Ecclesiastes 12:13
Intro:
Ecclesiastes 12:13
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
If you were to read those words at the end of a book, you might say, “Well, here it is. Here’s the conclusion of the book. Here’s the short version of the whole thing.” Any time you can find a statement like that in a book of the Bible, latch on to it. It’s the key to the book.
John, near the end of his gospel says,
John 20:31 …these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
See, I know that the reason John wrote the gospel of John is so that I would believe Jesus to be the Son of God, and that I might come to have life because of it. That’s his agenda. No surprises. When I go back and read John, sure enough, he’s working at giving me good reasons to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
It helps to have a Bible book just flat-out tell me why it exists. I find it especially helpful in a book like Ecclesiastes, and in a life like Solomon’s.
Before we jump too far into the text this morning, let’s quickly recall where we’ve been:
First we looked at Solomon’s request for wisdom. God offered it, Solomon asked for it, God gave it to him. In fact, he became the wisest of men ever to live, except for Jesus, of course. It was Solomon who collected much of what we call the book of Proverbs. It was Solomon who urged his son, and us, to “get wisdom” even if it costs you all that you have. Solomon was the king God used to build the great temple. It was done with such skill and such amassed wealth that really it’s hard for us to picture it today. Solomon is also remembered for being a very poetic lover. Solomon’s Song of Songs is a beautiful picture of true love, and Solomon should know, because remember he married 700 women and also had 300 concubines – women who led him astray, so that in his later years, Solomon was actually supporting and involved in idol worship. We know all this from just a few chapters: I Kings 1-11 and II Chron 1-9. We know that God was displeased with Solomon’s sin. For at least 20 years of his reign as king, there was a great time of peace and prosperity in Israel. But after that, it gets kind of fuzzy.
There’s nothing that tells us for sure how it all ends. Does Solomon ever get his act together? Does he ever decide to take up his God-given wisdom once again?
Then I get to the end of Ecclesiastes; by the way, that means “The preacher” or “The Church Man.” It’s the book he wrote near the end of his life, and I read this verse:
Ecclesiastes 12:13
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Now, if this were a book about just wisdom or life in general, I’d figure Solomon is just writing the conclusion of a book. OK, if I want to understand this book, look at the conclusion. That’s what I’m doing this morning. If you wonder where I’m going with this, I’ll just tell it to you now:
Ecclesiastes 12:13
here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
“Duty” has been added. Really is says, “This is the whole of man” – this is what man is all about. This is the meaning of life, if you will.
The Message paraphrase puts it this way:
v13 The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that’s it.
Solomon says here it’s the “conclusion of the matter,” not just the conclusion of the book. Nope. This book is about a journey. It’s more of a journal, like keeping a record as you make a trip, and Solomon’s trip is the story of his life – the same story we’ve been following the past few weeks.
Ecclesiastes 1:12-13 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid on men!
And by the end, he reaches a rather God-honoring conclusion. That’s why I think he must have come around to his senses and made some personal reforms before he died.
I’m in favor of learning from someone else’s mistakes. If the hot chocolate is too hot, and someone else burns their mouth on it, I want to learn from that mistake, rather than have to experience for myself. If today’s blue plate special looks more like last week’s leftovers, I’d rather see it on someone else’s plate and learn from their mistake rather than order and have to experience it for myself. And if a man makes an extensive search for the meaning of life, and along the way makes a lot of mistakes, I want to learn from that, rather than have to experience them all for myself. How about you? See, there’s a bit of Solomon in all of us. We set out on this journey called life, and all along the way we’re trying to make sense of it and understand its purpose. So, looking back, at the end of the journey, what has Solomon learned about life?
v13 The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that’s it.
That’s what you get at the end, but what about the mistakes along the way? What kinds of things does Solomon conclude for the different seasons in life?
• What does Solomon have to say to the young person who’s searching for meaning in life? What words of wisdom for the teenage who’s faced with temptation and surrounded by entertainment and amusements?
• What does Solomon have to say to the person who’s middle-aged, who’s pursuing satisfaction in life by working and accumulating and trying to get ahead? What advice for the busy parents who feel like they’re enslaved by life?
• What does Solomon have to say to the person who’s in his last years; to older folks who’ve had more active years in the past, but now those are gone and life just doesn’t seem to need them anymore?
