The Heavens Grow Old

One of the most “apocalyptic” texts in the Bible is in Ecclesiastes 12. Solomon encourages his reader to remember the Creator before the world ends - before the sun, moon, and stars go dark; before the clouds return; before all civic activity grinds to a halt.

Most commentators, though, recognize that Ecclesiastes 12 is not describing the collapse of a world, but old age. Those lights are not in heaven but in the head; they grow dim because the aging lost their eyesight and their judgment. It’s not the end of the cosmos but of a micro-cosmos. Aging is the dying of a small world; death is a hint of the world’s end.

And we can turn the imagery backward too: If aging is like the collapse of a universe, the collapse of a universe is like aging. Worlds are born, mature, reach their pinnacle, then begin to grow old.

The Lord laid the foundation of earth and set the heavens in place. He stays forever, but the garments of the universe grow old and worn, and eventually need to be changed (Hebrews 1:10-12, quoting Psalm 102).

So there’s something biblical about that old trope about civilizations following the life-cycle of living things.