Ecclesiastes 12:8 - Meaning and Application

Solomon is coming near the end now, and he is not willing to stop until he has made his point. He wants his hearers and readers to seek the satisfaction they can never find in created things, but only in God and in duty to him. So he repeats his main theme: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 12:8).

He repeats it because he has already proved it true. He also repeats it because he wants both others and himself to keep it close at hand and use it often. Since we see it proved every day, we should also put it to daily use. The world is empty, and all its things are empty too.

He recommends this book to our serious attention because its words are trustworthy and worth receiving. They come from a man who was a convert and a penitent, someone who had learned by costly experience how empty the world is and how foolish it is to expect too much from it. He was Coheleth, one gathered in from his wandering and brought back to the God he had turned from. The penitent says, “Vanity of vanities.”

All true penitents are convinced of the world’s emptiness, because they find that it cannot lift the burden of sin they feel. These words also come from a man who was wise, wiser than anyone around him, and richly gifted with uncommon wisdom. He was famous for it, and people came from all around to hear him. So he was fit to judge this matter, wise not only as a king, but as a preacher, and preachers need wisdom if they are to win souls.

He was also a man who made it his business to do good and use wisdom rightly. Since he knew his wisdom was not for himself alone, he kept teaching the people what he had found useful for himself and hoped would help them too. It is for rulers’ own good to have their people well taught in religion, and it is no shame for them to teach the good knowledge of the Lord themselves. It is their duty to support those whose work it is to teach, and to speak well to them (2 Chronicles 30:22). Let no one despise ordinary people, even the wisest and greatest, as if they were unworthy of good knowledge or unable to learn it. Even those who are well taught still need more teaching, so they may grow.

He also took great care and effort to do good, since he meant to teach the people knowledge. He did not offer them careless thoughts just because they were ordinary people and he was very wise. He gave careful attention to what he read and heard from others, so that, having stored himself well, he could bring out of his treasure what was new and what was old. He was careful about what he said and wrote, and everything he did was worked out with care.

He chose the most useful form of teaching, using proverbs or short sayings, which are easier to understand and remember than long speeches. He did not limit himself to a few wise sayings repeated over and over, but gathered many proverbs and a wide range of serious reflections, so he would have something to say in many different situations. He did not give only plain and common observations, but also searched out unusual and striking ones. He dug into the mines of wisdom instead of only picking up what lay on the surface. He also did not set down his thoughts in a random way, but arranged them in order so they would appear with greater force and beauty.

He put his teaching in the kind of words he thought would be most pleasing. He sought to find acceptable words, words that delight (Ecclesiastes 12:10). He took care that good content would not be harmed by clumsy wording or by expressions that were unhelpful or awkward. Ministers should not study to use big words or fine words, but acceptable words, words that are likely to please people for their good and help them grow. Those who want to win souls must learn how to reach people with words fitly spoken.

What he wrote for our instruction is also fully trustworthy, and we can rely on it. What was written was upright and sincere, exactly matching the writer’s real thoughts, words of truth, a true picture of things as they are. Those who are guided by these words will not lose their way. What good are acceptable words if they are not upright and true? Most people prefer smooth words that flatter them rather than right words that guide them (Isaiah 30:10), but for those who understand themselves and what is best for them, words of truth will always be acceptable.

What he and other holy men wrote will do us great good, especially when it is explained to us (Ecclesiastes 12:11). We should see a twofold benefit from divine truth when it is properly used. It is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in what is right. It helps to stir us up to duty. It is like a goad to an ox pulling a plow, pushing him forward when he is slow and waking him up when he lags. The truths of God prick people’s hearts (Acts 2:37) and make them think again when they are careless and sluggish, so they act with more strength in their work. Since our good feelings are so quick to cool down, we need these goads.

These truths also help us keep going in duty. They are like nails to people who are wavering and unstable, fixing them to what is good. They are goads for the sluggish and nails for the restless and distracted, means to steady the heart and strengthen good resolutions, so we do not hang loosely on our duty or drift away from it. Whatever good there is in us should be like a nail fastened in a sure place (Ezra 9:8).

God gives his truth in two main ways for these purposes, through the Scriptures and through ministry. The Scriptures are the standing rule, the words of the wise, that is, the prophets, who are called wise men (Matthew 23:34). We have these words in writing and can turn to them at any time, using them as goads and nails. By them we can teach ourselves. If they press on the conscience with force and leave a deep and lasting mark, they will make us wise for salvation.

Then there is the ministry. To make the words of the wise more useful to us, God has appointed that they should be pressed home and fastened by the masters of assemblies.

Solemn gatherings for worship are an old and God-given institution. They are meant for God’s honor and for the good of his church, and they are not only useful but necessary for those purposes. There must also be leaders over these gatherings, Christ’s ministers, who preside in them as God’s voice to the people and the people’s voice to God.

Their work is to fasten the words of the wise, like nails driven firmly into place. In that work, God’s word is also like a hammer (Jeremiah 23:29). The point is to make the truth stick in the heart and conscience, so it stays there and does its work.

What is written and set before us in this way comes from God. It comes to us through many hands, through many wise men and many leaders of assemblies, yet it comes from one Shepherd, the great Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock (Psalm 80:1). God is that one Shepherd. His good Spirit gave the Scriptures, and the same Spirit helps ministers open them and apply them rightly.

These words of the wise are true sayings of God, and on them we may rest our souls. All ministers must receive from that one Shepherd what they teach, and they must speak in line with the light of the written word.

The holy Scriptures, if we use them as we should, are enough to guide us in the way to true happiness. We do not need to wear ourselves out hunting for other writings to reach that end (Ecclesiastes 12:12). If the books of Scripture God has already given us do not persuade us of the vanity of the world and the need for religion, then we would not be persuaded even if we had twice as many. Not even if there were so many books that the whole world could not hold them (John 21:25) would they do what the Scriptures have not done.

Too much study can leave a person confused and tired. It can become more a burden to the body than a help to the soul. God has given us as much as he thought fit for us, and as much as we are fit to receive. If a person will not be warned by these writings, it is not likely that any others will move him.

Or think of it this way: there is no end to buying books and mastering them by much study. A person may gain the best entertainment and the best outward polish this world can offer. But if those books do not warn him about the emptiness of the world and of human learning, and about their inability to make him happy without true godliness, then there is no real end to the search and no true benefit in it. It will wear out the body, but it will never give the soul real rest.

Even the great Mr. Selden agreed with this. He admitted that, in all the books he read, he never found anything on which he could rest his soul except in Holy Scripture, especially Titus 2:11-12. Let us, then, take warning by these things.