Ecclesiastes 12:5-7

Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 5 through 7 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high and fear shall be in the way and the almond tree shall flourish and the grasshopper shall be a burden and desire shall fail because man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bull be broken or the pitcher be broken at the fountain or the wheel broken at the cistern then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it that God bless us as sacred and Holy Word this evening once I read a article on the dying words of various people who did not profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ these were unbelievers men of this world the English atheist Thomas Hobbs said I’m taking a fearful leap into the dark the French infidel Voltaire cried out I am abandoned by God and man I shall go to hell Sir Francis Newport wailed in anguish O eternity eternity forever and ever O the unsufferable pangs of hell death for these individuals was greatly feared What is death like What takes place after death. Does death end your existence or is there something beyond death, heaven and hell? Solomon previously has been reflecting on old age, and we’ve talked about the declining abilities of the human body, and you’ve slowly begin to fade physically. and we find that you have declining abilities advancing sorrows. Here, he wants you to reflect on death itself and its aftermath. And a proper understanding of death is important for you in order to you might live your life properly now. It’s more important than people realize. For if you are mistaken about the events surrounding death, you will not be prepared when that dark moment comes to face it. I want to speak about reflecting upon death tonight. And let me begin by saying that death brings you to your eternal home. We read here in the last part of verse 5, man goeth to his long home. Now, when he uses his long home, now, is the term long home. I suggest two thoughts here. And the first is this. By long home, so certainly I think Solon means the grave. That’s the long term resting place for your body when you die. The central idea is that this life, once it’s over, once it’s gone forever. There’s no reincarnation. There’s no second chances. If you engage in chironic technology and think maybe if I freeze my head or freeze my body, then they can revive it later. It’s not going to happen. Life is a one-way trip to eternity. And the body is destined to be in the grave a long, long time till Christ’s second coming in the resurrection of the dead. It’s going to be there. Job 7, 9 and 10 says this, as the cloud is consumed and vanishesheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house. Either shall his place known anymore. there’s no coming back from that. But secondly, by a long home, I think Solomon would include here your eternal destiny with regard to your soul. There’s a long abode upon death for your soul as well. This verse should always be understood, I think, in light of verse 7 when he talks about what happens when you die. Well, we know where the body goes, but where does the soul go? Well, God appoints the place for the soul to go. And, of course, the scripture reveals to us there’s only two places. There’s heaven and there’s hell. Death places your body in the grave, but it brings your soul to your return home too. Peter speaks about those in hell as being in the prison house. whereas Paul speaks of believers having a house eternal in the heavens. Our Lord spoke about heaven as a place where there are many mansions which he has prepared for his people. Jesus also spoke about heaven as the place of everlasting habitation, Luke 169. Everlasting habitation. When John Todd the 19th century clergyman was six years old, both his parents died. It was very difficult on him. A kind-hearted aunt raised him until he left home to study for the ministry. Later, his aunt became seriously ill, and she became fearful about death. And she expressed to him those fears. And John Todd wrote a kind letter back to her. And he, This is what he wrote. It is now 35 years since I, as a boy of six, was left quite alone in the world. You sent me word that you would give me a home and be a kind mother to me. I have never forgotten the day I made the long journey to your house. I can still recall my disappointment, but instead of coming yourself or me, you sent your servant Caesar to fetch me. I’m not. remember my fears and anxiety is perched high on your horse. In clinging tight to Caesar, I rode off to my new home. Night fell before we finished the journey. And I became lonely and afraid. Do you think she’ll go to bed before we get there? I asked Caesar. Oh, no, he said assuredly. She’ll will stay up for you. When we get out of these woods, you’ll see her candle lit in the window. Presently, we did ride out of the clearing, out into the clearing, and there, sure enough, was your candle. I remember you waiting at the door, that you put your arms close about me, a tired and bewildered little boy. You had a fire burning in the hearth and a hot supper, waiting on the stove. And after supper, you took me to my new room, heard me say my prayers, and sat beside me until I fell asleep. Soon, one day, God will send for you to take you to your new home. Don’t fear the summons, the strange journey, or the messenger of death. God can be trusted to do as much for you as you were kind enough to do for me so many years ago. At the end of the road, you will find love and a welcome waiting, and you’ll be safe in God’s care. I thought that was an interesting story as a way to comfort us when we look at death and some of the frightening things associated with it that we should accept death in the same vein in the same light. Death brings you to your eternal home. Secondly, your death will be the occasion of sorrow for loved ones and friends. We read here about in verse 5, the latter part, the mourners go about the streets. The tension here and now focuses on the funeral process. those who were left behind and how they are going to respond to your deck. Similar, in