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Scripture Reading: Eccl. 12:13-14
In this message we will continue to consider the writer's experiments and then go on to see his searching and testing.
Eccl. 5:1-7 describes the writer's experiment in contacting God.
Solomon's word here is not in the view of encouragement but in the view of caution. This is different from the view of the apostle Paul in encouraging the believers to approach God for receiving mercy and finding grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16).
Eccl. 5:1a cautions us to guard our steps when we go to the house of God.
Verse 1b charges us to draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they are doing evil.
We should not be rash with our mouth and not let our heart hastily utter anything before God, for God is in heaven and we are on the earth. Therefore, we should let our words be few, unlike the fool's multitude of words (vv. 2-3).
Verses 4 through 6 tell us not to delay in paying our vow to God. It is better that we not vow than that we vow and not pay.
Verse 7 says, "For in the multitude of dreams and in many words are also vanities. Rather, fear God."
Eccl. 5:8-17 and Eccl. 6:1-12 we have sundry illustrations of various things in human life that are vanity.
In a province a poor man is oppressed under the wresting of justice and righteousness, although there are ranks of officials who should attend to this matter and even there is a king who is used to doing things for the advantage of the land. This is vanity (Eccl. 5:8-9).
The ones who love silver and love abundance with income will not be satisfied, and the fullness of the rich will not let him sleep. This is also vanity (vv. 10-12).
The rich man keeps his riches to his own hurt, and his riches are lost in a bad venture and nothing is left for his son. He has labored for the wind, eating in darkness and having much vexation and sickness and resentment. This is a grievous evil and is also vanity (vv. 13-17).
According to 6:1-2 an evil that is heavy upon man concerns a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor. God does not empower him to eat of it, but a stranger eats it. This is vanity and an evil plague.
A man begets a hundred children and lives many years, but his soul is not filled with good and he even does not get a proper burial. He is worse off than a stillborn. This is also vanity (vv. 3-6).
Man labors for his mouth, yet his soul is not filled. What advantage, then, does the wise man have over the fool? And what advantage does the poor man have in knowing how to walk before the living? All these are vanity and a chasing after wind (vv. 7-9).
In verse 12 the writer asks, "Who knows what is good for a man in life during the few days of his vain life, which he will spend as a shadow?" There are many things which will increase vanity. What is the advantage to man? (v. 11).
In all his experiments Solomon encouraged, according to God's economy, the fallen men under the sun to enjoy what God has given to them that they may exist and afford God the opportunity to carry out His eternal purpose in choosing and predestinating them for the issue of the Body of Christ and to maintain the fallen man of God's old creation to be the provision for God to bring in His new creation in Christ out of the old creation (2:24; 3:13; 5:18-20; 8:15; 9:7-10). This is proved by the apostle Paul's preaching in Acts 14:15-17 and 17:24-31.
Here we should note that for us to live a life that we may testify Christ and minister Christ to others to glorify God, we need the material things and physical matters. But we should not be attracted, captured, and usurped by them. If we are usurped by them, we will suffer their vanity. We are living in the world and passing through the "vanity fair," but we should not linger in it for its vainglory. Today all things of the old creation are under the slavery of corruption. If we do not escape "the corruption which is in the world by lust" (2 Pet. 1:4), we will share in its vanity.
In 7:1—12:12 we have the writer's searching and testing.
The writer searched and tested all things of the fallen human life under the sun (Eccl. 7:23-29; 8:9, 16; 12:9-10).
All the things under the sun, regardless of the kind of persons involved, wise or foolish, diligent or lazy, rich or poor, old or young, high or low, righteous or wicked, good or sinful, clean or unclean, and regardless of how they were born, how they worked, how they died, and how their end was, all are vanity of vanities (7:6, 15; 8:10, 14; 9:9; 11:8, 10; 12:8).
