THE THOUGHT TODAY

16 / 04 / 09
The Whole Duty Of Man
Ecclesiastes 12:13

This morning I arose at 4.00 O’clock. All around is quiet. Not even the crickets have a say. I think
forward to my day ahead - from finishing a farming chore to the tasks I must deal with at the office.
I ponder how to tackle the days challenges, how to meet my deadlines. As I reflected, I turned to
my Bible and which opened randomly to Ecclesiastes Chapter 1.

There I read of “vanities of vanities, the constant rising and going down of the sun, the futile
continuous swirling of the wind, the constant running of rivers to seas that are never full”, and the
dry observation that “there is no new thing under the sun”. Throughout Chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes
runs the theme “Vanity of Vanities, all of man’s life and striving is vanity and vexations of the spirit
since man must ebb and flow in accordance with an order which he is powerless to change”. Even
the constant garnering of knowledge and wisdom, the search to understand all things on earth, is
futile and folly since, in much wisdom is grief and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow.

I follow the theme of effort, achievement, then sorrow at what has been accomplished in one’s life.
I hear the preacher’s lament that it is an exercise in futility, albeit a necessary part of the ebb and
flow of a man’s life. I walk with the Preacher through various contradictions in the life of man. I am
sobered by the thought that we pitch ourselves at life, seeking fame, fortune, pleasures, often
neglecting significant others in our lives, only to arrive, like the preacher, at the point where much
of our efforts become a vexation of our own spirits.

As I reflected I thought, “ what therefore is the purpose of living if it is all reduced to: this
humdrum, contradictory tale of pain and pleasure, joy and woe, building and breaking down, and
running of life’s river to a sea that’s never full? I am also reminded by the preacher that “too much
learning wearies a man and there is no end to the writing of books”. “The dust shall return to the
earth as it was and the Spirit return unto God who gave it”.

Like life lived to it’s end, however, if we turn our eyes away from that which is essential to man, if
we do not follow the preacher’s discourse to its end, we miss his deepest lesson – “the conclusion of
the matter”. The whole end of life and the duty of man is “to fear God, to keep his
commandments and to walk humbly with God”

Today.

Ashley R Cain
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