The conclusion of the whole matter…

Thinking about life itself sometimes sends chills down the spine. I sometimes even wonder, why be good at all? Why strive to do well? Why not just do what pleases me and makes me feel happy? Why not go where I want to go, eat what I want to eat, say what I want to say? Why not just live, no restrictions, no limitations, nothing?

Why not just pay the extra 1,000 and skip standing on the line? Or ditch the lessons and pay for the grades? Well, why not just COMPEL the patients to consult only in my hospital? Afterall, I offer good medical services too!

Afterall, does the Bible not clearly spell out that all is vanity? Everything will pass away, of course, even Jesus said it.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes says it is in vain that we wake up and sleep, toil and rest, do this or do that. It is all in vain. So why not just do what I want to do?

 But…

If I stop at just that part of Ecclesiastes, then I miss it all. In chapter 12:13, the preacher says this

“The conclusion of all matter….” He said earlier that all is vanity. And we see in life that indeed he is right. But, that’s not the conclusion of it all. It is just a comma, a break. There is a conclusion to all matters – and that is to

1. FEAR GOD

2. DO HIS COMMANDMENTS.

It is after those that we have or can put a full stop. And the reason is simple. In the last verse of the chapter which also is the last for the entire book of Ecclesiastes, the reason comes up – God will Judge us all, all our actions, for the good and the bad.

So, is all vanity after all? Is that just all there is? A giant NOPE. At the end of it, it isn’t all vanity.

God will judge. That gives substance to what I do. What I’ve been doing, the choices I make, the words I say, the reactions I have, the regard for myself and for others which I adopt. All! It may be vanity on earth and with the eyes, but, that is just the comma of the story. At the full stop; at the conclusion of it, it isn’t vanity. God judges!

The preacher said “everything under the sun” is vanity. But, life doesn’t end under the sun. That is what I/we often fail to remember. There is someone who made the sun – so, there is life above the sun. If life under the sun is vanity, life above the sun isn’t. And how I/you live under the sun determines how I’d/you’d live above the sun.

Our life under the sun is the journey, the comma, the break in the path. When we think of the full stop, the end, then, the conclusion should come to our minds – and, that conclusion of all matters is – to FEAR GOD and to DO HIS COMMANDMENTS.

Selah!!!