Ecclesiastes 12:8

"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "all is vanity!"

This is. conclusion summing up Solomon's observations of this physical world or life under the sun. He has indeed proven his point. "Having demonstrated the limitations of all human efforts (Ecclesiastes 1:12-Ecclesiastes 6:9) and of all human wisdom (Ecclesiastes 6:10-Ecclesiastes 11:6), Solomon then reiterated the theme with which he opened his book (Ecclesiastes 1:2)" (Bible Knowledge Comm. pp. 1005-1006). "with the experience of the whole book behind us, the finality with this chapter's haunting pictures of mortality to enforce the point, we come back to the initial cry, Vanity of vanities. and find it justified. Nothing in our search has led us home; nothing that we are offered under the sun is ours to keep (not even our own physical body)….But we are forgetting the context. This very passage points us beyond anything 'under the sun', in the words your Creator. and it invites response to Him. It also points us to the present, as the time of opportunity. Death has not yet reached out to us: let it rattle its chains at us and stir us into action!" (Kidner p. 104).

"the Preacher" -reflects the hortatory nature of this book and especially these closing words. Solomon has indeed been "preaching" to us. Let us never tire of being "preached to" (2 Timothy 4:2).