Ecclesiastes 12:1-8
1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”; 2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, 3 in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, 4 and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— 5 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— 6 before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
INTRODUCTION
Our passage for this morning most likely contains the last words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes. As you can tell with even a quick glance at v.9, the perspective changes from first person (“I”) to third person (“he,” the Preacher). You may remember that the sayings of the Preacher were likely compiled by someone (frame narrator) who wrote the very beginning (1:1-11) and the very end (12:9-14), along with a brief interjection in the middle (7:27).
It’s hard to imagine a more fitting way to end a book like Ecclesiastes than this. After eleven chapters of describing life “under the sun” in all its mystery and confusion and frustration and beauty, the Preacher closes with a truly exceptional poem on the nature, certainty, and proper preparation for the hardships that come with aging and death.
What is it like to get old? Which aspects of life are harder? Is there any way to prepare for the trials of age? What can I do now to help me finish life well later? Those are the kinds of questions the Preacher has in mind in our passage.
The big idea of this passage is that learning to trust in and follow God when we are younger is the best way to faithfully endure the many challenges typically associated with getting older. In other words, the main point of this passage is to equip us to finish well in life by calling us to hope in God early in life. The main takeaway, then, is to learn who God is and live as He calls us to while we still can.
THE EVIL DAYS TO COME
If you spend time with the older folks at Grace Church, they will definitely tell you that there are many ways that life is harder for them now than it was when they were young. They’ll probably also tell you that because of that, if they aren’t careful, they’re prone to allow the increased physical, emotional, and mental challenges to draw their eyes off of Jesus and onto merely minimizing and managing the difficulties. And if they’re being really honest, they’ll even tell you that if they’re not continually on guard, they’re in danger of moving from looking to Jesus > to looking only at their suffering > to looking only at their suffering while being frustrated with Jesus for it.
The question is: What can be done about that temptation which is common to us all in our old age?
The Preacher’s final words to us are a two-part answer to that question. The first part of the answer is to remember God before the challenges of age begin to set in. And the second part of the answer is to describe how hard it can get (when we’re older) as a motivation to take the first part seriously.
What we have, then, is primarily a charge to young people to consider where life is going in order to best prepare themselves for what’s to come. But it’s also a charge to older people to take care to rightly “remember God” in their old age.
Because I think it will help us appreciate this passage most fully, I’m going to treat the Preacher’s points in reverse order; his description of the trials of old age before his solution to navigating them in a manner pleasing to God.
The Preacher opens our passage with these words, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’.”
We don’t like to think about such things, but as a result of getting older in a fallen world, there will likely come a day when life is so challenging that it will be hard to find any pleasure in it. “Evil days” (not morally evil, but evil in the sense of being characterized by extreme, age-induced hardship) will almost certainly come to us all some point. Our first Father, Adam, made sure of that when he sinned against God and brought a curse upon us himself, his offspring, and even the earth he was charged to fill and subdue.
Before we get into some of the specific hardships the Preacher has in mind, let me simply say that this is one way in which God designed the church to be uniquely positioned to help us live as He intends. The healthiest churches have new babies being born, faithful saints being buried, and people at every stage in between. That’s because in order to be truly healthy, we need to live alongside brothers and sisters in Christ so that we might see the blessings and struggles that God has built into the whole of life.
In that way, we can’t be as healthy as God intends when we’re missing age groups or when they huddle together or isolate. Older folks, we need you to continue to live alongside us even when it’s hard. We need to see what’s to come and what it looks like to fight the fight of faith when it does. But that also means that we need you younger members to pay attention and to show appropriate honor to them so they can, and when they do. We’ll see some specific ways to do so as we move through the text.
Hardships Won’t Let Up (2)
The first thing to see concerning the trials of getting older is that the hardships that sometimes came, but always quickly went when we were young, tend to stick around when we are old. Look at v.2.
With that, what kinds of things mark the years of no pleasure? In vs.2-7, the Preacher poetically describes various aspects of the “evil days” to come in our old age.
2 … before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain…
When we are young, our lives are usually characterized by physical health. In fact, most young people don’t think about their health at all. That’s part of what makes a kid a kid. And even when things do get hard (an ear infection or a bad cold or a broken bone), they almost never last long.
