September 9 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Ecclesiastes 12:

¹Remember 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;
²While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor 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 that look out of the windows be darkened,
⁴And 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;
⁵Also 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:
⁶Or 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.
⁷Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
⁸Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
⁹And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
¹⁰The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
¹¹The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
¹²And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
¹³Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
¹⁴For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Devotional:

Are you young? The Preacher would have you remember your Creator now. Be advised that God wants your whole life. He wants the vigor of your youth! He is not a toy that you can play with and push aside until you are just too bored with everything else and finally feel like condescending to heed Him. The longer you put off making a commitment to Him the more difficult it will be to kneel and bow your head. As previously mentioned, another Preacher, Paul, warned the Romans centuries after Solomon, that when we sink more and more into our sinful unbelief God may give us up more and more. Remember your Creator now!

Are you older? Are these evil days for you? Old age is presented here as vanity. Here we see old age as weakened vitality, loss of the faculties, the palsied limb, the toothless mouth, the dim eyes and unhearing ears, the fear of heights, the fear of everything! Graphically the preacher-poet presents it, and this is old age as mankind generally has had to face it since the fall. It is emptiness.

If, however, in the providence of God we do remember Him in our youth, old age with all its infirmities can be more beautiful than the preacher points out here. It can be the old age of still another preacher, the apostle John, whose heart of love still reached to his children in the faith and whose heart rejoiced to see them walk in the truth! When our walk with God has been maintained through the years, old age is a time of peace and hope which transcends physical limitations and reaches out towards eternity.

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the
first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith, 'A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half, trust God:
see all, nor be afraid!'

*Browning, Robert. Rabbi Ben Ezra (Stanza I).