Ecclesiastes 12:6: “Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, / Or the golden bowl is broken, / Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, / Or the wheel broken at the well.”

July 17th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Solomon uses 4 metaphors for death that were familiar to his ancient readers. The first and second are of a silver cord holding a golden bowl or lamp for light. When the cord breaks, the bowl is shattered, the light goes out, and death comes. The third picture is of a vessel holding water (or life) being shattered. The fourth is of a wheel pumping water from a well (as our heart pumps blood) breaking and the water stopping. Solomon presented these pictures to move the reader to examine their life while there was still time to do so. He was saying we should act decisively and do something positive from a position of wisdom before we come to the end of our life.

An unexamined life is a life wasted. There is a real danger for people to spend their whole life trying to find something that can never be found (fame, riches, success). And then come to death’s door realizing they could have had so much more if they had only given their life to God and followed His Spirit. We are rudely reminded in Genesis 3:19, “For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” So no matter how healthy we may be or how young we might feel, we all ultimately return to dust, which according to the Review of Physiological Chemistry, contains the basic 28 elements that make up the human body.

Although aging and death are inevitable, they are not eternal. They are temporary, a phase that every person must go through. For the believer, it will pass and be replaced by infinite, eternal life in the joy-filled presence of God. This fact makes it all the more important that we stop and remember our Creator and examine how we are living this phase of our existence. For the nonbeliever, this fact should make you stop and realize that now is the time to repent and surrender your life to Jesus Christ. We cannot take it with us, but we can prepare by sending what is important on ahead.

“LORD, we want to invest and spend our lives today in those things that are eternal and lasting. Guide us we ask.”