Seek God in your Youth.


Ecclesistes 12.

1. Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”:
2 While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain;
3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down; When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim;
4 When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low.
5 Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets.
6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well.
7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”

The Whole Duty of Man

9 And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. 
10 The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. 
11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. 
12 And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.

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Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”:

Young people have a lot to look forward to. The future is all before them. Youthfulness causes them to think, we are young and we have lots of time. I will consider the things of religion later, I have a lot of living to do. There is plenty of time for all that later.
 

Solomon was young once. Now in his old age, maybe he looked back to the days of his youth.

By the time Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes, a lot of water had gone under the bridge and he would look back on his life, all his accomplishments, as well as his sins.

His sins included idolatry, marrying foreign women and, ultimately, turning away from Yahweh, and they led to the kingdom's being torn in two during the reign of his son Rehoboam.

He would have much to regret and like any old man, was trying to encourage the youth, He would be saying, learn whilst you are young, don’t make the same mistakes as I did.

The Preacher is saying, consider these things now, whilst you are young, before life’s experiences and troubles come and bring with them the feelings of meaninglessness.

It is far better if one comes to faith in their early years. They may drift away but what is taught in childhood and youth can stick in the memory and return fruitful in later years.

Paul said this to Timothy.
2Ti 3:14  But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 

2Ti 3:15  And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 

Youth brings with it great temptation and there is much in the world to lead the youth astray.
To the older generation, it seems worse than ever today. Although the temptations are not much different than when they were young. They are just presented in a different way.
Any young person who has the advantage of a Christian background stands a better chance of resisting sin than those who have no spiritual guidance.

2 While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain;
3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down; When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim;
4 When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low.
5 Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets.

Remember your Creator, now, don’t wait till you are old.

Verses 2 -5 seem to be Solomon’s description of growing old.

V2  While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened.  
When your eyesight is waning.

V3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down;
When it gets difficult to keep house and your strength begins to weaken.

V3 When the grinders cease because they are few,
When your teeth are rotting and there are not as many of them.

V3 And those that look through the windows grow dim;
When your eyesight dims.
 

V4 And the sound of grinding is low;
Your ears get weaker.
 

V4 When one rises up at the sound of a bird,
You don’t need as much sleep and are up early.
 

V4 And all the daughters of music are brought low.
 Singing and music are less appreciated.
 

V5 Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way;
As one gets old they become more frightened of things in life.

V5 "When the almond tree blossoms".
it turns white. Solomon is talking about the hair turning gray and then white.

V5 The grasshopper is a burden,
Everybody knows how light a grasshopper is, but even the lightest thing becomes a burden to an older person because he is losing his strength.
 

V5 And desire fails.
As one gets older, their passions and desire grow less and less.
 

V5 For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets.
The ultimate end is death.

The Preacher is saying, don’t wait till you are old.

6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well.
7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”

V6 – 8 is talking about death, When your soul leaves the body. The silver cord is broken, Life is poured out. The golden bowl is broken or the pitcher is shattered.
The water of life flows no more. The wheel at the well is broken.
V7 Man returns to dust from where he came from. The spirit of man stands before God.

8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”

Without God, life “under the sun”, on this earth, this side of eternity, is meaningless and futile.

Solomon has searched all this out and come to his conclusions.
 

9 And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. 
10 The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. 
11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. 
12 And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgement, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.
 

He has sought to make this wisdom available in his writings for all. These are wise words of truth and they are written to prick the heart of the reader.
The reader would do well to take note of Solomon’s words of wisdom.

What is his final conclusion?

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgement, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.

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At the end of all things, is God. To the believer and the unbeliever, there is no escaping the fact that God is.
Those that believe on Him and His way of salvation wrought in Christ, will not enter into condemnation.
However, those that remain in unbelief and reject His way of salvation, remains in condemnation and will be judged accordingly.

A sober thought!!!

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