CHAPTER 12

(977 B.C.)

REMEMBER YOUR CREATOR

¹Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them (in the days of ones youth, how so few remember the Creator, and how so few are saved!);

²While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain (in youth, life appears all bright; if there is rain, sunshine quickly follows; but it is not so in old age; clouds then return after the rain; similarly, the mind loses its power of recovery and cheerfulness):

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 who look out of the windows be darkened (more than once in the Bible, the house figures the human body),

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 music shall be brought low (the cry of a bird causes the aged to start; the power to distinguish melodies is lost; the nerve to climb, or even to walk, is broken; the hair turns white; the lightest load becomes a burden);

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 goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets (if the Creator is not remembered in the days of ones youth, then there will be a fear to meet God. What will that long home be? Will it be Heaven, or will it be Hell?):

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. (All of this pictures the human body, which ultimately wears out.)

⁷Then shall the dust return to the Earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it. (The human body is made of dust, and goes back to dust at death; however, the human spirit then becomes the property of God. If redeemed, it will go to Heaven [II Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:21-24; Heb. 12:22-23; Rev. 6:9-11]; if unredeemed, to Hell [Isa. 14:9; Lk. 16:19-31].)

HEED THE WORDS OF THE WISE

⁸Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. (Solomon, as the Preacher, although in the later years losing his way with God, nevertheless, preached the most powerful evangelistic message ever preached, as recorded in this Book of Ecclesiastes.

Such are the disappointments, miseries, and mournful end of life, as viewed under the sun and independent of God; exceptional intelligence fittingly declares it all to be vanity of vanities. The whole world should take notice!)

⁹And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many Proverbs. (Solomon wrote some 3,000 Proverbs [I Ki. 4:32], of which less than 1,000 are included in the Book of Proverbs. Those that are in the Book are inspired of God and are the Wisdom of God. The others are the wisdom of Solomon and, thereby, not deemed worthy, even though no doubt brilliant, to be included among the Words of God.

The knowledge that Solomon taught the people was the knowledge of God, which made Israel the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.)

¹⁰The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. (The eternal value of Sacred Writings is contrasted in Verses 9 through 12 with the worthlessness of human writings.)

¹¹The Words of the Wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. (These are Words that one can depend on. They are called the Words of the Wise, and are labeled as such throughout Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

Today, these Words span from Genesis through Revelation. They begin with, In the beginning God [Gen. 1:1]. They end with the words, The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. [Rev. 22:21].)

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. (Human writings, however numerous, lead nowhere and only produce weariness. The Divine Writings lead to Christ and to Heaven. They are Words of delight; they refresh and do not weary.)

CONCLUSION: THE CHIEF DUTIES OF MAN

¹³Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His Commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (Having heard all that can be said in favor of trying to secure happiness in this life by the use of material agents, the conclusion is:

It is impossible; the only happy life is one in fellowship with God and the Bible; such fellowship produces the ideal man; any other life is madness, because there is a day coming when every action, however hidden, will be brought into the unsparing light of the Throne of God and judged, unless cleansed and covered by the Blood [I Jn. 1:7].)

¹⁴For God shall bring every work into judg ment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. (The subject then of this Book is the folly of seeking happiness and fulfillment under the sun, and that the possession of exceptional intelligence only renders more evident the folly and unhappiness of this quest.)