Hearing The Message Of Ecclesiastes--Ecclesiastes 12:11

Day 24

I usually ignore what I don’t want to hear.

Especially, when the words I don’t want to hear or read are outlining my dishonesty and sinfulness.

But plowing through Scripture every day, reading and writing about different verses from varying perspectives disallows dishonesty as a default mode.

I have to confront how God’s Word applies to me and what I should be doing about it.

As I close in on the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes, I’m less inclined to see Solomon/Qoheleth’s work as jumbled, contradictory and downright baffling–which if I stay on the surface of the verses–is easy to do.

With just a little care though, Solomon/Qoheleth’s words take hold and grow inside the hothouse of my mind.

Verse 12:11 sort of brings Ecclesiastes to a conclusion:

Ecclesiastes 12:11  The words of the wise are like goads, and masters of these collections are like driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd.

Solomon/Qoheleths’s words seem to be a crazy patchwork quilt of Proverbs, Psalms, and whatever else he was up to and noticing about his world.

Basically, the same stuff that we notice and drives us crazy with the absurdity and injustice of it all.

Christopher J.H. Wright notices too, what Solomon/Qoheleth’s words are meant to be in Hearing the Message of Ecclesiastes:  Questioning Faith in a Baffling World:

“Similarly, Solomon/Qoheleth, like the goad on the end of a stick that jolts an animal into action, has been prodding, poking, pricking his listeners or readers with alarming observations, contradictory perspectives, and ironic questions–creating tensions and gaps that we are challenged to resolve or bridge.  At times he seems to provoke us with, “So you say you believe that.  But have you thought about this?”  He forces us to throw our faith into the furnace of reality and see if it emerges–humbled but still intact.”

Most Scripture, at least the verses that I understand the most and can apply to my life are like sharp sticks to me.

The scholars relate Solomon/Qoheleth’s words to a guiding force and to a metaphor of guidance like Dick Eastman writes in the The Jericho Hour:

“Our words act as nails constructing things in the spirit.  Just as a nail is used to keep a board in place, words are used to keep God’s promises in place, allowing them to build or construct things in the spirit.”

Cole Newton writes about Solomon/Qoheleth’s words as guidance too in Beware of Anything Beyond Scripture:

“The words of Scripture, therefore, prod and guide us. They are pointed and sharp to move us into action. Like a goad, they hook and pull us toward one direction or the other in order to keep us along the right path…If the gate is narrow and the way hard that leads to life, it cannot be traveled except by the guidance of God’s Word. Put simply, a Christianity that is not guided by the Bible is not Christianity.”

Nails, goads,sticks, pointy, sharp, prodding and jolting.

You don’t think all of that draws blood?

That’s why sometimes I think it's easier and less painful to let Scripture go right on past me.  

I don’t WANT to deal with any more wisdom about how low and craven I really am.

Last night, I was pulled over by one of North Myrtle Beach’s finest and as I slid to the curb on Ocean Boulevard, my mind raced with all of the infractions I could have just committed (Speeding?  Not stopping for people in a crosswalk?) and I couldn’t come up with anything.

I’ve read all the horror stories and I’ve seen all the videos of ordinary run-of-the-mill traffic stops turning into lethal encounters with LEO’s with ax-grinding agendas.

The nice female officer, who didn’t seem to be a day over 21, pulled me over because my back lights weren’t on.

I said to her (JOKINGLY) I’ve had the car less than a week and I barely know how to turn any lights on, much less the back ones.

Who thinks about their backlights?  The dashboard was lit up, so how’s a driver to know?

It’s two clicks, by the way, not just one.

I noticed as the officer was taking my information back to her car, another NMB patrol car slid by and I watched the hand-signal exchange between them.

The other officer did the A-OK sign and my officer returned a thumbs up.

I was behaving.  All of my paperwork was in order.

I didn’t need any further police intervention.

Solomon/Qoheleth knows better though.

We all require God’s intervention daily through His Word.

Guiding us, preparing us.

But sometimes feeling like the lash.  🙂

Lord, let Your Word penetrate our hearts and minds and illuminate our understanding and transform our lives.

Lord, empower us to speak words of wisdom and grace and may our lives be a testimony to Your goodness and faithfulness to us.

Amen.