God Understands Aging - Ecclesiastes 12

Have you ever wondered if God will be with you in the later years of life? Does anyone understand the difficulties that our seniors experience day in and day out? Well, it shouldn't surprise us that God would take most of an entire chapter in the Bible to explain the difficulties that the senior years bring. I think He wrote Ecclesiastes 12 to bring comfort and encouragement to our seniors and to help us all realize that He does understand our situation. He sees and knows your situation and He will see us through to the end - to the day He calls us home to heaven to spend eternity with Him in glory.

Isaiah 46:3-5 “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, Who have been upheld by Me from birth, Who have been carried from the womb:  Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; Even I will carry, and will deliver you. “To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal And compare Me, that we should be alike?

I've titled this Bible Study - "God Understands Aging" and I just want to go through a good portion of Ecclesiastes 12 in order to begin to understand what our seniors are going through. It will help all of us to be a better friend to our elderly loved ones and it will help us all to prepare for our own golden years which for some of us ( including myself ) - it is just around the corner! So lets begin.....

 Ecclesiastes 12

Verse 1 - Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”:We are encouraged to be saved, and to develop our relationship with the Lord in the days of our youth - in our younger days. We must not wait till difficult times come our way to seek the Lord. It is a blessing to seek the Lord early in life and then to walk with Him all our days. We need to settle the fact in our hearts that God is good and He has our best in mind - then come what may, we know we can keep trusting ourselves to Him.

Verse 2 - While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain.  This refers to vision problems. I can identify with this as I now must wear glasses with graduated lenses - they used to call them bifocals.

Verse 3 - In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim;
The "house" in verse 3 refers to the human body that is aging, "keepers" are the arms and hands.  The body is not as strong as in the days of youth or as in the mid years of life. The "grinders" are our teeth which also are not in great shape. Some people have many fillings in their teeth and others must wear a denture. "windows grow dim - the eyes once again are becoming weaker and it becomes harder to do one's daily activities and it it becomes harder to see for reading, or doing other fine work.
Verse 4 - When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low.
"risisng up at the sound of a bird" refers to sleepless nights.
"music brought low" - It becomes harder to hear and many elderly people benefit from the use of a hearing aid. My own mother greatly benefits from her hearing aids. With the need to wear a hearing aid come other problems such as difficulties in hearing in a group setting where there are many people and higher noise levels - such as in a restaurant or a family get together.

Verse 5 - Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets
The fear of heights and of slipping and falling becomes a very real problem in our senior years. Things that used to be a regular part of life can now bring fear and pain. Many elderly people need a cane, or walker or wheelchair to get around.
"the almond tree blossoms" - refers to the white hair of an elderly person. Personally I think white hair is beautiful. Elderly people are beautiful people!
"desire fails" - this refers to sexual desire. The years of child bearing are over and love between an elderly couple continues and is expressed in a variety of  precious ways.
"eternal home" - death will come to each one of us in our own time and place and those of us who have trusted Christ as Savior will dwell with the Lord forever.

 Verse 6-7  Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well.  Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.
When we pass away, the soul separates from the body. The soul or spirit of a Christian goes straight into the presence of God in heaven as it says in verse 7  And the spirit will return to God who gave it.

Conclusion

Verses 13-14 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.  For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.
So from this entire study we can see that God clearly understands our daily struggles in our senior years. May I encourage us all to trust Him with our lives whatever stage of life we are at. Settle it in your heart to trust him rain or shine, day in and day out, through the days of youth, through the childbearing years, through midlife, and through the senior years. It's only a matter of time till we all stand before God in heaven. It won't be long...... it really is only a matter of time!

My Prayer for you...

Dear Heavenly Father, Please be very near every elderly and senior person who is lonely and struggling with life. Wrap Your arms of love around them and carry them every day. Draw each one who reads this close to Yourself and bless them,
I ask in Jesus Name, Amen

