A Time for Everything

For this mornings message God has led me to the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes which comes right after the book of Proverbs.

As you can see on the screen, the title to this message is A Time for Everything, which we will be looking at chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes this morning it is one of the more familiar sections of Ecclesiastes.

Ecclesiastes is written by King Solomon, who also wrote Proverbs, and the book of Song of Songs or Song of Solomon. We know that King Solomon was considered the wisest person of the earth to this day with the exception of Jesus.

1 Kings 4:29–32 CSB

29 God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight, and understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, sons of Mahol. His reputation extended to all the surrounding nations. 32 Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs numbered 1,005.

1 Kings 4:34 CSB

34 Emissaries of all peoples, sent by every king on earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom.

With all of this wisdom, Solomon thought he knew what he was doing, and he acquired 700 wives and 300 concubines, that is 1,000 women. Now that was not very wise, and if you study Solomon’s life, I am not just saying that to be funny, but what happened was these women were from all over the known world, from all the different pagan countries. With that they started to get his attention away from the true God and began to get him to follow the pagan gods.

King Solomon at one time had the greatest kingdom in the known world, he had built a great palace, he had the Temple built in Jerusalem, but when he allowed the influence of his wives and concubines to lead him into pagan worship and away from the true God, his kingdom, his leadership began to fail, because God took his hand of blessings off of it.

God told him in I Kings 11:11-13

1 Kings 11:11–13 CSB

11 Then the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this and did not keep my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12 However, I will not do it during your lifetime for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of your son’s hand. 13 Yet I will not tear the entire kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem that I chose.”

It is believed that Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes towards the end of his life, possibly after these events.

Therefore, God has given him all this discernment, understanding, and wisdom. He marries 700 women that are foreigners that worship pagan gods even though it goes against what God has told them in Deuteronomy 7:3-4

Deuteronomy 7:3–4 CSB

3 You must not intermarry with them, and you must not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 because they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will swiftly destroy you.

Because Solomon went against God, and God has told Solomon he is going to take the kingdom away from his lineage, Solomon then writes the book of Ecclesiastes.

Which then takes us to, our text this morning, but I wanted us to have some insight, some background before we got into our text.

Our text, this morning is Ecclesiastes 3:1-15, if you are able will you stand in honor of the reading of the Word of God.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–15 CSB

1 There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; 3 a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; 5 a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing; 6 a time to search and a time to count as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak; 8 a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. 9 What does the worker gain from his struggles? 10 I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied. 11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. 13 It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. 14 I know that everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of him. 15 Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. However, God seeks justice for the persecuted.

Pray

I. Everything under Heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:1 CSB

1 There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven:

Depending on the translation you are looking at as to what the exact wording is there, the first part of the verse it says there is an occasion, others say, to everything there is a season, others says, there is an appointed time for everything.

So whether it says, occasion, season, time it is denoting a fixed definite portion of time.

Now the second part of the verse, a time for every activity under heaven, others say, a time to every purpose under the heaven, there is a time fore every event under heaven, or another, a season for every activity under heaven.

Now whether it says, time or season here it signifies rather the beginning of a period or is used as a general designation.

Therefore, it is a specific period of time or season that activity, purpose, event takes place in our lives, that happens under heaven, this is all about this life, not eternity, but things that take place here on earth.

Verses 2-8, are made up of 14 opposites each of which happens in its time, and they make a poem if you will, these 14 opposites give us multiple of seven and the list begin with birth and death.

If you have been coming on Wednesday nights you will know that the number seven suggest the idea of completeness and here is something knew, the use of polar opposites - a well-known poetical device called merism - suggest totality.

Solomon was showing in this poem if you will, that all of a person’s activities, both constructive and destructive, and all of our responses to people, objects, and events happen in their time.

II. A Time To ----

Ecclesiastes 3:2–8 CSB

2 a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; 3 a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; 5 a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing; 6 a time to search and a time to count as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak; 8 a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.

This poem section, the Time to section --- these fourteen opposites begin with a time to give birth, and a time to die, or a time to be born, a time to give birth.

The rest of that verse is a time to plant and a time to uproot, or pluck up that which is planted, or uproot what is planted, or a time to uproot.

What we are seeing in verse two, is the begging of life and the end of life, birth is the begging of life, planting the seed, is the begging of life. Then we see death, the end of life, the uprooting or plucking up that which is planted is the end of that plant.

Therefore, we have the begging and ending of the human life, and the plant life.

We do not have control over either of those things, we cannot control the begging of life and we cannot control the ending of life.

You may say well, they induce labor on a woman and can get it pretty close, well, ask my Daughter that does not always go as planned. Or they do a C-section and get it when they want it, well God still is in control and He can adjust things and make it happen when He wants it too happen.

Then you say well suicide that causes a person to die, when they want to, well there are people walking around every day they have tried suicide and it did not work. And you may think well, they just did not try hard enough, or do it just right. Well, people have shot themselves in the head, and lived through it, or driven off 100’ cliffs and walked away, why? Because God was not ready for them yet.

Again we have the begging of life and the ending of life, and then we have things that occur between or during life.

A time to kill, We are told not to murder or kill, depending on the translation. Which is the 6th commandment of the Ten Commandments that we can see in Exodus 20:13

Exodus 20:13 CSB

13 Do not murder.

But here it is talking about in reference to the execution of criminals, or to the defence of say your family.

Then it tells us a time to heal, this is not just any healing, not just getting over allergies, or the common cold, but this is a supernatural healing of God Almighty, a miracle from God that cannot be explained or link to any physician or medication.

A time to break down - to remove things that run down and then a time to build up, now that the old is gone, new can go up in its place.

A time to weep, Romans 12:15

Romans 12:15 CSB

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

A time to mourn and a time to dance, When we loose a loved one we mourn but when a loved one gets married we want to dance, or celebrate, the point is there is a time for both occasions.

A time to throw stones and a time to gather stone, some times you a getting rid of stones and some times you are collecting them to use them for a project.

Some times you want a hug from people and some times you just want to be left alone, and then there are times, you go through the COVID pandemic and you avoid embracing.

A time to search and a time to count as lost, you are searching for that ear ring you dropped, or guys that tool bit and then eventually you just say oh well, I guess it is a gonner.

A time to keep and a time to throw away, some people keep every thing, and some people throw everything away, and some of us we keep it for a while, and some of us need to learn to throw it away a little sooner maybe.

A time to tear and a time to sew, I think of a pair of blue jeans, as a kid this was how we got shorts for summer a lot of times, when the knees started to get to torn mom would just cut the ends off the legs and we would have shorts, but if they were not to torn, or if they were torn in other places she would sew them.

A time to be silent and a time to speak - this one can be hard sometimes. I know it is something I need to work on for myself. When to hold my tongue but also when to speak up and be a better leader.

A time to love and a time to hate -