If you started in v.2 you’d get this:
Ecclesiastes 1:2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
Ecclesiastes 2:17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
This word, “Meaningless” turns up 30X in this book. You could just look at all those, and end up pretty discouraged – the gospel according to Eeyore! Or, you could read the book as a journal of Solomon’s journey, and understand that without the conclusion, life is meaningless. That’s what I want us to do this morning, in the short time we have left – to see that, without the conclusion that Solomon drew, life is meaningless. If all we have to look at and all we consider in life is the life that’s “under the sun” instead of beyond the sun, then life really has no meaning. Now before we get any farther, how many of you have known someone who lives just like that? (show hands)
For just a minute, I want to share the opening scene from the movie “Ants.” “Z” is visiting with his ant counselor, and having some trouble in his search for life’s meaning…
(clip from “Ants”- 1:25 long)
I want for us to all see that that having Ecc 12:13 makes all the difference, not just in this book, not just in Solomon’s life, but in our lives as well.
Let’s start with…
Some Words for the Young
It’s hard to think of graduation time with school just starting this week, but let’s try to think back or ahead. There’s always someone who gets up and talks about the world you’re going to face. There’s someone who talks about the challenges and how the future is up to you, and how there’s a bright road ahead of you, blah blah blah. It’s supposed to encourage and motivate you to face adult life with vigor and enthusiasm and resolve to make the world a better place. OK. Maybe when Solomon is 19 and is becoming the 2nd king of Israel he had something similar for his graduating class.
What if the speakers at your graduation got up and shared with you what Solomon discovered about life?
Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed-and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors--and they have no comforter. And I declared that the dead, who had already died, are happier than the living, who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
There you go. “So, as you begin your life as an adult in this world, remember this: I’ve looked at life, and here’s what I’ve concluded: Life is just full of injustices. People who have died are actually better off. In fact, better yet are people who’ve never been born.”
“Well,” you’re thinking, “at least that’s the way it has been. Maybe it will be better in my lifetime.” So Solomon continues…
Ecclesiastes 2:14-16 The wise man has eyes in his head, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless." For the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered; in days to come both will be forgotten. Like the fool, the wise man too must die!
Oh, you expect your life will be different. OK, but just bear in mind that, in the end, whether you’re a fool or a wise person, you’re going to die just the same.
“OK, maybe I will die,” you figure, “But at least in my lifetime I’m going to make a difference in the world. I’m going to do something new. I’m going to contribute something good.”
Ecclesiastes 1:8-11 - All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.
“OK, maybe I won’t be bringing something really new into my world, but I’ll at least be able to contribute something good – at least I have a say in that. Yeah…I’m going to do my best, and it’s going to matter…isn’t it?” Then the graduation speaker gives his conclusion:
Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 - I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.
Translation: it really doesn’t even matter what you do. Everything still just comes down to chance. You eat right, exercise, go to the doctor regularly, and get enough sleep, then one day you go to high school and two disturbed students show up with guns and it’s over.
You train for the Olympics, make the team, you’re a sure contender for the gold, and 2 days before your competition you’re in a car accident and break your ankle.
You work hard to establish yourself as a partner in a big firm. You’re on your way up the corporate ladder. And then one day a 747 crashes into your office building.
Listen, folks, to the deep, groans of the young people of our day. Do you hear what they’re saying?: “What’s the difference? What’s the use? Why bother? It really doesn’t matter what I do anyway. No matter what, life will still be full of injustices. There’s nothing really new that I can bring to it. No matter what, I’m going to die anyway just like everyone before me, and I don’t have control of that either.”
By the way, good luck in school this year. That’s life under the sun. That’s life lived without 12:13. Sorry.
Maybe you’ve made it through those difficult years of formation and building. Now, you’re in the thick of living life. You’re not doing so badly, really. You have a decent job. Things don’t look that bad. So, let’s continue on the journey and see some…
Some Words for the Middle-aged
You know, maybe that graduation speaker just hadn’t had a broad enough experience in life. Remember George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life”? He was going to travel. He was going to shake the dust off his feet from that pathetic little hometown of his and see some sights – experience life at its fullest. I wonder, if he had, if some of his words might not have turned out sounding like these words of the wealthy King Solomon…
Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 - I thought in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless. "Laughter," I said, "is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?" I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly--my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives. I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well--the delights of the heart of man. I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me. I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
Solomon had it all. Solomon tried it all – laughter, productivity, wealth, silliness, real estate, wine, women, you name it. “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.” No one ever told King Solomon “No,” and King Solomon didn’t say “No” to anything he wanted to try. Pretty impressive, isn’t it - a Palestinian king of the 10th century BC living the American dream? Talk about “a wonderful life”! How did he feel after that?