But the first images the Preacher gives paint a different picture for the suffering of the aged. Rather than a short summer night or a brief spring rain, suffering in old age is often like an unending night and an incessant storm. It can be a darkness that never lifts and a storm that never stops.
Let us be a people who visit those who are shut in and pray with those who are weak. Let’s be a people who seek to know one another well enough to be able to bear each another’s burdens at every stage of life.
Our Whole Bodies Wear Out (3-5)
The next three verses describe in a somber tone the deterioration of the whole body, limb by limb.
- 3 … in the day when the keepers of the house tremble – This (“keepers of the house”) poetically refers to a person’s arms. As we age our muscles atrophy and our limbs tremble. It’s the shaky arm reaching for a cane. It’s the shaky hand carefully bringing the glass of water to the mouth. It’s the shaky hug that is far softer than it once was.
Let’s be a people who are quick to lend a dignifying hand and give a firm hug to the older among us. - and the strong men are bent – “Strong men” refers to a person’s legs, unable to fully straighten. There will be an unintentional and continual bend in our once-strong legs as we age. Legs that used to carry us swiftly along, wherever we wanted to go, without thought, will one day force a perpetual squatting.
Let us be a people who are eager to park further away, to leave open the most convenient chairs for the senior saints among us, and to joyfully get up and fetch whatever’s needed. - and the grinders cease because they are few – “Grinders” refer to teeth. As we age, our teeth fail. In the Preacher’s day, that simply meant doing without. In our day there are a few more options (thank God), but sensitive, brittle, and missing teeth are often a way of life for the aged.
May we be considerate of the foods we serve as we gather and gladly be dentist drivers. - and those who look through the windows are dimmed – This poetic expression refers to a person’s eyes. The picture here is that as an older person looks out of their window, it’s as if the window is tinted and translucent. Things look darker and blurrier than they once did. People are harder to recognize and things are more difficult to read.
Let’s be considerate of font size when we gather for worship. Let’s make it common to visit and read God’s Word to those whose “windows are dimmed.” And let’s be glad to sing songs that have been written on their hearts. - 4 and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low – V.4 begins with a description of our failing hearing. The “doors” are our ears that were once opened to the sounds of life in the street (like the grinding mill at work), but are now shut to the point of being unable to hear much of anything.
Let us, therefore, teach our kids to look at people in the eye when they talk. Let’s be mindful of the volume level of our music and gathering spaces. And let’s make sure to provide opportunities to pray and discuss God’s Word in smaller groups. - and one rises up at the sound of a bird – Sleep is evermore elusive as we age. Even though our hearing is failing, when we get older, it takes little more than the chirp of a bird to rouse us from our often-fitful sleep.
May we be considerate of the times of our gatherings—early and late. - and all the daughters of song are brought low – This is almost certainly a reference to failing voice. As we age, it becomes harder to project our voices and carrying a tune is an increasing challenge.
Let us listen carefully to others, trying to avoid making them repeat themselves. And let’s sing corporately often to allow the voices of the older among us find their place in the choir. - 5 they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way – We are far more vulnerable to falling and being taken advantage of when we are older. That’s a fact of long life. I remember when through a significant trial of this kind, Gerri’s grandpa knew it was time to move into an assisted living community.
May we defend the cause of the aged and keep our kids from running around in ways that might cause our senior saints to have to fear losing their balance. May we teach them what it looks like to honor those who are prone to fall. - the almond tree blossoms – Even our hair is not immune from the aging process. It thins out and grays (or whitens like an almond tree blossom) as we get older.
May we learn to stop valuing perpetual youth according to the wisdom of the world and start valuing gray hair as the crown of glory it is according to the wisdom of God. - the grasshopper drags itself along – Grasshoppers hop. They don’t drag themselves along unless they are severely wounded. Likewise, people only drag themselves along when something isn’t right. Combining everything we’ve covered already, it’s easy to see why the Preacher would describe someone near the end of their life in this way. It feels like there’s a need to drag one’s self along with aspect of life in the end.
And when all of that happens, the final piece is often that… - desire fails… After the especially long runs I’ve gone in in my life, my body and mind are so spent that all I want to do at that point is sit or lay down and not move (Kyle has a pretty epic picture of himself in this state after one of his longer runs). For some time after the run, nothing seems worth the effort. The Preacher describes the collective challenges of old age as perpetually experiencing this failure of desire. It’s hard to muster up the strength and will to do much toward the end of life.
