A Time for Everything

In his previous area of investigation, the Preacher has searched for the meaning of life in wisdom.

Disillusioned, he changes tack completely and embraces the world of pleasure, stepping from a

narrow path to a much broader one.

If, as we have supposed, the Preacher is writing from the perspective of Solomon, he is creating a great problem for himself, for he has already tasted the joy of God’s kingdom. He is a child of the narrow way and will not find what he is looking for on the broad way. In effect, he turns from sense to sensuality and finds it senseless!

Ecclesiastes 3 Begins with a famous poem as sung by the Byrd’s in their famous song “turn, turn.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1–15 ESV

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, 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 gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. 14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

2 Big Ideas in the Text

1) We dance to a tune that is not of our own making.

2) Nothing that we pursue has any permanence.

God Wrote a Pop Song

Pete Seager and the Byrd’s made this poem famous in their song “Turn, Turn.”

All but six words of the song come straight from the biblical text, which is why Pete Seeger sends a portion of his royalties to Israel (Wikipedia, “Turn! Turn! Turn!”). The catchy tune comforts many people who think to themselves, It doesn’t matter how bad things get; good times are coming! Life ebbs and flows, and if I am in a bad season now, then good times are just around the corner.

But the comfort of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” does not accurately communicate Solomon’s mood or intention in Ecclesiastes 3. “Time” by Hootie and the Blowfish better communicates Solomon’s message because in that song time haunts rather than comforts. After all, the song talks about time as a punishment. The song says terrorizing things about time, like the fact that it crushes dreams, causes tears to fall, brings all kinds of pain and sadness into your life, and is an enemy rather than a friend.

In reality then, time is not your friend, because it is fleeting and filled with sorrow.

The Providence of God

We throw ourselves into some absorbing activity which offers us fulfillment, but how freely did we choose it? How soon shall we be doing the exact opposite? Perhaps our choices are no freer than our responses to winter and summer, childhood and old age, dictated by the march of time that does not change.

So, events, characteristic seasons and time are imposed upon men: no-one chooses a time to weep. Equally, the events of life that come our way undermine our confidence that our endeavours will have any permanence. All of this puts mankind in his place, far from being master of his own fate and captain of his own soul.

You are in charge of nothing!

1. This is Your Life

This is Your Life

Each week, an unsuspecting celebrity would be lured by some ruse to a location near the studio. The celebrity would then be surprised with the news that they are to be the featured guest. Next, the celebrity was escorted into the studio, and one by one, people who were significant in the guest's life would be brought out to offer anecdotes. At the end of the show, family members and friends would surround the guest, who would then be presented with gifts. These usually included jewelry, a scrapbook of memories, a home 16 mm projector and a camera.

Note: if this cursed world is all that there is than the little time you have on this earth is meaningless.

Everything has a time and Place under Heaven

The cycle of life is inevitable. When you were in high school and saw what the “rat race” did to your dad, you said to your buddy that you would never grow up and get a nin-to-five job, you would never wear a suit, and you would never settle down. but 20 years later you sit at lunch break from your nin-to-five job with your friend, both doing exactly the opposite of what you dreamed you would be doing saying to each other, “how did we every end up here?” Life moves from one season to the next and one activity to the next.

“Each evolution in the poem describes activities, but it does not evaluate them as good or bad, wise or foolish, righteous or sinful. Each could be appropriate but that is not his concern. Solomon merely describes the seasons of life; he does not prescribe what we should do with them.”

Each human life has a time span, and within that time span there are a number of momentous events that take place. Most of the world see’s them as a matter of random events and happenings - determined by the roll of the celestial dice - but the Bible teaches that God has chosen everything for a specific purpose.

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Man has mastered many things, but he has no control over time. Each moment God has appointed. God has everyone of your days here on this dusty earth numbered.

Psalm 37:18 ESV

18 The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever;

and we read the following in Psalm 139:16

Psalm 139:16 ESV

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Job in the depth of his despair and painfully aware of his own mortality proclaims the number of his days.

