"Fear God and Keep His Commandments"

Today's Reading

Read Ecclesiastes 11:7–12:14: The Teacher's haunting poem on aging and death — "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come" — followed by the book's conclusion: "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

Then read Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 again, slowly.

Reflection

Ecclesiastes draws to a close with two of the most powerful passages in the Bible. First, the poem on aging (12:1-8) — a masterpiece of metaphor in which the failing body is described through a series of images: the darkening of sun and moon (failing eyesight), the trembling of the keepers of the house (shaking hands), the grinding of the women who cease (teeth wearing out), the closing of doors on the street (growing deafness), the almond tree blossoming (white hair), the grasshopper dragging itself along (stiffness of limb).

The poem is beautiful and unbearable. It says: you are mortal. Time is running out. And therefore: "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them.'"

Spurgeon drives the urgency home:

"Remember your Creator in the days of your youth! How many put off this remembrance until it is too late, until the faculties decay and the body fails. The Teacher urges us: do not wait."

Then comes the conclusion — the summary of everything the Teacher has been driving toward through twelve chapters of relentless questioning: "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil."

After all the vanity, after all the frustration, after all the experiments with pleasure and wisdom and wealth — the Teacher arrives at the very place where Proverbs began: the fear of God. Is this a failure? A retreat to safety? No.

J.I. Packer explains:

"After all the questioning, all the searching, all the honest wrestling — Ecclesiastes arrives at the same place Proverbs began: the fear of God. That is not a failure of imagination. It is the deepest wisdom there is."

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs) and the end of wisdom (Ecclesiastes). It is where you start, and it is where you arrive after you have tried everything else. The entire journey of Ecclesiastes — through pleasure, through wealth, through accomplishment, through despair — leads you back to the only thing that is not vanity: the God who made you.

Going Deeper

Ecclesiastes is now complete. The Teacher has done his work: he has demolished every idol and left you standing before God alone. Tomorrow, we turn to Job — the book that asks the hardest question of all: What happens when you fear God and obey His commandments, and your life falls apart anyway?