[AI translation] Let me remind you that we are dealing here with the bitter self-confessions of the great prodigal son of the Old Testament, the famous King Solomon. He is describing what he experienced in his own soul from the time he left God. In fact, his testimony is a great negative evangelism, because it shows where a man ends up 'under the sun'. This frequent statement suggests that what he is writing about here is all on an earthly horizon, under the sun. To put it symbolically, there is a lack of a perspective of things "above the sun", that is, a transcendent, eternal perspective. It is a question of man locked into his own world, into this worldly perspective. It shows what man can achieve in his own strength, without God, without divine revelation, at most with an imaginary deity, that is, with his own wisdom of life alone, that is, "under the sun"! And what does he get? Utter disillusionment, pessimism, hiccups, life's disgust. That's why he says again and again, "It's all vanity, all vanity!"Solomon, tired of the joys, successes and riches of life, is speaking. The old man disillusioned with everything. What does the old prodigal son, the man "under the sun" become, what does he feel, when time passes him by and he slowly matures under the sickle? Observe how sad and desolate a picture of the twilight of life he paints! And he is right, for, without the perspective of eternity, seen only 'under the sun', this last period of life on earth is indeed, as Solomon says: 'The years which thou sayest, I love not, are days of perdition'. Life, with all its varied and colourful possibilities, is now behind us, and only death lies ahead!
In the usual idiom of his time, he captures the gloomy, pessimistic mood that grips his soul in beautiful poetic metaphors. He says: "This is the time when the sun grows dark, with the light, the moon and the stars. Slowly the lights go out, life goes grey. There's nothing to look forward to, the sun rises in vain, it brings no new joy. A moonlit summer's night is a beautiful night, no longer lulls the old dreams, and "the thick clouds return again after the rain". One ailment after another, aches here, aches there, one sickness is not yet gone, another comes, as at the end of November, when the sun can no longer break through the ever-changing clouds. There's no hope of finding out one day, it's all clouds on all sides. "The keepers of the house tremble." The hands, oh, the hands that once did the work so well, or wielded the sword so nimbly, or ran the keys of the piano, tremble with weakness, no longer fit for work or self-defence. "And the strong men are broken"-that is to say, the two good, strong legs that carried the whole bodily edifice so supple, with which one could walk well, dance, leap ditches, climb mountains, now crumble and twist at every step, and ache even when tired and at rest. "And the grinding girls stop, for they are shuffled"-oh, where are the pearly teeth, one of the chief jewels of the laughing face? The few that remain are no longer fit to preserve or chew food. And indeed, 'those who look out of the window have grown dim' - the soul can only look out with broken eyes to the outside world as one looks through a damp window into the evening twilight. "And even the doors are shut on the outside, and the noise of the mill is hushed," so that the organs of hearing are dulled, and the noise of the outside world, the voices of men, now pass through them as softly as the noise of the mill through closed doors. "And they wake to the sound of the birds": sleep is not old either, the slightest noise disturbs it, the sound of the birds at dawn wakes it. "And all the singing girls will be quieter" - The faded voice has no colour, the speech lacks its old melody, whether it is intended to express joy or pain, it sounds the same tone. "They are afraid of all heaps." - Oh, a curb can be a dangerous pitfall, and oh, how high the steps of a tram can be!
"There are all sorts of frights in the way" - A slight cold can be fatal, and the general deterioration of the structure seems to be a knock of impending death. Outside, spring is shining again: 'The almonds are blossoming, the locusts are leaping, the dill is springing." - Nature comes to life again, but after the fullness of human life, no new spring comes, but "man goes to his eternal house, to the grave, and the weepers go round the street", because "the silver cord", that mysterious bond, is broken, The heart, through which so much joy and so much sorrow have rushed, can no longer pump the life-giving blood into the veins. "The girdle breaks, the wheel breaks in the well." Everything, everything is failing. The tent-house crumbles, and its cold pieces lie lifeless on the deathbed.
Yes, such is the last earthly stage of human life - without God, without a Saviour, without the prospect of eternity. Thus, in the shadow of impending death, all the vitality of life is drained from him. A beautiful poetic description, but sad, hopeless. It is a faithful picture of the end of a life spent in nothing but futility. Slowly but surely death comes, and the man 'under the sun' succumbs to it. This is how Solomon, separated from God, describes his own old age and death. And in this bleak, hopeless darkness, a single faint - but how faint! - ray of light flickers, this timid, uncertain sentence at the end of the whole description: 'The dust will become earth as it was before, and the soul will return to God who gave it.' But even this faint spark of hope is immediately extinguished by the next sentence: 'All this is vanity'. As if to say: "Who knows if it is also a delusion that the soul will turn to God? Could it be that the man who fears death has invented it for his own consolation? That is the last word, but what a sad word it is! No encouraging ray of light can break the shadow, the dark uncertainty of death's far shore. Without Jesus, how can a man know this with any certainty? He is at the mercy of his own imagination.
