Solomon continues his encouragement to the young – “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”: (v1)
This is the first the writer speaks of The Creator God, he remembers the greatness of God and urges us to do this whilst we are still young. Young people often do not think about death and eternity but it is vital that they do, not to be morbid but spiritually sensible, because difficult days may come and we lose the pleasure of life. How delightful to give God the best years of our lives. How we need to encourage people to come to Christ whilst they are young with all their lives ahead of them. In my retirement I spend a lot of time leading Bible studies in prisons and I see adult men (mainly, but very occasionally women) who have lived terrible lives and many of them regret it and wish they could be different. We have the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ who can change lives and give new purpose. We have the joy of many turning to Christ and their lives are indeed changed. Before The Lord led me into this work, I spent over 40 years working in Magistrates’ Courts dealing with children, young people and adults who have fallen into crime. As a Christian, I felt desperately sorry for these people and am so thankful I was saved at a young age and I don’t regret it. I’ve been attending church all my life but it didn’t make me into Christian, I had to acknowledged for myself that I was a sinner and received Jesus Christ as my saviour and was born again as John 3 says.
It is vital that we as parents, grandparents and churches need to help our youngsters to turn to Christ whilst they are young. The Bible has the answer to all life’s situations and we must share it with them. In the words of 2 Peter 1:3 “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.“
Verses 2-5 are a pictorial description of getting older and concludes it by stating, “For man goes to his eternal home,
And the mourners go about the streets.” Solomon seems to be certain that we go to our eternal home, not the grave or some meaningless place, and our passing will be mourned in the streets. Maybe it is through his searching described in this book that he come to this conclusion that, after all, there is something more than ‘vanity’ or meaninglessness. It is said that such certainty of an eternal home is not found anywhere else in the Old Testament.
He urges us to remember our Creator again in verses 6,7 but it is not just the young but all of us – “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. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.”
Note that we are to do this ‘before the silver cord is loosed….’ in other words ‘while we are still alive’. It is too late afterwards. That’s the message and urgency of receiving the gospel –“Now is the accepted time…’
In verse 8 he states, “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.” Has he given up and returning to where he started? I think not, this seems to be his summing up having examined all that he has, that life without God is certainly meaningless, all of it. In verses 9-12 he changes his tone – “And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.”
You will recall that God told Solomon to ask for whatever he wanted and he asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:5-14; 6:11,12; 9:1 etc). It seems that he still had that gift even though he had searched for satisfaction in many other things, and he still taught the people. How we need to heed the teaching of God through His Word. Solomon says that there are many books. How true, there are libraries full of them, perhaps you, like me, have many, but there is only one true, certain and never changing book – the Bible, God’s Word given to us for our instruction. Let us remember as Paul said to Timothy – 2 Timothy 3:14-17 “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
As I hope I’ve already indicated, the scope of Ecclesiastes is to show the vanity of all mere human pursuits when made the chief end and when contrasted to the real blessedness of true wisdom which is summed up in the words of Solomon in v13 ‘The fear of God and keeping of His commandments’.Ecclesiastes offers the Christian an opportunity to understand the emptiness and despair of those who do not know God. Without a saving faith in Christ, humanity is faced with a life that will ultimately end and become irrelevant. If there is no salvation, and no God, then not only is there no point to life, but no purpose or direction to it, either. The phrase ‘under the sun’ indicates a world without God which is undoubtedly frustrating, cruel, unfair, brief, and “utterly meaningless.” God, however, does not leave us without hope. If we have Jesus Christ here on earth, life is but a shadow of the glories to come in a heaven that is only accessible through Him.
In the latter chapters he concludes that anything without God is meaningless and in chapter 12 he makes this astounding statement “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.” (v13)
We might say, why on earth has he spent so much time chasing vanities? But that is what we all do at some time or other. Examine our lives, yes, but let us not spend too much time on the meaningless things. Oh that we come to the conclusion, sooner rather than later, that the only thing worth ‘chasing’ is God and His will for our lives.
The final verse (14) takes us back to the previous chapter as he reminds us of the most important reason for fearing God and keeping His commandments – “For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.” Can there be any greater reason? Everything is not meaningless, it is seen by God and we cannot avoid His scrutiny.
The Apostle Paul puts life into perspective: In 2 Corinthians 4:16 – 5, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences…. For the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again…. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
