April 20, 2014
The End of a Gospel Dispensing Machine
By Robert Fitzpatrick
Ecclesiastes 12:6 is a very strange verse. However, even if at first we have no idea what it means, we will have a general understanding of it as soon as we read the verse that comes after it. That’s when we know Ecclesiastes 12:6 is telling us about death.
Here is Ecclesiastes 12:6:
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Notice that there are four different pictures here:
1. The loosening of a silver cord.
2. The breaking of a golden bowl.
3. The breaking of a pitcher at a fountain.
4. The breaking of a wheel at a cistern.
What do these pictures mean? As we work through the verse, we will see that it is very rich in spiritual meaning. God has hidden amazing truths here.
God Tells Us About Death
In trying to understand Ecclesiastes 12:6, we should begin by reading verse 7:
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
This verse may remind you of a verse in the book of Genesis, in which God tells us that we are dust. It’s Genesis 3:19:
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Here, God explains what happens at death by telling us that we are dust. So we can be certain that Ecclesiastes 12:7 is also telling us about physical death by the words “then shall the dust return to the earth.” In this way we know that the four pictures God paints in Ecclesiastes 12:6 concern physical death.
There are many other verses to consider as we try to fully understand Ecclesiastes 12:6. For example, in Genesis 2:7 we read:
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
This verse also tells us that man is dust; but there is something else here too: it tells us about the breath of life. When God gave man that breath of life, man became a living soul. The word translated “living soul” is Strong’s number H5315: nephesh. It’s the same word we find in Genesis 1:24:
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
The word here for “living creature” is also Strong’s number H5315. So if you have a pet, you have something in common with your best friend: God considers both of you to be “nephesh.”
God also emphasizes man’s similarity to animals in Ecclesiastes 3 by telling us something else about death. In Ecclesiastes 3:18-20, we read:
I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. 19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. 20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
In other words, at the end of his or her life an unsaved person is really no better off than an animal. That’s why all is “vanity” for the unsaved (Ecclesiastes 12:8).
Job 34 also has a verse of great importance for us as we try to understand what God reveals about death. In fact, we find death discussed throughout the book of Job. Poor Job’s suffering was so great that he found himself wishing for death, and so we find a number of verses about it. Notice what we read in Job 34:14-15:
If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
Notice that verse 14 tells us about both spirit and breath. Here is where we can run into difficulties. The word translated as “spirit” here is Strong’s number H7307 (“ruwach”), and the word translated “breath” is Strong’s number H5397 (“neshamah”). ”Ruwach” is most often translated as “spirit,” but it is also translated as “breath.” And “neshamah” is most often translated as “breath,” but is sometimes translated as “spirit.”
To add to our problems, we find that God uses the same word (“ruwach”) when telling us about His own Spirit as He does when telling us about the animals! In Genesis 1:1-2, we read:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The word for “Spirit” here is “ruwach.” And in Genesis 7:15, we have a verse about the animals that went into the ark:
And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
The word for “breath” here is also “ruwach.” We know that this “ruwach” is also in man, based on other verses. What are we to make of this? Obviously, “ruwach” is a very general concept to describe something that is not physical, because God applies the word to Himself as well as to man and animals. Nevertheless, we should be on safe ground to draw at least two conclusions.
First, only God can give life. In order for a man or animal to be alive, it must have the non-physical component the Bible calls “breath” or “spirit.” Despite all the research and theorizing among today’s scientists, man will never be able to create life “from scratch.” Even the most life-like robots will never be alive. Life can only come from life, as the great scientist Louis Pasteur demonstrated about a century and a half ago.
The second conclusion concerns the vast difference between mankind and any other animal. Even though both mankind and animals have some non-physical component of life, there is an enormous difference between those components. Some animals have brains on the same order of size and complexity as the human brain. So if we just compare the human brain with an animal brain, we can’t explain the vast gulf between mankind and any other living creature. The Bible reveals that it is a non-physical component of life that makes man different and superior to any animal.
A New Spirit
The Bible also has some things to tell us about the types of spirit that can be in man. Even an unsaved man has a spirit, as we learn from 1 Corinthians 2:11:
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
It is this spirit that gives us self-awareness and makes us what we are. However, there is a big problem with man’s spiritual condition unless God saves him. Ephesians 2:2 reveals that truth:
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
The “prince of the power of the air” is Satan. Unless God has saved a person, that person is in Satan’s kingdom and is subject to his power. But when God saves a person, he or she is “quickened” (Ephesians 2:5), or made alive. The implication is that unless a person is “quickened,” then he or she is spiritually dead.
