A REALITY CHECK; Bible Reading: Ecclesiastes 12: 1-8 (Sermon by Rev Steve Voorwinde)

Introduction

As I begin this sermon, I have a confession to make. I was never going to preach on this passage, because it seemed so gloomy and depressing. Even when I was about halfway through my preparation, I was tempted to bail out. It’s such a difficult passage. Any passage in Ecclesiastes is difficult. But in this passage the original Hebrew is particularly difficult. It’s also a poem with lots of imagery, which makes it harder still. But then I remembered that nowhere else in the Bible is there a passage that spans the stages of life and makes such significant statements about each. These verses move quickly from youth to middle age, then on to old age, and finally to death. So, in this passage there’s something for everyone!

1. It begins with youth: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth” (v. 1a).
2. One time when we were in our mid-teens, my cousin and I decided to take a bus to Palm Beach. It’s the most northern of Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It’s still one of my favourite places in the world. On the return trip, the bus gave us one last glance at the beach, where some other teenagers were still surfing. In a seat in front of us, there were two old ladies. One said to the other, “O, look, aren’t they just having the time of their lives.” My cousin and I smiled at each other with cheeky grins, but the old lady was right. This was the best time of their lives – and ours as well.

 On another occasion, a few years later, I was at a large student conference in South Australia. The main speaker was an African American professor. In one of her lectures, she told us, “This is the least busy you will be for the rest of your life.” As Uni students we all burst out laughing, but she was right. Our lives would never be that carefree again.

2. In fact, in this passage, the young person is asked to do just one thing: “Remember your Creator.” But what does that mean? Does it mean that they should think about God every once in a while? Or should they be thinking about God all the time? Or does it mean something completely different?

I think the writer gives us a big clue earlier in the book. He tells this little story: “There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it, and built huge siegeworks against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man” (Eccles 9:14-15).

Does this mean they forgot he existed? Probably not, because he presumably would have kept on living in that small city. But what it does mean is that they gave him no recognition for what he had done. They forgot to acknowledge the greatness of what he had done. They gave him no praise and no credit. They certainly didn’t cover him with glory. Yet he deserved recognition. He deserved all the praise and the credit for saving their city. “But nobody remembered that poor man.”

Yet how often can’t God be compared to the poor, wise man? People today haven’t forgotten God. Most of them believe he exists. They know he is still around. They haven’t forgotten him, but they haven’t remembered him either.

• He is their Creator, but where is his honour?
• He gave them life, but where is his praise?
• He gave them health and strength, but what credit does he get for it?

So, that’s the great challenge at the beginning of our passage: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”

• It’s not enough just to believe that he exists.
• It’s not enough to think about him only on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter.
• It’s not even enough to come to a service like this and think about him just once a week.

We must acknowledge him, and give him the recognition, the praise, the credit, and the love that he deserves – not just here at church but on each and every day of our lives. He is our Creator, and every day again is a gift from his hand. “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”

3. And of course not just in the days of your youth. I believe that Jesus added to this command when he told us – old and young alike – not just to remember our Creator, but also to remember our Redeemer. He said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” And when did he say that? Let me give you some of the context, “As often as you eat the bread and drink the cup, do this in remembrance of me.” Whenever you celebrate the Lord’s Supper, whenever you take Communion, remember Jesus! He’s not saying, “Spare me a thought” or “Think about me for a moment.” But he is saying, “Don’t forget what I’ve done for you. Remember that I died on the cross so that your sins could be forgiven. So, give me the recognition, the credit, the honour, the glory, and the love that I deserve. Remember me!”
4. The command to remember is the first word in our passage. It is also the most important word. It’s the only imperative in our passage, and it introduces the main thought: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” This command is then followed by three “before’s” – first in the second part of verse 1, then again in verse 2, and finally in verse 6. “Before what?” you ask.

• Remember your Creator when you are still young, that is, before you become middle aged.
• And if you don’t do it then, at least remember him before you hit old age.
• And if you are already old, then be sure to do it before you die!

So that’s the message of this passage: Remember God when you are young; remember God when you are middle aged; remember God when you are old. And whatever you do, don’t wait till you die, because then it will be too late. Acknowledge him, honour him, praise him, love him, give him the credit for all he has done for you now. Don’t wait. The time is now. Whatever stage of life you are at, the time to remember God is now.

1. The writer has already described the stage of youth (Eccles 11:9-12:1a), but then in the second half of verse 1, he moves to middle age. This is where we get the first ‘before’. But the way he describes middle age may surprise you: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them.”
2. Middle age is made up of days of trouble and years in which you find no pleasure. Is that how you older people remember your mid-life? Is that what life is like, say between the ages of thirty and sixty? Is that a fair description? Years of trouble with no pleasure in them? Really? Yes, really!

