“Youth & Aging are Hevel (Ecclesiastes 11:7 - 12:8)” | 11/13/22
Ecclesiastes 11:7 - 12:8 | 11/13/22 | Will DuVal
But this morning we’re actually heading to the opposite end of the age spectrum, and I have to apologize in advance to our senior saints for this opening joke, but I thought it was just too funny not to share…
Three seniors were chatting, comparing their ailments.
“70 is tough,” said the 70-year old. “You always feel like you have to pee, but most of the time you just stand there and nothing comes out.”
“That’s nothing,” said the 80-year old. “When you're 80, your bowels shut down. You take laxatives, eat bran, sit on the toilet all day, but nothing comes out!"
“Oh, just wait til you’re 90!” said the 90 year old.
"You have trouble peeing, too?" asked the 70-year old.
"No, I pee every morning at 6am, like clockwork.”
"So you got problems with your bowel movements?" asked the 80-year old.
"Nope, I have one every morning at 6:30; real regular."
“Well what’s so tough about being 90, then?” they asked.
90-year old replied: “I don't wake up until SEVEN.”
(https://upjoke.com/old-age-jokes)
Getting old isn’t for the faint of heart! Or so I hear, not that I would know. All the guys in my discipleship group are in their 20s. So when we were meeting at Starbucks last week and this middle-aged guy came over and told us how encouraged he was to see us young men studying God’s word, after he left Cole Deming turned to me and said, “Wow, that was cool”. I said, “Yeah…” Cole said, “No, that guy still thinks you’re one of the YOUNG men!”
Well, Cole, go ahead and laugh, but the BIBLE declares that long life is a BLESSING from God (Ps 91:16).
Proverbs 16:31 calls my “Gray hair… a crown of glory”, and don’t even THINK of coming back with a joke about my baldness, cuz you remember what happened to the young guys who laughed at ELISHA!
And Proverbs 20:29 especially sounds a LOT like Solomon’s message for us this morning, in chapters 11 and 12 of Ecclesiastes; it says: “The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair.”
In other words, we’ve got a LOT to celebrate and be GRATEFUL for, no matter WHAT season of life we find ourselves in. Remember back in ch3, Solomon rejoiced that “God has made everything beautiful in its time” (v11). There’s a time to be born, and a time to die, and in between, there’s a time to be YOUNG, and a time to be OLD. And BOTH are beautiful, in their own ways.
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The young praise God for their strength & vitality, their beauty & passion; while the old praise God for their wisdom & longevity, their perspective & contentment. When you’re young, you have your whole LIFE ahead of you! And when your old, if you belong to the Lord, you’re just that much closer to TRUE life, eternal life in PARADISE… it’s a win-win either way!
And yet, as you might have GUESSED by now, Solomon is ALSO gonna remind us this morning that there are unique challenges that come with every season of life as well. Sure, you may be strong and spirited, you young person, but you’re probably ALSO proud and foolish. You may be wise and fulfilled, you old person, but you’re probably ALSO slow and decrepit. So just as Solomon has warned us all throughout Ecclesiastes against idolizing ANY of God’s good gifts - pleasure, wealth, wisdom, work; they’re all GOOD, but all insufficient, to fulfill us in the most ULTIMATE sense - so too this morning, Solomon will warn us against idolizing EITHER our youth OR our old age. Both are gifts - GOOD gifts - to be enjoyed. But like EVERY good gift, both are intended to point us back to the GIVER, in whom alone we can find true satisfaction.
SCRIPTURE: Would you stand… Ecclesiastes 11,v7 - ch12,v8:
“Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
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 the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
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.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
Now, you’ll notice I modified my title a bit since Thursday when the bulletins were printed. It’s VERY clear in these verses that Solomon is warning us about the hevel-ness (the futility, emptiness, bleakness…) of AGING. That much is obvious. What is LESS clear, but became more apparent to me upon closer examination of the text later in the week, is that Solomon is really warning against the hevel-ness (the fleetingness, the vanity, the hollowness…) of YOUTH as well. He wants to warn us against trusting in either your youth OR your old age this morning.
#1 - And the FIRST reason WHY is that DEATH is coming. (11:7-8)
We’ve discussed this at LENGTH, because Solomon has addressed the inevitability of DEATH in every single chapter of this grim, little book.