Let’s be a people who are creatively eager in attempting to include the aged among us in our families and joys and ministries and lives. We may get 9 “no’s” to every 1 “yes,” but let us keep offering. And if necessary, let’s be willing to carry others so they don’t have to drag themselves.
Because much of the Preacher’s meaning is lost to us in unfamiliar poetic language, I explained the details in a way that risks taking the poetry out of the poem. Having done so, I want to back up for just a moment.
The power of these few verses is not in teasing out every detail. The power of the poetry is in its emotive and comprehensive description of the trials of age throughout the whole person. Arms, legs, teeth, eyes, ears, sleep, voice, mind, hair, our whole bodies and hearts, our whole being, fails as we get older. It is a challenge none can imagine and all struggle to endure in joy. The Preacher is describing the worst of things, of course, but elements of it are common to all who make it to a certain age.
We’re meant to feel the difficulty such that we long for help with it.
The Preacher ends v.5 with an explicit answer to the question of why is all of this happening.
… because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets…
Our bodies fail like this because that’s what death is. And all of us will die.
Our Bodies Will Fail in Irreversible and Catastrophic Ways (6)
The nature of getting old means that hardships won’t let up, our whole bodies wear out, and (now, third) our bodies eventually fail in irreparable ways.
6 … before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern…
V.6 gives four vivid descriptions of death. The thing they all have in common is the irreversibility of the action. Once a silver cord is snapped, a golden bowl is broken, a water pitcher is shatter or a cistern wheel is broken, they are no longer useful for their purpose. They have come to an end. That’s the case with our bodies as well. Once we die, our bodies are functionally finished.
There are things we can (and should) do to take care of ourselves and prolong our health, but eventually, unless Jesus returns, every one of our bodies will experience catastrophic failure one day. And, once again, the Preacher is letting us know so we can be prepared for when that day comes.
Our Bodies Will Go to the Ground Even as Our Souls Live On (7)
The final description of the end of things for all mankind is found in v.7.
7… and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
This is an echo and undoing of something the Preacher said in the previous chapter.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
But even more importantly, it is an echo of God’s promised punishment for sin way back in Genesis 3.
Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
As has often been the case, the Preacher seems to have known more than he knew. The final aspect of physical death is that our bodies go to the ground even as our souls live on.
If all of that sounds rough, it should. That’s the Preacher’s point. Death was not part of God’s original creation. It came into the world as part of the curse of man’s sinful rebellion against God and His good design. It is staggeringly harsh and it is entirely inevitable for us all.
The fact that this problem gets seven-and-a-half of the eight verses and the solution only gets one half is on purpose. It is not until we are stirred by the trial, that the solution will find its proper place in our heads and hearts. To live in this world as it is, to live with wisdom, means being aware of the cursedness of the curse as we age. And to really be aware of this necessitates figuring out what is to be done about it.
Remember Your Creator
The Preacher’s answer is helpful. The New Testament’s answer is infinitely more helpful still. But before coming to either, I want to make something of critical importance crystal clear.
The Power and Inevitably of Story
It is an unassailable fact that when we enter the suffering of the evil days to come (old age), we will interpret our suffering inside of a larger story we believe. We can’t not.
For some, the larger story is that they are basically good people who deserve good things. When the suffering of old age comes to those who live inside of that story, suffering is angering injustice.
For others, their story is one of worthlessness. Therefore, when the suffering of old age comes into their story, they believe it’s exactly what they deserve.
Some live inside of a charmed story. That is, they’ve been largely insulated from any real suffering. Their story isn’t as much that they are good and deserve good things as it is that the world itself is basically good. Therefore, when suffering does come, it’s a shock and a decidedly disorienting thing.
Still others live in a story of perpetual victimhood. For them all their suffering (maybe especially related to old age) is someone else’s fault.
The first point of the Preacher’s answer is that the story we believe about getting older—whatever that story is—and the suffering that goes with it—whatever form it takes—will have everything to do with how we respond to it.
And that principle leads straight to the Preacher’s charge regarding the suffering that’s certain to come: Get your story right before it comes.