Recently on TV, on the Insight program, it was all about Australia’s cost of living crisis. People were interviewed and were asked how they were coping. The group that was most stressed were people in their forties. These were the ones with the highest mortgages, the most debt, and the worst stress.

One man was working three jobs just trying to save for a deposit on a house. But try as he might, he could never get there. Whenever he almost got there, the cost would jump up again. He wasn’t a happy camper. He was unhappy, frustrated and angry. Had he been asked how he felt about his middle years, he would have agreed, “I find no pleasure in them.”

Or think of the couple who were living in Brisbane and had just had twins. The rent had just gone up and the man had lost his job. So, they had to travel interstate and move in with in-laws. The mother obviously couldn’t work. So, they were stuck. For this couple, “the days of trouble had come.”

2. But before you think these are hard luck cases, midlife can be difficult even for those who are doing well. I think of some people I know who are in their forties. They are happily married. They have good jobs and nice kids. So, what’s the problem? They are always stressed and exhausted. Our society now expects both members of a couple to have a job and it sets its prices accordingly. Families can’t survive on a single income anymore. And that just increases the stress all around. In this country, there has been a childcare crisis for years and governments don’t know what to do about it. It’s becoming more and more impossible for both partners to have full-time jobs and raise a family at the same time. It’s all a social experiment that’s under a lot of strain. Even for those who are living the dream, “the days of trouble have come” and they find “no pleasure in them” (v. 1b). For many people their middle years have become a hard slog. But even if you are in that situation – you are under the pump at work, your life-work balance is up the creek, and you are severely mortgage stressed – the command still stands: “Remember your Creator!”
3. Then our writer moves from middle age to old age in vv. 2-5. This is where he focuses most of his attention. This is where he gives the most detail, and where he is the most poetic, the most dramatic, and the most realistic. He doesn’t pull any punches. He describes it the way he sees it. So, hang on to your seats. This could be a bit of a rough ride.
4. This section begins again with that key word ‘before’:

“before the sun and the light

And the moon and the stars grow dark,

And the clouds return after the rain” (v. 2).

It sounds like a big storm is brewing and is about to break. There is suspense. People are anxious. People are worried – just as they were in March 2025 when Cyclone Alfred was threatening to cross the Queensland coast. No one knew just when it was going to happen. But things got eerie and dark. The sun was hidden behind the clouds, and at night you couldn’t see the moon or the stars. That’s what old age is like for all of us. It’s like living in the path of an approaching storm. We don’t know when it’s going to happen. We don’t know how it’s going to happen. But we all know that it’s going to happen. We all know that we are going to die.

2. Then the picture suddenly changes from a storm to a house:

• “The keepers of the house tremble” – our hands begin to shake.
• “The strong men stoop” – our shoulders that held us up so well begin to bend and sag and droop.
• “The grinders cease because they are few” – we don’t have many teeth left and eating anything but the softest food becomes a problem.
• “Those looking through the windows grow dim” – our eyesight begins to fail.
• “The doors to the street are closed” – our ears no longer pick up the sounds around us. So, even the sound of grinding fades and the chirping of birds grows faint. So, whether the noise is as annoying as grinding or as pleasant as birdsong, it makes no difference. We can hardly make them out, because “the doors to the street are closed.” Our hearing has packed it in.
• Even so, “men rise up at the sound of birds.” They are almost totally deaf, but they are light sleepers and are awake at the crack of dawn, if not before.

So, there you have it. Old age is compared to the darkening gloom of a coming storm. And old people are compared to a house, but that house turns out to be their own bodies. Their hands are shaky. Their shoulders droop. They have only a few teeth left. Their eyesight begins to fail, and their ears have trouble hearing. It’s not a very encouraging picture, is it? But it’s reality, isn’t it? How often don’t old people say, “I think my body is falling apart”? And that’s exactly what these verses are describing.

3. But there’s more yet. Now the writer doesn’t have to use word pictures, like a threatening storm or a house with its windows and doors. Now he uses plain language:

• People “are afraid of heights” (v. 5). If you are already afraid of heights when you’re young, it will probably only get worse as you age.
• They are afraid of “dangers in the streets” (v. 5). I think of my auntie who fell in a shopping mall. She was in her late eighties at the time. She wasn’t even that badly hurt, but from that moment on, she never left her house again till just before she died at the age of 95. Sadly, she was just too scared to go out anymore.
• “The almond tree blossoms” (v. 5). Now we’re back to poetic language again. Maybe that’s the house imagery coming back. The house may have had a garden with an almond tree. In spring its blossoms are a delicate white, as white as the hair of people who are really old and truly wise. Their hair isn’t just plain grey, it’s a distinguished silver.
• And then there’s another image. “The grasshopper drags himself along” (v. 5). The grasshopper is great at hopping. It can even fly short distances. But when it walks, it is very ungainly and drags himself along. When we’re elderly, we are often just like that poor grasshopper.
• After talking about almond blossoms and grasshoppers, the writer goes back to using to plain language again: “Desire no longer is stirred” (v. 5). Appetite for food drops away, and even sexual desire becomes a thing of the past.
• Why? Because life is ebbing away. “Man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets” (v. 5b). There’s not anything cheery or hopeful in this sentence. The “eternal home” is the grave and the mourners going about in the streets suggests that the funeral procession is already on its way.

