Trivia:
What is a grouping of Bananas called? A bush, a basket, a hand, or a bundle. Make a guess, answer tomorrow.
Challenge:
Ecclesiastes 12:6 "Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don't wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well."
In this verse the writer attempts to illustrate the suddenness of the loss of life, through the silver cord without warning snapping and the bowl of life falling to the ground and breaking, or the water jar smashing into the well, or the pulley wheel that lowers the bucket into the water below into the water underground being unable to retreated the water in the bucket.
To better understand this inference we need to recognize that Solomon is advising us the reader of the lack of guarantee of life. That there is no promise of longevity or a continued tomorrow.
One thought that is being spoken of is the several broken vessels which hold water of which water was referred as a symbol of life. 2 Samuel 14:14 uses this reference. "All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. ..."
You see Solomon is striving to encourage us to live each moment with the knowledge that our fate as humans in this life is uncertain whether we are young of old. Every day whether we are young or old brings us a bit closer to the end of our life, so we are to live with real meaning by daily drawing our thoughts and life towards our desire to please Him and fulfill His call for that day as though we won't have any tomorrow to rest on.
There are many possible meanings to this verse, the silver chord may be referring to our spinal cord, the golden bowl broken the brain, while the pitcher shattered could mean a failing heart, and the broken wheel could refer to veins and arteries failing to transfer its life giving blood and oxygen. Regardless of their specific meaning they certainly are a reference to death, and the finality of lifes end.
Fanny Cosby the blind poet wrote of this verse in this way:
Some day the silver cord will break.
And I no more as now will sing,
But oh the joy when I shall wake,
Within the palace of the King.
Regardless of the full meaning of this verse it is without question an intense reminder calling us to daily, GO WITH GOD in everything we do, to refuse to lose sight of the fragileness of life and the need to daily, surrender each moment to Him.
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