But he returns to death here once again in vv7-8:
“Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.”
And we WISH he would just to stop right there, cuz there hasn’t been a whole lot of “sweetness”, “pleasantness” throughout Ecclesiastes, has there? As a matter of fact, if you failed to consider his words here in the wider context of this philosophical JOURNEY that Solomon’s been on for 11 chapters now, you’d be tempted to think he’s contradicting himself. Because back in ch4, Solomon confessed, “I thought the dead… more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil… done under the sun.”
But now he tells us in ch11 that it’s actually “pleasant” to see the sun, and v8 - to enjoy the sweetness of life while you can, because soon it’ll all come to an END.
So which IS it, Solomon: is it better to be DEAD, or ALIVE? Better to SEE the sun, or to be FREE from this life “under the sun”?
Well, the key is CONTEXT. Remember: Ecclesiastes is essentially Solomon’s testimony. So his earlier words from ch4 reflect something like Solomon’s COLLEGE years. When he put all his heart and hope into social activism, and he was taking lots of poli-sci classes at his liberal arts university so he could change the world, but then he got out INTO the real world and he quickly got disillusioned and jaded by all the injustice, by the disconnect between the real and the ideal; the world ISN’T as it should be, and even a KING like Solomon didn’t have the power to FIX it.
But by ch11, Solomon has finally made his PEACE with that - remember his “Serenity Prayer” last week in ch11? Solomon learned to accept that some things, MOST things in life, are outside his control, and he’s just gotta “let go and let God”. And having made his peace, Solomon is now at the END of his life, and he’s realizing that he probably doesn’t have too many sunrises left on his horizon, so he better enjoy them while he can. “Light is sweet”.
Either that, or he just wants Daylight Saving Time back. That’s the other possible interpretation of v7: “it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun”; can we STOP this “falling back” on the clocks, please, ?! It’s pitch BLACK when I leave the office at 5:30! Not “pleasant”.
No, v8 makes it clear that Solomon is using “light” and “sun” here as metaphors for LIFE; he exhorts us, “So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.” Darkness is a euphemism for DEATH. And Solomon has already detailed for us back in ch9 why our coming death is “vanity”; it’s hevel, because death has the power to undo EVERYTHING good we experienced in life. The darkness of death eclipses the light of life - “the days of darkness will be many”.
How many years do you reckon you’ll get here on earth? Psalm 90, v10 estimates: “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty [if you’re REALLY blessed, like June Nystrom, maybe you make it to 96!]; yet… soon they are gone, and we fly away.” And unless Christ returns soon, the days you’ll be DEAD will VASTLY outnumber the days you’ll spend here alive.
Our lives are HEVEL. They are transitory, temporary. We’re here today, gone tomorrow.
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14)
“Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.” (Ps 144:4)
And according to Solomon, contemplating our mortality, just how FLEETING our lives really are, ought to provoke two opposite but equally true and strong emotions within us: WISTFULNESS and GRATEFULNESS.
To be wistful is to be full of “sorrowful longing”, thoughtful sadness. Like me, yesterday, realizing that I’d coached my last game of 1st grade girls soccer EVER. And the next time I get to coach Ellery, she’ll be a whole YEAR older. Time goes by too fast. Life is too short.
But that also oughta make us equally GRATEFUL for whatever short time God DOES give us down here. Cuz we’re not entitled to a single DAY of it. And yet, God’s given ME 13,845 of them! 13,845 GIFTS from God. 13,845 sunrises. And I may have 13,000 left, I could have 23,000 left, or I could have just ONE left - none of us has ANY idea. So you better make the most of each and every single one of them; v8: “If a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all”.
Wake up every single day singing Psalm 118:24 [repeat it after me!]:
“This is the day… that the LORD has made…
I will rejoice… and be glad in it”...
Sing it every DAY! Cuz you never know when it’s the LAST sunrise you’ll ever get to witness. The last cup of coffee you’ll brew, anticipate, smell, savor. The last soccer game you’ll coach. The last cuddle you’ll enjoy. The last “I love you”.
Even the stuff you DON’T enjoy; Solomon says, “Enjoy it while you can!”. Cuz you never know when it’ll be the LAST diaper you’ll ever change - you may even get sentimental about that one day, WISTFUL. The last fight you’ll ever break up, between your kids. The last TPS report you’ll fill out at work. The last rainy day when you forgot an umbrella. You will lie there on your deathbed and LONG for that feeling of the cool raindrops on your skin just one more time. But time will be out.