(v. 11) Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
That’s the conclusion of anyone who’s seeking meaning in life from those things. Not only do they cease to satisfy now, but later they don’t help either. Solomon was stinking rich when died at some point around age 60. Do you know how much he left behind? All of it. And before he died, he realized it would work that way:
Ecclesiastes 2:18-23 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.
That’s life under the sun. Even though everything under the sun may seem like a large area, it doesn’t look nearly as big from the perspective of heaven. Once again, we’re like a bunch of ants – tiny specks on a planet that’s just a speck in a vast universe. No wonder there are men having mid-life crises, marriages breaking down in frustration, and people struggling with who they’ve become as adults. Without 12:13, the journey’s just a run in a big circle until you fall off and someone else takes your place.
Let’s say you’ve made it through those years. Let’s say you’re now in the autumn of life – that there’s a lot more looking back than there is looking forward. Solomon would also give…
Some Words for the Old
You’ve spent your life trying to arrive somewhere. No matter where that somewhere was, you’re definitely going to arrive at the end of your journey.
Ecclesiastes 8:6-8 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a man's misery weighs heavily upon him. Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death.
There’s some encouragement from a man who’s looking back over his life. Yes, it’s true. Everyone dies, and no one can control it. Solomon isn’t the only one in Scripture to point that out, but the mood he does it with sure isn’t very encouraging!
These next verses are really directed to a younger person, because they bemoan the things that happen to these imperfect bodies as they get older. Just listen to the imagery as Solomon uses word pictures to describe an aging person. But, I’m wondering, what is an older person supposed to conclude after this “under the sun” perspective of life?
Ecclesiastes 12:1-8 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them"-- before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember him--before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Everything is meaningless!"
People living “under the sun” battle this thing called old age. We have tools to fight some of it – hair color, false teach, cataract surgery, knee and hip replacement, sleep aids, hearing aids, Fibercon, Botox and Viagra! But at some point, the silver cord is severed, the golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is shattered, and dust returns to the ground it came from – and the spirit returns to God Who gave it.
When he considered all there was to consider and to experience about life under the sun, Solomon hated life. A lot of people are there. They’re old, and looking back over it, they hate life, and the reason is that their journey is focused only on what’s under the sun. You can look around you today in our community and see it in their faces.
When we live life from that perspective, we’re no different than a bunch of ants who “really are insignificant.”
It’s interesting to me that, even in the middle of all of his pessimistic assessments about life, Solomon still realizes and give us glimpses of the conclusion of 12:13. There’s meaning to be found in what God has done, in enjoying the fruits of our work, in companionship. But, the last and final word is this:
Fear God. Do what he tells you. That’s it.
Conclusion:
How do we live a life that’s not just stuck under the sun?
Look beyond yourself for life’s meaning. (Fear God)
It’s not all about me. The Scriptures are full of flat-out statements of the purpose for our existence. It begins with Genesis 1:1 which says, “In the beginning God…” Your name isn’t mentioned there. Creation began with God – God’s wishes, God’s word, God’s power, and God’s plan. It started that way, and it will end that way, with God at the center in Revelation 22.
You might want to use a graphic to help you. Here is earth. You are here. Notice that these other things, called planets, don’t revolve around you. In fact, whether you like it or not, you’re revolving around the sun right now. And we’re part of a galaxy that’s revolving around another center. But, make a note of it, none of it’s revolving around you.
Let’s take a lesson from the solar system. It’s a lesson that God has spelled out to us 10,000X over. We were created to serve God’s purposes, not our own.
Fear God. Reverence God. Think of Him before yourself. Your very existence begins with Him
Live beyond self-pleasing (Do what He tells you)
Once you have such an attitude toward God, the second part follows pretty logically. If God really is the Divine Originator of all of creation, and if He created you, then it follows that you owe your obedience to Him as His creature.
Romans 9:20 (NIV) But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'"
Ill - A lady puts a sheet of cookies into the oven – gingerbread men. Suddenly, one jumps up. “Hey, we’re not going in there!” “What?!” “We’re not going in there. As spokesman for the gingerbread men on this cookie sheet, I’m protesting. It’s hot in there. Heat makes us look all puffy. We’re not going in there!” What does she say? She says, “Yes, you are. I made you. Without me, you wouldn’t even exist. It’s not your position in life to tell me what you will and won’t do!”
Do what God tells you. He created you. As His creatures, we owe Him our obedience just because we owe Him our existence. It goes even deeper, though, because God didn’t just create us. He has also has invited us to know Him and to love Him. He didn’t just make us, He also made the way for us to be reconciled to Him when we were hostile to Him with our wrong choices.
Meaning of life? Take it from a man who experienced it. The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. And that's it.
