Ecc 11-12
Romans 11
Psalm 132; Psalm 133; Psalm 134
“Get on the Train. Everything will be okay.” Pooh-Pooh el Grande 3: 33
Doug Giles in his book - Dear Christian: Your Fear is Full of Crap (Available on Amazon)
Two things - the US Postal System then an examination of Ecclesiastes 12 at the end of Solomon’s life.
July 26 1775
U.S. postal system established
On July 26, 1775, the U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general. Franklin (1706-1790) put in place the foundation for many aspects of today’s mail system.
During early colonial times in the 1600s, few American colonists needed to send mail to each other; it was more likely that their correspondence was with letter writers in Britain. Mail deliveries from across the Atlantic were sporadic and could take many months to arrive. There were no post offices in the colonies, so mail was typically left at inns and taverns.
In 1753, Benjamin Franklin, who had been postmaster of Philadelphia, became one of two joint postmasters general for the colonies. He made numerous improvements to the mail system, including setting up new, more efficient colonial routes and cutting delivery time in half between Philadelphia and New York by having the weekly mail wagon travel both day and night via relay teams. Franklin also debuted the first rate chart, which standardized delivery costs based on distance and weight.
READ MORE: 11 Surprising Facts About Benjamin Franklin
In 1774, the British fired Franklin from his postmaster job because of his revolutionary activities. However, the following year, he was appointed postmaster general of the United Colonies by the Continental Congress. Franklin held the job until late in 1776, when he was sent to France as a diplomat. He left a vastly improved mail system, with routes from Florida to Maine and regular service between the colonies and Britain. President George Washington appointed Samuel Osgood, a former Massachusetts congressman, as the first postmaster general of the American nation under the new U.S. constitution in 1789. At the time, there were approximately 75 post offices in the country.
Today, the United States has over 40,000 post offices and the postal service delivers more than 200 billion pieces of mail each year to over 144 million homes and businesses in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, the American Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The postal service is the nation’s largest civilian employer, with roughly 500,000 career workers. The postal service is a not-for-profit, self-supporting agency that covers the majority of its expenses through postage (stamp use in the United States started in 1847) and related products. The postal service gets the mail delivered, rain or shine, using everything from planes to mules.
Ecclesiastes 12 - Poetic Picture of Old Age
J. Vernon McGhee
We have seen the experiments that Solomon made in life. He is probably the only man who ever lived who was able to experiment in all of these different areas, attempting to find a solution and satisfaction apart from God. Throughout Ecclesiastes the key expression has been “under the sun.” He tried nature and natural science as his first experiment.
A great many people today feel that they will solve their problems by getting back to nature. There is a great exodus out of the cities and into the suburbs and beyond the suburbs to a little cabin by a lake or by a river or up in the mountains. “Let's get away from it all. Let's get back to nature.” Well, this didn't solve Solomon's problems, and it will not solve our problems. So Solomon tried wisdom and philosophy; he tried pleasure and materialism; he experimented with fatalism; he tried living life for self. He turned to religion and found ritual but no reality. Then he tried to find the answer in wealth. Finally Solomon tried the good life, the life of the moralist, which he found to be an insipid sort of existence. I think that is why the young people today rebel against it.
Solomon now comes to his final conclusion in this chapter.
This chapter is going to have something for the young person and for the senior citizen. Both ends of the spectrum of life meet here.
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 [Ecc 12:1].
In view of the fact that nothing under the sun can satisfy the human heart, Solomon says, “Get back to God.” While you are young, make your decision for God. It is going to be obvious why this should be done.
Solomon will paint a picture of old age, and it is not a pretty picture. Nevertheless, it is your picture and my picture in old age. When I first preached on this chapter of Ecclesiastes, I was a very young preacher, and I wondered if it would really be like this. Now I am here to testify that the description of old age in Ecclesiastes is accurate.
One often hears the liberal and the skeptic say, “I believe in a religion of the here and now. I'm not interested in a religion of the hereafter.” Well, here is a religion for the “here,” which means to get rightly related to God and live for Him. Why? Well, let's look at this picture he paints of old age—a tremendous picture.
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain [Ecc 12:2].
Does he mean that the sun, the moon, the stars, the lights are all going out? No, he means that you don't see them as you used to.
Mrs. McGee and I took a walk when we were in the Hawaiian Islands, under a full moon, and it was beautiful. I said to her, “My, isn't that a beautiful moon? But you know, it doesn't seem as romantic as it once did. How do you feel?” She replied, “No, I don't think it is as romantic as it once was. I used to think Hawaii was the most romantic place in the world.” Well, my friend, when you get old, the luster dims.