So we see that even an unsaved person has some type of a spirit – and that is what makes a person alive and so different from the animals; but unsaved man is in some way spiritually dead. Recall what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 8:22:
But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.
The end of anyone who is unsaved will be just like that of the animals. It’s a totally different situation, however, for God’s elect, because He has given them a new, resurrected spirit. It is this spirit that allows them to live forever.
There’s No Flame Unless There Is Oil
When we look for verses dealing with the new spirit that God gives when He saves someone, we find that they often mention oil. In Leviticus 8:12 we read about the use of oil to anoint Aaron:
And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.
Here, oil is associated with the idea that Aaron had to be sanctified or made holy. Oil is also mentioned in Exodus 27. That chapter and several others concern the tabernacle that the Lord had Israel build in the wilderness. There are also many details about items placed in the tabernacle. One of those was a lamp, as we read in Exodus 27:20:
And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.
Olive oil was fuel for the tabernacle’s lamp – that’s what kept the flame going. Both oil and lamps are also mentioned in a well-known parable found in Matthew 25. It concerns wise and foolish virgins who “went forth to meet the bridegroom” (Matthew 25:1). Therefore, the time setting for this parable is at the end of God’s salvation plan. In Matthew 25:3-4, we read:
They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Notice that the number of virgins is ten. So God is showing us that the parable concerns all those who are in some way associated with the kingdom of heaven (verse 1). Notice also that the wise virgins “took oil in their vessels.” This verse tells us that they were saved. Based on these and other verses, we know that God uses oil to represent the Holy Spirit. We will see that Ecclesiastes 12:6 is very much concerned with the Holy Spirit.
Even though there is no mention of oil in Ecclesiastes 12:6, there is an important clue that can help us understand the verse:
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
The verse has the words “silver” and “golden.” God often uses gold and silver to represent true believers. For example, in 1 Corinthians 3:12-13 we read:
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
Gold, silver and precious stones can survive a fire; but wood, hay and stubble can’t. The picture here is that true believers can withstand God’s judgment, because He has saved them; but others can’t withstand the “fire.” In other words, God will destroy them.
Getting back to Ecclesiastes 12:6, notice that the verse mentions a “golden bowl.” The word for bowl here is Strong’s number H1543, “gullah.” It’s a word we also find in Zechariah 4. There, we read about a candlestick (Strong’s number H4501, “menowrah”) all of gold, and we get details about how it is constructed. Here is Zechariah 4:2-3:
And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
In Zechariah 4:3, the word used for “bowl” is the same word we find in Ecclesiastes 12:6. The golden bowl holds the oil, which feeds each lamp through a pipe. And so we see what God is telling us in Ecclesiastes 12:6: at death, a believer’s body is broken. The body is the “golden bowl” containing God’s Holy Spirit.
The Silver Cord
“Or ever the silver cord be loosed...” What could that possibly mean? First, notice that the cord is a silver one. Like gold, the idea of silver is often used when God refers to the elect. Next, we need to check a concordance for the words translated “cord” and “loosed.”
The word translated “cord” is H2256: “chebel.” It’s used sixty times and is translated in very different ways, such as sorrows, cord, line, region, portion, country and other words; but knowing that doesn’t help our attempt to understand this part of the verse.
The word for “loosed” is Strong’s number H7576, “rathaq.” It’s only used twice in the Bible: in Ecclesiastes 12:6, where it’s translated “be loosed,” and in Nahum 3:10 where it’s translated “bound” – an opposite meaning. However, H7576 comes from the word “rachaq” (H7368). That word is often used to convey the idea that something is at a distance from something else, or is to be removed. It’s used twice in Proverbs 5:8:
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
The words “remove” and “far” are each translations of “rachaq.” This information helps us to understand what is meant by “the silver cord be loosed.” God is telling us something else about the spirit in man, as in the words about the golden bowl. Earlier, we read Job 34:14-15:
If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath; All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
This verse tells us that God gathers His Spirit when a person dies. He pulls it back to Himself. Recall the Lord Jesus compared Himself to a vine and His disciples to branches, as we read in John 15:5:
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Perhaps the idea of the silver cord is a similar analogy: God’s Spirit goes out from Himself and extends into true believers as a branch goes out from a vine. When a believer dies, God pulls that measure of His Spirit back to Himself; and so the silver cord is “loosed” from the believer’s body.