Life is PRECIOUS, sweet. Let us REJOICE every single day of it. Because soon enough, TOO soon, it’ll all be OVER. And then…
#2 - JUDGMENT is coming. (11:9)
Solomon begins v9 by reiterating his imperative from v8: “Rejoice”. But whereas he previously told us to rejoice in ALL our years, now he addresses the “young man” specifically in v9, to exhort him especially to “rejoice… in [his] YOUTH”. “Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes,” while you still CAN, while you’re YOUNG. Before you grow up and you can’t get AWAY with it anymore, cuz you’ll have boring, grown-up responsibilities, and if we ALL just “followed our hearts” and “lived every day like it was our last”, then no one would EVER go in to work and fill out those TPS reports. So you better live it up especially while you’re YOUNG.
Kids: you need to try that backflip off the diving board, while you still can. Sure, you may belly-flop. But one day it won’t be a nose-full of water you’ll be risking; it’ll be a trip to the ER.
Try water skiing. If you can’t get up, who cares. But Polly’s uncle who’s pushing 60 tried skiing, tore his glutes, and couldn’t sit down for almost a YEAR. So chase those dreams before it’s too late!
BUT, Solomon says, before you do anything TOO wild… too SINFUL - don’t be like me and MY friends “in the days of OUR youth”, “walk[ing] in the ways of [OUR] hearts”. We used to “cheer our hearts, by having a laugh at other people’s expense. We thought it was funny go through the Burger King drive thru and order a Big Mac and then get INDIGNANT when they tried to send us next door to McDonald’s. “The sign says, “Have it YOUR way”; and my way is a BIG MAC, not a Whopper, so why don’t YOU go next door and get a Big Mac FOR me!” Then we’d go to Toys ‘R Us (really dating myself now), 16 years old, and we’d get the little kiddy bikes off the racks and we’d RACE each other up and down the aisles until the employees could catch us and chase us out of the store.
Solomon says, “Okay, before you do THAT, or more likely, any of the other, more common youthful ways of “following your heart” while IGNORING God’s commands - “Let’s see how many beers I can drink before Mom and Dad notice… how many bases I can round before my girlfriend stops me…” - before you “cheer your heart” in those ways, you should KNOW, v9: “that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.”
As Solomon will conclude the book of Ecclesiastes next week: “God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
EVERY deed. That includes your youth. And I know I’m not the ONLY one starting to sweat, as you reflect back on YOUR youth and you think, “I gotta stand before GOD one day and answer for THAT! But I was only 16; I was just stupid.” Yeah- stupid and morally accountable!
So this is probably a good time to pause and remind you of the GOSPEL. The good news, that WHEN you stand before the Judgment Seat on that day, in God’s heavenly courtroom, you’re gonna have one of two defense attornies there: it’s either gonna be YOU, pleading your OWN case, before a holy, perfectly righteous God, trying to justify to HIM how you really weren’t THAT bad… OR, you can have JESUS there to make your defense FOR you. And here is his opening AND closing argument: “Father, I have made justification FOR him… FOR her… by MY blood, shed on the cross, that paid for EVERY sin. I REST MY CASE, Your Honor.”
Judgment is coming, friends; you better make sure you’ve got the best defense attorney you can GET, while you can still get Him.
But in the meantime, Solomon says, PRE-Judgment: ENJOY life! Especially your youth. You only get to be young once; ENJOY it!
Go skinny-dipping!
Stay up all night long with your friends, just cuz you CAN.
Ask that girl out who you’ve got a crush on, even though she’s an 8 and you’re a 5… cuz who cares! And you never know!
Take that ridiculous road trip with your friends. In college, a couple buddies and I joked… DREAMED… about taking the first month of our summer breaks to drive all over the country and film a mockumentary of our search for the most elusive mythical creatures - Lizard Man in the swamps of South Carolina, Bigfoot of course, out in Washington state, El Chupacabra down in Texas - it would have been the most absurd, hilarious, heart-cheering trip; I’ve always regretted not taking it.
I wish someone had preached Ecclesiastes 11:9 for me sooner. Carpe the diem! YOLO! Just go for it!
