This isn’t the easiest chapter from which to really draw a conclusion about the author’s intent...there are multiple ways to to take it.  That said, there are some things that we definitely can comment on.  First is that the first 4 verses seem to encourage us to prepare for and commit to a journey of life that is long, to work, to sow, and to be committed to wisdom.  But with that is this idea that life can end at any time, and we have little control over that timeline.  The second idea is that God will judge us, which isn’t something we see much, if any, in Ecclesiastes to this point.  The idea being that we are to live in wisdom and we are to understand that life gives and life takes, but ultimately we are going to be judged in some way on what we do in this life.

This chapter is really short but it sets up this idea that there must be a purpose to this life other than personal pleasure, money, accumulation of stuff, etc...there must be a ‘higher’ purpose of some sort.  Chapter 12 will lead us into that, but as we close out the work of the teacher and turn to the point the author is making with the book as a whole, I just want to pause and consider what my biggest take away might be from these chapters.  For me, I think one of the biggest reminders was the fact that we are fragile and that self-control is a poor tool for self-management.  Wisdom isn’t the ability to resist temptation, but the ability to anticipate it and to avoid it.  Wisdom is recognizing that we are fighting a losing battle within ourselves, and that we can do best by doing two thing - learning and understanding how God created life to work and remembering that sin has destroyed the perfect relationship between cause and effect.

I think that is a great lesson to ween from these readings in Ecclesiastes.