YOLO! Adam n’Eve it!
Ecclesiastes 9:1-8 & 13
How young do you feel? I’m 54. Most of the time, I feel 44; occasionally 34. It gets embarrassing when I act like I’m 24. My kids treat me like I’m 64.
Ecclesiastes knows what we all know – none of us are getting any younger. We spend the first part of our life wishing we were older, and the rest of it trying to be younger. Why? Because we become gradually aware of our finite years. We think we’ll live forever, and then we find ourselves at Specsavers. It’s sobering when the barber spends more time cutting hair that’s not on our head - eyebrows, ears, nose… Ageing is not something we like to think, let alone talk, about. We speak in round-about ways, in code. It turns out, so does Eccesiastes.
I’m from London, ‘Sarf’ London – the London Borough of Bromley. Across the River, East London, with its docks and markets, gave rise in the 19th Century to Cockney rhyming slang. The traders wanted to speak without the ‘Peelers’ (Police) or  Customs knowing what they were saying – hence their speaking in code. For example:
•	Boat race = face
•	Barnet (Barnet fair) = hair
•	Hampstead’s (Hampstead Heath) = teeth
•	Mince pies = eyes
•	Mutt and Jeff (a cartoon) = deaf
•	Bacon and eggs = legs
•	Brass bands = hands
Ecclesiastes is doing the same in chapter 12 – speaking in code/ rhyme. Why? Because Ecclesiastes is speaking about aging.
v.3: “When the keepers of the house tremble,” That’s about your Brass Bands, hands. In older age, they can start to tremble. 
Likewise, “And the strong men stoop.” That’s about your Bacon & Eggs, legs. In older age, they can lose their strength and bow.
“When the grinders cease because they are few.” That’s about your Hampsteads, teeth. In older age, we can lose our teeth.
“And those looking through the windows grow dim.” This is about what happens in old age to our Mince Pies, eyes]
v.5: “when the almond blossoms” What colour is blossom? Pink? (when dyed?) More naturally, white. This is about what happens to the colour of your Barnet, hair as you get older.
v.5: “And desire no longer is stirred.” Most bible translators are coy – they translate the Hebrew here as ‘desire’. Only the Living Translation ‘calls it:’ “and sexual desire no longer is stirred.” The Hebrew is the word for ‘caper-berry’ These were ancient Eastern equivalent of Viagra or the blue pill, used to enhance sexual function.  “And the ‘Crown Jewels’/ sexual function is no longer stirring.”

In other words, our bodies are telling us, we ain’t getting any younger! None of us are. If we don’t yet see it in ourselves, we see it in others. Ecclesiastes gently, in code, helps us accept one day we will all be ‘brown bread’ – dead. v.5: “Then people go to their eternal home, and mourners go about the streets.”
Psalm 23 says we all walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. None of us no how long that valley is, or where we are within it. Of course, by the time its our funeral, it’ll be too late.
So, Ecclesiastes says, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.” ‘Remember’ is more than simply recall; it’s respond to, acknowledge.. put God at the centre of your life. Days of your youth is ‘whilst you still can’, whilst ypure still able to respond to God.
We sometimes act as if we are the master of our universe/ destiny; as if, everything is about us, because of us. We live by our rules. We’re kidding ourselves.
What will it take for you to Remember your Creator in the days of your youth? Don’t put it off. Don’t say, I’ll go all in when I’m 64. Why risk a ‘death bed conversion’, when you could have the life now – knowing your Creator, the maker of heaven and earth.
The whole Book of Ecclesiastes concludes in verse 13 with: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep God’s commandments, for this is the duty of all humanity.”
If you have a pulse, do it. Whilst you still can. YOLO!
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07840 046020   DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk