Latest / Reformed Thinking / Before the Silver Cord Snaps: A Covenantal Call to Remember the Giver Amidst the Vapor of Life (Ecclesiastes 12:1-8)

Transcript

Before the Silver Cord Snaps: A Covenantal Call to Remember the Giver Amidst the Vapor of Life (Ecclesiastes 12:1-8) · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine being handed the keys to an absolute masterpiece of
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automotive engineering. Oh man, that sounds incredible.
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Right, so you slide into the driver's seat, you smell that
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pristine leather, you grip the steering wheel, and you feel the
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engine hummed to life right under you.
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Yeah, the vibration of it, yeah. And then you take it out onto
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the open highway. The wind is whipping through
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your hair. The acceleration pushes you back
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into your seat and it is just thrilling.
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You are meant to enjoy that drive.
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Absolutely you should enjoy it, but.
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Sitting right there, you know, tucked away in the glove box is
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a contract. It is a legally binding lease
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agreement that clearly states you do not own the car.
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Oh wow, yeah, that changes the feeling a bit.
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It does because one day that lease expires, the keys have to
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go back to the dealer. Welcome to Reform Thinking.
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Today we are taking a hard look at our physical bodies, our
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youth, and, well, our mortality. Right, Because every single
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physical gift, you Pizzacs, your vision, your muscular strength,
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your unflagging vitality, it all operates on that leased car
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principle. Yeah, that is such a sobering
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way to put it. It is.
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Those gifts are leased. They are not owned.
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But we live in a society that aggressively pretends we get to
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keep the keys forever. We really do, and that evasion
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of reality is something the sources we are looking at today
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call out with shocking clarity. I mean, we live in a culture
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that spends billions of dollars to sanitize the aging process.
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Billions. In entire industries exist just
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to mask the inevitability of death.
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We hide our elderly in facilities we, you know, inject
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fillers into our faces. And we act like decline is an
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optional disease rather than a biological certainty, which is.
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Wild when you think about it. It is.
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But what the authors of our sources point out, and this is a
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fascinating tragedy really, is that large segments of modern
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evangelicalism are actually complicit in this evasion.
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Wait. Really.
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How so? Well.
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When you look at the literature analyzing seeker sensitive
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methodologies or prosperity theologies, the critics argue
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there's a deliberate avoidance of these harsh realities.
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Yeah, the sources suggest these movements sell an illusion of
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perpetual health and wealth. They refuse to touch topics like
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mortality, the curse from the Book of Genesis, or the
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impending reality of divine judgement.
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Right. They just kind of gloss over it.
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Exactly. Yeah.
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I mean, spot on. They offer a shallow therapeutic
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moralism. And the problem with that
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theology is that if your religious system is built on the
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promise of your best life right now, getting old and getting
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sick becomes an embarrassing theological problem.
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Yeah, it breaks the whole system.
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So today we are opening up the book of Ecclesiastes to confront
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this severe disconnect between the aging mirror and the
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youthful mind. It is a heavy text, but a
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necessary one it. Really is.
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And that sets up a massive theological tension for the
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believer because on one hand, we look at what theologians
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sometimes called totalizing texts.
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Right. The ones that demand everything.
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Yeah, like when the apostle Paul declares that to live is Christ
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and to die is gain. Or in the Psalms where it says,
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Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth
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that I desire besides you. Those are absolute statements.
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They are, they demand supreme, unadulterated devotion to God as
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our all satisfying treasure. But then we also have what we
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can call things of Earth texts. Like what?
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Well, like when Paul writes to Timothy saying God abundantly
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provides us with everything to enjoy going back to that leased
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vehicle, God wants you to enjoy the drive.
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Yeah, he created the scenery. He gave you the capacity to feel
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the wind. Right.
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So how do we hold those two realities together without
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making an idol out of the earthly gift?
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That is the big question, isn't it?
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The biblical worldview harmonizes them beautifully, but
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it requires a very specific lens.
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You enjoy the earthly gifts precisely because you love the
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eternal giver. That makes a lot of sense.
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Yeah, you do not despise the physical prime of life.
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You recognize it as a temporal blessing pointing to an eternal
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reality. However, the sources bring us to
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what can only be described as a severe mercy.
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A severe mercy. I like that phrase.
