Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 | The End of the Matter
We’re at the end of our series on the book of Ecclesiastes. After all the roads Solomon has taken us, we finally arrive at the one destination where we need to be. We not only arrive at a settled place, but that place also lifts us up into the presence of God where we see the true value of our life. We’re going to look at only the final two verses of the book, 12:13-14.
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Your life is eternally significant.
This world under the sun won’t tell you that. Only God can. This world builds you up only to let you down. With your eyes focused only on things under the sun, you can’t but help think you don’t really matter in the end. But with your eyes focused on God, he shows just how meaningful you truly are, by his grace and for his glory. Every moment. Every emotion. Every joy. Every pain. Every trial and error. Every sin and sorrow. Every start and stop. Every act of obedience, great and small. It all has meaning. Because God is watching, you have eternal value.
As commentator Phil Ryken says, “The final message of Ecclesiastes is not that nothing matters in the end but that everything matters in the end.” And the proof is here in these two verses. One day, you will stand before God and give an account. He will bring every deed into judgment. It’s only right that he will. He created you. He cares about what happens in your life, and what you do with your life, and he has the right to judge the outcome of your life. One day, very soon, you will report in to him to receive his judgment. Because that day is coming, every day matters for that day.
This is a sobering thought, isn’t it? But we see here a truth proclaimed throughout the Bible—that God will judge in the end. Just a few examples:
Psalm 96:13 - For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.
2 Corinthians 5:10 - For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Acts 17:31 - He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
How we live this day, as every day, will matter on that great and final day.
Think of it this way. When you pick up a biography to read, every day of that person’s life matters. Each day they are becoming the person they ended up being. We go all the way back to their childhood to understand how they were brought up. We want to know who they studied under to see how they thought. We want to read the boring details of their diary because, in the end, none of it is really boring at all. All of it says something of who they are, when they lived, how they lived.
Maybe no one will write a biography of your life for publication on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. But God is writing your biography for publication before him. One day, it’ll be read. And it will reveal what you did with your God-given opportunity to live for him.
So before saying goodbye, Ecclesiastes wants us to consider just how meaningful our lives are. And since we have three sentences, we might as well have three points.
It’s time to decide (v. 13)
It’s time to obey (v. 14)
It’s time to live (v. 15)
First, it’s time to decide
Verse 13: “The end of the matter; all has been heard.”
Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, we’re confronted with the seeming meaninglessness of life. Solomon was the richest and wisest of his time, and he set his heart to search out what this life has to offer. We want to know the same thing, don’t we? So we go looking. But Solomon did this already, and he gave us the book of Ecclesiastes so we don’t have to. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul described some people as “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7). We don’t want to be like that. That’s why we have the book of Ecclesiastes.
Solomon summarized what this world offers in chapter 1: vanity—all is vanity. Everything under the sun is fading quickly away. It won’t last. So why keep reaching for it? We have an alternative: life under the hand of God. And here at the end of the book, it’s time to become decisive for him. God is asking, “What are you waiting for? You have the information you need to make a decision. Why not follow me? You’ve seen the alternative. Am I not better?”
At some point, we have to make up our mind. Will we keep searching for meaning in this world or will we accept our meaning from God? We have to land on one side or the other. We want to think it through and weigh the options, but we can’t sit on the fence forever. We gotta make up our mind—how are we going to live this one life we have?
Maybe some of us aren’t sure where we land yet. Maybe you’re at the beginning of your journey with God. You’re still reading. You need time to think it through. So do it, and ask the Lord for help. You’re on this journey because he’s calling you to it, so he’ll help you.
But maybe some of us are just refusing to commit. We want to keep our options open. We want to be spiritual but not committed. So we only let God so far. I trust God can overcome that, and maybe today is that day.
After all, why not follow God? This world’s offers are shiny; they look good. But they’re empty in the end. A mist. Vain. Solomon proves that to us, and we’ve lived long enough to feel it. But look at God’s offer in the gospel. Just one example, John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” When has the world ever offered that? God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to grant eternal life.
If you’re looking for a meaningful life, here it is. King Jesus left his heavenly throne to come down here to the wrong side of town where we undeserving people live. He came to get us back. We ruined our lives but Jesus came to restore them. He established his kingdom through his death and resurrection, taking all our sin upon him on the cross and paying every ounce of debt we owed. In return, he gave us all the righteousness he earned. Jesus did not stay non-committal about you. He was all in. He still is. And now he’s asking the same of you, for his glory alone. This world disappoints every day, but God won’t. He can’t. He’s God.
You’re looking for something lasting in this life. Something satisfying. Something that won’t let you down sooner or later. Something you won’t have to say goodbye to. Well, here’s God offering himself.
We go looking in this world because we want to matter. So many of our problems stem from that deep desire. You sense you do matter somehow, that you’re made for more than just this world. But this world beats into you that it’s just an illusion. You’re expendable.
But with the eyes of faith, we can see the reason for that longing, for that sense of meaning. It’s found in the love of God. God cares about you. Of course you have meaning! And since God is love, as the Bible says, then you matter for more than mere passing interest. You really matter. At the core of everything in existence is a love too big to leave your life meaningless. God is watching your life! He’s invested. He’s all in. Will you be all in for him now?
Here at the end of this book, God wants you to become decisive for him. You, like I, have sinned and rejected God in the past, but he wants you to receive his offer of complete forgiveness and eternal life because—this is amazing—he wants you in heaven with him forever. You! Little you! Messed-up sinner you! Stumbling-forward you! You!
Maybe you’ve searched this world and done some things you regret. Maybe you wonder if God can love you after all you’ve done and all you’ve become. His answer, in Christ, is a definitive, “Yes!” God can love you today, and he can love you tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, on into eternity. All you have to do is receive that love with the empty hands of faith. He’ll do the work required in you. His grace will save you. He’s not asking for perfection—he has that for you in Christ. He’s only asking for openness. Can you give him that?
You matter so much to him that he’s offering you eternal life with him in heaven. That offer stands open right now. But one day, after you die, it will be closed if you haven’t yet accepted. That will be a kind of judgment you do not want to endure. You will face eternal hell. But you don’t have to go there. You can keep searching this world, but we already know the answers we’ll find. Why not have heaven, with Jesus forever, instead? “The end of the matter; all has been heard.” It’s time to decide.
Second, it’s time to obey
Verse 13: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Becoming decisive for Christ is to learn to fear and follow him. There is a proper order: first fearing, then following. Obedience comes from fear. Conduct springs from worship. Knowing God leads to following God. We can’t reverse it. God does not say to us. “Obey and I’ll save you.” He says, “Obey because I’ve saved you.” We obey because we see in God something so wonderful, we can’t imagine not following him.
We think of fear primarily as synonymous with scared. While that’s one meaning of the word, the Bible primarily means something else. Fearing God is more reverence and awe than terror and fright. Pastor Tim Keller says, “When the Bible talks about the fear of God, it means an inner state, an inner condition of awe and amazement and wonder before the magnitude of the love and the power and the greatness of God. It’s an inner condition of awe and respect, of fear and trembling, of amazement before not only the power and the holiness but the love and the mercy of God…The fear of God means to have God look so huge, so glorious, so wonderful, to in a sense bow under the weight of the magnitude of his greatness, that it gets your mind blessedly off of yourself and finally you’re free.”
This world holds us in bondage to itself and it’s rules and regulations and limitations. But God frees us to live before him as we were made to. To fear God is to come to a realization that God is the one you’ve been looking for all your life. He’s all you need. In him is the totality of everything your heart longs for. In the KJV, Proverbs 28:14 says, “Happy is the man that feareth...” We think fearing God will lead to dread, but the Bible says fearing God leads to happiness. No wonder, then, obedience follows fearing God. We do what we want, and when we want God, we want what God wants. So we obey. We obey not to be our own savior but to please our Savior.
Fearing God means making him the centering point for your life. And when he’s first in your affections, he’s also first in your plans. He sets the tone for your life. Fearing comes first and obedience follows. Fearing God means keeping his commandments.
This is central to Christianity. Notice what verse 13 says, “This is the whole duty of man.” Fearing and following God is what we are made for. His commandments seem difficult to us, overbearing at times, but following him is the life we really want. It infuses our life with meaning. We’re not just floating around doing what we feel like. We’re following and serving the living God! Yes, it might be uncomfortable at times. He’ll take us some scary places, but not one of them will be bigger than him. He will ask of us more than we want to give, but he’s the one who gives more than we could ever imagine. He will require of us more than we have right now, but he’s the one who provides everything we need anyway. And in the end, as we follow him imperfectly but truly, we find in him all that we look for everywhere else and then some. We find the fullest life possible. This is wisdom. This is the path to life. This is the path to joy.
In the gospel, we find a God so big that he defeated our greatest enemies without stumbling once. We stand in awe of him, in fear of him. And that kind of gospel fear translates into loving obedience. God knows the right way to live, and he’s offering us his life right now, today. That leads us to our third and final point, it’s time to live.
Third, it’s time to live
Verse 14: “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Now we’re back to where we started: the judgment of God. We hate the word judgment don’t we? But it’s in the judgment of God that we find meaning in absolutely everything.
The judgment of God is not something we can avoid—the Christian nor the non-Christian. You see it right there in verse 14: God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. All of our life falls under the judgment of God.
When is this judgment? The Bible says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). But, you might say, “I’m a Christian. My judgment day took place 2,000 years ago on Christ’s cross.” That’s true. You won’t face the judgment of condemnation. But there are different kinds of judgment. Think of the shows we watch on TV with judges. One person’s act is judged better than another’s. That judgment doesn’t condemn the lesser, it just evaluates both and grants a reward accordingly.
