Solomon begins this final chapter with the words, ‘Remember your Creator’, Ecclesiastes 12:1. The word ‘Creator’ is actually plural in Hebrew and so, in relation to the Trinity we see that this refers to multi-Personal Being. There are other examples of this in the Scriptures, for example we find that the Hebrew word for ‘Presence’, Exodus 33:14 / Deuteronomy 4:37, and ‘Person’, Job 13:8, are actually plural. We also find that the Hebrew word for ‘Maker’, Job 35:10, and ‘Husband,’ Isaiah 54:5, are actually plural. All of these refer to multi-Personal Being, that is, the Godhead, the Trinity.
Solomon’s first piece of advice for life is that we learn faster while we are young. He tells us to remember our Creator in the days of your youth, Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 / Ecclesiastes 12:13 / Deuteronomy 8:18 / Psalms 119:55, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them, Ecclesiastes 12:1.
Solomon may have been thinking of Rehoboam his son who at this time would need all the wisdom and knowledge he could attain to become the next king. Solomon may be thinking of the mistakes he made when he was a young man.
Youth tend to disregard what their parents tell them, Colossians 3:20 / Ephesians 6:1, and as a result, they may go to make many foolish mistakes. It’s the responsibility of all parents to instil in their children God and His ways from a very young age, by doing so, although it’s no guarantee, the children can look back at their lives when they are older, and see the wisdom in godly living, or if they never become Christians or they fall away, they will have something good to come back to, Proverbs 22:6.
Children need to cultivate worship now so their relationship with God will be close, Ecclesiastes 12:1. Rough days are ahead but anyone who seeks the Lord when they are younger will be better prepared to deal with problems. These troubled days are the days when we get older, Ecclesiastes 12:1 / 2 Samuel 19:33-35. The days will come for most of us, when the body will be limited in what it can do. It will no longer care for the pleasures it had when it was young, Ecclesiastes 12:1.
Everyone knows that when we get older, we simply can’t do the things we used to do when we were younger, our bodies get frailer, and we end up with all kinds of aches and pains, which is far from being enjoyable. The things we always wanted to do, can’t get done because of our age and the older we get, the more we begin to think about death, Ecclesiastes 12:2.
Davis, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This pericope expands the ideas Solomon introduced in Ecclesiastes 11:9-10, by focusing on advancing old age and death.’
The ‘clouds’ are our minds which are not as sharp as they once were, the ‘rain’ are those things we cry from our past, Ecclesiastes 12:2 / Ecclesiastes 11:7-8.
Constable, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The Hebrews regarded any decline in a person’s vital energy as a sign that death was beginning to set in, 1 Kings 1:1-4 / Psalms 18:4-5 / Psalms 88:3-5.
The ‘keepers of the house’, Ecclesiastes 12:3, are the hands which will tremble. The legs will begin to bow as they do not have the strength to support the body, Ecclesiastes 12:3. The ‘grinders’, Ecclesiastes 12:3, are the teeth which become fewer as we get older. The ‘windows’ Ecclesiastes 12:3, are the eyes which become dimmer with age.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The optic nerves, which receive impressions, through the medium of the different humours of the eye, from surrounding objects, they are darkened, the humours becoming thick, flat, and turbid, they are no longer capable of transmitting those images in that clear, distinct manner, as formerly.’
We are told that the ‘doors will be shut’, Ecclesiastes 12:4, these are the lips which must be shut to keep food from dropping out of the mouth. The grinding sounds from eating food will not be as loud as before.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Little noise is now made in eating, because the teeth are either lost, or become so infirm as not to suffer their being pressed close together and the mouth being kept shut to hinder the food from dropping out, the sound in eating is scarcely heard.’
The least noise will disturb the sleep and the voice will become feeble, Ecclesiastes 12:4. Then there is the fear of height, Ecclesiastes 12:5, we consider climbing to be dangerous. We’re afraid to leave our house as we don’t feel safe on the outside. The ‘almond tree’, Ecclesiastes 12:5, refers to our hair which gets grey in old age. The reference to the ‘grasshopper’, Ecclesiastes 12:5, is a reference to small things becoming a burden for us to bear.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the loss of desire, Ecclesiastes 12:5.
‘Both relish and appetite for food, even the most delicate, that to which they were formerly so much attached, now fails. The teeth are no longer able to masticate the food or have all dropped out; the stomach no longer able to digest anything and, as the body is no longer capable of receiving nourishment, appetite and relish necessarily fail.’