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It is a good one because when those earthly gifts begin to
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fade, when the physical body succumbs to the curse and the
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faculty slip away, it is a divine gift.
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Even though it feels awful. Yeah, even then it is a severe
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mercy because it forces a diagnostic question upon the
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soul. It asks, Do you love the eternal
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giver more than the temporary gifts he graciously provided?
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Wow, that is a hard question to answer honestly.
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It is because when you are stripped of earthly comforts,
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those totalizing texts become your sole anchor.
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Solomon commands us to Orient our lives entirely around our
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Creator before that relentless decay of old age overtakes us.
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Well, let's actually set the scene historically.
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Here we are talking about the 10th century BC and the author
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is Solomon. He identifies himself as
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Kohelith, which translates to the preacher or the assembler.
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Right, He is gathering the people to hear this wisdom.
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Yeah, and he is writing during the absolute zenith of Israel's
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golden age to wrap our modern minds around the wealth of this
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era. The historical records state
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that gold was as common as stones in Jerusalem.
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Just lying around. Basically, yeah.
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It was an era of unprecedented peace, intellectual achievement
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and architectural marvels. This is not a society struggling
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to survive. This is a society sitting at the
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pinnacle of human achievement. And the target audience here is
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highly specific. Knowing who Solomon is speaking
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to unlocks this entire passage. He is addressing the covenant
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youth of Israel. So the young people.
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Yeah, think about the psychological state of these
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young men and women. They were inheriting a vast,
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wealthy empire. They were completely insulated
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from the wilderness struggles of their ancestors.
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They did not have to fight those violent battles of conquest.
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No, they didn't. Because they grew up surrounded
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by massive national prosperity, they were incredibly prone to
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the intoxicating illusion of youthful invincibility.
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I mean, prosperity kind of breeds a specific amnesia
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regarding God doesn't? It it really does.
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When your belly is full, your house is beautiful, and your
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nation is at peace, it is remarkably easy to forget you
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are a creature dependent on a creator.
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I have to push back on that a bit though, OK?
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Let's hear it. If we think about the ancient
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world, even in a golden age, they lived without modern
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medicine. Infant mortality was high.
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A simple infection could be a death sentence.
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There were no antibiotics, no advanced surgical procedures.
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That is very true. Right.
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Death was a highly visible daily reality in a way it simply is
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not for us today. So Solomon is basically looking
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at a generation of kids who grew up with silver spoons in their
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mouths playing ancient luxury games while ignoring the real
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world. And he is warning them.
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Yeah, but why did he still need to warn them so urgently about
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forgetting their mortality? If death was everywhere around
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them, wouldn't they already be thinking about it constantly?
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It is a really sharp question, but it reveals something
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intrinsic about human nature. While death was certainly more
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visible in the ancient world, the temptation to trust in
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wealth, physical strength, and political influence remains
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identical across all eras. So seeing it doesn't fix the
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pride. No, having death visible does
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not automatically cure the human heart of pride.
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People possess an astonishing capacity for cognitive
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dissonance. They can watch their neighbor
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die of a sudden illness and still think, well, that won't
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happen to me. I am strong and wealthy.
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That is a very human reaction. It is the warnings from the Book
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of Deuteronomy loomed large over Israel.
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God told them that when they had eaten and were full and had
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built goodly houses, their hearts would be lifted up and
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they would forget the Lord their God.
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And that is what was happening. Yeah, the youth of Solomon's day
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looked at their Chariots, their goals, and their thriving
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physical bodies, and they assumed autonomy.
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Furthermore, our sources point out that Solomon is writing to
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subvert the dominant philosophical narratives of the
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surrounding ancient Near Eastern cultures.
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OK, let's talk about that. What were those narratives?
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Well, if you read Pagan wisdom literature from that era, like
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the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh or the Egyptian
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dispute between a man and his BA, you see a specific pattern.
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Right, Gilgamesh goes looking for immortality.
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He does, and he fails to find it.
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They looked at the certainty of death and concluded with a
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depressing, fatalistic nihilism. Gilgamesh essentially has to
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settle for a legacy of brick walls.
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Just leaving a building behind. Yeah, they essentially said we
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all die so nothing matters. But Solomon completely subverts
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that. He introduces A robust God
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centered realism. He acknowledges that life under
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the sun is Hebel, a Hebrew word meaning vapor or breath.
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But he insists that this vapor is governed by a sovereign
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creator. So it is not nihilism.
