Bible Discussion Thread

The rest of Ecclesiastes 12

Verses 8-13

Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.

The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.

The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Here we see the summary; all is vanity (verse 8); and we see the conclusion of he whole matter in the last verse. Of course no one can keep all of God's commandments apart from the Spirit of Christ in them. We see some reference to Christ it would seem in verse 10 referring to the nails fastened by the masters of assemblies; it would seem. We see mention as well of the "preacher" namely Solomon himself writing Proverbs; apparently before this book even realizing the vanity of human efforts and their limitations as fearing God is the beginning of wisdom. We see this in Proverbs 1:7 as well as 9:10. Proverbs 7:2 mentions keeping commandments; although we seem to see a lot more of that sentiment in Psalms especially Psalm 119 which David wrote.

Let us learn to avoid such a deep dive into worldly pleasures and pursuits that Solomon delved into seeing the problems that it caused him. If the world's richest man at that time could commend the simple pleasurs of a common laborer as sufficient we should keep that in mind no matter how much material possessions we attain as it has no value if hoarded for our own self interests and will certainly be gone at death. Let us be wise stewards of the money and time we live as a shadow on earth.