Serve the Lord Before You Get Too Old

Our last sermon in the rotating series of 2014.
Our tenth and last sermon on this wonderful book of Ecclesiastes
1. Introduction to Eccl. 12:1-7

• After everything else, the author here gives us his final advice, his conclusion of what he has learned from his long life.
• It contains the Bible’s most poignant description of old age.
• The verses just before this, Eccl.11:7-10, have been urging the young to take full advantage of the days of their youth in light of the fact that those days are short, and that difficult days are coming.
• But now in chapter 12 there is one more thing he wants to urge upon the young...

2. Explanation of Ecclesiastes 12:1–7

• 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”;
• Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth,
• Youth is not just a time to enjoy the blessings and opportunities of being young, it is also a time to remember the One who made you, to not forget where youthful blessings and opportunities came from.
• In fact, in one sense it is more incumbent upon youth to remember their creator than the aged, for those who are more blessed have a higher obligation to give thanks.
• On the other hand, it is easier to forget God in one’s youth, when one tends to be distracted by the pleasures and delights of youth.
• In the springtime of life it seems like the years will go on forever and the things we can do unlimited, and so it’s easy to not think about God.
• And forgetting God is a more common problem than cursing Him, isn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I meet more people who just don’t think about God much than people who openly hate Him.
• before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”
• There is special urgency to remember God before you get old.
• It’s hard to change when you’re old. It’s hard to look back on your life and admit you’ve don’t it all wrong. The time to get on the right track is when you’re young and starting out, when you have energy to serve God and do good in the world. A life lived for God is far superior to a live lived for self and then feeling bad at the end and reaching out to God.
• By God’s grace it is possible to turn to Him at any stage of life. But it is harder, and less common, when one is old. Surveys tell us that most who become Christians do so before the age of 30.
• Why cut yourself off from years of His blessings? Why store up a lifetime of bitter memories of wasted moments and squandered opportunities?
• Get right with God now – today! And live a life in His favor and blessing!
• Evil days = days of hardship, going downhill, losing faculties, losing your ability to enjoy things.
• (This passage speaks as if there are only two stages of life: youth and the “evil days” of old age. But we know there is a large stage of life between these two. What this passage says to youth applies to all of us that have any youth left in us, who still have functionality and competence and the ability to enjoy the things of life.)
• Sometimes when people begin to get close to death, they begin to think about life after death, and suddenly want to be included in the community of the saved.
• Now we know from the story of the thief on the cross that these death-bed conversions are sometimes sincere and very real. However, we also know that sometimes they are merely a desperate but very human attempt to escape the consequences of one’s life.
• How much better and more blessed it is to spend your life being shepherded by the Lord: Ps.23 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
• You want to live this kind of life of blessedness? Then remember your Creator in the days of your youth.
• 2a before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened
• This darkening could refer to one’s eyesight failing or perhaps to the fact that the sparkle has gone out of one’s life.
• 2b and the clouds return after the rain,
• Life has its rainy days and its bright sunny days. But when you get to the “evil days” of old age, you alternate not between rainfall and sunshine, but rainfall and gloomy cloudiness.
• Instead of it being bright and shiny after the rain has passed, it’s still overcast.
• 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,
• the keepers of the house tremble = hands quivering
• the strong men are bent = legs?
• the grinders cease because they are few = teeth
• those who look through the windows are dimmed = eyes losing their sight
• (Remember that this was written in a day before glasses, and hearing aids, and knee replacements, and dental reconstruction.)
• 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—
• “the doors on the street are shut” = mouth (Psalm 141:3 “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!”) = not communicative
• “the sound of the grinding is low”
• With few or no teeth, one must either eat soft food or gum their food. Either way it is quiet.
• “one rises up at the sound of a bird”
• The slightest thing wakes you up early in the morning.
• “all the daughters of song are brought low”
• Because your hearing is failing, you can’t appreciate music like you once did.
• 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—
• they are afraid also of what is high = afraid of falling down (in the ancient middle east the rooftop was the living room and involved climbing up)
• terrors are in the way = afraid of tripping over things
• the almond tree blossoms = gray hair
• the grasshopper drags itself along = whereas grasshoppers usually soar, sometimes you see them dragging themselves along
• desire fails = sexual desire
• because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets
• These things happen because God is preparing man to go to his eternal home, weaning him off of earthly life.
• mourners go about the streets = The day of your funeral is coming, and you won’t be there! You will have gone on to your eternal home.
• 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,
• These metaphors are all referring to death, though just exactly how isn’t easy to figure out.
• Silver cord = spinal cord? the cord that binds the soul to the body?
• the golden bowl is broken = the head/skull?
• the pitcher is shattered at the fountain = heart?
• the wheel broken at the cistern = digestive system? circulatory system? respiratory system?
• The most intriguing possibility is that the first two are actually a pair and the last two are a pair.
• The first pair might be the image of a lamp which symbolizes life: a golden bowl of oil (with wick) held up by a silver cord. When the cord snaps the bowl which holds the flame of life breaks.
• The second pair may refer to the pulley and pitcher which together draw up water from a cistern, once again symbolizing a person’s life. When they break, the water of life stops flowing.
• 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
• Man has two parts: a body and a soul/spirit. At death the soul leaves the body, which is usually then buried in the ground.
• (Of course, we know that at the resurrection on the last day, God will raise up the bodies of all the dead and reunite them in their resurrection form with their spirits.)

3. Application

• Old age is the last thing young people want to think about.
• In my childhood there were lots of movies about wagon trains moving out west. They were constantly sending out a scout to see what’s up ahead. There might be danger, or desert, or barriers that needed to be avoided or prepared for.
• Well, in many ways, old people are living prophecies of your future.
• Did you know you are visiting yourself when you visit the old folks home?
• This is the nature of life on this earth: “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.” (Psalm 103:15–16)
• If you’re wise, you’ll live life with your future in mind.
• What Ecclesiastes is telling us here is this: When you’re young, don’t float along in life as if it goes on forever.
• If you have eyes to see, then glory in the beauty of the world God has made.
• If you have ears to hear, then enjoy the sounds of beauty and love and truth in God’s good world.
• If you have legs that can walk, then enjoy your mobility and take each step for the Lord.
• If you have hands that can work, then work wholeheartedly, for the Lord (Col.3:23)
• If you have your balance and your strength, then remember where that comes from and use them for His glory.
• If you still have teeth that can chew and taste buds that can taste should “eat and drink and be joyful” (Eccl.8:15) in the gifts of God.
• If you have a mind that can think and remember, then love God with all your mind with humility and gratitude.
• Serve God by remembering all this comes from Him and making the most of every opportunity you have.
• You have only a limited number of days to live on this earth. Don’t waste them. Remember every day who you are, and whose you are.
• Your eyes only have a limited number of days to function, and your ears, and your hands, and your mind. Treat them — and treasure them — as gifts given you by your Creator. Take care of them — and use them in the way God gave them to you to use.
• And remember that “the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him.” (Ps.103:17) “From everlasting to everlasting”: means that His love continues even after all your functions fail and you move on to your heavenly home.
• If you remember these things, you’ll be ready for old age: “My heart and flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart.” (Ps.73:26)