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Eccl 12:6-14

6 Remember him — before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, 7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

8 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Everything is meaningless!"

9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails — given by one Shepherd. 12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. 13 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. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

NIV

Well, these verses six thru eight should have been with the preceding verses about the young and the aged, life and death or just waiting for death. However, it does sort of end with the truth that our body returns to the ground, but our spirit departs and returns to God who gave it. This gives us the truth that he created our spirit, not just our body in the womb. That which science cannot determine how we were formed. They had the physical part understood, but not the individual person, the mind, the personality, our spirit. That is the work of God and man just will never understand that. Oh they are even working on understanding how our brain works, but do not understand how each of us are someone different. If all our brains are alike, then we all would be alike, but we are not. However, Solomon says it is all vanity, all meaningless. It just is the way God did what he did and continues to do. But let us finish this up now as we are at the end of all these sayings. The teacher has spoken and his words are wise because they are from God, who inspired all that Solomon wrote. All the proverbs, which we went through, and all these sayings in the collection which is called Ecclesiastes. Just as a side note, we never investigated what this word Ecclesiastes means. How that slipped by is a mystery. In the Septuagint, which is the Old Testament translated into Greek, it finds that Greek word rooted in the Latin word which means preacher or speaking before the assembly. So Solomon was preaching the word. He concludes it all with the statement of the matter. Fear God and keep his commands. This is the whole of man, the reason we are hear. Life is not about life as we make it. It is about life as God intends it. The fact he will judge all mankind, all life. He will bring all to account, every deed, even the hidden ones. Now does that mean the secret sins we commit in the closet? That could mean the closet of our heart, or the actually closet in our homes. Who of us can say we have never had an evil thought, or action. Are we doing anything that is opposed to God? If we say, no, they are we being prideful and lying to ourselves and God, which is an evil deed. If we say, yes, then are we doing that willfully or is it just because we are a fallen people, imperfect, unable to attain perfection? The harder we try to be good, the more frustrated we become because we cannot be completely good. What are we to do? Will God judge our every little fault, failure, willful or not? Who then can stand in his presence? We will not, every knee will bow, but who then gets to go in and who is cast out? If we all have sin, then he judges us all guilty, no matter the degree of amount of sin. Sin is sin and we are sinful so how do we get to go in, instead of being cast out? The answer is Jesus. He took our sin upon himself and that is that. If we are in Christ, then God has already judged us holy and blameless in his sight. Should we just go on sinning in whatever way we can imagine, no, of course not, as Paul says, “God forbid”. But the fact is we are going to falter, we are going to give in to some temptation sometime in the course of our daily life. Even when we know better, when we know it is not right, we still give in on occasion. So then we need Jesus. We try to be good, but it just does not work all the time. God knows that and it is why he sent Jesus, it is why he came to earth as a human to take our sin and to give us a way into heaven. The real judgment of deeds is whether we are in Christ or we have refused his offer of salvation, whether we say yes or no to God. If Jesus in our heart, then our deed is good, if Jesus is not in our heart, then our deed is evil.