Job 14:5 ESV

5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,

Possibly one of the best depictions of the providential care of God is found in James 4:13-17. James writes “who say’s tomorrow we will go here or go there, we are going to go to such and such a town and spend a little time over there… yet you really do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? (great question, the same question that Solomon was asking.) For you are a mist or a vapor that appears for just a little time here on this earth.

Instead here is what we really should be saying. “If the Lord wills for us to do this or that.” Do not be so arrogant in thinking that you can do anything without God willing or planning it to happen....

Note: the preacher is merely describing the full scale picture of Life here on earth.

He moves through 14 pairs of Opposites of the Life Experience

Notice the extremes in contrasting the experiences of Life.

*The Great Absurdity of life is that One Experience Cancels Out the Other

You have 14 pluses in life and 14 minuses, and they all add up to zero

I bet you did not know that this was the first cancel culture.

The Experience of Life and Death

There is no one who has any control whatsoever of their own birth or death.

vv. 2-3

Birth and death are two opposite ends of the life spectrum. Man has no control over either, even though he his actively involved in the process of procreation through conception and birth. It is God who gives and brings life into the womb.

Man is active in sowing and reaping, but he is not in control of the process of nature that determines the seasons and duration in which he must operate.

v. 3

We know that the act of killing has been a part of life under the sun. Human life was taken in war and in the execution of justice; animals were sacrificed in the Temple rituals. Sin brought death into the world and inevitably, man would become involved in its process. God himself ordered the killing of Israel’s enemies and the many sacrifices that would point to the perfect sacrifice when he gave up the life of his own son.

Parallel Processes

Killing and healing, breaking down and building up, often go hand in hand as part of the same process. Certain bacteria and micro-organisms have to be killed before more organs and tissue can be restored to health. As a builder, Solomon would have been well aware of the necessity to tear down a dangerous and dilapidated building before rebuilding on the same sight. There is a time for both kinds of actions in the processes of healing and construction.

I love working with old wood that has been discarded and left for decay. However, before I can restore it and make it something usable I have to sand it and break it down in the process of then building it back up again.

The Christian life is also filled will such metaphors. For example, the apostle Paul tells us to put to death the misdeeds of the body (Rom. 8:13; Col 3:5), in order to put on the new life we have in Christ. (Col. 3:10). Jesus even depicted His own death in a similar way: ‘Destroy the temple, and in three days I will raise it up again’ (John 2:19-22).

The Experience of Weeping and Laughing

Now the preacher deals with deep emotion that we experience as we pass through life under the sun. He speaks of the inner feeling and its outward expression. We will all face times of rejection and deep sorrow when we will be plunged into mourning. However, we will also experience times of great joy - maybe so unbridled that we will even dance!

The Bible speaks of the great victory over mourning for those who have drawn close to God through Jesus Christ.

Psalm 30:5 ESV

5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Revelation 7:17 ESV

17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 21:4 ESV

4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

So, in whatever circumstance you find yourself in at this very moment, we have the promise of great joy that comes for those who are children of God. Every tear you have cried this side of heaven will be swept away in the unspeakable joy of the resurrection.

The Experience Friendship and Enmity

v. 5 “A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.”

Enmity: deep-rooted hatred. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.”

James 4:4 ESV

4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

This particular section has been prone to a number of interpretations. Some interpretations of the stones metaphor include: the old Jewish practice of dropping stones into an open grave, the preparation for the building of a house, the building of a memorial, and the destruction of the temple and God’s judgement.

A simple interpretation could be found in the practice of ancient armies in covering an enemy’s field with stones in order to make it unproductive (2 Kings 3:19, 25), and the removal of stones from a field before planting (Isa. 5:2). There is also an additional picture of the preparation of the highway for the advance of the victorious army (Isa. 62:10). The overall message, however, is that in human experience there are times of friendship and there are times of enmity

He also says that there is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. The writer reminding us that there are times when we must move on from friends we once had in our lives.

The Experience of Receiving and Giving

v.6 “a time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep, and time to cast away.”

So, the preacher is now putting our possessions into perspective: we have gain, but be prepared to lose; keep, but we prepared to give away. John Wesley advised his followers, ‘Gain all you can; save all you can; give all you can.