And ALSO, fear God and the coming JUDGMENT. 2 Timothy 2:22 “Flee youthful passion and pursue righteousness… from a pure heart”. And speaking of your heart…
V10: “Remove vexation from your heart”.
“A ‘vexation’ is any problem that causes us worry or concern, that ‘angers, grieves, or irritates.’” (Ryken, 266)
Solomon says, “To the extent you can, REMOVE such problems from your heart, from your mind”.
This is 60-year old Solomon now looking back at 20-year old Solomon who we met earlier, who lost so much sleep over income inequality and the gender pay gap, fighting racism and homelessness, and OLD Solomon wants to tell YOUNG Solomon: “Dude, just CHILL.”
Cuz first of all, you really can’t “change the world” as much as you’d like to think; that’s hubris. You can work your fingers down to the bone, lose all the sleep you want; Jesus said, “there will ALWAYS be poor people around” (Matt 26:11). So take a breath, relax.
And REALIZE, secondly, that you don’t have to go LOOKING for problems in life; Solomon says, “Trust me, vexation is gonna find YOU, in due time.”
He tells the young man, “Remove vexation from your heart… FOR youth and the dawn of life are [hevel].” Youth is FLEETING. The “dawn of life”, your “sunrise years”, are beautiful and filled with exciting potential, but they will be short-lived. And then you’ll spend MOST of your adult life “over the hill”, in your sun-SET years, in the DUSK of life, when problems ABOUND. Dawn is easy. You wake up, ease into the day with your Bible and coffee, before the rest of the family gets up, make your to-do list, full of potential… but by sun-SET you’re rushing just to get that one email out that got buried in the busyness of the day that absolutely HAS to go out today before you can leave the office, so you can rush home and relieve your wife for half an hour so she can get dinner fixed, so you can get the kids fed and bathed and read to and prayed, and the dog fed and walked and medicated, and the bills paid that are due tomorrow, and finally try on those new clothes that came in the mail so you don’t miss the return deadline, and you’ve still gotta discuss Thanksgiving plans so you can let the extended family know, and decide which family photos you liked so you can order them in time for the Christmas cards, and… I’m only 37, living a relatively VERY comfortable, upper-middle class lifestyle, and I’m EXHAUSTED.
I don’t lose sleep over how we’re gonna solve world hunger; between the kid who’s sick and the one who has nightmares, and the dog who needs to be let outside 3 times in the middle of the night, and the pregnant wife who tosses and turns all night cuz she can’t get comfortable, and that’s ALL just warming me up for baby #3 coming in less than a month, and then NO sleep - sorry, I think world hunger is just gonna have to solve ITSELF. It must be nice to be Bill Gates, sleeping on your giant pile of money, dreaming about which disease you’d like to eradicate next, but for the OTHER 99% of us down here, we’re just trying to hold it together without losing our job or sending the kid to school without PANTS on… AGAIN.
“Don’t you worry,” Solomon says, “you’re gonna have PLENTY of problems to solve soon enough, a LIFETIME of problems. So while you can, “remove vexation from your heart”.” And while you’re AT it…
#4 - “put away pain from your body”, v10. Cuz just as vexation is coming for your HEART, you better believe that PAIN is coming for your BODY as well. Can I get an “Amen” from my senior saints? I reached out to some of our senior saints this week, and said, TELL me about your experience of aging, what kinds of aches and pains would you warn those of us who are younger about. Cuz that’s Solomon’s whole point here: thinking about your death helps you appreciate your LIFE more; thinking about the ailments of OLD AGE can help you appreciate your youth and health more. Here’s some of what I heard back from y’all:
“I have trouble breathing and need oxygen. This reduces my mobility and leads to a lot of problems regarding meals and isolation… I take lasix to reduce water build up and this multiplies the number of times you have to go to the bathroom. It’s hard to get there when you need to. I am blessed that I don’t have cognitive problems and do not need full time nursing help, but many of my friends are not that fortunate, and it is a real strain on their family.”
Others were a bit more light-hearted: one of you replied, “My days are much shorter… cuz it now takes me all day to do what I used to be able to do in an hour… When I go into a room and can't remember what I went IN there for… I went to the doctor for a physical and I shrunk 2 inches; I can't figure out where they went! I read recipes the same way I read science fiction, I get to the end and think,"Yeah right, like that’s going to happen!”
Another simply reported: “I used to walk a lot, even run. Now I don't like to walk for fear that people will think I'm drunk because I'm so wobbly.”
That’s what we’ve got to look forward to, young folks. For those of you REALLY young, I can personally give you a preview of your 30s: Literally the day I turned 30, we were having a Christmas party for the youth group, I bent over to pick up a basketball - I wish I could say I was going up to DUNK on one of the high schoolers, put ‘em in their place; NO - I was BENDING OVER to pick up the ball, and I threw my back out; couldn’t walk for a day. A year later when I was playing, I blew out my Achilles; couldn’t walk for 9 MONTHS! My orthopedic surgeon handed me business cards to pass out, to the other 30-somethings in our weekly game; he said we’re like 80% of his business: guys in their 30s still trying to do stuff athletically that they USED to be able to do in their 20s.
PAIN is coming! But there’s another possible translation here. Some of your Bibles may include it in a footnote, or perhaps you’re reading the good ‘ole KJV: “put away evil from thy flesh”. That’s what the Hebrew here literally says: STOP SINNING! And I like how commentator Max Rogland brings these two possible translations together here; he thinks Solomon was intentionally ambiguous about whether he meant “remove PAIN from your BODY”, or “remove EVIL from your FLESH”, because he meant BOTH!
Rogland explains (ESV, 1110): “One challenge of middle age is the difficulty one faces in trying to get into better physical shape. In one’s 40s or 50s, it becomes much harder to lose weight or build muscle. What is true of us physiologically is also true of us spiritually. Habits of godliness that lead to spiritual health are best established in one’s youth. While many people talk about eventually ‘getting serious about religion’ in their advanced years, this rarely actually happens… It becomes increasingly difficult to shed ‘spiritual FLAB as one gets older.”
Solomon’s saying: “Get spiritually FIT while you still can! Because just like ANY muscle, your SPIRITUAL muscles will atrophy over time, if you’re not “working out”, spiritually.” Don’t wait until your OLDER to “get right with God”, because #1- the longer you go WITHOUT Him, the harder your heart becomes TOWARD Him; you get stuck in your ways, your SINFUL ways… if you eat nothing but junk food for DECADES what makes you think you’re suddenly gonna crave vegetables when you get old? No, Solomon says, “develop a healthy spiritual palate NOW”.
Because #2 - you’re not promised old age ANYWAY. If you keep putting God off until tomorrow, one of these days, you will run out of tomorrows. And you don’t KNOW when that day will come; you don’t always get a heads up, before it’s too late. Yes it’s true that often, God will - in His MERCY! - allow us to endure the difficulties and pains of old age - the long, drawn-out, physical suffering that accompanies the shedding of our mortal bodies; you say, “MERCY?! What’s MERCIFUL about God letting our bodies decay in our old age?!”
Can’t you see God’s MERCY, friends, in how He systematically strips you of EVERYTHING ELSE you’ve ever tried to put your hope in? You trusted in your riches; now you’re working on your will, making plans to leave it all behind, to someone else. You trusted in your family; now they’re all at your bedside saying their final “Goodbyes”; gotta leave them too. You trusted in your health; now you can’t even sit up in bed, you labor to take a single breath. And God is SCREAMING at you, “Don’t you GET IT: EVERYTHING ELSE in your life is passing away! Your own BODY is rebelling against you and rotting off the BONE, every day, in the mirror, right in front of you! How much more OBVIOUS can I make it for you that NOTHING you put your hope and confidence in is gonna LAST you here, under the sun; NONE of it survives the grave, you must leave ALL of it behind, except for ME!
And the instant AFTER you take that final breath, and all the lights go out for good, then it’s just YOU AND ME,” God says. And friends, that is either going to be a TERRIFYING prospect for you, if you DON’T know Jesus NOW, while you still can - don’t wait until you hear him say, “Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness; ‘I never knew you”; it’ll be too late then! Don’t wait until everything ELSE in your life is stripped away, to finally come face to face with Jesus; NO! Meeting Him THEN will be a terrifying prospect. But come to Him TODAY, and seeing Jesus in Heaven will be a
tremendous PROMISE, that you eagerly await.
Is meeting Jesus your unnerving, inescapable reality, or is it your unending, inexplicable reward?
