“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth”
[Ecclesiastes 12:1-8]
We have received two lessons from King Solomon, under the title "Be happy young man" based on Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 last week. First, young people should enjoy their youth. But they should not be indulgent but self-controlled in enjoying themselves so that they may not sin against God. In other words, we have learned that young people should enjoy themselves in daily life and in marital affairs, enjoying work, and enjoying pursuing clean conduct according to God's Word, while remembering God's judgment. Second, we were instructed that young people should remove anxiety of their heart and cast off the trouble from their body. Today, King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12:1 – “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.” King Solomon says we must remember Creator God.
When should we remember the Creator God? It is "youth time". In other words, when we are young and strong, we must remember the Creator God. Why is that? Why should we remember the Creator God when we are young and strong? The reason is because there will be “the days of trouble” (v.1). What day is it to us to say "the days of trouble"? That day refers to ourselves saying, "I find no pleasure in them" (v.1). Then when do we usually say to ourselves, "I find no pleasure in them"? It is when we become old and our body becomes weak. So King Solomon is talking about the affects of the aging phenomenon of human beings up to verses 2 through 6. For example, look at verse 2: “before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain.” This refers to the winter climate phenomenon of Palestine in which there were frequent raining and the weather was dark. Likewise, when a man is old, he has no joy, and often he is depressed. So the Bible says to remember the Creator God in the days of your youth (v. 1). When we look at verse 3, the words “the keepers of the house tremble” refers to the trembling hands of the elderly, and the word “he strong men stoop” refers to the lack of strength in the legs of the elderly. Also, “when the grinders cease because they are few” (v. 3) is analogous to the condition of the tooth, which indicates that a person's teeth are badly damaged when he is old. The word “those looking through the windows grow dim” (v. 3) indicates that the eyes will be blurred when the age is old. In verse 4, “when the doors to the street are closed” means that the ears of the elderly person will slow down. The word “the sound of grinding fades” (v. 4) refers to the elderly who have little teeth and eat food with little sound. And the words “men rise up at the sound of birds” (v. 4) means that if a person is old, he can not sleep so deeply that he wakes up because of the "bird sound". The words “all their songs grow faint” (v. 4) means that the voices of the elderly are weakened and unable to vocalize. Then, in the end, the elderly person has no choice but to go to “his eternal home” (v. 5). In other words, the elderly has to die. Of course, both young people and elderly people will die, but we cannot deny that especially the elderly people have come to the death closer than the young people. Therefore, especially the elderly should live the rest of their lives with a view of death. And the young men will soon become aged as time goes by, so they must live in remembrance of the Creator God with a view of death.
What does it mean to remember the Creator God at the time of the youth? We can summarize it in three ways (Walvoord):
(1) The word "remember the Creator" means to fear God.
The conclusion of Ecclesiastes is Ecclesiastes 12:13 – “Now here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” This is a life that remembers the Creator. Young people who live in a world that is vanity should never spend the rest of their lives in vain (11: 8, 10). To do so, young people should fear God, who controls life and death. And by fearing God, they must pursue purity according to God's word (v. 10). In doing so, they will not have sorrow in their heart, nor will they sin in their body (v. 10).
(2) The word "remember the Creator" means to enjoy life in the Lord and to live responsibly.
When we look back on Ecclesiastes 11: 9-10, which we have already meditated, King Solomon exhorted the young people to rejoice and enjoy their life. At the same time, King Solomon told the young men to consider the judgment of God and to remove anxieties from their heart and cast off trouble in their body. In other words, the pleasure that young people should enjoy is the joy that accompanies responsible life. The Bible never encourages young people to live in irresponsibility pursuing what is futile. How can young people enjoy life in a responsible way? It is possible when they have a point of view of death. Look at Ecclesiastes 12: 6-7: “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 broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” These two verses refer to our death. What King Solomon is telling the young people is to enjoy their life in the Lord and be responsible when they are young and strong, because they will get old and will die some day. And the enjoying life and the responsible life are for the sake of the Lord. When we are responsible and satisfied with the Lord and live for the Lord, there is a real joy in that life.
(3) The word "remember the Creator" means to faithfully keep the law of God.
King Solomon exhorted us to "remember your Creator" in the texts of Romans 12:1, where the phrase "Remember" is very similar to “Keeping the Law” in Deuteronomy 8:18 and Psalm 119:55. Also, the phrase "remember" is similar to "meditating on and faithfully following" in Psalm 63: 6 (Walvoord). In other words, the word "remember the Creator" means to faithfully keep the law of God.
Then why should we remember the Creator God in our youth? There are two reasons for this:
(1) We should remember God the Creator in our youth because there are many temptations when we are young (Park Yun-sun).
When we are young, we have the privilege of enjoying youth, but at the same time, it is also the time of youthful temptation. Especially when we are young, there is a danger of following the wasted pleasures of the world rather than following God's law. Maybe one of the reasons for this is that when we are young, we have strong mental and physical strength. Therefore, if we do not live for the glory of God by controlling our mental and physical strength in our youth, we will end up in pursuing the vain glory of this world.
(2) When we are young, we must remember the Creator God because we have spiritual and physical strength, so we have the strength to serve and follow the Lord.
When we are young, we must work hard on the Lord's work. This is because we cannot do the Lord’s work even though we want when we are old. When we have strength and power, we should work diligently with the passion of the Lord, because the time of youth passes quickly (11:10). To do so, we must remember the Creator God at the time of our youth.
In youth we must remember the Creator God. Before the days of troubles come and the years approach when we will say “I find no pleasure in them” (12:1), we must remember the Creator God. Before our bodies become weaker and can no longer do anything, we must fear God and keep God’s commandments faithfully. Therefore, when we are young, we should enjoy our live with sense of responsibility. May these blessings be upon you.