Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:14
Dear RTB’ers,
So today we finish our week in Ecclesiastes. It’s been an unusual week, an unusual book. I had read that many leading Christians over the years had wanted to exclude Ecclesiastes from the Bible, yet it continued to prevail. It’s closing, alone, should give anyone pause before throwing it out: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (vv. 12:13-14) I recall my own research paper during that Old Testament class that I took back in 1972. Scholars had argued that these words were written by an editor who wanted to keep Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible and not throw it out. I had argued that there were many passages in the book that were consistent with these closing verses. For example, we see “fear God” (or related words) in Ecclesiastes 3:14, 5:7, 7:18, and 8:12-13. I had also found justifications in other verses, probably regarding good and evil and judgment.
So Ecclesiastes remains in our Bible today. Like Job, it offers great fodder for group discussions and personal reflection. In one of his links from a few days ago John had suggested that we re-read all the earlier chapters before getting into that day’s reading. Maybe that’s a good suggestion for us today. Read the entire book again. Maybe we’ll find that we agree with the Preacher’s main point that “all is vanity”. Or maybe we’ll find that we disagree. Still, I’m confident that a lot of what we do is, in fact, “vanity”!! A striving after wind…
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Blessings!
Fred