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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"; 2before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, 3in 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, 4and 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— 5they 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— 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, 7and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
The words, "Remember your Creator," should not be viewed in isolation from NT revelation. We now remember what God our Creator has done in Jesus Christ. He has borne the curse of meaninglessness and futility, along with God's eternal judgment. He lived a righteous life, and he still died the death of a criminal. It is the story of futility. But it is not God's final word. After all, this was the cup the Father had given the Son to drink, so that we might be redeemed from the curse. We are now to walk in newness of life, life that we draw from the wells of salvation through the lasting power of the Holy Spirit. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). Just beneath the surface of "old things passing away" hides the concept of death, rendered so poetically in Eccl. 12:1-8. The new creation of which Paul speaks connects with Qoheleth's imperative, "Remember your Creator."
Futility is still a painful experience from which we will not be spared. We all have our share of disappointment and frustration, but like the pain of childbirth, it will finally give way to inexpressible joy, because God who has begun a good work in us will surely complete it when Christ's day comes. We have not yet been released from Qoheleth's vanity, but there is no question as to the certainty of its final removal.
But this hope cannot be entertained without abiding in Christ's word, which is yet another way of saying, "Remember your Creator." Our text's picture of senile decay in old age needs no further explanation. It is clear that the period of failing powers is no time to begin remembering God. He will not take second stage to whatever we deem more important at the time, nor will he be flattered when we offer him the dregs of our lives. In any case, we cannot find rest for our souls in pleasure, eating and drinking, in family or anything else we have in this world. Man does not live by bread alone….
This is the essence of the message of our text. We must come to realize the simple truth that all we need for happiness in youth and old age, even in the hour of death, is to remember our Creator, for we do not know how long we will be here. This is a message for Christians who are done with boasting and pretending, knowing that our times are in God's hands. It is a message that helps us face reality as it is. A similar kind of realism speaks to us in the words of the apostle, "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation" (Gal. 6:14-15). For this reason, remember your Creator while you can!
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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