The Experience of Destruction and Creativity

This could be in reference to the tearing of clothes that signified a deep state of grief or mourning. A time to repair would then refer to the repairing of the garment that has been torn at the end of the mourning period.

There is also a similar time to be silent and speaking in reference to a fitting response to those who are in mourning - the book of Job provides a good example of how hard it is to know when to keep silent and when to speak.

The Experience of Love and Hate

The final one comes to a correlation of the emotions that are involved in love and hate and war and peace. This also refers to a building up and a tearing down activity. All of these are under the control of divinely arranged times in history.

We had a Maltese dog in our family for 17 years. We did the one thing we swore that we would never do, we spent thousands of dollars on Angel trying to keep her alive. It finally got to the point that she was blind, deaf, and could not go outside to go to the bathroom on her own. Through tears we finally took her to the vet to have her put down.

Life is a big nonplus.

We seek meaning in all of our activities and come away frustrated. What do we do? Where do we turn in this frustration? The frustration of our current existence should drive us to fear God.

2. Your Frustration Should Drive You to Trust in Christ.

*Everything has a Purpose

Ecclesiastes 3:10 restates 1:13, and therefore, it gives a negative evaluation to the poem of 3:1–9.

God imposed a curse on creation because of Adam’s rebellion, so now we experience burdened toil. Activity and work were not designed to be frustrating, but they are now in a cursed world. Our frustration is therefore a God-enforced burden. But why? What is the purpose? We see God’s intent in the following verses.

God purpose is clearly seen in the interweaving of time with eternity where we are all have a God given task to do under the sun. In the under the sun thinking, we are still in the meaningless futility of living life under the sun.

Note: in the life of a Christian all of these tasks have a purpose. (Look how the apostle Peter speaks of the testing of our faith).

1 Peter 1:6–9 ESV

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

FOUR PURPOSES OF LIFE IN OUR FRUSTRATIONS

1). The purpose of Beauty (v.11)

vs. 11a “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

What does it mean that everything is made beautiful in its time? ‘Everything may seem to have some kind of beauty in it’s own way,’ I can think that the desert in N.M. has some kind of intrinsic beauty to it, or someone else may find the beach more beautiful.’ Some may buy into the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, I do not think this is what the preacher is considering in this text.

The beauty comes in recognizing and acknowledging the place and purpose of every person, thing, or event in God’s overall plan. Even though God has given us the ability to perceive and make sense of his handiwork, as we have read in Romans 1:20, we still cannot fathom the mystery of his divine providence unless God chooses to reveal it to us.

GOD HAS PUT ETERNITY INTO MANS HEART

This begins with God’s initial work of creation, but it can also refer to everything He has doing in and through His creation every since.

The word translated “beautiful” or “appropriate” means God mad everything good and right, so that everything perfectly fits together as he created it to be in the appropriate time for which it should be revealed. God is the one who is in charge of these times and appointed activities. The overarching point seems to be that God has appointed or ordained all of these things as part of his bigger, hidden plan.

Eternity here contrasts with “time,” which was used 29 times in the poem. So, we know that life under the sun is not all there is, therefore, it is crazy for us to live as if this life is all that there is.

There is a desire placed on each of our hearts by God to live forever.

There is a desire for more than just merely getting by in this life under the sun, and there is a knowledge built into each and everyone of our DNA of an eternity out there beyond this life.

“But man cannot discover the work of God that he has done from beginning to end.” We cannot know or see God’s entire plan or fully grasp it, no matter how much we want to.

The Masterpiece Behind the Story

Imagine if you had no prior knowledge of that series, and I took you into a movie theater and showed you the final scene from The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

I showed you the fight between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. I showed you the revelation that Darth Vader is Luke’s father, to which Luke screams like a baby, “Nooooo!”

I showed you Darth Vader cutting off Luke’s hand with a lightsaber and then Luke falling down the tunnel and the rebellion retreating. Then I shut the movie off. You would be perplexed and confused, but you would also inherently know there was a bigger plot and story line at play. You would know that there is a backstory you are missing, and you would want to see what happens next because you would inherently know that could not be the end of the story.