The Call to Holy Living

 1 Peter 2 : 11-12  Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

As we read and study our Bibles, we will find that the life of the Christian is very different from the life of a non-believer. This is largely due to the fact that as Christians, we have the Holy Spirit residing within us. The Holy Spirit nudges us to live pure and holy lives. Lives that will please the Lord Jesus Christ who has washed away our sin with His own blood which He shed on the cross. We understand that it is not our own righteous ways that make us holy but only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that work within us. But after having believed and receivied Christ's gift of salvation into our lives, we then make every effort to please the Lord in our conduct in our daily lives. Therefore the Lord calls us to conduct ourselves with our hearts filled with grace, mercy, love and purity as we go about our daily routines - the love and fear of the Lord as a background in everything we do.
The word "holy" implies sacredness, being set apart to God, and belonging to Him. To be holy is to be set free from anything that offends God who is completely and perfectly holy.  The Bible teaches that we are called to holiness in 1 Peter 1: 14-16 where it says - as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” By the power of the Holy Spirit within us we receive power to say "no" to the evil that we used to serve before we came to Christ. It is a decision to yield oneself to God entirely - to actually give Him the authority in one's life. Through study of the Bible, we come to understand what it is that pleases Christ and then it becomes a matter of doing what the Bible teaches. God has set the standard as to what is qualifies as sin and so as a Christian we yield to His standards even when we do not fully understand His ways. As we yield to the Lords's ways, and consistantly resist the devil and the temptations that he throws at us, we find that God is our strength, our hope and joy and our constant companion and friend.
Holy living is important because God commands it but also because God is glorified when we allow Him to work in us. In this way we become a testimony to the power of God. When our friends and family see that we have only one real desire - a desire to please Christ - we become a witness to them. The Holy Spirit will use our witness to draw them to also desire to live a holy life pleasing to the Lord.
The Bible teaches and we believe that every human who has ever lived will stand at the judgement seat of Christ one day and give account of the life lived here. We are all looking for the day when we hear the words from the mouth of the Lord Jesus in that day - welcoming us home.....saying -
 Matthew 25: 21 Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Sexual Immorality

1 Thessalonians 4: 3-7 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.
What is more destructive than sexual immorality? We have seen time and time again how a man or woman basically destroys everything that has any real significance in his or her life by participating in this horrific sin.
The Bible is very clear that Christians are to abstain from every type of sexual immorality. There is no excuse because of how clear the Bible is on this issue. Sexual involvement outside the bond of marriage is unholy, and dishonors God. It ruins the chances of having a good relationship with your spouse or any future spouse ( if you are not currently married), with your family,  as well as destroying one's own body. The Bible teaches in Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death,. This death certainly means death in your relationship with the Lord, in your relationship with the people close to you as well as it can mean physical death.
 So what does sexual immorality mean in Biblical terms? When all is said and done it is God who sets the standard for holy living so it is important to remember that what we find in the Bible is God's standard and we need to abide by the words of the Bible.
The word sexual immorality or fornication ( as is used in the King James Bible) comes from the Greek word  pornia which is translated pornography in the English language. It is a broad term which includes all forms of sexual immorality.

Sexual immorality includes:

Lust and pornography -  Matthew 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Adultery - is extramarital sex and also lust. It is included in the ten commandments and in the Old Testament law required the death penalty . It destroys the soul of the one participating in it - Proverbs 6:32 says But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

 Incest -  is sex with a close relative who is not your spouse. Also required the death penalty in
Leviticus 18: 6-7 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord.
The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
Deuteronomy 27:22  Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

Homosexuality - is sex with a person of one's own gender - male with male, female with female. It is strongly condemned in both the Old and New Testament . Romans 1:26 -27  For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.  Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination
Homosexuality also required the death penalty in Leviticus 20:13  If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

Beastiality - is sex with an animal  - also punishable by the death penalty in the Old Testament 
Exodus 22:19 Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death
Deuteronomy 27: 21  Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.

The only sex blessed by God and that brings honor to His Name is that of a husband and wife who are married to each other - commited till death do part.

Recorded in the Bible as a Memorial and Testimony

Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.

There are many important Bible stories and passages where a rock or stones are a part of the story. Wouldn't it be interesting if stones could speak and share what they saw? The good news is we don't really need the stones to share with us what happened since it is all recorded for us in our Bibles. We can think of various examples like the story where Moses was instructed by God to cut out two stone tablets and bring them up the to Mount Sinai and there God Himself wrote out the ten commandments on those stone tablets. It says they were written with the finger of God. We can also read where God required the death penalty for people found guilty of certain deliberate sins such as blasphemy, a wizard, sexual sins etc. But also, just as today, stones were also used as a memorial as in the book of Joshua where each of the twelve tribes of Israel were instructed to pick up one stone from the river Jordan, pile them in a heap on the land as a lasting remembrance that they crossed through the Jordan on dry land.
 Joshua 4: 7 That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.
Today also we use stones to mark a memorial or we place a huge stone as a reminder of a new covenant after a break and then restoration of a relationship.

