Ecclesiastes 12:2b-14
‘After the rain, the clouds return! The keepers of the house (or the arms) shall tremble…. The strong men (or the legs) shall bow themselves…. The grinders (or the teeth) cease, because they are few…. Those that look out of the windows (or the eyes) become darkened…. The doors (or the ears) shall be shut…, when the sound of the grinding (or the heart) is low…. Man goes…, and the mourners go about the streets…. Then the dust shall return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return to God Who gave it…. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter — fear God, and keep His Commandments!… For God shall bring every work into judgment!’ Ecclesiastes 12:2b-14.
After youth’s bright sun and light and moon or stars turn dark — the clouds return! In old age, the arms and legs and teeth and eyes and ears and heart all weaken, before man goes forth in death.
The mourners then gather. The dust returns to the earth — and the spirit returns to God Who gave it!
Calvin says in his Institutes I:15:2 of man that “when he was formed out of the dust of the ground…, God…not only deigned to animate a vessel of clay but…made it the habitation of an immortal spirit…. There can be no question that man consists of a body and a soul — meaning by soul, an immortal though created essence…. Solomon, speaking of death, says that the spirit returns
to God Who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).”
Also in his Psychopannychia, Calvin says: “Solomon when describing man’s death…makes a wide difference between the soul and the body. He says (Ecclesiastes 12:7)…: ‘The dust returns to the earth whence it was, and the spirit returns to God Who gave it…. Let us therefore conclude with Solomon that…no one…who has heard the Word of the Lord have any doubt that the spirit of the children of Adam ascends upwards. By ‘ascending upwards’ (Ecclesiastes 3:21)…, I understand simply — subsisting and retaining immortality. Just as ‘descending downwards’ seems to me to mean lapsing, falling, becoming lost.”
So then, ‘Fear God and keep His Commandments!’ Here, an orthodox conclusion is given to the whole matter. A universal law of conduct is laid down. For the last words of the verse means ‘This is every man’s duty!’
‘For God shall bring every work into judgment — with every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil!’ Ecclesiastes ends after death, with the final judgment of every man. The object of the Final Judgment will be not just societies, but also persons.
This lies in the future, beyond the present time. And not without prophesying resurrection in an expanded glorified form as the religion of all humanity. Nobody can escape from it. Small and great, living and dead, shall all be judged according to their works! Every man goes there (Ecclesiastes 12:5). There is no escape (Ecclesiastes 12:14)! Are you ready?
