Podcast 97 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 12, Ch 12”

Understandably the final chapter in Ecclesiastes is a summing up. Characteristically Solomon boils down everything leaving to the end what is most important. I think we may properly assume that Ecclesiastes was written when King Solomon was old and knew that he was about to die. He gave us many clues. Consider the following statements given early on:

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Ecclesiastes 2:4

I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:

Ecclesiastes 2:11

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:18

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

Ecclesiastes 2:23

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

If the above is not convincing that he is waiting to die, perhaps the opening statement of the final chapter is.

Ecclesiastes 12:1

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

Solomon is old. He has lost pleasure in life. He poignantly recognizes the vanity of earthly pleasures. One is reminded of William Wordsworth’s beautiful poem, Ode, Intimations of Immortality.

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

Solomon also laments those lost times.

Ecclesiastes 12:2-6

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears 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 bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

“Because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets” refers to death. King Solomon continues:

Ecclesiastes 12:7

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Is that not another way of saying, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” Solomon gives his familiar refrain.

Ecclesiastes 12:8

Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

Words often have two values. One is connotative. The other is denotative. The connotative value refers to the emotional overtones, to the feelings the word conveys. The denotative refers to the dictionary definition. It is cold and abstract usually consisting of a name, a class, and a differentia. Without connotation, there would be no poetry; without denotation, there would be no sense. The connotation appeals to the emotions. The denotation appeals to the mind. The word vanity has many connotations, mostly negative as suggested by common synonyms: