Year One, November 5

At Evening Time There Shall Be Light1

We shall read once more in the book of Ecclesiastes. This selection is the wise man’s famous words to young people.

  

Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

9Rejoice, 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. (Solomon seems to dare the young man to throw caution to the wind and seek his own pleasure. But he warns him there is a price to be paid if he does. The cost will not be worth it! It never pays to sin, because the truth is, every sin will face punishment.) 10Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. (There is a way for youth to have true joy. Let the wise young person try it. Our young days will soon be over, let us make them as happy as we can. Enjoy life while we have it. Everyone agrees with this advice, but few know that the best way of accomplishing it is to be given salvation by believing in Jesus.)

  

Ecclesiastes 12:1-7; 13-14

1Remember 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”; (Youth is the best time for serious thinking about important things and deciding to believe in Jesus. Old age robs much of the incentive and ability to consider the crucial subject of eternity. The mind is not as sharp as it used to be and the body is weakening. Both make examining subjects that have been ignored for a long life all the more difficult to consider. Young people should beware of delay and give up the idea that they can wait until they are older to think about giving their lives to Jesus. No tree is so easily bent as the green sapling.) 2before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, (meaning that in old age, sicknesses are many and are felt more sharply than when we are young.) 3in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, (the arms are no longer powerful) and the strong men are bent, (the old person’s legs are unsteady beneath their weight) and the grinders cease because they are few, (their teeth are almost gone) and those who look through the windows are dimmed, (the eyes grow dim) 4and the doors on the street are shut—(the senses are gradually fading, both ears and eyes become like doors closed to the outside world) when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, (their nights are tiring, the first crowing of the rooster wakes him.) and all the daughters of song are brought low—(their own voice is gone, and they are no longer able to hear the voice of others) 5they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; (elderly people are full of worry, boldness and courage vanish)  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— 6before 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, (The spinal cord, the skull, the heart, and the circulation of the blood are pictured here in beautiful imagery; all these fail us in death.) 7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

13The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (This, then, is the heart of the matter. But the question is, how are we to fulfill “the whole duty of man?” We may rest assured that we are quite powerless to do it ourselves. Only in Christ Jesus can we find the law fulfilled. He is ours if we believe in him. This is true wisdom. Solomon would have been wiser even if this were all he knew.)

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1} Zechariah 14:7