9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also taught the people knowledge; he pondered, searched out, and arranged many proverbs. 10 The Teacher searched to find delightful sayings and to record accurate words of truth.

11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the anthologies of the masters are like firmly embedded nails driven by a single Shepherd. 12 And by these, my son, be further warned: There is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.

13 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

I remember years ago I was the visiting preacher at a different church. I preached what I thought was a pretty good sermon. Then the service leader, who was their youth pastor, got up to conclude the service, and he gave a one-sentence summary of my sermon that captured the whole message far more clearly than I had managed with all my words. He had a greater gift than I do for getting the essence of something in a few words (which probably isn’t a surprise to anyone…).

This final passage in the book of Ecclesiastes wasn’t written by the Teacher, but by the anonymous editor who collected and wrote down the proverbs of the Teacher. Even though this editor only wrote a tiny portion of the final book, I love how he has taken all the Teacher’s profound, challenging, uncomfortable truths, and distilled them into the most important thing we need to hear: There is a great day of judgment coming, so fear God – that is, trust him, and obey him. That message was scattered throughout the Teacher’s work, but this unknown editor has allowed us to see it with crystal clarity.

We saw something similar in Sunday’s passage from Matthew: Jesus taught many things, but the most urgent and important thing he preached was the message of “the kingdom of heaven”, that is, the gospel (Matt. 4:17). That gospel includes the same warning of the coming judgment, and the call to “fear God and give Him glory” (see Revelation 14:6-7). But the glorious relief of the gospel is that God has already brought “every deed” and “every hidden thing” into judgment. He judged sin itself “by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin … so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).

The Teacher had a wonderful gift for pushing people who want to exclude God to face the futility of life without him, and to see that it’s impossible for us to get over the problem of death. Maybe there’s someone you need to have that conversation with? But make sure you also include the only solution there is – that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in him will live and never die (John 11:25-26).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our Senior Minister.