Getting older is something that no one (except children) wants to do but everybody does. It is such a common feature of our humanity that the subject of age has generated more wisdom and humor than almost any other.
For example, Ogden Nash has said, “Middle age is when you have met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else.”
Bill Cosby tells about going to the Mayo Clinic for a physical examination at the age of forty-nine. When he asked the doctor for his opinion of his physical condition, the medic replied, “Oh, everything is normal. If you died tomorrow, no one would be surprised.”
Regardless of how we approach old age— fighting it, joking about it, or trying not to think about it—it is inevitable.
We begin to age from the point of conception onward. Our physical development peaks in adolescence and reaches maturity at age twenty-five to thirty-five. These are the years when most athletes are at their peak. Shortly thereafter, we begin to decline.
If a normal life span is seventy years, then “middle age” is not fifty, as we frequently speak of it—it is thirty-five! The period of physical decline is frequently referred to as “senescence,” the downhill part of life, from the point of maximal functioning until death. As we get further along in the process of senescence, life usually becomes more difficult, and depending on our circum- stances, less enjoyable.
This decline in both physical and mental vigor is what our text is about. In 12:1 Solomon admonishes the young to remember God “be- fore the evil days come.” By “evil days” Solomon does not refer to moral evil; he means the difficult days, the “days of trouble” (NIV).
These are the years of old age, years in which many “find no pleasure.” If we do not respond to God before this period of our youth, Solomon warns, we may never do so. Therefore, he advises to remember God now.
Remember (12:1–8). How easy it is to neglect the Lord when you are caught up in the enjoyments and opportunities of youth. We know that dark days (11:8) and difficult [evil] days (12:1) are coming, so we had better lay a good spiritual foundation as early in life as possible. During our youthful years, the sky is bright (11:7); but the time will come when there will be darkness and one storm after another.
Verses 3–7 give us one of the most imaginative descriptions of old age and death found anywhere in literature. The meaning may be:
keepers of the house—Your arms and hands tremble.
strong men—Your legs, knees, and shoulders weaken and you walk bent over.
grinders—You start to lose your teeth.
windows—Your vision begins to deteriorate.
doors—Either your hearing starts to fail, or you close your mouth because you’ve lost your teeth.
grinding—You can’t chew your food, or your ears can’t pick up the sounds outdoors.
rise up—You wake up with the birds early each morning, and wish you could sleep longer.
music—Your voice starts to quaver and weaken.
afraid—You are terrified of heights and afraid of falling while you walk down the street.
almond tree—If you have any hair left, it turns white, like almond blossoms.
grasshopper—You just drag yourself along, like a grasshopper at the close of the summer season.
desire—You lose your appetite, or perhaps your sexual desire.
long home—You go to your eternal [long] home and people mourn your death.
Verse 6 describes a golden bowl—a lamp—hanging from the ceiling on a silver chain. The chain breaks and the bowl breaks. The fragile “cord of life” is snapped and the light of life goes out. Only wealthy people could have such costly lamps, so Solomon may be hinting that death is no respecter of persons.
All of this description amounts to a depressing one of the aging process and the sadness of death. But Solomon’s purpose is not to depress us but to rouse us to action. “Remembering” God does not mean simply to think about Him, but to allow the knowledge of Him to shape our lives— before old age sets in.
He compared his words to “goads” and “nails” (v. 11), both of which are necessary if people are to learn God’s truth. The “goads” prod the people to pay attention and to pursue truth, while the “nails” give them something on which to hang what they have learned.
YOU OWE HIM THE STRENGTH OF YOUR YOUTH
Our lives are God’s gift, and we are stewards of life just as we are stewards of money. If we fail to use our lives to serve God, we are stealing them from Him. As Israel gave God the “first fruits” of their produce and livestock, we are to give God the “first fruits” of life itself, not the “leftovers.” If you have been thinking that you will serve God “later,” realize that “later” is not what He demands. He wants you to serve Him now, with your total being.
IT WILL KEEP OLD AGE FROM BEING WORSE THAN IT HAS TO BE
Youth is a crucial period in determining the course of the rest of one’s life. Habits, both good and bad, are formed in youth. The early years contain numerous pitfalls, many of which can affect you for the rest of your life. Doing God’s will can save you from making these tragic mistakes.