a way, we read here to the one that Jesus broke up. When he healed the revived, if you would, the widow of Nain’s son, we read something like this. Now, when he came nigh to the gate of the city, on his way to the cemetery outside the city, the gate, behold, There was a dead man carried out. The only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and much people the city, was with her. They were all following her. There was a funeral procession taking place. Mourners would fall along and chant or lament or weep as the person was carried out to the cemetery. Now, today we don’t have quite the same situation. but we do have a long line of cars usually lined up, you know, behind one after another, falling you to the grave site. Often in Bible times, professional mourners were hired to aid in the morning process and perform a service, but also loved ones and friends and neighbors and so forth, would join. point in and fall along with the throng. Death is obviously a sad event, and we think about the funeral process and the mention of mourners it bays this whole scene and unspeakable sadness. Dying is a violation of something that is good by very nature, the gift of life. And it reminds us of the curse that has fallen upon man because of Adam’s disobedience that all are going to die. And thus various deaths which take place commonly in our country only stand as a constant reminder of sin’s curse and how it is taking its toll down through the years. It’s difficult to lose a loved one. Some Christians have told us that we shouldn’t mourn the death of a loved one because after all they’re going to heaven. But it’s difficult to lose the loved one and how can there not be some tears? Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died. I read in scripture about Joseph in tears when his godly father died down there in Egypt. I don’t think that is a problem. Yet, we should always keep in mind with the hope of the resurrection and the fact that they’re going to heaven as believers we should not sorrow as others that have no hope, as Paul writes. He didn’t say you couldn’t sorrow, but we shouldn’t sorrow as those who have no hope. Nothing wrong with mingling some tears in with our law. especially of loved ones. I had a friend who whose mother’s law died. And I think she was going to some type of Pentecostal church. And so he’s at the funeral and it’s packed with a lot of people from the church. And the pastor led the Great Lentz to bring everybody in tears. For about 30 minutes, he kept them in tears about this whole situation. And my friend said he wept so much, he didn’t have any strength left in him. He was just overwhelmed by it all. I don’t think we should try to increase people of sorrow when they go to a funeral. After all, we have God’s promises that should lift us up. Yeah, there’ll be sorrow. But let us focus on the promises, not on the sorrow. And I don’t think I would ever try to promote sorrow. My goal is to promote God’s truth as a way of comfort to those who have known the Lord. So your death will be an occasion of sorrow for loved ones and friends. So we see death and the people going to their long home and then we see the funeral process. And notice here in verse 6 he says that death dissolves your bodily frame. Wherever 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. Now, some of the commentators have tried to attach a certain body part to these different phrases here. I’ll give you an example. One said that the golden bull refers to the head, the silver cord to the spinal column, the pitcher, the broken vessels, blood vessels, the fountain, the right ventricle, the heart, heart and the cisterine, the left ventricle of the heart, and the wheeled the aorta. I don’t think that’s what he’s talking about here. Two main pictures appear to be portrayed. I think that’s pressing these images too far if we go to that kind of detail. It’s more likely Solomon is just using a word picture that set before you, that life is precious, the golden bowl and its inevitable end is death so things are loosed and broken. The golden lamp bowl suspended on a silver chain and a pitcher at a well that’s lowered and then raised to get the water out seems to be more likely. likely. They use a wheel to put the bucket down in and lift it back out. The silver, the severing of the silver cord then causes the golden lamp to be shattered. They broke it. So death cuts off something that’s very precious in that’s life. As a fragile clay pitcher has to be shattered, to be handled carefully when you put it down in a well and bring it back up so it does it bang against the side and break. So you carefully lower it and raise it. So man is frail. They die at any time. Even in minor causes. Human beings are fragile and life can suddenly be snatched away from you. I read a story about a man when it was the rage to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. And he survived doing this. But as he was walking down the street in Australia, he slipped on an orange peel that somebody had left laying on the sidewalk, fractured his leg, got an infection, and died from that. You never know. Life is fragile. You never know. out or when you’re going to die. So as the wheel used to lower the vessels into a deep cistern is a mechanical device that may deteriorate, so the human body finally wears out. Solomon’s portrayal of old age here is admittedly very dismal. There’s nothing gentle about the dissolving here of the body. Your very body is like in one of those old watches that had not a battery. It had been a mainspring. And once the main spring goes, nothing works. The heart stops. The arteries burst. The bone crumbles. The liver quits filtering. The kidneys stop cleansing. The lungs no longer provide oxygen. And the body collapses. The lamp goes out. The pitcher can draw water. no longer and death occurs like silver and gold like water from the well life is precious and a time time is a gift that God has given us in this life and it eventually is used up we read about man in the book of Job how his life is like already he dated. His days on earth are