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Not at all. It is a call to covenantal
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fidelity. So recognizing that life is a
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vapor, a mist that vanishes when the sun comes up, naturally
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leads to the urgent question of when we should act on this
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realization. Right, the timing matters.
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Yeah, and Solomon doesn't leave us hanging.
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This whole section we are looking at is the climax of the
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entire book, and it immediately follows his earlier warning
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where Solomon tells the young man to rejoice in his youth, to
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let his heart cheer him, but to know with absolute certainty
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that God will bring every single deed into judgement.
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The logic connecting those two sections is unbreakable.
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You get this whiplash. Have fun, enjoy your strength,
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but know a judge is watching. Yeah, and the primary command
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driving this entire passage is found right there at the start.
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Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth.
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The Hebrew word translated as remember is that car, and the
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grammatical parsing of that word carries a lot of weight.
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Oh. So.
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Well, it is a qual imperative. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Zakhar
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carries an immense covenantal obligation.
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Let me stop you right there for a second.
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Yeah. When you say it is a qual
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imperative, what does that actually mean for the person
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sitting in the Pew reading their English Bible?
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It sounds like heavy academic jargon, but I know there is a
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practical application there. That is a great clarification to
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make. In Hebrew grammar, the qual stem
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is the simple active voice, and an imperative is a direct
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command. OK, an active command.
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Right. So qual imperative means this is
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not a passive mental recall. It is not asking you to simply
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hold a factual thought about God in your head before you eat your
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breakfast, like remembering where you left your car keys it.
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Is more than just a thought. Much more, it requires active,
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willful covenant to loyalty. To remember your Creator is to
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reject human autonomy entirely and submit your life to His
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moral law. You align your actions with the
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reality of who God is. That changes the whole tone of
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the passage. It does, and the syntax Solomon
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uses here is terrifyingly brilliant.
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He creates A ticking clock of mortality by using a series of
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subordinate temporal clauses. The before clauses.
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Yeah, he repeatedly introduces these phrases with the Hebrew
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words add Asher low, which translates to Before Remember
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your Creator, before the evil days come, before the sun and
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the light are darkened. It builds so much tension.
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It creates an agonizingly progressive literary movement.
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You can hear the clock ticking down the seconds of your youth.
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And the specific title Solomon uses for God in that command is
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striking. He says remember your Creator
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using the Hebrew word bore. He does not use the redemptive
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covenantal name Yahweh here. Which is a very deliberate
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choice. Why would he make that specific
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linguistic choice when talking to the covenant people of
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Israel? He uses bore to intentionally
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root the text all the way back to the opening pages of Genesis.
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By using the title of Creator, he is establishing God's
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absolute ownership over human beings.
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Ownership that goes back to the leased car.
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It bypasses any notion that we have the right to direct our own
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steps. The logic is simple but
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devastating. God made you from the dust.
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He breathed life into your lungs and therefore you do not belong
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to yourself. So you don't hold the deed?
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No. Your strength, your intellect,
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your youth, none of it is your property.
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It is all a stewardship from the Creator.
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Delaying obedience implies that you own your time.
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Solomon uses the title of Creator to crush that
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assumption. You owe everything to the one
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who constructed your frame. So if the clock strikes
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midnight, if our time before runs out, what does that
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actually look like? Solomon doesn't just give us a
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vague warning, he gives us this brilliantly devastating medical
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diagnosis written in poetry. It is incredibly detailed.
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It is, he warns, the youth to remember their Creator before
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the physical breakdown begins. Solomon writes about the cosmic
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darkening before the sun and the light, and the moon and the
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stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain.
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Right. And we need to clarify that the
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evil days do not refer to days of moral wickedness.
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OK, what do they refer to? He is talking about days of
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severe physical distress and the painful infirmities of old age.
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The cosmic darkening is a brilliant metaphor for the loss
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of useful optimism. Oh, that makes sense.
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Think about how a young person processes a trial in youth.
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When a storm comes, the sun eventually breaks through and
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you recover quickly. You bounce back from a cold.
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You bounce back from a relational slight.
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You just shake it off. Yeah, but in old age, the clouds
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return after the rain troubles compound.
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One illness is immediately followed by another.
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You recover from pneumonia only to fall and break a hip.