Time flies, and one sad experience follows another—“the clouds return after the rain.” When you get old, you can go out and have a great day but, believe me, you must take three or four days to rest up afterward. I have learned that.
I used to have a heavy schedule of conferences and just kept on going and enjoying every minute of it. Now Mrs. McGee and I find that we need to change our whole life–style. Conferences are becoming wearing on us. “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 [Ecc 12:3].
This is the description of the body, the physical body, in old age. “The keepers of the house shall tremble.” These are the legs. The old person begins to totter.
My staff and my close friends try to kid me by saying, “Oh, you're looking so strong and so well.” Yet I notice when I get in and out of a car, they are at my elbow to help me. Do you know why? Because my legs don't move quite as fast as they once did.
When I get up in the morning and come down the steps, I groan. My wife gets after me and asks, “Why do you groan?” I tell her it is scriptural to groan. Paul tells us, “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened …” (2Co 5:4). So I tell her that I want to be scriptural. But honestly I groan because my knees hurt when I come down the steps. “The keepers of the house shall tremble.”
I find that I stumble more than I used to, and I must be more careful when I climb a ladder. An old person gets himself a walking stick, and I've been thinking about that, too.
“And the strong men shall bow themselves.” Those are the shoulders. They are no longer erect. My wife told me the other day, “You'd look lots better if you would stand erect like you used to stand. When you were young, you had broad shoulders, and now you are all stooped over.” Well, friend, the “strong men” are bowing themselves. They don't stay back like they once did. The shoulders begin to round off, and I can assure you it is more comfortable that way.
“The grinders cease because they are few.” The grinders are the teeth. You are going to lose your teeth as you get older. You will need to have some bridges put in or full dentures. I haven't had to resort to false teeth yet—I'm thankful I still have my own—but they have all been capped now for years.
“Those that look out of the windows be darkened” refers to failing eyesight. The other night in a restaurant a man came up to me, we shook hands, and I talked with that man for two minutes before I even recognized who he was. I just couldn't place him. I met another friend at a meeting. We talked a while and after he left, I asked my wife who he was. She told me his name. It was a man whom I had known for years. I said, “To tell you the truth, I didn't know him. He surely has changed.” She said, “Yes, I think he has, but you have, too.” So you see that the windows get darkened. Even with my trifocals, I don't see as well as I did. Things don't look quite as bright as they once did.
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 music shall be brought low [Ecc 12:4].
“The doors shall be shut in the streets” means that the hearing is failing. My wife tells friends, “You'll have to speak a little louder. He's getting hard of hearing.” I'm not really, by the way. She says that I often don't hear what she says. Maybe sometimes it is that I don't want to hear. Several years ago I had a neighbor who wore a hearing device. His wife would get after him when he got out to trim trees or prune his fruit trees. He would be up on the ladder working, and she would come out and rebuke him for it. All he did was take out his hearing aid. She would talk to him for fifteen minutes, and he wouldn't hear a word she said. Finally she would say, “I don't think you are wearing your hearing aid,” and he wasn't. He would just keep on doing what he wanted to do.
Well, noise, even out on the street, is not as loud as it once was. “The doors shall be shut in the streets.” And “when the sound of grinding is low.” The grinding is literally the grinding women. They don't seem to make as much noise as they used to.
“He shall rise up at the voice of the bird.” I can remember when I was a boy that even a loud alarm clock wouldn't wake me up in the morning. When my wife and I were young, we didn't mind the noise of children. We didn't mind the noise of music coming from the neighbors. We could sleep in motels and hotels, and none of the noises bothered us. Now even the little chirp of a bird disturbs us! Now when we travel and we come to a motel or hotel I always ask, “Can you give us a quiet room?” We are getting old, and we rise up at the voice of the bird. Any little noise disturbs our sleep.
“And all the daughters of music shall be brought low.” You don't find too many older people singing in the choir anymore. The voice gets thin, and it gets harder to carry a tune. I remember dear brother Homer Rodeheaver. What a marvelous music director and song leader he was! I remember him as a young man when he traveled with Billy Sunday. How he thrilled me when I heard him as a boy. He played the trombone, sang, and led the singing. What a voice he had! Then I invited him to come to the church I pastored in downtown Los Angeles. He was in his seventies by then. I would help him up, and he would go tottering up to the platform. He was still a marvelous song leader; I don't think anyone could ever excel him. But every now and then he would sing a stanza, and my feeling was that he would have done better to read the stanza. It was no longer the glorious voice that we had heard years before.