He himself, Solomon, ponders very soberly in a previous chapter, thus: "Who shall tell a man what manner of things shall follow?"(Eccl 8,7) It is as if I were hearing the doubting man of today saying this: No one has yet come back from there, so who knows what is there after death? Of course, who but the one and only One, Jesus, who has come back?! If it is not from Him that one wants to know, if it is not He Himself who tells one what is waiting for him beyond, then there is indeed no one in the world. Because human reasoning, science, research can never answer the questions of the great future state. Without the divine revelation, without the divine message resounding through the Bible, there is only darkness, nothing else. Listen to Solomon, the wise man, as he muses in chapter 3: "The end of the sons of men is like the end of the unwise beasts, and they have an equal end; as one dies, so dies the other, and the same spirit is in all of them. And man has no greater dignity than the unwise beasts, for all is vanity. All go to the same place; all are of the dust, and all become dust. Who hath thought that the soul of man should go up, and the soul of the beast that is not wise, that it should go into the ground? Wherefore I have seen that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own things, for this is his portion in the world. For who can bring him back to see what shall be after him?"(Eccl 3,19-22) - Thus speaks he - but how can he speak? - who is dependent on himself, on his own wisdom, on his own human reasoning. This is how far man sees without revelation, without the light of God in Jesus. If the man "under the sun", the man with only an earthly horizon, grows old and thinks of his death, and asks his own heart: - "What will happen to me now, where will I go?", what can be his answer? Perhaps it is what one of the great philosophers said at the moment of his death: - Now comes the darkness! It must be a terrible thing to feel that 'I am going to die and I don't know where I am going'.
Because what Solomon is saying here, that the soul will return to God, is just a general phrase. Does the soul really return to God? Is this certain? Jesus also spoke of something like this in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, that a man died, his body was laid in the dust and his soul did not return to God, but rather to a state of agony, separated from God! How can he who has not belonged to God with his whole soul here on earth hope to belong to God beyond, simply and without further ado? Without redemption, without cleansing by the blood of Jesus, no man can be with God! It is as if Solomon had written these things down precisely in order to shout to us from the past, as a great warning: 'Men, do not grow old like this! Without God, without salvation, without the certainty of eternal life, life is vain and death is terrible!
Do you feel what an immense privilege it is for us to believe in Jesus? In Jesus who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Over whom time has no passing, who has conquered death and brought eternal life into transience! Look how differently a man who believes in Jesus - the apostle Paul - saw and lived that last, dying phase of his life: "Therefore we do not despair, but even if our outward man is corrupt, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day." "For we know that if our earthly tabernacle decay, we have a building from God, not a house made with hands, eternal in heaven." (2 Cor 4:16; 5:1) What is the inner man? Not just a soul, just as the outer man is not just a body, but the inner man: the whole self awakened to the consciousness of salvation! My individuality connected with the redeeming God. The one in me who looks at Jesus and knows that even if he dies, even if that "silver cord" is broken: he lives! That spiritual personality of mine which is called to eternal life for the sake of Jesus, which finds hidden resources in communion of faith with God, for whom the "golden bottle, the grinding girls and the windows" are only the tent-house of earthly vessels, but not the essence, the content, the purpose... Its essence, content and purpose is eternal life, or more precisely: Jesus himself! As Paul also says: "For me, life is Christ" (Phil 1,21).
And this inner man, in spite of the corruption and decay of the outer man, is renewed, develops and grows day by day. Somewhat as when one climbs up the side of a mountain, one reaches further and further, one's horizon widens, one breathes in the purer air of the high ground. More and more he is freed from the many vanities and noises of lower life, and he takes a wider perspective. He grows in understanding, kindness, patience. In other words, walking with Jesus, growing old is not a negative experience, on the contrary, it is growth and development. The inner man is renewed day by day! I would almost dare to say that he is rejuvenated! For the closer he comes to the end of his journey, the more topical it becomes for him the beginning of another journey, the beginning of a higher life. One of my favourite verses is the one that says that "the way of the righteous is like the light of the dawn, which grows brighter and brighter as it goes on until the full noon" (Pro 4,18) The way of the righteous, that is, those whom God declares righteous through faith in Jesus, sees as righteous for the sake of Jesus, the way of life of such righteous people is not a path that is slowly darkening, but a path that is becoming brighter and brighter! The light of Jesus, in whom he believes, illuminates the evening of life for him, so that death is no longer an end but an arrival, a full noon, as the Word says, a day that never ends, a happy dawn!
Look at old Solomon, and look at old Paul! With what bitter resignation the one looks back, and with what hopeful joy the other looks forward!
Which would you choose? For today you can choose! We all have the choice before us. Either the yawning emptiness of a fleeting life that will sooner or later swallow you up, or Jesus, who redeems you to eternal life. Let me end with one of the most powerful statements of Jesus: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under condemnation, but has passed from death to life' (John 5:24):
I know that my Saviour liveth.
I know that my Saviour liveth.
He beckons to me and crowns me
Promises after the earthly battle.
Though the world mocks and laughs,
Homesickness fills my soul,
For soon the Lord will call:
Come home, come home, my child!
The Lord is waiting with open arms:
Come, rest, rest in my bosom.
(Canticle 421, verse 1)
Amen
Date: 18 February 1968.