Page 135 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I’ve known.

I’m an old woman now and nature Is cruel.
‘tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body it crumbles, grace and vigor depart.
There is a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now again my bittered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain
And I’m loving and living life over again.
I think of the years, all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurse, open and see
Not a crabbed old woman,
Look closer – see me!
218

In the final section (12:9-14), the Teacher steps outside of the pagan thought-life he has constructed. He
now speaks with his own thoughts and evaluations and commitments. We have not heard him since the
beginning of his pagan musings. “What is crooked cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be
counted (1:15).” In the intervening verses, he has certainly proven his point. Now we come to the
conclusion of his thoughts. The Teacher is wise himself and taught the people. He pondered thoroughly
and wrote carefully only what is true (12:9-10). What he has written is true about pagan life. What he
has written is done so skillfully.

His words are like goads that push animals along (12:11). His purpose is to push people to think in a
different direction. We might well remember God’s words to the apostle Paul, “It is hard for you to kick
against the goads (Acts 26:14)?” As he heard and saw the lives of Christians he was persecuting, he was
goaded toward faith himself. Yet as a stubborn cow, he kicked in response rather than go in the right
direction. The bulk of Ecclesiastes functions as a goad to prod people in a different direction than their
paganism.

His words are also like nails, designed to
fasten truth to one’s mind (12:11). We might
see a second purpose for Ecclesiastes in
this statement. After a person has seen the
emptiness of paganism and come to the
truth, the reasons Figure 66: Nails fasten for faith then function as
fasteners to keep a person from going back to
his previous life. We might think of Ecclesiastes as a book of apologetics for the unbeliever and the
believer.

218 Rolf Zetterster, “Close Encounters of the Best Kind,” Focus on the Family, 2/1991, 14, quoting a woman in Dunde,
England.
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