Scripture Daily

Context No. 1294 of 4322 · Ecclesiastes

Context · Reflection

Ecclesiastes 12:1-8: in context

1Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;” 2Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; 3in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look out of the windows are darkened, 4and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; 5yes, they shall be afraid of heights, and terrors will be on the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets; 6before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the spring, or the wheel broken at the cistern, 7and 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!”

The Preacher closes his book with a call and a poem. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, he urges, before the evil days come and the years when you say, I have no pleasure in them. Then he paints old age and death in a series of haunting images: the light dimming, the keepers of the house trembling, the strong men bowing, the grinders ceasing, the daughters of music brought low, fears on the road, the almond tree blossoming white, desire failing, until at last the silver cord is snapped, the golden bowl broken, and the dust returns to the earth and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, he ends; all is vanity.

The whole passage is built around a single command placed before the long description of decline: remember your Creator in the days of your youth. The Preacher does not tell us to remember God when we are old and failing, when the almond tree of white hair has blossomed and desire has failed; he says do it now, in youth, in strength, before the evil days come. There is urgency in that. It is far harder to turn to God for the first time when the body and mind are giving way, when everything the poem describes is closing in; the time to remember the Creator is while there is still strength to do it fully. And the poem's unflinching picture of aging and death is not morbid but clarifying. It strips away the illusion that we have endless time, ending with the stark image of the dust returning to the earth and the spirit returning to God who gave it. That is the destination of every life, a return to the God who gave us breath, and the wisdom is to remember him now, before the return, rather than putting it off until the failing years or the deathbed. Remember your Creator while you still can, because you are on your way back to him.

Am I remembering my Creator now, in whatever strength I still have, rather than putting it off until the failing years, knowing that my spirit will one day return to the God who gave it?

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