Everyone will die and people will mourn their loss, Ecclesiastes 12:5. The ‘silver cord’ is cut, that is, all the nerves which lead to the brain and the ‘golden bowl,’ that is, the brain itself is broken, which means life is broken, Ecclesiastes 12:6. Life is the pitcher by which water is taken from the fountain and it’s the wheel by which water is lifted from the cistern, Ecclesiastes 12:6. This is a reference to the heart where the blood flows to.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Thus, then, the blood becomes stagnate; the lungs cease to respire; the blood is no longer oxidized; all motion, voluntary and involuntary, ceases; the body, the house of the immortal spirit, is no longer tenantable, and the soul takes its flight into the eternal world. The man dies! This is expressed in the following verse’
No one’s body is designed to last forever and so, when we get older our bodies begin to break down and we will all return to the dust, Ecclesiastes 12:7 / Genesis 2:7 / Job 34:14-15 / Psalms 104:29-30. Although the young don’t often think about getting old or dying, Solomon says when we get old, we realise that life in and of itself is meaningless, Ecclesiastes 12:8 / Ecclesiastes 1:2. Life is very short and can become very fragile.
The word ‘Ecclesiastes’ is a Greek word which can be translated as ‘teacher.’ The man, who had been so wise, yet became so foolish proceeds to teach us about life. In Ecclesiastes 3, he seems to say that life contains some pleasant things while there are also parts of life that are very unpleasant. We must learn to live in a world of changes. We must learn to adjust to the unexpected.
The conditions of our lives are all different at different stages of our lives. Our lives crisscross each other. He gives us a lengthy list of the many things that are in constant flux. Nature pursues all kinds of situations but we are not confronting the same things at the same time. ‘There is a time for everything,’ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.
The pendulum swings back and forth, from good to bad until finally, its cycle is complete. It does this in each succeeding generation. These are out of our control. We can find comfort and happiness only by accepting what God sends always trusting fully no matter what comes. God will not give us more than we can bear. He will give us the strength to bear everything that comes our way.
The preacher says multiple things will come into our lives. He lists about twenty-six natural events and emotions we will experience along life’s pathway, Ecclesiastes 3:2-8. We will experience all of the above during our lifetime. Let God’s word lead and guide us.
After all his experiences Solomon ends his book on what brings man the ultimate pleasure, the one thing men should seek after. He has tried them all but all had failed. What man needs the most is entirely different from what man has considered the ultimate satisfaction to be.
This is Solomon’s personal conclusion to the purpose of life, and his wisdom is to share what he had personally learned from his own life so that we can learn from it, Ecclesiastes 12:9 / Romans 15:4 / 1 Corinthians 10:11 / 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Solomon didn’t make these things up, what he wrote were words of truth, Ecclesiastes 12:10, that is, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 2 Peter 1:19-21.
Just as a goad spurs on the ox and nails penetrate the wood for construction, Ecclesiastes 12:11, so the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, Hebrews 4:12. It can spur on one and build one up, Acts 20:32, and it can encourage, Hebrews 10:24-25. The word ‘shepherd’ Ecclesiastes 12:11, is a reference to God who is the source of all wisdom.
Libraries and gift shops are filled with books which are intended to help us understand life, sadly many people will turn to any other book except the Bible, Ecclesiastes 12:12.
Constable in his commentary, says the following, concerning study, Ecclesiastes 12:12.
‘This verse does not say that all study is tiring, though that is true. It means that study of books-other than what God has revealed-to learn wisdom, is an endless, wearisome occupation. This is not to say we should avoid reading books other than the Bible. Nonetheless the main place to look when you want to find true wisdom is God’s Word.’
As God is the source of real wisdom and wisdom comes from Him, James 1:5-8, if people don’t go to the Source for wisdom to understand the meaning of life, that too would be meaningless. Therefore, people won’t find any meaning in life because they don’t know what God’s will is, Romans 12:1-2.
Solomon finishes his advice by offering this concluding admonition. It’s clear that he himself didn’t live all the time by God’s will, he didn’t always fear God and keep his commandments, Ecclesiastes 12:13 / 1 Kings 11:4-13, and so, he writes from experience. He knew that if God isn’t a part of our life, then our lives would be meaningless.
Kaiser, in his commentary, says the following.
‘What is the ’profit’ of living? What does a man get for all his work? He gets the living God! And his whole profit consists of fearing Him and obeying His Word.’
Solomon also, although he may not have fully understood it, knows that God will be the Judge, Ecclesiastes 12:14 / Hebrews 9:27, this is why obedience is so important and why it’s important to fear Him and obey His commands, Matthew 6:33 / Mark 12:30-31. It took Solomon a lifetime to discover the supreme purpose of life. To a young person, this might not sound as exciting as other adventures one might follow. But Solomon says he had tried everything that appeals to man.
He tried everything that he thought would bring him supreme satisfaction, happiness, and pleasure. But in the end, he found that letting our minds dwell on the Lord and His commandments was the most important thing we can do. After all the things he had experimented with, a relationship with God was the most satisfying.
The way we have lived will follow us to the final day of judgment when we shall give an account of how we have lived before God and our relationship with him, Hebrews 9:27 / Acts 17:30-31. God then will render His perfect judgment as to the final state we will live in.
Too many people wait until it’s too late in life to make any changes. They have left God out of their daily lives failing in the most important thing, their relationship with God, Mark 12:30-31 / John 10:10.