Our Beginning: A Reflection on Ecc. 12:9-14
“The End is my Beginning”, are the words of T.S. Eliot’s poem and we have reached the end of the matter for the Teacher. The end of the matter is the beginning for us. The Teacher experienced life in all its ways. He pushed the limits of knowledge, only to find it leads to much vexation. The Teacher indulged in all the worldly pleasures one could have and it led to emptiness. The Teacher even went further and went into moral perversity and madness. It too led to nothingness. All has led to hebel.
In our final passage from Ecclesiastes the Teacher has given way to the editor. The Editor began our book with verse one of chapter one and added these final lines of wisdom. There are many take-aways from these few verses. We will focus on two.
Firstly, the Teacher is giving us wise and truthful words. The words of the wise are like a goad. Goads are sticks with spikes or nails sticking out. This keeps the cattle or other livestock in a straight lines. These goads annoy and stick in each and everyone of us who listens to the words of the wise. The wise words are fixed in our memories. The nails of the wise are fixed on us like nails one uses to place a picture on a wall. However, notice that the Teacher is not necessarily talking about himself, but someone in particular: the Shepherd. It is the truthfulness of the Teacher’s words that are attributed to the Shepherd. Psalm 23 tells us that the Lord is our Shepherd and for the Teacher this is no different.
The words of the wise, which are, again, attributed to the Shepherd, the LORD, offer us wisdom. Wisdom from God is the answer to life for the Teacher. You want to live in the beauty of truthfulness? Follow the Lord. But we are too foolish for such nonsense. We must continue to learn more apart from God. The Teacher could anticipate this. In making many books there is no end. In searching for the meaning of life, there is also no end. One will never find the meaning of life on their own terms. But we still struggle to accept the Teacher’s advice.
Humanity has been looking for all the answers for many centuries. We desperately want to know the truth. We live no room for such superstitious beliefs, i.e. God. There must be a “logical” explanation. In C.S. Lewis The Great Divorce, perfectly illustrates humanity's fixation on finding meaning without God. The scene is set on the borders of heaven. A searcher is being invited into heaven. The Searcher is told, “I can promise you…no scope for your talents: only forgiveness for having perverted them. No atmosphere of inquiry, for I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God.”
The Searcher replies, “Ah, but we must all interpret those beautiful words in our own way! For me there is no such thing as a final answer. The free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind, must it not?…the Spirit answers, “Listen! Once you were a child. Once you knew what inquiry was for. There was a time when you asked questions because you wanted answers, and were glad when you had found them. Because that child again: even now.” For we know to be child-like, is to follow God with all our being.
However, the Searcher responds, “Ah, but when I became a man I put away childish things.” No argument would work, even with God there with him. Nothing could satisfy him. Lewis goes on to say the Searcher left heaven and went back to his book club in hell in order to learn more.
The point is in our searching for answers, we blow right past it: God is the answer.
That brings us to our second point, the end of the matter. The Teacher gave us this long treatise on life under the sun. He finishes with the modern equivalent of: That's it! I've said everything I needed to say. At this point it is as if the Teacher is in his classroom and is beginning to pack up his things when a student raises his hand and ask, "So, what is the Meaning of life?"
Fear God and keep God's commandments. That is the whole of humanity's duty. The point is that this is not all there is to life. The Teacher is vague about what commandments, although he has mentioned some throughout the book. The whole of our duty is the opposite of hevel: Fear of God and God's commandments are something we can hold on to, unlike hevel. Of course, the fear of God is not being in a constant state of being afraid. Fear in the Old Testament becomes faith in the New Testament. We are to have faith in God and we have more of the story than the Teacher because Christ came and showed us the way.
The Shepherd above is Christ our Lord. In Gospel of John chapter 10, Jesus says that he of l is the Good Shepherd and through him life is given abundantly. My friends, this is the end of the matter but our beginning. Have faith in God alone. Trust in God in all our ways. There are many other things competing for our allegiance and trust. Only one is worthy.
Zac