Read Ecclesiastes 12:8–14
Questions from the Scripture text: How does Ecclesiastes 12:8 summarize the preacher’s (assembler’s) conclusion about the length and significance of life in this world, on its own terms? What had the concluding teaching been, rather than to live life on its own terms (cf. Ecclesiastes 11:10–12:1)? So, what did the preacher still do to the people (Ecclesiastes 12:9)? And what did he seek out and set in order? What sorts of words, specifically (Ecclesiastes 12:10)? What two things does verse 10 say about the words that were written? What are the words of the wise like (Ecclesiastes 12:11)? What are the words of masters-of-collections like? By Whom are these goads and well-driven nails given? To whom is Ecclesiastes 12:12 addressed? What does the preacher tell him to do with those words? What does he say about other books and other study, by comparison? What is the concluding command (Ecclesiastes 12:13)? As what, must he do those two things? What truth/reality drives home that this must be how we live?
What is the chief end of man? Ecclesiastes 12:8–14 prepares us for the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these seven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
Here, we come to the conclusion of the whole book, indeed the conclusion of all of life. In and of itself, our life in this world—indeed the life of this entire world—is a vapor of vapors (Ecclesiastes 12:8). The most fleeting blink of a moment.
So what do we do? That’s what the project of Ecclesiastes (and Proverbs) has been all about. Solomon, by the Holy Spirit, has been writing as the caller of assemblies (NKJ “Preacher,” Ecclesiastes 12:9). The fleeting nature of life in this world makes it all the more crucial that people learn to fear God, and what that looks like in the details of life.
The main thing is to rejoice and live righteously, as we have already seen (cf. Ecclesiastes 11:7–10), and this is the book of Ecclesiastes. More details are fleshed out in the book of Proverbs.
Together, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs are the “many proverbs” (Ecclesiastes 12:9) and “delightful/pleasant words” (Ecclesiastes 12:10, more literally). These are the righteous and true words that we have in these two books of Scripture. In Ecclesiastes 12:11, the word “wise” is plural, indicating that Solomon understands that he is writing as just one of many, who give the words of the “one Shepherd.” Here is a biblical doctrine of Scripture: one Shepherd, using many wise men (carried along by the Holy Spirit) to set down the very words of God!
What do these words do? They move and stabilize. Goads move us to do what God says when we are stationary, or back into God’s path, when we are wayward. The well-driven nail, stabilizes the tent against the storm, and this is the other way that the Scriptures help us: giving the stability, strength, gladness, purpose, in God Himself. God uses the Bible to move the believer and to establish the believer.
This is why the Bible is the single book for your admonishment (Ecclesiastes 12:12a). Men will pile up other books, and men will wear themselves out trying to know more (verse 12b), but God has made full provision for our instruction and warning in the Bible. Just as no other words are on par of it (the words of the one Shepherd), so also no other words are to be added it as a rule of faith (nails) and practice (goads).
So, what does the Bible teach? Fear God (nails), and keep His commandments (goads), “for this is the mannishness of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, more literally). And, what man gets out of being a proper man is God Himself! Being a true man begins by being not-God, by fearing God alone as God. A true man images God, worships God, obeys God, enjoys God. This is the mannishness of man.
The truth, and certain expectation, of God’s judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14) is a gift from Him to drive us back to our chief end. The fact that we are sure to appear before the judgment seat of Christ (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:10), together with the fleetingness of this life and this world, drives us to this one great aim: to be well pleasing to Him, so long as we are present in the body (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:9), while we look forward to this mortality being swallowed up in the life and pleasure of enjoying Him forever (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1–8).
Why is the only chief end that makes sense, the chief end of glorifying God and enjoying God? Who can teach you how to glorify and enjoy Him? What has He given us, by which He teaches us to glorify and enjoy Him? What use are you making of what He has given us? And how is this helping you live life in this world, like someone who expects to enjoy God forever in the next world? What sort of life does this give you to live now?
Sample prayer: Lord, we thank You for the Bible. Please forgive us for when Your words would have goaded us into action, but we have not moved. Forgive us for when Your words would have goaded us back into Your own paths for us, but we have continued in our incorrect ways. Forgive us for when Your words would have stabilized us in You as our great purpose, but we have lived as if we had other, competing purposes. Forgive us for when Your words would have stabilized us in You as our great pleasure, but we have lived as if we had other, competing pleasures. Grant that Your Spirit would use Your Word to remind us that we are coming to the judgment, so that we will live always by Your Word, we ask in Christ’s Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Incline Your Ear” or TPH116A “I Love the LORD, for He Has Heard My Voice”
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