Ecclesiastes 12:9-14 MSG Besides being wise himself, the Quester also taught others knowledge. He weighed, examined, and arranged many proverbs. The Quester did his best to find the right words and write the plain truth. 11 The words of the wise prod us to live well. They’re like nails hammered home, holding life together. They are given by God, the one Shepherd. 12-13 But regarding anything beyond this, dear friend, go easy. There’s no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you’re no good for anything else. The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you. 14 And that’s it. Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it’s good or evil.
Matthew22:37-40 MSG Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”
Observation
Ecclesiastes is a book written by a grumpy old man, a man who has wandered from God and tried to find meaning in this life under the sun in every way humanly possible. He had great wealth, power, and fame, many wives, servants and houses, access to all the knowledge available in his time, everything this world could provide, and, yet he felt empty because none of it could satisfy his soul and fill the void that only God can fill. Now that he is old and facing death, the end of every human, “The last and final word is this: Fear God.”
The Quester distills wise living down to trusting in and submitting to God. We can make plans, gain knowledge, take care of our bodies, but our destiny, the number of our days, is in God’s hands. All human wisdom, knowledge and understanding, all human attempts at true justice, all human accomplishments, every thing we get or do separate from God, is smoke (vanity) and spitting into the wind (wasted effort). He encourages us to seek God, obey God and enjoy the gifts and blessings bestowed upon us by God rather than work long hours and bear heavy loads to accomplish our own human goals. We take none of this with us when we stand before Jesus, the Judge, on that day.
Impact on Me
The book of Ecclesiastes has always been such a downer for me because of the cynicism I hear in so much of it. I have often wondered why it is in the Bible. I always envisioned a gruff, grizzled, grumpy old man who has nothing good to say about his life. This time through it was different. I kept seeing young people who have lost the joy of life because they have no experience or understanding of the void in them that only Jesus can fill. So many today are chasing after the same smoke of this book, still spitting into the wind to accomplish something, and finding themselves empty and purposeless when they reach their goals.
This new perspective has given me pause to reassess where I have allowed the things I can see, feel, touch and obtain to replace the fear of God. Where have I substituted human wisdom, knowledge, understanding, recognition for obedience and submission to God and His Word? I am also concerned about the times I have stood silently by without sharing how Jesus is the only way to fill that emptiness so many who have no understanding or experience of God are experiencing, forgetting Jesus’ command to “Love others as well as you love yourself.” If I want to present myself as a good and faithful servant to Jesus on that day, I need to reassess how my ways need to change. “Eventually God will bring everything that we do out into the open and judge it according to its hidden intent, whether it’s good or evil.”
Prayer
Lord God, My Father, My Maker, My Redeemer, I worship You. Forgive me for any time I have stood by silently as someone suffered the emptiness of life without You. What value do I place on Jesus in me if I will not risk sharing Him with another? Lord, examine me, search my heart, and crush any wicked intent that may lurk in me. I want to love You with all I am and have and love others as well as I do myself. Help me, Lord, to walk in the footsteps You place before me without wandering off on my own. I ask this all in Jesus’ name.
Pressing On In His Footsteps 