Proverbs, words of wisdom, were produced out of the writer's searching and testing (Eccl. 7:1-9, 11-12, 14-17; 8:1, 5, 8; 9:4, 7-12, 16-18; 10:1-2, 4, 8-14, 18-20; 11:1, 3-8; 12:11, 12b). All these proverbs are good for building up the character of one who lives a better human life, but they do not have the function to afford the growth in the divine life for the building up of the Body of Christ. Yet, for the building up of the Body of Christ there is the need of a proper character, not by self-cultivation but by the Spirit's anointing under the work of the cross of Christ with the rich elements of Christ (Gal. 5:16; 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21).
The writer searched and tested what God is to man.
God created man, so God is the Sovereign over man (Eccl. 7:29; 12:1).
All things concerning man are in the hand of God, and God is inscrutable in His doings (Eccl. 9:1; 8:17; 7:13-14; 11:5).
God will judge man in everything (Eccl. 3:17; 11:9; 12:14; Matt. 12:36; Rom. 2:5, 16; Acts 17:31; Rev. 20:11-13).
God gives man a portion in human life for him to enjoy and exist that God could have an opportunity to call out some for the carrying out of His eternal selection and predestination for the accomplishment of His eternal economy (Eccl. 8:15).
The writer also searched and tested what man should be to God.
Man should fear God that he may gain the wisdom from God to know how to live the human life and to know God further (Eccl. 7:18; 8:12-13; 12:13).
Man, being fallen from the God-created good condition into his schemes (Eccl. 7:29) and having a heart full of evil (Eccl. 9:3), not one of whom is righteous, does good, and does not sin (Eccl. 7:20), should repent to God and receive the Redeemer whom God has prepared for him (Job 19:25).
Man should enjoy God's provision for his living and the marriage life for man's existence and multiplication to replenish the earth (Gen. 1:28) that it may be possible for God to save some of them in order to produce the church — the Body of Christ — which will issue in the New Jerusalem as God's eternal enlargement and expression according to God's eternal economy (Eccl. 9:7-10).
The unveiling of the above points of the writer's experiments and searching and testing should not be considered the divine revelation from God, though they are included in the Scriptures. They are the conclusion of the writer's research in his experiments of the fallen men's human life under the sun. All the concluding words may be considered as proverbs, words of wisdom, directing the fallen and aim-missing men to return to God and receive Him according to His New Testament economy in His Son as their Redeemer and life that they may be regenerated to be the God-men for the accomplishment of God's eternal economy.
In 11:9—12:1 the writer gives advice to young men.
Young men should endeavor to enjoy the human life in their youth in the light of God's judgment to remove vexation from their heart and put away evil from their flesh (Eccl. 11:9-10).
Young men should remember their Creator while they are young and not hesitate in this until old age comes (Eccl. 12:1).
In Eccl. 12:2-8 the writer shows us the sad portrait of man's old age. The bright environment with the three lights created by God and the artificial ones made by man becomes gloomy, and the pleasant atmosphere of the clear sky is cloudy (v. 2). The hands, the keepers of the house, tremble (v. 3a). The loins, the men of strength, are bent (v. 3b). The teeth become few (v. 3c), the eyes become dim (v. 3d), and the ears become dull to sound (v. 4a). One awakens early in the morning (v. 4b). The vocal cords become low (v. 4c). One is afraid of what is high (v. 5a) and is terrified in walking (v. 5b). The hair becomes white (v. 5c). One is unable to bear any burden, even any as small as a grasshopper (v. 5d). No medicine can keep the old man away from death, and mourners attend his funeral (v. 5e). The corpse — the spinal cord (the silver cord), the head (the golden bowl), the lungs (the pitcher), and the heart (the wheel) — decays (v. 6). The body made of dust returns to the earth, and the breath returns to God who gave it (v. 7; Gen. 2:7). This indicates that the entire human being with his human life apart from God is nothing but vanity of vanity (Eccl. 12:8).
In Eccl. 12:13-14 we have the writer's concluding word.
The writer's intention is to lead men to fear God that God may eventually show them His New Testament economy concerning the producing of His church, the Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem as God's eternal enlargement and expression (v. 13).
God will judge men in this age for their deeds, even every secret thing, according to good or evil, and at His great white throne for their eternal destiny (v. 14; Rev. 20:11-15).
