Ecclesiastes 12

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;…Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

At the age of 34 I have already lived the strongest of my years.  I regret that I have not loved the Lord with a more fervency.  One day my eyes will dim and body will be weakened  that I should not have any pleasure in those days, I will not have the strength to serve God has I had when I was a teenager.  Though in my later years, my heart is changed and turned towards the Lord, still God will hold into account all that I have lived.

Thank God for the blood of Jesus who cleanses away all shame and transgression.  Yet I wish for the days of my youth to give to God has a sacrifice to His good pleasure.  My son, life God as early as you can and with all your might.  You will not have regrets and burdens.  It is those burdens which make us old. I thank God for you and pray for you to know the love of God.

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything?

Over the years I’ve seen some strange applications and interpretations to the first 8 verses of this chapter.  A common application is that these verses justify the ethical reasons for the actions that are mentioned, such as a time to kill and a time to break down.  But let me insist that these verses are written to accomplish the point the author really wants to make, the point that is summarized all throughout the book. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.  For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” (Eccl. 12:13-14; See also 2:24,26; 3:12-13, 15, 17; 5:19; 7:18; 8:12, 17; 12:1)

So how do these observations support the preacher’s point, that we ought to fear God and keep His commandments?  I believe the answer is provided in the next few verses.  First, verse 9 concludes that human beings are entrapped in time and mortality.  A man might spend his life working and building, but he will never escape the expiration date of his life and labors.  A person well never finally enjoy the fruit of their work.

Wouldn’t it be nice to forever live in a home one has built for themselves?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to enjoy forever one’s relationship with their children and with friends we have labored to make?  Would it not be more gratifying to profit forever from our education that we have labored many years to obtain?  But, alas, all these good things we labor for expire and we will not enjoy them forever.

Therefore even what we might temporarily enjoy is cursed with the knowledge that it won’t last.  Almost certainly everyone knows what it feels like to approach a season of joy but before it arrives one already feel the pains of it’s departure.   Such is our mortal lives.  We labor to enjoy the profits, but in the end there will be no final satisfaction to our labor.  Everything we put our hand to will expire in the curse of our mortality.

The Curse of Mortality

The preacher recognizes in verses 12 and 13 that it is the gift of God that a man would be satisfied by the work of his hand.  Such was the condition before the fall. But remember the curse of Genesis 3 has all to do with a man’s work, laboring but never arriving to a point of satisfaction, the preacher words certainly captures the hopelessness of the curse that encompasses all humanity.  Verse 11 explains that God made everything beautiful in his time, in other words the original state of God’s creation provided everything man needed for satisfaction and fulfillment.  But after the curse men still have an innate desire to be fulfilled by his work, but in his mortality it is futile endeavor.

The preacher recognizes the only work that last for eternity is the work that God does.  Verse 14 states, “I know that, whatsoever God doth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doth it, that men should fear before him.”   If there is any chance at all for men to partake of something eternally satisfying, then the answer lies with humbling oneself before God, hence the summary of the book “fear God and keep his commandments“.

Conclusion: Satisfied Forever Through Calvary

The preacher writes from the other side of the cross, to him Jesus’s Gospel work and ministry was a mystery.  And so the summary of Ecclesiastes seems to summarize what the entire Old Testaments concludes, that is, humble yourself before God and keep His commandments.  But we are reading from this side of the cross, and so let us follow to the end the path God’s commandments lead us all to, the cross of Jesus Christ.

God in His wisdom and love God has provided the hope the preacher is longing for, an enteral satisfaction to one’s labors.  It is only the labor that has been done in submission to Christ that will be remembered and praised.

Jesus promised it: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27).

Paul reaffirmed it: “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward” (1 Cor. 3:14).

The eternal reward is the inheritance of the testament the Lord Jesus established through his death on calvary: “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ” (Col. 3:24).

The words of the preacher were penned before calvary, but now we can read them after calvary and put our full confidence and hope in Jesus Christ who makes the promise. Through Him we will enjoy an eternal household, we will eternally enjoy friends and family that we have labored for the Lord.  We may now together build the household we will eternally be living, and look forward to be forever satisfied in the presence of our God.