You need a relationship with Him before it’s too late. Before you expire. That’s where Solomon leaves us, in ch12, with one long, poetic metaphor for a DECAYING BODY.
He reiterates, “Remember 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””. And then Solomon paints this vivid PICTURE for us, of just how much DIS-pleasure we can expect to experience in our old age:
V2: “before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened” - before “the lights go out,” and you DIE…
“and the clouds return after the rain” - before you start losing your mind; he’s alluding to mental fogginess…
V3: “in the day when the keepers of the house tremble” - your hands and ARMS start to shake…
“and the strong men are bent” - your KNEES start to give out…
“and the grinders cease because they are few” - all your TEETH fall out…
“and those who look through the windows are dimmed” - your EYESIGHT starts to fade…
“and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low” - you lose your HEARING…
“and one rises up at the sound of a bird” - you have trouble SLEEPING…
“and all the daughters of song are brought low” - you lose your voice…
“they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the highway” - before you get so old that going down stairs and driving a car make you nervous…
“the almond tree blossoms” - almond trees blossom WHITE, that’s your HAIR…
“the grasshopper drags itself along” - that’s your CANE, or your WALKER…
“and desire fails” - that’s your LIBIDO…
Every single physical ASPECT of you is gonna be stripped away!
Why? V5: “because man is going to his eternal home”.
Then we’ll have a FUNERAL for you: “the mourners go about the street”.
So Solomon says: “BEFORE all that happens…
“before the silver cord is snapped” - your spinal cord…
“or the golden bowl is broken” - your skull…
“or the pitcher is shattered” - your lungs…
“or the wheel broken at the cistern” - your HEART…
Another interpretation of v6 is that the silver cord, the golden bowl, the pitcher, the wheel / pulley - they’re all components of a very ornate WELL, and WATER is a universal symbol of LIFE. So Solomon’s saying, “Before your life - your PRECIOUS life - has run dry…”
V7: “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” - your BODY’s gonna turn back into worm food, your SPIRIT’s going to be with GOD, either in Heaven, to experience His eternal BLESSING, or in Hell, to experience His eternal WRATH…
Solomon says, “Before ALL that…”
WHAT? How did he start this big, long, run-on word picture?
BEFORE all that happens to you, while you still can, “Remember your Creator”.
Let’s end, quickly, with his Solomon’s 3 Takeaways for us, the 3 IMPERATIVES he gave us in this chapter. I only listed ONE in your bulletin, because we’ve already discussed the first 2, but SPEAKING of old age, some of you have already forgotten them! So…
Takeaway #1: REJOICE. Rejoice in your YOUTH, especially. But remember where Solomon started: “if you live many years… rejoice in them all”! Every day is a gift from God. Live it to the fullest.
#2: REMOVE. Remove worries from your heart, pains from your body, and most of all, evil from your flesh. “Stop worrying about tomorrow”, Jesus said, “It’s gonna have enough worries of its own!” (Matt 6:34) Take life as it comes to you, one problem at a time. And enjoy the worry-LESS-ness of youth while you can, kids… Cuz aches and pains are a-comin’! REMOVE pains when you can and while you can; take care of your body, cuz you only get ONE!
But MOST of all, take care of your SOUL (you only get one of THOSE as well!), so GUARD your heart, the wellspring of your life (Proverbs 4:23) by removing “EVIL from your FLESH.” Mortify your sin - put it to DEATH (Colossians 3:5). And pursue righteousness and LIFE instead.
And how do we do that? #3 - by REMEMBERING your Creator.
God is our CREATOR - he’s the reason we have life in the FIRST place; “the Lord GIVES and [one day] the Lord will TAKE AWAY,” and what is OUR right response? “Blessed be the name of the Lord”! Our Creator and Sustainer.
Solomon calls us to REMEMBER him. It’s one of the most common commands in the entire Bible: REMEMBER. Why? Because we’re so darn forgetful! And not just because we’ve got memory problems related to old age; we’re just so easily DISTRACTED. We have to CONSTANTLY remind ourselves of who God is, and who we are, and (BECAUSE of the eternal gulf between us) what JESUS did to make us His own. Remember, repent once again of our sins, and RETURN to our Good Shepherd; “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; but God laid on HIM the iniquity of us all.” May we remember JESUS, His sacrifice for us, today and every day.