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REMEMBERING THE
CREATOR
An
Allegory
Ecclesiastes
12: 1-7
THESE VERSES
seem to present a vivid pen picture of old age
― ‘the evil days’ of physical decline and infirmity, ‘when thou shalt say, I
have no pleasure in them’. The world offers its pleasures to the young, who
snatch at the delusions; but age has proved them all empty bubbles. The world
has nothing substantial to offer, and therefore, unless the mind has found its
satisfaction in God, there is indeed no pleasure in old
age.
1. Remember now thy Creator in the
days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when
thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
This
admonition sets the tone for the sober realities enumerated in the subsequent
verses.
2.
While
the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the
clouds return after the rain:
Both mental
and physical vision grow dull, and clouds of trouble of one kind or another
appear after the refreshing rain which offered hope of sunshine or
prosperity.
3.
In 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
that look out of the windows be darkened,
The keepers of
the house (the arms and hands) tremble; and the strong men (the lower limbs) bow
themselves (unable to support the weight of the body), and the grinders (the
teeth) cease (to perform their office), because they are few; and those various
mental faculties that look out of the windows (the eyes) become
dim.
4.
And the
doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and
he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall
be brought low;
When the work
of life is done there is little in common with the rising generation, and
therefore less and less communication. One shall rise up at the voice of the
bird (early, being unable to sleep well), and all the daughters of music shall
be brought low – the failing powers cease to catch the strains of earthly
enchantments.
5.
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in
the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a
burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the
mourners go about the streets:
The
labour and sorrow of extreme old age
with all its infirmities lead to the failure of earthly pleasures and desires.
In the ‘long home’ of death we will wait for the morning of the resurrection.
‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning’ (Psalm. 30:
5).
6,
7.
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be
broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the
cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall
return unto God who gave it.
The precious
cord of life is released, the golden bowl (the body which contained the precious
life-blood), broken. The pitcher (the lungs which drew in life from the
fountain, the surrounding atmosphere) is broken at the fountain and the wheel of
life (the heart), broken at the cistern. When the body can no longer perform its
offices, the dust of which it is composed returns to its component parts
(inanimate ‘dust’) and the breath of life shall dissipate into the surrounding
atmosphere. The soul – the individual being – ceases to be, save as it is
engraven indelibly upon the tablet of God’s memory, to be reproduced again in
the resurrection.
_____________
Loosely adapted from Zion’s Watch
Tower, May 15, 1893.
This adaptation only, copyright November 2009
ukbiblestudents.co.uk
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