Remember Your Creator (1)
With each of the Preacher’s descriptions of a failing body and mind, I suggested a few ways in which we as a church could care well for those in that place. The Preacher’s main concern, however, was to offer a simple, yet profound charge to help ourselves navigate these challenges well.
1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come…
How do we prepare for the trials of getting old? Once again, the main way we do so is by getting our story right before it happens. What is the right story? The right story centers around our Creator. Suffering well is always God-centered. But what does it mean to “remember your Creator?”
For the Preacher, it means two main things: (1) Learning who God truly is, and (2) Living in light of that at all times.
- Learning Who God Truly Is
If God is weak or indifferent or unkind, He’s of no use for suffering of that nature. If your God is too small, then so will be the help He can provide in this severe trial.
So, who is God really, according to the Preacher? Above all, as we’ve seen again and again throughout Ecclesiastes, the Preacher’s God is helpful because He is sovereign over all.
I spent some time working back through the first eleven chapters this week. As I did, according to God’s kindness, I was able to marvel in new ways at how remarkable and exhaustive the Preacher’s description of God’s sovereignty is. May He be so kind to you as I give you a one minute overview.
God sovereignly assigns all our business (1:13, 3:10). He sovereignly assigns our purpose (2:24, 3:13, 5:18, 8:15). He sovereignly distributes knowledge, joy, wealth, possessions, power, and honor (2:26, 5:19, 6:2). The Preacher knew that God sovereignly puts eternity in our hearts and mystery in our heads (3:11, 8:17). He sovereignly distributes beauty as He sees fit (3:11). God is sovereign throughout eternity (3:14, 15). God sovereignly judges everyone (3:17, 11:9, 12:14) and tests all mankind (3:18). He is able to do so because He sovereignly hears everything (5:2). God is sovereign over wealth, possessions, and power (5:19). God is sovereign over every blessing and adversity (7:14). God is the sovereign and good Creator (7:29, 11:5). God is sovereign over all the deeds of man (9:1). And, as we just saw, God sovereignly puts the spirit into man and takes it back according to His purposes and in His timing (12:7).
Grace, young people, I hope I don’t need to tell you that our God is an awesome God. He is sovereign, and He is also wise and good. It is because this is who God is that we can endure what is to come, in the knowledge that He is with us in it all and working good through it all. O how many times have I heard a grie
Again, having settled on the fact that God is sovereign over all—over all the earth, over all mankind, and over all our age-related suffering, throughout all time—(as well as wise and good) is critical to our story if we are going to endure the evil days in a God-honoring manner. It is one that we need to settle on when we are still young if we’re going to finish well when we are old.
- Living in Light of Who God Truly Is at All Times
But, as I hope you know, it’s not enough to simply know these things about God. If this isn’t your God, hardships will just be hard. We do need to know these things about God, but that God must also be the center of our story and the driver of our entire lives. If we have a false understanding of God or if He isn’t central and compelling in our lives, then every trial, and especially age-trials will be without serious joy and without legitimate hope. But if He is, then we have two critical ingredients to count even those trials all joy.
The point I’m trying to make here on the Preacher’s behalf is simply this: If we are to finish well through what’s to come (vs.2-7), then we need to know God as God and we need to order our lives entirely in light of that as early as possible, cutting deep grooves of faith into our souls sufficient to withstand the inevitable trials of age.
Remember the Promises of God in Jesus
In the end, in light of all of this, the Preacher’s conclusion was what it had been: 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.” Mystery of mysteries, it’s all mystery.
While God inspired the Preacher with significant understanding concerning His sovereign nature and its prominent place in the story of all who will finish life well through suffering, the Preacher’s understanding ended there.
But where the Preacher’s knowledge of the solution ended, God’s continued. There is much that could be said, but chief among it all is the simple fact that God loved the world in such a way that He sent His Son that whoever believes in Him will never perish. Jesus endured all of this for us so that our endurance of it is the doorway to the death of death for us. Our help in dying comes ultimately from the knowledge that in Jesus (though not through old age) it is not death to die. Remember, above all, this great and eternal promise of God in Jesus. Trust in Him.
What’s more, God gave us two brilliant pictures of this. The first we saw in the baptisms. The second we will see now in the Lord’s Supper.