The Silver Cord

There is in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes several verses which speak of old age.  It is a time when like the almond trees white blossom, the hair, once dark in youth changes its color.  Age sees strength failing and even the little grasshopper becomes a burden.  Falling is a danger, travel takes more effort, and work becomes a task.  My grandfather used to say, “My get up and go has gotten up and went!”

Solomon wrote this book in his old age.  He begins the chapter with the challenge to seek God early in life.  He says, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh…”   While people of any age can be saved, what a blessing it is when one gets saved as a child and serves the Lord with joy and passion all the days of life.  I recall one man who was saved in our mission work when he was well up in years, saying to me, “Brother David, I wish I would have gotten saved years ago.  I can’t do as much for the Lord now (he was physically challenged), but I am going to do all I can.”  Indeed, what a blessing to be saved when you are young.

There is in Ecclesiastes 12:6 a description of death.  The previous verse talks about “man going to his long home.”  There is a sense when one gets older that you are nearing the transfer from this life to your eternal home.  Solomon describes like when the cord of silk, wound with silver thread glistening as it holds the golden lamp from the ceiling, suddenly breaks, it had been holding the lamp for many years but in the process of time has become weak, suddenly breaks loose and the light it has been holding, that lamp crashes down and is extinguished.  So is life, so quickly and suddenly gone.  Only a small thread holds us here, it can be broken at any moment.  Life is really fragile and at any moment the light of this life can go out.

Solomon also describes the ending of life as a vessel of pottery, fragile as it is, while drawing water at the fountain, it is suddenly dropped and broken and the water is spilled out.  In a moment, it is gone.  Or, he says it is like the wheel on the well, used to draw water from the deep, life giving water, which each must have and especially those in the parched land of Israel, that wheel is broken at the well.  No longer are you able to draw from the well.  I thought of this when my father passed, quickly and suddenly, yet he had reached the age of 90.  But when he passed, all that knowledge, all that resource I had so often used in this life, it was now beyond my reach.

Fanny Crosby, the wonderful hymn writer, set forth a poem of personal testimony.  She said…

Some day the silver cord will break,
And I no more as now shall sing;
But oh, the joy when I shall wake
Within the palace of the King!

And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story—Saved by grace;
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story—Saved by grace.

Some day my earthly house will fall.
I cannot tell how soon ’twill be;
But this I know—my All in All
Has now a place in heav’n for me.

Life passes very quickly.  I have been reminded of this recently with the passing of our oldest church member.  He had such a zeal for God.  He loved his Lord and his church.  He used a cane because his body was breaking down, but the light in his life burned brightly.  Then…quickly, it was gone.  The silver cord was broken, the lamp extinguished.  In a moment, he was gone from here to his heavenly home.  But Oh, the joy of knowing there is a place in heaven for ME!  Do you know that?  If not, why not?  You can know you are a child of God and heaven is your home if you will come to Him, turning from your sins (repentance) and trusting in Jesus sacrifice on Calvary (faith), receiving Him as your Savior.  Yes, life is short but eternity is forever.  I hope you will prepare!