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It just keeps coming. The sky of your life never seems
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to fully clear. There's a persistent gloom that
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settles over the physical experience of living.
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Then we get to the metaphor where the human body is
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described as a house being dismantled.
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The syntax here is rapid, brutal and rhythmic.
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It reads in the day when the keepers of the house tremble,
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and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they
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are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed.
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The imagery is stunning. It is, I like to picture, a once
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bustling majestic Manor house in its prime.
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It is full of life and activity. It is throwing grand parties.
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The estate is secure and everything functions perfectly.
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A place full of strength. Right.
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But over time, the security guards at the gates start
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shaking. The strong pillars holding up
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the portico begin to warp and lean, the bustling kitchen staff
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quits because they can no longer do the work, and the grand
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windows of the estate get covered in grime until very
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little light comes through. The house is systematically
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shutting down. That Manor house analogy
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captures the text perfectly. It is a poetic descent into
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bodily disintegration. We can map these metaphors
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directly to the failing human anatomy.
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Let's break those down. What are the keepers of the
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house? The keepers of the House
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represent the arms and hands. Once they defended and provided
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for the body. They worked the fields, they
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wielded the sword, they built the cities.
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But now, but now in old age, they tremble with palsy and
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weakness. They struggle to hold a cup of
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water without spilling it. And the strong men bending.
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The strong men normally refers to valiant military warriors,
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but here it pictures the legs bowing and bending under the
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crushing weight of years. The cartilage is gone, the bones
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are brittle, and simply standing upright requires massive effort.
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Wait, so the grinder's ceasing because they're a few?
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He is talking about losing teeth, isn't he?
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That is incredibly specific and relatable.
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Yeah, it is a clear reference to the loss of teeth making basic
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nourishment a labor. In the ancient world without
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modern dentistry, losing your teeth meant your diet was
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severely restricted. You couldn't just get dentures.
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No eating became a chore rather than a joy, and those who look
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through the windows are dimmed. Vividly describes failing
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eyesight. We were talking at the onset of
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presbyopia, cataracts, or macular degeneration.
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The vibrant colors of the world turn Gray and blurry.
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The visual input of creation is restricted.
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And it gets even quieter as the text goes on, Solomon writes.
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The doors on the street are shut when the sound of the grinding
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is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the
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daughters of song are brought low.
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The majestic house we just pictured is now entirely cut off
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from the. Outside world, the isolation of
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old age is pictured here with agonizing clarity.
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It is The doors on the street are shut and the sound of the
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grinding is low point directly to hearing loss.
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The external world is muffled. They can no longer hear the
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bustling marketplace or the conversations of their family in
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the next room, leaving the elderly isolated in a prison of
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silence. That is so tough, but then
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there's this strange detail about rising up at the sound of
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a bird. Yeah, the text points out a
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tragic irony there. While they suffer from deafness
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to the outside world, they are simultaneously plagued by
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insomnia. Oh, wow.
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They cannot sleep soundly. They rise up at the sound of a
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bird. The smallest noise, a bird
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chirping at dawn, disrupts their rest.
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They are exhausted but unable to find relief in sleep.
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And the daughters of song being brought low.
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Furthermore, that indicates the vocal cords losing their timber.
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The capacity to sing, to project the voice and to fully enjoy
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music simply fades away. The music of life goes
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completely silent. Then the text takes us from the
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physical breakdown into the psychological anxiety of aging,
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Solomon says. They become afraid of what is
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high and terrors are in the way. The fear is palpable.
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A simple staircase or an uneven sidewalk becomes a mortal
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threat. When you were 20, you'd jump
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over a ditch without thinking twice.
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When you are 80, an icy patch on the driveway feels like a death
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sentence. The world feels infinitely more
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dangerous when your balance is gone and your bones are brittle.
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Everything is a hazard. Everything.
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Then he gives three final rapid fire images of frailty.
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The almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along,
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and desire fails. Those 3 images are devastating
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in their realism. The almond tree blossoms refers
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to the white hair of the elderly in that region.
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The almond tree blossoms in late winter and its flowers are
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bright white. It is a picture of the snow of
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old age settling on the head. That is a beautiful but sad
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image. And the grasshopper.
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Grasshopper drags Itself Along is a picture of the halting,
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stiff, jointed mobility of an old man.
