the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Ecclesiastes 12:1-14
"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth" (v. 1). This is the best time to turn to the Lord and to dedicate the whole of our abilities to His service. With age, strength declines and the heart tends to harden. Old age and death are brought to mind in the allegories in vv. 2-7. Thus we come to the end of this book, an end sadly identical with its beginning (v. 8; cf. Ecclesiastes 1:2). How thankful we should be to the Lord that the book of Ecclesiastes only presents one side of the truth! Today we can add the revelation of God as Saviour to that of God as Judge in v. 14. That is why, no less than any other part, this portion of Scripture should not be taken out of its context in the divine Word. The different books of the Bible have been given by one Shepherd, all dictated by the same Spirit (v. 11). All these words, whether they be "goads" or "nails", should be allowed to sink into our consciences to make them sensitive to salvation. Unlike the books of men, the Word of God will never weary us if we study it with prayer (v. 12). It will teach us what is "the whole duty of man": to fear God and to keep His commandments. All the rest is but vanity.
