For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:14
Death is Not the End
Aging (12:1-5). The verses are literature’s classic description of aging, picturing the dimming of sight, loss of teech and hearing, loss of strength in the limbs and the waning of sexual desire.
God and His commandments (12:13). Here may be the book’s first hint that the author knows of God’s special revelation in Scripture. But it may refer simply to the moral knowledge God has implanted in human nature.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
12:11 Just as an ox goad prods an animal in the right direction, so will the words of this book when they are properly understood. Well-driven nails: The nails, or “pegs,” referred to here are the same in 2 Chr. 3:9; Jer. 10:4. These are hooks in tents where families hung the clothes and pots needed for everyday life. Here they refer to mental hooks giving stability and perspective to life. By one Shepherd: Kings were typically compared to shepherds, and Solomon is claiming that the source of his ideas is God, the Shepherd of Israel (Ps. 80:1).
11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd.
12:13 To fear God is one of the major themes of this book and of wisdom literature in OT. To fear God is to respond to Him in awe, reverence, and wonder; to serve Him in purity of action, and to shun evil and any worship of anything else in His universe. Keep His commandments: The commandments of the Law are in view here. Jesus summed them up as to “love the Lord your God” and “your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:24). Men’s all: We are whole or complete only when we fear God and obey His commandments. What profit is there in living? If we follow what this book has said, we will have a relationship with God and find life in Him.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
12:14 judgment: This same teaching is echoed by the apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 5:10. Death is not the end. All of life will be reviewed by our righteous Lord. Life must be lived through faith with the values of the eternal God in view.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.
12 1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”: 2 While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain; 3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down; When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim; 4 When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low; 5 Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets. 6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. 7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”
The Whole Duty of Man
9 And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright–words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. 12 And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. 14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.
