The Glorious End of the Matter
4/25 Reading Portions: Numbers 2; Psalm 36; Ecclesiastes 12; Philemon 1
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
4/25 Reading Portions: Numbers 2; Psalm 36; Ecclesiastes 12; Philemon 1
Ecclesiastes 12:13
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
DUTY
At the end of this stirring sermon, and possibly the latter years of the preacher’s life, he concludes his message with words which can only be received in truth with gladness through the grace and mercy of God. The preacher is none other than Solomon (Ecc 1:1, 12), for only one other son of David ruled as king: Absalom; and Absalom’s treachery and treason would most certainly exclude him as the author of such wise words.
Solomon was like the children of Israel: they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because their fleshly and superficial wisdom refused to trust YHVH God to bring them into the Promised Land. The rebels must die in the wilderness before the congregation could enter. The Preacher, whose heart was turned by idolatrous wives (1 Ki 11:3), must likewise see the vanity of life apart from the grace and mercy of God; and in this sermon, his repentance is couched behind his words, and between the lines. He concludes with the most powerful truth concerning man’s duty, man’s futility, and man’s only hope.
Man’s duty is to fear a holy God and keep His commands. Since Adam’s fall, no mere man can revere God and keep, treasure, and carry out His commands (Isa 64:6). Not even Solomon could, who was the wisest, wealthiest, and most blessed man who ever lived— apart from Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only righteous Man who ever lived; the only wise Prophet who spoke the truth with a pure heart; the only Son wholly submissive to His Father’s will in all things. Jesus feared God with untainted reverence and kept all God’s commands both actively and passively. He is the only hope for fallen mankind— and there is a judgment coming (Ecc 12:14). We must trust the Lord Jesus Christ in every area of our lives… and leave no area “untrusted.” Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Fear God and His commandments keep,
Instruction much too high for me,
And also long and broad and deep:
Yet imputed by Christ’s blest tree.