But what I wanted to draw attention to is to look at the story of the stone used at the tomb of our Lord Jesus. We have all heard the question asked - Can God make a stone so big that He cannot move it? I believe nothing is too hard for the LORD so that question is really irrelevant.
We read in the gospels how Jesus had been wrongly accused, and had been crucified. After Jesus died, his friend Joseph of Arimathaea took the body of Jesus down from the cross, wrapped the body in linen cloths and laid Him in the sepulchre and rolled a huge stone in place.
 Mark 15:46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. - It would seem at this point that Satan would have thought he had won. Satan's plan all along was to spoil the plan of God and prevent salvation for us to be possible, and so with Jesus being now dead and safely in the tomb, a huge stone rolled in place, Satan will have felt pretty confident at this point that he had won and there would be no way Jesus could get up and out of there. I am thinking that Satan would have been having a party with his demon friends at this point. BUT that is not the end of the story. We read that an angel came and rolled that stone away. Death could not keep Jesus, neither could a huge stone. Jesus did not need the stone to be rolled away for Him to be able to get out but we needed it rolled away so that the women could go in there and testify to Jesus resurrection. We can see that the women who were coming to anoint the body of Jesus were worried and wondering who could move the stone for them.
 Mark 16: 1-4 says: And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.
The women enter the sepulchre and to their surprise an angel is in there and tells them that Jesus is risen and is alive. Verse 6 - And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him
I have often thought as I've read this about the parallel of the huge stone to worry or fear in our lives about the future. Just as this huge stone was an obstacle for the women so my worries or fear is an obstacle to true faith -faith that trusts God for a good outcome even though present circumstances appear otherwise. I think of verse 4 again where it says when they looked, the stone had already been rolled away. So I also choose to trust that as I look to my Saviour and put my trust in Him, He will supply every need and work things out to the glory of His Name.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Holy Communion - The Lord Supper

1 Corinthians 11:25-26 ... this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

As Christians, Holy Communion is a very important in our walk with the Lord. In this Bible Study we will discuss four parts relating to this Holy meal.

1) What is it?
Holy Communion or the Lord's Supper is a time to remember. It is a time where we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross where he gave His life and shed His blood for our sins in order to redeem us to the Father. It is a time we remember the pain and agony that He endured as He suffered for us. Jesus instituted the Lord's supper when He shared in the last Passover with his disciples.  Matthew 26:26-29 describes the event : And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
²⁷ And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
²⁸ For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
²⁹ But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.
We see that Jesus took the bread, He blessed it, He broke it into smaller pieces and then gave it to the disciples saying "Take, eat; this is my body." So we see clearly here that the bread represents the physical body of Christ. As we eat of the bread we remember Christ's body broken for us for our redemption.

Then Jesus took the cup and again he gave thanks and gave it to the disciples saying " Drink ye all of it;
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins"  We see here that the wine represents the blood of Christ. Jesus shed his own blood for the payment of our sin. In Hebrews 9: 22 we read  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
The question is often asked if the cup would have been wine and if it should be wine in our communion services today.  We read in Matthew 26:29 I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine - so that definitely tells us that grapes would have been crushed and it would be either grape juice or wine. More likely it would have been sweet wine but in my opinion either real grape juice or wine would be appropriate to use.

2) Holy Communion is a time to look back and to look forward.
1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
²⁴ And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
²⁵ After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
²⁶ For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
As we partake of the Lord's supper we are looking back and remembering what it took for Jesus to save us. He took our sins upon Himself and became guilty of our sin, bore our judgement and died in our place. He took upon Himself what we deserved as punishment for our sin. Jesus died, was buried and rose again on the third day.
As we partake of Communion we are looking forward to the time when Jesus will return to earth. He will come and get us out of here! 1 Corinthians 11: 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. We are going to continue to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf till He comes again!!

3) Who can participate in Holy Communion?
1 Corinthians 11: 27-31
²⁷ Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
²⁸ But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
²⁹ For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
³⁰ For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
³¹ For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
As believers we need to examine our own hearts before we partake of this holy meal. We need to check our hearts and our lives, and confess all our sins to the Lord. We need to rid ourselves of the sin in our lives. We need to forgive everyone who has wronged us.  This is a meal for saved people who have confessed their sin and have repented before the Lord. A person's spiritual birth into the family of God makes him or her a worthy participant for this meal.

4) By particpating in Communion we are being obedient to the Lord Jesus
Luke 22:19  And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Notice that Jesus says - this do in remembrance of me
We can be sure that as we are obedient to the Lord Jesus we will experience the blessing of the Lord through this Holy Lord's Supper.