Ecclesiastes 12:5

‘Yes they will be afraid of what is high, and terrors are in the way, and the almond tree will blossom, and the grasshopper will be a burden, and the desire will fail, because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets.'

As people age heights can become a problem, especially as their sense of balance worsens and they, and others, become afraid that they will misjudge distances and fall over the edge. Travelling becomes a nightmare, both because of stumbling weakness, and their own defencelessness against both man and wild beast. The blossoming of the almond tree refers to their whitened hair, which will be like an almond tree in blossom. The grasshopper represents what is small compared with others (Numbers 13:33; Isaiah 40:22). Even a grasshopper will be too heavy a burden to bear. ‘The desire will fail' may refer to the fact that the private parts will no longer expand and react to women, or work efficiently in giving relief. They are simply limp and listless, as he is on the way to his everlasting home.

‘Because man goes to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets.'

The thought here is finally of death. This is the final end. Man goes to his everlasting home, while the mourners parade around the streets, wailing because he has gone.

But the mention of the ‘everlasting home' is interesting and significant in the light of what he had said earlier. God has previously been seen as having brought home to man His own everlastingness which is in man's heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and in Ecclesiastes 12:10 there is now no doubt in his mind, in contrast with Ecclesiastes 3:21, that man's ‘spirit' returns to God, Who gave it to Him when He made him in His image (Genesis 2:7 with Genesis 1:26) thus making him ‘one of us'. And in Ecclesiastes 12:14 every work is to be brought into judgment, even though he has previously acknowledged that this does not happen in this life (Ecclesiastes 9:2; Ecclesiastes 4:1; Ecclesiastes 8:12; Ecclesiastes 9:11). Thus the conclusion had to be that it must happen in God's everlastingness, which adds meaning to the idea of his going to his everlasting home as not signifying the grave, but a life beyond.

It would probably be an error to suggest that this is definitely a clear statement of everlasting life beyond the grave. But it does seem that there is reference here to the fact that the writer has come to his final conclusion that somehow those who die are connected with God's everlastingness, whether for good or bad. For he knows that somehow in God's everlastingness every work will be brought into judgment (Ecclesiastes 12:14). That somehow man's spirit is re-absorbed into God's everlastingness (Ecclesiastes 12:7). That somehow man goes home.

So we may see that in the Preacher's view Man's death and entry into his everlasting home somehow brings him into contact with God's everlastingness. Compare the similar hope, and yet vagueness in Psalms 16:10; Psalms 17:15; Psalms 23:6. It is one of those mysteries of His everlastingness that man cannot fathom (Ecclesiastes 3:11), but it offers hope, although finally having to be left with God. As we have suggested it is the faith of the Psalmists when they were absorbed with God. ‘In your presence is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures for evermore' (Psalms 16:10); ‘As for me I will behold your face in righteousness, I will be satisfied when I awake with your likeness' (Psalms 17:15); ‘I will dwell in the house of Yahweh for ever' (Psalms 23:6); ‘in your light we will see light - they (the workers of iniquity) are thrust down and will not be able to rise' (Psalms 36:8 compare with 12); ‘God will redeem my being from the power of the grave, for He will receive me' (Psalms 49:15); ‘You will guide me with your counsel and afterwards receive me to glory' (Psalms 73:24); ‘If I make my bed in the grave, behold, you are there' (Psalms 139:8); ‘If I say surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light about me will be night, even the darkness does not hide from you, but the night shines as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to you' (Psalms 139:11); ‘Lead me in the everlasting way' (Psalms 139:24); not clear doctrine, but a certainty of soul that God will not abandon them to the grave, but will draw them to Himself.

Thus in these words and in Ecclesiastes 12:7 The Speaker breaks free from the futility of all things into the everlastingness of God.