Even the people who once had beautiful singing voices lose the quality of their voices as they get older. Those of us who never could sing very well should realize that we had better praise the Lord in our hearts. That is the reason I never open my mouth in a song service. I don't dare. I couldn't sing when I was young, and now it is positively frightful. “The daughters of music shall be brought low.”
Now he continues on as he speaks of old age. And now, to me, it gets to the place where it's tragic, because we're looking at the psychological effects.
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 [Ecc 12:5].
“They shall be afraid of that which is high.” I never did enjoy flying, but I was getting over my fear and beginning to enjoy it. Then old age slipped up on me, and I find today I have the same old fear of flying that I had at the very beginning. Little things disturb me, little things that didn't disturb me at all when I was younger.
“And fears shall be in the way.” We just don't enjoy things as much as we once did. We have always enjoyed traveling and have conducted many tours to the Bible lands and to the Hawaiian Islands. I have noticed that as we and our friends get older, we find traveling much more difficult. We worry and wonder about things we never even thought of before.
When we were young, my wife and I would start out in an old jalopy to go across the country. We never made any reservations. It didn't worry us if we stopped at motels and found that they were all filled. It didn't bother us if we had to sleep on the side of the road. But today there is always a nagging fear. When we get ready to make a trip, I have all the reservations made well in advance, and I go over the road map again and again and again. “Fears shall be in the way.”
“The almond tree shall flourish.” A blossoming almond tree is white. And the senior citizen is going to turn white on top, or else there won't be anything left on the top—it is one or the other.
“The grasshopper shall be a burden.” How can a little grasshopper be a burden? Well, when old age comes, little things that never used to bother now become a burden. We love our grandchildren dearly and enjoy having them with us, but after a while, we are glad to see them go home again. Strength fails, endurance fails, patience fails. Many little things become a burden.
“Desire shall fail.” Romance is gone. You can try to act as if you are just as young as you were, but you don't fool anyone. I remember listening to an evangelist who had married a young girl. He hopped on the platform, jumped in the air, and said, “I'm just as young as I ever was.” He wasn't fooling anybody but himself, and he died shortly after that.
“Because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.” That “long home” is eternity. Death is getting near.
Or ever the silver cord be losed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern [Ecc 12:6].
Here is a list of the organs of the body. At the end, they no longer function. The “silver cord” is the spinal cord. The “golden bowl” is the head, the bowl for the brain. The functioning of the brain decreases in its efficiency as one gets older, and at death it ceases to function at all. The pitcher is the lungs. “The pitcher is broken at the fountain.” The wheel is the heart—“the wheel broken at the cistern.” It is no longer pumping blood through the body. All of this is a picture of the deterioration of old age leading to death. Life cannot be sustained without the functioning of these organs.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it [Ecc 12:7].
There is no soul sleep. I wish the people who try to use verses from this Book of Ecclesiastes to support their idea of soul sleep would just read on until they get to this verse. The body sleeps, but the spirit, or the soul, returns unto God who gave it.
Let me repeat that the New Testament assures us that to be absent from the body means to be present with the Lord (see 2Co 5:8). The soul immediately returns to God. This body is just a tabernacle, or a tent, that we live in. It is just the outer covering. The soul goes to be with God.
When President Adams became an old man, someone asked him how he was getting along. His reply was something like this: “Oh, I'm doing fine, but this house I live in is growing very feeble, and I think I'll be moving out of it before long.” That was true. He did move out of his old house shortly after that.
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity [Ecc 12:8].
Young man, life is empty if you are just living for the here and now. One day you will find that all you have in your hand is a fistful of ashes, and you will have eternity ahead of you.
When as a child, I laughed and wept,
Time crept;
When as a youth, I dreamed and talked,
Time walked;
When I became a full grown man,
Time ran;
When older still I daily grew,
Time flew;
Soon I shall find in traveling on,
Time gone.
—Author unknown
The psalmist writes, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psa 90:12), and Wisdom is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thinking of old age, someone has written this bit of whimsy:
Thou knowest, Lord, I'm growing older.
My fire of youth begins to smolder;
I somehow tend to reminisce
And speak of good old days I miss.
I am more moody, bossy, and
Think folk should jump at my command.
Help me, Lord, to conceal my aches
And realize my own mistakes.
Keep me sweet, silent, sane, serene,
Instead of crusty, sour, and mean.
—Author unknown
May the Lord, give us the grace to grow old gracefully.
And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd [Ecc 12:9-11].
We should not by any means despise the wisdom of the past, nor should we refuse to be taught.
And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh [Ecc 12:12].
Education will not solve the problems of life.