Part 2 of 3
We are continuing our study of Ecclesiastes 11:7-12:7. In our previous article, we saw how the preacher gave a twofold command to rejoice and to remember in light of what is to come. In this article, we want to consider his striking description of what is to come.
A Striking Description of what is to come
In order to really drive home the point that we are to remember our creator before it is too late, the preacher gives us a rather graphic and figurative description of old age and the aging process, and eventually of death itself.Let’s work our way through the verses to see what each part means.
We begin at verse 2 which says, “While (or before) the sun or the light or the moon or the stars grow dark…” Earlier in chapter 11, the preacher says that light is sweet and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun. But now, the time of light is over. Even the heavenly lights are darkened or dim. The sun is darkened so that there is no light in the day time. And the night is pitch black too because the light from the moon and the stars are gone as well. Old age is often a season of darkness so much so that it may be described as dark and gloomy.
The next part of verse 2 says, “and the clouds return after the rain.” This speaks of one depressing thing followed by another. You would expect the sky to be nice and clear after the rain but instead, the clouds return and the sky is overcast again and the light doesn’t penetrate through the clouds.
Next, the preacher likens the body of an old person to a decaying or delipidated or broken-down house. The first part of verse 3 reads, “In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble,” The keepers of the house refer to the hands of a person. His hands have defended him and provided for him all these years. But now in old age, his hands tremble. They shake. They cannot work very well. They are no longer strong to defend or protect him from dangers. His house is, as it were, left vulnerable.
Verse 3 goes on to say, “and the strong men shall bow themselves,” This refers to his legs. They have carried or supported his weight in time past but now they have little strength and they bend with weakness.
“the grinders cease because they are few…” The grinders represent the old person’s teeth, particularly his molars. With age, teeth decay and drop out or are extracted and the old person has only a few left, not enough to chew properly.The final part of verse 3 says, “and those that look out of the windows be darkened,” This refers to the eyes. The old person, due to the deterioration of his eyes, would see less and less clearly. His vision is darkened or diminished.
Verse 4, “And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low.” Here, we have a description of the effect of hearing loss. The old person becomes hard of hearing. All he hears is a low rumble rather than clear and distinct sounds. The last part of verse 4 may also refer to the loss of hearing when it says, “and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;” An alternative interpretation is that this speaks of a diminished ability to sing. The aging voice becomes weak and is unable to pitch so well, partly due to the loss of hearing.
But verse 4 also says, “and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird,” So even though he doesn’t hear so well, nevertheless, he sleeps lightly and is easily woken in the morning by the singing of the birds or some other sounds. Indeed, both hearing loss and restlessness or sleeplessness are characteristics of old age.
Verse 5, “Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way,” The preacher now focuses on the fears of an old person. He tends to be more afraid of heights. He is no longer able to balance so well and a single fall could prove disastrous, and so he fears going to high places.
He is also afraid of the terrors or dangers that may be in the way. He may trip or fall or be easily knocked off balance. And as a result, he doesn’t like to go out so much now compared to before. He feels safer at home.
Verse 5, “and the almond tree shall flourish,” The almond tree is one of the first to blossom in Palestine and from a distance, it looks like a human head with white hair. And so this phrase clearly speaks of an old person’s hair turning white.
“and the grasshopper shall be a burden,” Grasshoppers are well-known for the spring in their movement and for their lightness and agility. When the grasshopper becomes a burden, that is, when it drags itself along, then you know that something is not right with it. The preacher uses the imagery of the grasshopper dragging itself along to speak of how the old person, who may have been very agile and athletic in his younger days, has now slowed to a crawl. He moves about with great difficulty.
Verse 5 goes on to say, “and desire shall fail:” In the original, it literally reads, “the caperberry fails.” It appears that the caperberry, which is a fruit, was thought to stimulate the appetite. But it does not work anymore for the old person. His desire for food and indeed his enjoyment of food declines and he eats only a little. Some say that the caperberry was also used as an aphrodisiac and that may be so. But regardless of what it was used for, the point is that it has no effect on the old person. His desires and appetites for various things have all but diminished.