Besides, most people who deliberately wait to remember God never remember God. If He is unimportant to you now, it is unlikely that He will be later. There are exceptions, but the general rule is that the longer you wait to obey God, the less likely it is that you will ever do so. Eventually, if you wait until the time of life described in 12:1-5, you may be mentally unable to change. Waiting is dangerous.
Chuck Swindoll points out, “God has designed us to be empty without Him.” Old age can be a time of peaceful satisfaction or of deep regret.
TRUTH IS NOT ALWAYS PLEASANT TO HEAR, BUT IT IS NECESSARY
“In addition to being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people” (12:9). Solomon passed on what he learned, especially in his writing of proverbs. In so doing, his commentator says he “sought to find delightful words,” but at the same time, he made sure that he wrote “words of truth.”
He had no desire to offend or upset those he taught, but he felt compelled to tell the truth, even if offense was the result. The NEB translates verse 10 this way: “He chose his words to give pleasure, but what he wrote was the honest truth.” (Emphasis mine.)
Life is a stewardship: fear God (Eccl. 12:13–14)
We don’t own our lives, because life is the gift of God (Acts 17:24–28). We are stewards of our lives, and one day we must give an account to God of what we have done with His gift. Some people are only spending their lives; others are wasting their lives; a few are investing their lives. Corrie ten Boom said, “The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration but its donation.” If our lives are to count, we must fulfill three obligations.
Fear God (v. 13). Ecclesiastes ends where the Book of Proverbs begins (Prov. 1:7), with an admonition for us to fear the Lord. (See 3:14; 5:7; 7:18; and 8:12–13.)
The “fear of the Lord” is that attitude of reverence and awe that His people show to Him because they love Him and respect His power and His greatness. The person who fears the Lord will pay attention to His Word and obey it. He or she will not tempt the Lord by deliberately disobeying or by “playing with sin.” An unholy fear makes people run away from God, but a holy fear brings them to their knees in loving submission to God.
“The remarkable thing about fearing God,” wrote Oswald Chambers, “is that, when you fear God, you fear nothing else; whereas, if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.”
Keep His commandments (v. 13). God created life and He alone knows how it should be managed. He wrote the “manual of instructions” and wise is the person who reads and obeys. “When all else fails, read the instructions!”
The fear of the Lord must result in obedient living, otherwise that “fear” is only a sham. The dedicated believer will want to spend time daily in Scripture, getting to know the Father better and discovering His will. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Prov. 1:7).
The last phrase in verse 13 can be translated “this is the end of man” (i.e., his purpose in life), or “this is for all men.” Campbell Morgan suggests “this is the whole of man.”
He writes in The Unfolding Message of the Bible, “Man, in his entirety, must begin with God; the whole of man, the fear of God” (p. 228).
Prepare for final judgment (v. 14). “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked” (3:17). “But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment” (11:9, NKJV). Man may seem to get away with sin (8:11), but their sins will eventually be exposed and judged righteously. Those who have not trusted the Lord Jesus Christ will be doomed forever.
Is life worth living? Yes, if you are truly alive through faith in Jesus Christ. Then you can be satisfied, no matter what God may permit to come to your life.
You can receive life in Christ and—be satisfied!
Why should we remember God before old age comes? Why not worry about such matters later in life?
THE INEVITABLE CONCLUSION OF LIFE IS DEATH
In one sobering image of death (12:5), Solomon says that man “goes to his eternal home.” This “going” is e0xpressed by a Hebrew participle which opened. If you are ever going to “remember God in your youth,” that means you must do it now. You will never be any younger, and the “evil days” of old age are coming. If you have been waiting to serve God, it is past time to start. Do not delay. Choose for yourself joy, both now and in eternity.
By the time we reach the latter half of Ecclesiastes 12, we have come a long way with Solomon. We have seen the results of his experiments with pleasure, wealth, human wisdom, folly, work, sex, alcohol, and everything else he could think of. He declares, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!”
Solomon has learned some important lessons in the process, especially that life “under the sun” offers nothing in and of itself. It has been a profound, sobering, and sometimes disturbing experience. But Solomon is much the wiser for it, and hopefully we are too.
This passage begins the longest section of First Peter. Remember: the believers were suffering terrible persecution. They had lost their homes, property, money, possessions, and friends.
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