David Gibson - Living Life Backward: How Ecclesiastes Teaches Us to Live in Light of the End

Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.

Terry Pratchett, quoted in the Times

Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

12 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shutwhen the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. Ecclesiastes 11:712:8

Shrouded or Shaped?

Growing old makes a body and an inner self part company, as one ages and the other stays young. It leaves a person depressed at the disconnect between the mirror and the mindhow we look to others versus how we think about ourselvesand generates denial as our limbs begin to do with difficulty the things they used to do with ease. This process leaves a person blinking in perplexity at the speed of life, which has hurtled toward its conclusion just as it seemed to really get going. Youthfulness leaves so quickly. And entering old age itself is to arrive in a season beset by all manner of difficulties, pains, and sorrows.

Society deals with this inevitable decline in different ways. Western culture seeks to deny the reality of aging in the marketing of beauty products, and the glorification of youth and beauty by affording great prestige to athletes in their prime.

There are also more extreme responses. In Las Vegas, the Cenegenics Medical Institute describes itself as the worlds largest age- management practice. For a very hefty fee, it aims to help you spend as long as possible in your bodyit can feed you, exercise you, monitor you, drug you, and adapt you to help you live as long as possible. In this

On the other hand, fine books and films face head - on the traumas of what it can mean to be alive but physically deteriorating in mind and body. The 2001 film Iris depicted the ravages of dementia in the life of the British philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch. The film is so powerful because it shows her relationship with her husband, John Bayley, from its earliest days, through all the stages of her illness and decline. Julianne Moore, in Still Alice , deservedly won an Oscar for her heartbreaking portrayal of a brilliant professor left grappling with the effects of early - onset Alzheimers disease.

But theres also humor. Victor Meldrew of the television series One Foot in the Grave is a cantankerous old codger whose extreme grumpiness provides the humor of each episode. We never know what Meldrew was like as a young man, but we see him in his later years as resolutely joyless and intolerant, despairing about life and the way people are and, of course, it is always everyone else who is in the wrong. Always. The only vitality about him is the intensity of his annoyance and irritation at the state of the world. He has lost all sight of the goodness of life and the blessings it lavishes on him. He lives shrouded in death.

It should be no surprise by now that what I mean by this chapters title is very different from the worldview of Victor Meldrew. Old age has made him the wrong kind of person, the kind who will never be happy until his one foot in the grave is joined by the other. Rather than living shrouded in death, Ecclesiastes has been teaching us to live shaped by death. It is bracingly realistic about the agonies of aging and dying, but its realism does not go hand in hand with despair.

In the verses we will consider here, the Preachers realism about being an old person leads him to issue commands to a young person. The coming failing of my body should inform the present working of my body. My certain death must invigorate my current life. Putting one foot in the grave is the way to plant the other on the path of life.

The Bibles realism about old age and death is both urgentRejoice!and calmRemember.

1. The Urgent Realism of Rejoicing, Because Judgment Is Coming

These verses are an overture to the epilogue of Ecclesiastes. They concentrate the books central themes but do so with powerful poetic beauty before the Preacher states his final conclusions in 12:814. Ecclesiastes opened with a poem about the cyclical pattern in nature and the world, and now it comes to a close with another poem about the universal pattern inherent in an individual life coming to its end. In chapter 1 generations come and go, but the earth remains forever. Here in chapter 12 we see what that actually looks like, as the young become old and return to the dust of the earth.

Its important to observe that youth in this passage is a relative concept, for 11:8 says that enjoyment should be pursued throughout all of life, however many years anyone may live (NIV). In fact, by youth, the Preacher may mean anyone who has not yet entered the stage of life portrayed in 12:38, where body and mind are in decrepit decline. As we have seen throughout, the Preacher knows that this eventual return to dust is the reason to grab hold of life with both hands while the opportunity still exists.

It is especially pleasing when it does come into view!) The Preacher is telling us, again, that the good God made a good world, and it is foolishness of the highest order to be blind to its goodness and shimmering glory as we live our lives.

Being young feels like being unable to die.

We should note that the Preacher does not chide the young person in these verses for being young. His instruction is not Youre young, but dont forget youll one day be old, so much as Youre young, so make the most of it with every fiber of your being. To every person with the capacity to do so, in these words of the Preacher, God says, rejoice, be happy, find joy in the days when you can be physically, mentally, and relationally active. God commands us: Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes (11:9)for one day the capacity, ability, and desire to do so will all cease.

Here is where a huge surprise is waiting for us in this passage. Did you skim over the word commands in the paragraph above? You should have raised an eyebrow. Think of how we normally conceive of commands, and ask what it might mean that God commands joy and happiness and delight. They are not optional extras for the Christian believer living in the prime of life. Enjoyment is a command, and to break Gods commands is always to trample his law and to invite his judgment. Does this sound right? Is God really this invested in your happiness?

Read verse 9 again and notice the final part: But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. It is possible, of course, that the Preacher is telling us to go off and have fun but, like a parent, is also telling us not to forget the curfew that could ensue should we come home late. He is certainly not encouraging licentious living and wanton abandon to the desires of our heart, for he has been too realistic throughout his book about what our hearts are really like. In verse 10 a more literal reading of the vexation of the body that is to be cast off is that evil is to be cast off. So it is possible that there is a reminder here that judgment awaits the pursuit of unwise and destructive pleasures. Be careful how you party!