It all sounds pretty drab and hopeless, doesn’t it? Cyclone Alfred is on its way. The sky is growing dark. The winds are picking up. The storm clouds are gathering, and the rains have begun. Our only shelter is a dilapidated old house with its windows closed and its doors to the street firmly shut. It’s a picture of our ageing and ailing bodies in the face of death. What chance have we got? About as much chance as a rickety old house in the path of a roaring cyclone!

1. In this desperate situation what does the writer do? He comes back to his main theme. “Remember him,” he says. “Remember your Creator” – not now in the days of your youth, but in the days of your old age. It’s the clarion call of our passage: Remember him!
2. “Remember him – before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel is broken at the well” (v. 6).

Here death is described in two pictures. Firstly, there’s the silver cord and the broken  bowl. The silver cord is a silver chain hanging from the ceiling and it holds up a golden bowl, which is probably a lamp of some kind that brightens up a room. It sounds all very ornate and beautiful and expensive. But it only takes one link in the silver chain to give way and the whole thing falls down and lies shattered on the ground. Its beauty is gone, and it’s no longer fit for purpose.

It reminds me of the big, round coffee table that my Dad made for my wife and me when we were first married. It was basically made of wood, but its top was covered completely with copper leaf. We were so proud of it that we put it in the middle of the living room, it was such a great piece of furniture. And above it was this attractive glass lamp, which hung from the ceiling by a cord. It all looked great, till one night when we were sound asleep, the whole lot came crashing down and the lamp shattered on the coffee table. The coffee table survived. It suffered some dints and scratches, but they were all beautifully camouflaged by the copper leaf. But the lamp was in a million pieces. It was useless and had to be thrown out.

The second image the writer uses to describe death is the pitcher and the wheel: “The pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel is broken at the well” (v. 6b). You get the picture. A man has taken a big clay jar to the well to fill it with water. But the wheel – the wooden pulley wheel – at the well is broken. But the man still needs water, so he lets his jar down into the well. But when he goes to pull it up, the wheel malfunctions. The rope on the pulley wheel has perished. Suddenly the rope snaps, and the pitcher shatters into a thousand pieces. It all happens in a split second. The water is wasted, and the jar is useless, never to be used again. Again, that’s a picture of death. Once it happens it’s all over.

Think of poor old Humpty Dumpty. Once he fell off that wall, “not all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could put Humpty Dumpty together again.” Once he fell off that wall, he was like the pitcher that smashed at the well; he was like the glass lamp that shattered on our coffee table. And when we die, not all the doctors in town, not all the surgeons, not all the specialists can bring us back to life again. All that awaits us is the grave.

Conclusion

With all that said, the writer now brings this paragraph to a conclusion: “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!” (v. 8). Everything – youth, middle age, old age. It’s all meaningless, it’s all emptiness and vanity, because in the end we all die. Life is futile and fleeting. We live it all in vain, and it has no meaning.

How sad! How tragic! How awful! But the writer calls it out as he sees it: Life without God is meaningless. It’s futile. It has no purpose.

But there must be a better way, a way for your life to have meaning. We all want our lives to be meaningful. We all want it to mean something. We all want to mean something. We don’t want to end up having to say that it was all meaningless. So, what do we do? This question brings us back to the main point of our passage: “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth” (v. 1).

• Some of you here did exactly that and it shaped your whole life. You’re thankful for it and you have always known that you are living a meaningful life.
• Perhaps some of you first remembered your Creator in middle age, maybe even during a mid-life crisis, like some friends of mine, who found God in the midst of great tragedy. When their four-year-old daughter died, they began to wonder what life was really all about. In their sorrow they remembered God and their lives were no longer empty but filled with meaning.
• Others here have probably remembered their Creator in their old age. You may have left it late, but God welcomed you like a long-lost son or daughter. You strayed but God received you by his grace, and now you know that you mean something to God. You are his beloved child.
• And maybe, just maybe, there are still others here who have not yet remembered their Creator. They have not honoured him. They haven’t praised him. They have not loved him with their whole heart. If that describes you, then may I urge you, may I beg you, may I plead with you, “Remember your Creator today – before it’s forever too late!”