So let’s briefly summarize what we’ve seen thus far. We’ve seen days which are dark and gloomy and depressing, hands which tremble and do not work very well, legs which are weak, teeth which are few, eyes which cannot see very well, ears which cannot hear very well and yet the person is easily startled, voices which cannot sing very well, hearts which are frightened of heights and even of going out of the house, hair which has gone white, movement which is slow and laboured, and a lack of desire for food and the other pleasures of life. This is a description of what is to come, even of old age and the aging process. But that is not the end.
The final part of verse 5 says, “because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:” Here, the preacher makes the transition from old age and the process of dying to death itself. The words ‘long home’ refer to the grave. All men eventually go to their long home. Some go there sooner than others but all get there at some point. None can refuse to enter that place at the time appointed. And at that time, the mourners will go out onto the street, and their mourning and wailing will be heard.
Verse 6 goes on to describe death using four metaphors. But before we look at them, it’s important to remind ourselves what the preacher has been calling us to do. Earlier, he called us to remember our creator before the darkness of old age is upon us. But now, he’s telling us to remember our creator before death overtakes us. The word translated “or” in verse 6 can be translated “before.” So what verse 6 is really saying is, “Remember your creator before 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.”
These four metaphors can be grouped into two sets of two. The first two forming a pair and the next two another pair.
First, “the silver cord be loosed or be snapped and the golden bowl be broken.” The picture is that of a golden bowl or lamp that is held up by a silver cord in order to provide light in the home. When the silver cord snaps, the bowl containing the lamp falls to the ground and is smashed. The oil flows out and the light is extinguished.
Notice that the preacher mentions gold and silver in his analogy and the reason he does so is that human life is precious and of great value, just like gold and silver. Death is likened to the snapping of the silver cord and the falling of the golden bowl. The light of the lamp, which no doubt symbolizes life itself, is snuffed out.
Then the second pair of metaphors used to describe death is the pitcher broken at the fountain and the wheel broken at the cistern. Both the pitcher and the wheel are associated with water. In Palestine, water was a very vital and precious commodity, especially during the long and dry summer months. Without water, crops fail and people die.
And the way they obtained water was through pitchers or jars being lowered into the well through some sort of pulley system. The wheel in verse 6 refers to the main part of the pulley that is used to lift the jar out of the well.
The preacher tells us that the pitcher or jar is broken and the wheel of the cistern is broken. The water in the well is now unavailable. In other words, there goes the water supply. And there goes life too.
So verse 6 is really describing death in terms of the snuffing out of the light and the cessation of water. Notice how three times in that verse, the word broken is used. The golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is broken, and the wheel is broken. At death, a person is thrice broken, that is, he is broken beyond repair. Death is irreparable and irreversible from a human point of view.
Finally in verse 7, the preacher wraps up his description of death by bringing us back to the early chapters of Genesis. He writes, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
In Genesis 2:7, we learn that when God created the first man, He did it in two steps. First, He took some of the dust of the ground and formed or shaped it into a human body. Then, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Adam became a living soul.
Adam and indeed all of us have two parts to our being. We have a body and we have a soul or a spirit. There is the physical side of us and there is the non-physical or spiritual side. The two are closely connected and joined to each other.
Then having created man, God revealed to him His will for his life on this earth, and one of the things that man was not to do was to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:17 says, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
But Adam did the very thing he was not supposed to do, and as a result, God pronounced a curse upon him saying, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
The preacher alludes to this when he tells us that the dust returns to the earth and the breath returns to God who gave it. In other words, the death of man is not only the separation of his physical side from his spiritual side, but death is the very reversal of creation.
At creation, God took dust from the ground to form the body and God breathed life into it. At death, the body, which is made from dust, returns to the ground and the spirit or breath goes back to God who gave it.
This was true of Adam and this is true of all men, including Jesus Christ. Just before He died, He committed His spirit into the hands of His Father, and after He died, His body was taken down and committed to the ground for three days before He was resurrected.
In our next article, we will conclude our study of this passage with a couple of lessons.