Day 9

"Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12:13

The fear of God is a recurring theme in the book of Proverbs. There are different shades of meaning to the Hebrew word 'fear', but when Solomon tells his readers to, ‘fear God’ and keep His commandments’, he is speaking the voice of experience. Solomon had been at that place earlier in his life and as a young man who feared God, had known its rich rewards of wisdom, knowledge, discerning of evil, length to life and it being a place of refuge for his children, all of which his book of Proverbs had promised to those who fear God.  But he had taken a long journey on a track of human reason, physical pleasure and material values which had left him stating thirty six times in Ecclesiastes that it was ‘meaningless’. That road had led him up dead end street after dead end street. Now he was finding his way home again.

When we fear God we don’t need to fear anything else. In the last two chapters of Ecclesiastes, the sun comes out in this difficult book and the gloomy environment is lifted with a strong sense of the presence of God. The Living Bible puts some of it this way: ‘It is a wonderful thing to be alive! If a person lives to be very old, let him rejoice in every day of life, but let him also remember that eternity is far longer and that everything down here is futile in comparison. Young man, it's wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it! Do all you want to; take in everything, but realize that you must account to God for everything you do. So banish grief and pain, but remember that youth, with a whole life before it, can make serious mistakes’ (Ecclesiastes 11.7-10). Then he opens the next chapter, ‘Don't let the excitement of being young cause you to forget about your Creator. Honor him in your youth before the evil years come-when you'll no longer enjoy living’ (Ecclesiastes 12.1 – Living Bible).

This is the wise old man again now, addressing the young people who will be tempted to follow his own futile search for meaning outside of God. Solomon had made his mistakes, as have many of God’s people, and that is permissible if it is in a search for truth, for this is where the principle may be said, ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’ (Jeremiah 29.13).