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A grasshopper is usually known for leaping great distances with
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boundless energy, but an injured or old grasshopper just drags
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its heavy body along the dirt. That is what it feels like
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trying to move a body that no longer responds.
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Yes, exactly. And finally, desire fails.
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The Hebrew word used there is aviona, which refers to the
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caperberry a. Caperberry, why mention that?
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Well, in the ancient world, the caperberry was a well known
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appetite stimulant, an aphrodisiac.
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Its failure signifies the total loss of physical and sexual
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appetite. So the drive itself is gone.
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The inward impulses toward earthly pleasures simply
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extinguish. Food loses its taste, intimacy
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is gone, and the drive to conquer the world evaporates.
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That agonizing stripping away of our earthly faculties eventually
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reaches a hard biological stop. The slow dismantling of the
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Manor house ends in an earthquake.
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The imagery shifts from gradual painful decline to sudden
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violent cessation. The final breaking point?
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Right, Solomon writes. Before the silver cord is
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snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is
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shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
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The transition here marks the movement from the process of
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dying to the actual event of death.
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The imagery Solomon employs conveys both extreme
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preciousness and extreme fragility.
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Silver and gold. Yes, silver and gold show that
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human life is incredibly valuable.
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We are made in the image of God be all the value in the world
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cannot stop the breaking the silver cord snapping pictures,
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the spinal cord failing, severing the connection between
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the brain and the body. And the Golden Bowl.
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The golden bowl crushed represents the brain and the
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skull. The pitcher shattered and the
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wheel broke into the cistern. Symbolize the heart and the
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circulatory system collapsing. Think of an ancient well.
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A wheel lowers the pitcher to draw up life, giving water.
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When the wheel breaks and the pitcher shatters, no more water
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can be drawn. The biological instruments that
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draw the water of life simply shatter beyond any human repair.
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The pumping of the heart ceases. That brings us to the next
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phrase, which is a massive theological return to the
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opening chapters of the Bible. And the dust returns to the
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earth as it was, and the Spirit returns to God who gave it.
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Going all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
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Right. This connects directly back to
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the penal sanction handed down there.
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For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.
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The biological machine stops, and the dual nature of humanity
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is addressed. The dust, the afar, goes into
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the dirt, but the spirit, the Rubash, goes to the Creator.
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This completely refutes 2 massive modern errors.
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First, it refutes modern materialism.
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The idea that we are just biology, yeah.
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Materialism claims you are nothing but biology, a
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collection of firing neurons, and when you die, your
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consciousness just turns off like a television.
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Second, it refutes sentimental denial.
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What? Does that look like?
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That is the view that tries to make death a harmless,
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romanticized doorway into a vague, cloudy afterlife where
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everyone gets a Halo. Death is a deeply theological
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event. The Spirit returning to God
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establishes the reality of the intermediate state.
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You face your maker. You do.
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The human spirit remains conscious and faces the Creator
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for immediate judgement. You are not a machine whose
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death dissolves all meaning. You are a creature accountable
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to the one who formed you. Which makes the preacher's final
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verdict so weighty. Vanity of vanities, says the
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preacher. All is vanity.
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That word, heble, vapor or breath, is the final definitive
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word on life under the sun. It is the ultimate conclusion of
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an earthly life. Any existence, any achievement,
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any accumulation of wealth that is not anchored to the eternal
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God is a tragic waste of breath. It is a vapor that you cannot
21:36
seize control or keep. You try to catch fog with your
21:40
bare hands and you end up with nothing.
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If your hope is tethered exclusively to this present
21:44
world, your entire existence amounts to chasing the wind.
21:48
When the physical body returns to dust, the secular materialist
21:52
is left with absolute despair. All the money, all the prestige,
21:56
all the physical beauty amounts to a shattered pitcher at the
21:59
bottom of a dark well. Leaving the listener standing at
22:02
the edge of the grave with the word vanity ringing in their
22:05
ears feels incredibly bleak. It really does.
22:08
And honestly, it should, because we need to feel the full
22:11
desperation of Cohelith's diagnosis before we can
22:13
appreciate the cure. It is like a doctor giving you
22:16
the terminal MRI scan before telling you he has the antidote.
22:20
How does the New Testament resolve this terrifying reality?
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Because Ecclesiastes leaves us crying out for a solution.
22:26
It resolves it through the glorious reality of the last
22:29
Adam. The author of Hebrews declares
22:31
the explicit remedy to the preacher's diagnosis.
