy the soul.
I agree.
I don’t think that Rockefeller meant to highlight the temporary nature and futility of seeking wealth.
But I do think his philosophy is philosophy of our world today
Which is why as rich as we become, no one has ever satisfied.
The book of Ecclesiastes is offering us a better worldview.
Life in the meaning of life is bound up in it creator.
Fearing God and doing what he says and living in life of judgment. Let’s pray tonight.
