Ecclesiastes Chapter Twelve, Remembrance Before Death

Ecclesiastes 12:6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. [7] Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. [8] “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”

The preacher’s parting words before an intimate and third person conclusion beginning in verse 9 build to sort of a crescendo. In verse 1 the readership is advised to remember God during youth, before the difficult days come. But many people will not live to experience old age for good or for bad. My family has known several people who passed away before seeing 20 years old within the last decade or so. Life does not come with a guarantee.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Twelve, Difficult Days

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”: [2] While the sun and the light, the moon and the stars, are not darkened, and the clouds do not return after the rain; [3] In the days when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow down; when the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look through the windows grow dim; [4] when the doors are shut in the streets, and the sound of grinding is low; when one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of music are brought low. [5] Also they are afraid of height, and of terrors in the way; when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden, and desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets.

Chapter 12 begins with a volley against aging. Or old age, to be more precise. The passage in question begins with the sagely counsel to remember your Creator while you are still young. The notion here goes beyond mere mental assent that God exists, like we forgot about Him. The preacher’s remembrance is a willing acknowledgement of God’s person and purpose in a believer’s life; He is the cornerstone upon which we build our faith, and from our faith our life’s works spring. 

Molehills: Perfect Health?

I own a King James Bible, a Healing and Salvation Edition from the late Ernest Angley Ministries, and it made me start thinking. Angley’s ministry delved into physical healing as a major aspect of our salvation. Being a televangelist, one might be tempted to write off Mr. Angley’s ministry due to the over-the-top sensationalism that tends to be paraded around. Furthermore, he was also a Pentecostal evangelist, which means the doctrine of signs of wonders being performed in the here and now tends to have primacy.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Eleven, Youthful Indiscretions

Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God will bring you into judgment. [10] Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity.

Again the preacher is patronizing in his tone, as he tells the young man to enjoy his youth. He encourages such a man to walk in the ways of his heart and the sight of his eyes. The modern saying my culture has embraced would be, “listen to your heart.” We have already seen what the Bible says about the deceitful, wicked nature of man’s heart, so this counsel is either treacherous or the preacher is being facetious.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Eleven, The Days Of Darkness

Ecclesiastes 11:7 Truly the light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun; [8] But if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that is coming is vanity.

What begins now is a litany of morbidity as the preacher goes on to lambast childhood, adulthood, and old age. The passage begins here, however, with a very somber warning. The light that is sweet and pleasant to the eyes happens to be the light of life, the light we enjoy while we are among the living.