Solomon closes the book of Ecclesiastes with these words. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Each of us have been given only one life.

What will we do with it? Life. It's not a game. And in this journey through the book of Ecclesiastes, Scott Pauley will guide us to better understand the true meaning of life.

Not far from where I grew up, there is an amazing bridge called the New River Gorge Bridge.

It is the longest single span arch bridge in the western hemisphere.

It's massive.

And in the construction of that bridge, of course,

they had a number of construction workers that were injured. But one of the things that they did,

they built massive safety nets under that bridge to keep people from falling to their deaths.

I've seen it not only there from the pictures of the construction period,

but in other major high construction zones around the world.

And it's amazing the productivity that the workers get done is so much greater,

knowing that though there is still inherent danger, there are safety

nets there to catch them if they fall.

Well, I believe that God has built safety nets into life.

He's built safety nets into personal relationships, safety nets into the organism of the church, the organization of the home,

safety nets into society, and one of God's great safety nets for fallen creatures is that of authority.

We've returned today to Ecclesiastes chapter 8, and in verse 2, Solomon begins

just giving some very personal counsel. Now, this is so interesting. He is the king, but he's

counseling those who are the subjects, if you will, those who are in submission, not the people

who are in charge. And this is what he says, beginning in verse 2,

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