Ecclesiastes 12 1-14
1 Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.” 2 Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky. 3 Remember him before your legs—the guards of your house—start to tremble; and before your shoulders—the strong men—stoop. Remember him before your teeth—your few remaining servants—stop grinding; and before your eyes—the women looking through the windows—see dimly.
4 Remember him before the door to life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades. Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint.
5 Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets; before your hair turns white like an almond tree in bloom, and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper, and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire. Remember him before you near the grave, your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral.
6 Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. 7 For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Concluding Thoughts about the Teacher
8 “Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless.”
9 Keep this in mind: The Teacher was considered wise, and he taught the people everything he knew. He listened carefully to many proverbs, studying and classifying them. 10 The Teacher sought to find just the right words to express truths clearly.[a]
11 The words of the wise are like cattle prods—painful but helpful. Their collected sayings are like a nail-studded stick with which a shepherd[b] drives the sheep.
12 But, my child,[c] let me give you some further advice: Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out.
13 That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.
A youth bible study on Ecclesiastes 12:1-2 for both individuals and groups:
Remember your Creator while you are young, before the days of trouble come and the years when you say, "I find no pleasure in them." When you get old... (New Century Version)
You know the saying, “You don't bend an old tree”. You know what a bonzi is? It is those miniature replicas of large trees. In essence they're the same, just kept small by trimming the roots.
Why do you think this is the case, according to our Scripture? (When a group bible study first discus and get a consensus, before turning to the answer. The same implies for the following
questions.)
'Remember' can become complicated. Once the demands of life kick in, the quantity of things to remember quickly quench the 'Remember' of God and His world, in a world that has actually no place for God and faith – only reason and reasonableness. To remember God as the 'Creator' is not easy in a world where human reason is in control and creation is marginalised in the swelling of technology and scientific answers. In the Dark Ages it was easier to remember God, as creator, because one needed God to create here and right now in day-to-day provisions. God was needed to give bread and clothes and health today.
Do you see that this remember has to do with faith?
Faith in a God quickly becomes abstract when the answers of technology and science do an apparently better job, in the pressures and evidences of life. This is only to be persuaded by rhetoric, the same as what happened with Eve in the Garden of Eden. The truth in rhetoric is not what is right and wrong, but how something is being said. Right is what is persuasive, like the apparent right of the lie of the snake in the garden of Eden.
What are the days of trouble and what contradiction is hidden in it?
(Evil Days)
The contradiction is that trouble days actually create faith, like the example of someone in the Dark Ages as stated above. You know the saying “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”. In trouble days of persecution, in e.g. former Russia or China today, the church grows the fastest. The Trouble days of our text can't then be difficult days per say. The trouble days of our text are when the voice of the world, and the voice of reality, calls one to make sense of life. Sense is the love of money, the excess accumulation of possessions, status et
As a young person life is still in the future and the voice of the world is to take hold of this future
with a this-worldly-paradise mentality. To get the best job possible, to get the dream house build, to drive a neck-turning car. Trouble days are when God is not necessary in a carefree world or in a
man made system that solves all problems.
When will one not find pleasure in God anymore and what is the warning?
In short, one will not find pleasure in God anymore when the sacrifice to follow Jesus becomes to
demanding. When the first love for Jesus demands a death to self and its desires. The warning is
that there is an invisible line when one finds no pleasure in God anymore. Once one has crossed this line, turning back becomes almost impossible. The most dangerous lie, out of hell, is “Later”. “You can decide for Jesus later, after you have done this and that”. “Later, on your deathbed you can turn to Jesus, like the thief on the cross”. My friend, later you will have no desire.
When is old?
Old is very relative. For you, as a teenager, I might be old, but you know I don't think so. I still
think I have a few years left in my body and I rather think people in an old age home are old. My
previous supervisor is 66 and doesn't think he is old; both his parents turned 100 before they died.
On the other hand, I once heard of a drug addict in Amsterdam, who at the age of 21, said her life is over and she's just waiting for death. She was older than my previous supervisor.
Old is relative, but very much has to do with lifestyle as well. Old has to do with this world, but
when we have Jesus we have eternal life in us and old gets a new color. The right lifestyle is to
remember Jesus with the right ethical guidance, no drugs, alcohol, wrongs friends etc., and
interesting enough that'll put old age in the right eternal perspective.
No comments:
Post a Comment