There are two different kinds of judgment: condemnation and evaluation. For those outside of Christ, who reject his offer in the gospel, the final judgment will be a judgment of condemnation and banishment to hell, away from God’s presence. But for those in Christ, the final judgment will not be a judgment of condemnation because Christ took that for you on the cross. It will instead be a judgment of evaluation. And in that evaluation, he will look at our sins and our obedience and evaluate our life by his holy standard. He will take us through each day and we will give an account for each.
What will that day be like for us who love God? Look again at verse 14. Every deed. Every secret thing, whether good or evil. Do you know what that word every means here? Every. All. Each one. The entirety. Nothing is hidden from God. He sees every secret thing, whether good or evil.
So let’s just consider this. First, the negative: our evil deeds. In his systematic theology book, Louis Berkhof says, “It is sometimes objected that the sins of believers, which are pardoned, certainly will not be published at that time; but Scripture leads us to expect that they will be–though they will, of course, be revealed as pardoned sins.” Jesus won’t embarrass you, but he won’t flatter you either. He will be honest with you, because in the end isn’t that what we all want? Jesus will on that day be perfectly just. Your sins will be presented, but as pardoned sins. You won’t pay the penalty for them because he already did, but they will be revealed, highlighting the grace of Christ in your life even greater.
But he will also do something else, and this is amazing: he will judge our good deeds. We see what that looks like in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 4:5. “Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.” On that day you won’t be punished for your sins but you will be commended for your obedience. Isn’t that so like God? So, if you’re in Christ, your judgment will be, in the end, a judgment of commendation.
There are acts of obedience you do each day out of love and reverence for Jesus that this world has no clue about. Maybe even your spouse doesn’t see it. When you reject the lustful thought that comes crashing in. When you pray a silent prayer for the person you see struggling. When you give to the needy and your left hand doesn’t see what the right hand is doing. When you fast and anoint your head with oil so as not to be seen fasting. When you wake up and just ask the Lord for help to make it through. When you suffer quietly and profoundly, trusting the Lord to set things right in the end. When you love your kids even when it’s hard, and love your co-workers even when it’s not easy, and love your spouse when they’re at their most unlovable. Every day, because the Holy Spirit lives in you, you are obeying Jesus in sincerity of heart, and Jesus will not overlook that. The Bible says, “God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do” (Hebrews 6:10). You will, one day, receive a divine high five for every good deed you’ve ever done. You will, in the light of Jesus, sparkle before all heaven for those acts, even as all your evil deeds are forgiven by the blood of Jesus.
Do you see what this means for us? If every day will be judged on that day, then every day matters. Jesus is watching. He knows what our days are really made of. Nothing is hidden. So, that secret sin you’re protecting, why not hand it to Jesus now to find forgiveness and healing? He knows it anyway, so what are you really hiding? Why not confess it and be rid of it. And that secret good deed you wish others new about, why not forget the praise of men and move on to the next good deed? Jesus saw it, and he’ll commend you for it.
So here’s how we live: low before Jesus, totally open to him. We just fear and follow and live open to his grace and mercy. One day, to our utter amazement, we will see how meaningful our life really was. And we’ll see that it’s all of grace. In Christ, we can live a life of success in his eyes as we just say yes to him time and time again. He’s not making this too hard for us. He’s just asking us to be needy—he’ll provide the rest. It’s like the father who prepares all the son’s steps, clearing the path for success, and then praising him for the work at the end. The son only walked; the father worked, but he’s praising nonetheless.
Life under the sun only is,“Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” But life under the hand of God is not meaningless. Your life in Christ is more meaningful than you know. So let’s get living it for him now because it matters today and will matter tomorrow and will matter for eternity.
I’ll close with the words of Ray Ortlund, who taught me so much about this passage.
You don’t know the true value of your story; but God knows, and God himself will make sure your story is told. And when you give your account to him, in those moments when you feel like saying, “Lord, my life was a disaster,” he will gently correct you: “Dear one, don’t you remember this? And let me remind you of that. I want you to know that, because you kept turning to me, I used your seemingly little moments of obedience to push historical dominoes over in all directions, so that you contributed to the next Billy Graham, the next Elisabeth Elliot, the next Great Awakening. Indeed, you hastened the second coming of Christ. Your life was essential to my plan for history. You so mattered. But you had no idea. And you didn’t need to know, because you had all you needed in fearing me and obeying my commands day by day. Well done, good and faithful servant.”
So here it is. The end of the matter. It’s time to decide. It’s time to obey. And it’s time to live for God now. Let’s get ready to report in. If you’ve made a decision for Christ and are doing your best to follow him, for his sake and for his glory, just keep going. And if you think, “But I’m a mess right now.” Just hand your mess over to Jesus. Fear him and follow him, and he will show you on that day how eternally significant that moment was. That’s life under the hand of God.