numbered. He’s only going to live so long, according to God’s purpose and will. Like Humpty Dumpty, who falls off the wall, there’s no putting back the body back again to restore you. You’re going to have to wait the resurrection day for God to do that. So, here we see about death. Now, death separate. your body and your spirit. Let’s look at verse 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. The body and soul, which were united to make a precious human being gets separated at death. Death is the separation of those two things. As James tells us, for as the body, without the spirit is dead, so faith with our works is dead also. Each finds its long home, as we said. And here we’re reminded that the house of your body returns to dust. God formed man out of the dust of the earth, we read. Dust thou art, and the dust thou shalt return. And that’s what the Ecclesiastes tells us here, with regard the body. Your physical body is a house of clay. Thou take us away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Psalm 104.29. Now what a blessing to know that when you commit your loved one to the grave, that every particle of that redeemed dust who, if he’s a believer, she is, is in God’s safekeeping. Not one Adam gets lost. And on resurrection day, God will gather all that up and put you back together again, give you a glorify body at that state. Nothing gets lost, even though your body turns to dust. There will be a complete redemption of the body, according to Romans chapter 8. The body, it’s just in storage in the earth for a period of time. That’s all. Let’s talk about your spirit. Eric Ambler, the novelist, was making a World War II documentary in Italy called the Battle of San Pedro. Well, during the filming, an explosion went off that knocked him unconscious, and he thought he was going to die. In his autobiography, he says, I don’t want to admit this to anyone, and I’ve kept it secret for a long period of time. He said, when that happened, he says, and I thought I was about to die. He said, into thy hands, commend I, my spirit, unhurt. He resolved never to reveal that momentary abandonment of his unbelief. Because he didn’t believe, but he quoted that phrase from Psalm 16. The truth is you and I may attempt to suppress our appointment with God. But eventually, you’re going to have to face it, and you know it. As God tells us in the scripture, prepare to meet thy God. There’s going to be a day when you’re going to meet him. Now, the scripture seems to indicate here that in some fashion, when your soul leaves your body, the soul sleeps in the grave, or the, excuse me, the body sleeps in the grave, soul, however, has to appear before God. Now, we’re not told how this takes place. It may be only momentary. It may be very brief. But there’s an assessment and God says, you’re going here or you’re going there. It seems to me. He’s going to appoint where your soul goes. And your soul is going to be lodged either. And the the spirit of prisons where the people are in hell or the spirits in paradise who have gone to heaven. Jesus speaking about the dead patriots, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, told us, he’s not God, is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And all live unto him. When you die, you don’t go out of existence, you don’t become extinct. He’s, you know, keeps your soul alive, one way or the other. So this teaching makes death a terrible event for the wicked because they’re going to have to face God and they’re going to have to have the curse of God rest upon them. But it is a comfort to the believer who knows that his soul goes to be with his loving heavenly father and there’s an eternal home that awaits you. Death for some individuals then is a very fearful event and they know it. Some of those infidels and unbelievers spoke about it. They knew where they were going. Some have good reason to wail and anguish when death comes upon them and they’re facing eternity. of suffering in hell. Dissolving of your bodily frame involves the separation of your body to the grave, but your soul or spirit, as an appointment with God. Jesus urges his followers not to fear death itself. Don’t fear those who can kill the body. Kill the one who can cast the body and the soul into hell. Think about it. about that. Because on Revelation 20, we read that death and hell were cast into Lake of Fire. After there is a resurrection, a general resurrection of everybody’s body and there is the general judgment that takes place. You are now body and soul and you go into Lake of Fire as body and soul, which, as I can see it, only increases your suffering as an unbeliever. God is the way. one who cares about the falling of a sparrow, as we’ve studied in Luke, and he also, even more so, has his providence set on his people, has a greater care for them when they face death. You know, your death is God’s business. We really can’t prevent it. We can’t prolong it. All we can do is do God’s will while we’re here. Which is what you are. tells us about in verse one while you’re young serve the Lord. Use your life wisely and bring honor and glory of his name. But as a believer, don’t dread death. Like Paul, see it as a time when you’re going to depart out of this world. take a journey that’s going to leave you in the presence of God. you’re going to be with Christ. which is far better. If you are a believer, heaven is your eternal home. So don’t be afraid of the journey to it. I think, you know, all of us are sort of like Mr. Christian going through the river of death. He’s frightened. You know, it’s a fearful moment. As soon as he gets on the other side, the angels are there to escort him to heaven. and to into paradise and so forth. So death can be a bit frightening because we’re not, you know, it’s something we’ve never experienced. We don’t know what it’s sort of like. And so it’s difficult for us. But let us take it in good stride, realize that there’s something coming beyond it. And the Lord’s with us. He waits us to comfort us and to comfort us and to welcome us as we go to heaven after we die. Let’s close with the word of God.