Ecclesiastes 12:9-14; The Conclusion of the Matter
Today’s passage is Ecclesiastes 12:9-14. Please join us in study.
It is hard to put where we are any better than the Teacher himself. “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter.” (12:13a NIV)
When I was a kid, I would help my grandfather brand cattle on his farm in northeastern Colorado. We would load the cattle into a chute that led them to where they needed to be for the branding operation. When any of the cattle didn’t want to cooperate, Grandpa would apply a goad, a long stick with a ‘firmly embedded nail’ on the end, to get them to move along. The point to his application of the goad was to cause the stubborn steer just enough discomfort to keep it and all the cattle behind it moving in the direction that Grandpa intended.