April 29 I Saturday

1 Kings 6-7

Luke 20:27-47

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of all mankind.”    —Ecclesiastes 12:13

Solomon, an old, depressed and weary man, has deeply contemplated his endeavours and achievements, as well as his present state of contentment. It is all utterly meaningless, a chasing after the wind, he proclaims, but through the dismal gaps and crevices of a life lived 
under the sun, there is a godly wisdom that once again arises in Solomon.

       Solomon adds yet another very stirring caption: Remember your Creator “before the silver cord is severed and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:6-7). Five of these six images are about decomposition; Solomon is talking about dying. All that is material will perish except for our spirits, which return to the God who gave them.

       The writer of Hebrews says, “People are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment...” (Hebrews 9:27). On that day, what needs to be of utmost concern is the condition in which our spirits will return. We will not have any good of our own to plead, only the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by the Holy Spirit. Solomon, blessed with the gift of wisdom, looked long and hard at his life with God and apart from God. In the end, He came to an irrefutable conclusion: “Remember your Creator…for this is the whole duty of man.”

       The reason we believe in a creator is because God has revealed Himself in creation, in Scripture, in conscience and in Jesus Christ. Abraham Lincoln wrote, “I never gaze at the stars without feeling that I am looking into the face of God. I can see how it might be possible for man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist because of all the mess of humanity, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the sky and say, ‘There is no God.’” God created us; He knows us and loves us, and Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that He has placed a sense of eternity into our hearts. This tells us there is more to life than what we have on earth, something bigger outside of ourselves we need to connect with.

       “Remember your Creator,” Solomon concludes, and we need search no further, because it is God alone who is eternal, and God alone who fills that aching abyss in our lives that seeks more than our three score years and ten.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for creating me and providing our only means of everlasting life through the precious gift of your Son, Jesus Christ.