22:34
It states that since the children share in flesh and
22:36
blood, Jesus Christ himself partook of the same things.
22:39
He entered into the vapor, yes. The eternal Son of God stepped
22:43
out of eternity and into this cursed realm under the sun.
22:47
He took on frail human flesh, experiencing hunger, weariness,
22:51
and sorrow, yet completely without sin.
22:54
Where we used our youth and strength for autonomy and
22:57
rebellion, Christ lived a life of perfect covenantal obedience.
23:01
He kept the contract perfectly. He perfectly fulfilled the
23:04
command to remember your Creator.
23:05
He never once forgot his Father's will.
23:09
There is a striking parallel when we think about the breaking
23:11
of the body. Christ's silver cord was indeed
23:14
snapped, but not by natural decay or the inevitable decline
23:18
of old age. His body was broken by a
23:21
substitutionary sacrifice. That is a beautiful way to frame
23:23
it. He absorbed the infinite wrath
23:25
of God on the cross. He took the penal sanction of
23:28
the dust upon himself to pay the penalty for our idolatry.
23:31
He experienced the ultimate breaking of the Golden Bowl so
23:34
that we could be spared the eternal consequence of our
23:36
rebellion. And the empty tomb is the
23:39
decisive, universe altering answer to Ecclesiastes.
23:43
As Paul writes to the Corinthians, Death's victory is
23:45
swallowed up. It's sting is completely
23:47
removed. Christ's bodily resurrection is
23:50
the absolute guarantee of the future glorification of the
23:53
Saints. We get new bodies.
23:55
We do. Paul promises the Philippians
23:57
that he will change our lowly bodies to be like his glorious
24:00
body. All those terrifying metaphors
24:02
we discussed. The trembling hands, the bent
24:05
legs, the dim eyes, the deaf ears, all of that will be
24:09
instantaneously replaced with incorruptible flesh.
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That is such an incredible hope. Death is no longer a penal
24:16
destruction for the believer, it is the defeated doorway into the
24:18
presence of the king. But I want to ask the hard
24:20
question here. I can hear listeners thinking
24:22
this right now. If Jesus completely conquered
24:24
the grave, If he satisfied the wrath of God entirely, why does
24:29
God still subject believers to this grueling process of
24:32
physical decay? It is a valid question.
24:34
Why do faithful Christians still get dementia?
24:37
Why do they still lose their mobility?
24:39
Why not just rapture us the moment we believe and bypass the
24:43
decay altogether? It feels cruel to leave us to
24:46
rot if the penalty is already paid.
24:48
That goes right to the core of how God sanctifies His people.
24:52
Physical decline burns away our idols.
24:55
Sickness, weakness, and aging systematically teach the soul to
24:59
stop demanding that earthly gifts provide eternal
25:02
satisfaction. We are so addicted to the gifts.
25:04
We are incredibly prone to loving the gifts more than the
25:07
giver. When the keepers of the house
25:09
tremble, God is gently but firmly prying our fingers off
25:13
the things of this earth. That is a painful process.
25:15
It is He is teaching us that Christ becomes our all
25:18
satisfying treasure only when we realize that the physical world
25:22
cannot hold us. The fading of the body is a
25:24
merciful disciplining of the soul, preparing it to let go of
25:27
the vapor and cling entirely to the rock.
25:30
It breaks our addiction to this fallen world.
25:32
That theological reality demands a massive response from us
25:36
today. Solomon's command requires
25:38
immediate action. I want to speak directly to the
25:40
younger listeners right now. They need to hear this.
25:42
The demand on your life is immediate.
25:45
You must aggressively reject the Satanic deception that your 20s
25:49
and 30s are a playground for selfish exploration, and that
25:53
rigorous theology, holiness and local church devotion can wait
25:57
until you are older and settled down.
25:59
Don't give God your leftovers. Right.
26:01
Give God your sharpest intellect.
26:03
Give him your greatest physical strength.
26:05
The grave is packed with young men and women who assumed they
26:08
had decades left to get serious about their Creator.
26:11
You are not promised tomorrow, let alone your retirement years.
26:15
The text also forces a rigorous spiritual inventory for the
26:18
aged. As physical capacities decline,
26:21
you enter a highly dangerous spiritual season.
26:23
Dangerous in what way? Our sources referenced the
26:26
Puritan pastor William Bridge, who wrote a magnificent treatise
26:29
titled A Word to the Aged, where he diagnosed this perfectly.
26:32
He observed that while youth primarily struggles with
26:34
wantonness and lust, the elderly struggle with covetousness,
26:38
peevishness, and a complaining spirit.
26:40
A. Complaining spirit that is very
26:42
convicting. As the earthly gifts slip away,
26:45
the temptation is to grow bitter, to resent the modern
26:49
era, and to demand that everyone cater to your preferences.
26:52
You lose your hearing, you lose your mobility, and you are
26:55
tempted to lash out at the world in anger.
26:58
Bridge also gives a vivid, almost unsettling warning
27:02
against what he calls chewing the cud of past sins.
27:06
This is such a piercing sychological insight.
27:09
It really gets to the heart of the issue.
27:10
This is when an older person secretly delights in the
27:13
memories of youthful rebellion, things their body no longer has
27:17
the physical capacity to execute.
27:19
They run the tape of their past sins in their mind to get a
27:21
vicarious thrill. They can no longer commit the
27:24
sins physically, so they commit them mentally.
27:26
It is a way of holding on to autonomy even as the body shuts
27:29
down. It is a terrifying way to harden
27:31
your heart right before you meet the judge.
27:33
Instead of chewing the cut of past sins, the older generation
27:36
must vigorously seek what the Puritans called dying grace.
27:40
God supplies exactly what is needed right at the edge of
27:43
eternity. The aged believer is called to
27:46
display a sweetness of spirit. The sweetness of Spirit.
27:49
They are called to show the younger generation that even as
27:52
the outward man perishes, the inward man is being renewed day
27:56
by day. Their final task is to be a
27:58
wellspring of wisdom, proving that Christ is entirely
28:01
sufficient when all earthly props are kicked away.
28:05
They demonstrate that the Gospel holds true even when the Golden
28:08
Bowl is breaking. And the church as a whole has a
28:11
vital role here. A youth worshipping church is an
28:13
Ecclesiastes forgetting church. If your congregation hides the
28:18
elderly away or builds its entire ministry model around
28:21
high energy entertainment for the young, it is failing to
28:24
prepare its people for the realities of the snapped cord
28:27
and the broken bowl. The older Saints are a treasure.
28:29
They are the trembling hands and the pews are teachers of wisdom.
28:33
They are living, breathing sermons on the fleeting nature
28:36
of life and the faithfulness of God.
28:38
They are not obstacles to ministry.
28:40
They are the proof of the Gospels lasting efficacy.
28:44
As we draw this discussion to a close, the mandate for every
28:47
listener is clear. Knowing that life under the sun
28:49
is a fleeting breath, Knowing it is heble actually frees you it.
28:53
Takes the pressure off. It really does.
28:56
When you stop placing the crushing weight of your eternal
28:58
happiness on your physical health, your career, or your
29:00
youth, you can finally enjoy those things as temporary loaned
29:05
gifts from a good Creator. You can enjoy the drive and the
29:09
leased car because you know you do not have to keep it running
29:12
forever. Whether you are in the absolute
29:14
prime of your physical strength or you are looking in the mirror
29:17
and seeing the keepers of the house starting to tremble, the
29:20
call remains identical. Trust entirely in the finished
29:24
work of Jesus Christ. He's the one who holds you fast
29:27
when the gifts inevitably slip through your fingers.
29:30
Death will come. The dusk will return to the
29:32
earth. But for the one united to Price
29:35
by faith, that physical collapse is not the end.
29:38
The last Adam has conquered the grave, and he will raise you up
29:41
on the last day. I want to leave you with a final
29:44
thought to Mull over as you go about your week.
29:46
We spend decades terrified of the silver cord snapping.
29:49
We spend our lives terrified of the dark doorway of death, doing
29:53
everything in our power to push it away.
29:55
Pushing away the inevitable. But what if, for the believer,
29:58
the sudden rush of eternity makes all our earthly fears look
30:01
like nothing more than a momentary shadow fleeing before
30:04
the dawn? Think back to that leased
30:06
vehicle. Handing the keys back to the
30:08
dealer feels like a loss until you realize the dealer is moving
30:11
you out of a temporary rental and walking you through the
30:13
front doors of a permanent, everlasting estate.
30:16
Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.