“Now all has been heard …”
[Ecclesiastes 12:9-14]
When I go to a Christian bookstore and buy a book, I mainly look at my favorite authors first. Then I check if there are books I have not bought and read yet. After that, if there is a book that I have not read yet, I open the book and look at the table of contents. The reason is to guess roughly what the contents of the book are. Then, before I buy that book, the main part I see is the conclusion at the end of the book. The reason is that if I see the conclusion, I can roughly know what the author wrote in the book.
Today we will finally meditate on Ecclesiastes 12: 9-14, which is the conclusion of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Here King Solomon gives us a final advice. The heart of the last advice is the verse 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.” When I started to meditate on Ecclesiastes, I meditated on the first part of Ecclesiastes, chapter 1:1-11, under the title "Vain World". And after a year and two months later, we are now meditating on the last chapter of Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 12:9-14. I would like to humbly receive the message of the last advice that God would give to us through Ecclesiastes under the heading "Now all has been heard …," based on the text of Ecclesiastes 12: 9-14.
The first thing that we must think about is that the Bible says, “Now all has been heard …” and what is “all” that we have heard. That is the word of truth. Look at Ecclesiastes 12:10 – “The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly.” As we know, King Solomon was the most wise man in the world (1 Kgs. 3: 3-28). With the wisdom that God gave him, King Solomon not only taught the Israelites, God’s people, knowledge but also he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs (v.9). As he was doing so, King Solomon strived to find and use delightful words (v. 10). Such is what he says today in his verse 10 that he wrote words of truth correctly. In other words, King Solomon is claiming that his teaching of the Book of Ecclesiastes is true (not a lie). By saying so, he is telling us that the authority of this book is the Word of God (Park Yun-sun). Then how should we react to all the things that we have heard the words of the Book of Ecclesiastes that has God's authority? How shall we, those who have heard the word of God through Ecclesiastes, live? I would like to think about it in four ways:
First, we, who heard the words of Ecclesiastes, must be pierced by our hearts and consciences through the Word of God.
Look at Ecclesiastes 12:11 – “The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.” Here, the word "goads" are tools that the shepherd used to guide the flock to the right path, and King Solomon now tells us that the word of God's truth has the same role. When we are swing to the left or to the right, the Word of God strikes our heart and conscience and making us to repent so we can walk on the right path again. This is what the Bible Hebrews 4:12 says: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” In Acts 2, when the apostle Peter preached the word of God, the people who listened to it were pierced to the heart and asked Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" (Acts 2:37). And Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v. 38). There were 3,000 people who received the word of God through Peter’s preaching that day and were baptized into repentance by heart (v. 41). Thus the word of God's truth pierces our hearts and our conscience. The question we must ask ourselves is whether our mind and conscience have been pierced by the Word of God as we meditate on the Book of Ecclesiastes every week for over a year. How is it? Personally, I have been pierced in my heart and conscience through the words of Ecclesiastes because I was pursuing vain and futile things of this world. Although Missionary Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose”, I was fool in pursuing temporal things of this world such as vain pleasure (2:1-11). That’s why my heart and conscience was pierced by the the truthful words of Ecclesiastes.
Second, we, who heard the words of Ecclesiastes, must have the Word of God that is like like the “well-driven nails’ in our hearts. In other words, we must solve all the problems of life based on the Word of God.
Look at Ecclesiastes 12:11 – “The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.” When the Lord, who is the true wisdom and our teacher, speaks the Word to us, it is not only piercing our heart and conscience, but also it is like a "well-driven nails". What does it mean by the word of truth that is "well-driven nails"? Dr. Park Yun-sun says, ;The word 'well-driven nail' means that all the problems of life are solved on the basis of God's Word, just as the important objects are hanged on the nail’ (Park Yun-sun). We must listen to the Word of the Lord, who is our Shepherd. And we must be guided and led by His Word. Also, we must obtain wisdom from His Word so that we may be able to solve all the problems of life. We must no longer commit the foolish sin in trying to solve all the problems of our live apart from the Word of God. To do so, the word of truth of God must be like a well-nailed in our hearts. Imagine if a nail is not well-nailed on the wall, how can we hung an important thing on the nail? Likewise, if the words of the truth of God are not well engraved in our hearts, when we encounter the problems of life, we will not and also cannot return to the Word of God's truth and try to solve the problem. Therefore, now that we have heard all the Word of Ecclesiastes today, we must penetrate the problems of life through the power of the Word of God by engraving the truthful words of Ecclesiastes in our mind.
Third, we, who heard the words of Ecclesiastes, must receive God’s warning through His Word.
Look at Ecclesiastes 12:12 – “But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body.” The Bible 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” We are not only to be taught by God's truthful words, but also to be reproved. But what do we receive mainly before we are reproved to God? That's warning. Our God is the God who warns us before he reproaches us. If we hear and obey the warning of God, we will be praised by God, but if we hear and disobey, we will be rebuked by God. What is the warning that King Solomon giving us in Ecclesiastes 12:12? That is to say, 'Do not rely on books of the world other than the Bible.' What is the reason? The reason is that, besides the biblical book, the books of this world are not very satisfactory and only give the researchers fatigue (Park Yun-sun). What do you think? Many books in the world, are they satisfying our soul? Are we sure that only the Bible can satisfy our souls? We should live by faith in "Sola Scriptura" as the 16th century reformers cried out. To do so, we must eat the Word of God, which is the food of our souls. And we should obey the Word so that not only we digest it, but it also becomes our spiritual muscle. Therefore, we must stand firmly in the Word of God and rely on the Word to glorify God by obeying God's will.
Lastly, we, who heard the words of Ecclesiastes, must fear God and keep His command.
Look at 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.” This is the conclusion of the whole book of Ecclesiastes. And the conclusion is to fear God and keep His command. The Bible says this is "the whole duty of man." Here, “the whole duty of man” means ‘all things for man’ (Park Yun-sun). That is, life is made to fear God and to keep his command, and that the value of life depends only on serving God (Park, Yun-sun). In a word, all of us should know the purpose of life and the value of life, and we should live for that purpose and value. What is the value of our life? It only depends on serving God. And what is the purpose of our life? It is to fear God and to keep His command. We should believe in the fact that “God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (v. 14) and that we should faithfully fulfill our whole duty in this earth.
We have heard the God’s truths from Ecclesiastes 12: 9-14. God wants us to respond in four ways: (1) God wants us to be pierced in our hearts and consciences through the Word of God. (2) God wants us to solve all the problems of life based on the Word of God. (3) God wants us to receive his warning through his Word – ‘Do not rely on the books of the world other than the Bible.' (4) Our God wants us to fear God and keep His command. I hope and pray that we, who live in this vain world, will fulfill our whole duty faithfully until the end so that we may be praised by God as "a good and faithful servant" when we stand before the Lord (Mt. 25:21, 23).