Every good story has lessons to teach. Even stories written purely for entertainment still offer lessons – sometimes obvious, other times hidden. Yet they are there to be learned. That’s why we have that common English idiom that speaks about the proverbial ‘moral of the story.’
Such is the case with Ecclesiastes 12. It is the conclusion to a story of sorts. Solomon has told us the story of how he foolishly set aside his immense godly wisdom in hopes of attaining even more wisdom by experiencing absolutely everything life had to offer, be it good or bad. He told us the lessons he learned from those experiences. He shared the fallout and the not-so-nice consequences of his decisions. And now, he is going to wrap it all up with his moral of the story. If you’ve never read or studies Ecclesiastes before, you might be surprised by Solomon’s conclusion.