You had only been shown a sliver of what the director/storyteller was doing in his grand masterpiece. The pain of the few moments I showed you would not make much sense.

If later on you got to see the end, and you got to see how in Return of the Jedi (1983) Darth Vader turns away from the dark side of the force and rescues his son from the murderous emperor, then all of the painful details would fall into place. You would see how they were part of a masterpiece that worked out well in the end.

There is a resolution that your heart yearned for. This is the Frustration that Solomon feels but it is also the confidence that something more is going on.

2). The purpose of Satisfaction (v. 12-13)

The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (knowledge), and it is the key to alleviating the frustrations of life trapped between time in this cursed existence and eternity.

There is no use trying to change the past, present, or future. God uses all of the tension, frustration, and burden to drive us to Him. It is a sign of God’s goodness. He know there is not such thing as happiness apart from Him, and He wants us to learn that.

“Why will God not make Himself more clearly known?”

Alister Begg responds;

“God is under no obligation to cater to your intellectual curiosity. You cannot pull a string and make God dance for you. He only caters to the contrite of heart”

(“Eternity on My Mind”). We must revere Him!

All of the frustration and tension that you feel is intended to be a sign of God’s Goodness.

We must realize that all of the delights and gifts we experience here on this earth are God-given and we must recognize them as such if we every truly want to know what it looks like to be satisfied in Him.

3). The purpose of Eternity (v. 14)

Whatever God does lasts forever, nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken away from it. God has done this so that people would fear before Him. We know that Romans 8:28 tells us that for those who 1). Love God; 2). And are called according to His purpose. “all things work together for the good. But, Paul assures us that this means we will experience hunger, famine, peril, nakedness, and other pains.

God uses all of these to conform us into the image of Christ. And Romans 8:29 that for those whom He called, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His son.

The preacher highlights the permanence, completeness, and security that are found in realizing that God has an eternal purpose in all that He does. The purpose is to quicken the heart of mankind.

This fear may initially bring thoughts of dread and terror to the heart of man, but its intent is to give recognition of God’s awesome power and authority.

He mixes the good with the bad, the joy with the pain.

We often do not like that. We would rather pick and choose.

Let me have the good only, Lord, and none of the bad!

He does not allow us to pick and choose because He loves us too much to allow us to turn into Veruca Salt.

She is the girl from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) whose daddy caters to her every desire. She wants the golden goose, and if she does not get what she wants, then she will scream and pitch a fit. God loves us too much to allow us to become spoiled brats. He uses both pleasure and pain as part of His plan to conform us into the image of Christ.

I know that some of you might be thinking right now from your vantage point how can any of what has happened to me ever be beautiful?

Not that! Not what happened to me. God lovingly tells us we are too close to see the big plan, but we can trust Him. He has us, and He has your pain that seems like a jagged piece of glass, and He says that once you can step back and see the stained-glass window, you will see that it is the most beautiful thing you could have every imagined.

4). The purpose of Lasting Service. (v.15)

The reality that the believer lives in everyday is not just the under the sun but the experience of the enduring nature of the Kingdom of God.

This final verse gives perspective to the cycle of the unchangeable events of man’s life and history. The treadmill of life and death that had previously been described as ‘vanity’ has now, with the recognition of God’s sovereignty, become the most secure environment in which we can with great joy experience the hand of God at work in us.

CONCLUSION

Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us of the appointed seasons and times that God has given us, and Ecclesiastes 1:10 tells us that all things will be summed up in Christ.

God created all that He has created in it’s particular time to point us to Christ. So when we look outside in the dead of winter at trees with on leaves the barrenness all around, we know that in a few months or even weeks in Texas spring will bring life again. God wove winter and harvest into the fabric of creation to show humanity that Jesus would be raised from the dead and make all things new again.

Every time and season of life are intended to point us to finding our rest in Him alone. Because He is working out the ultimate plan to make all things new!

Perhaps the writers of “Turn, Turn, Turn!” Did not exactly get it all right or the true feeling of Solomon’s words but they did get the final note right. They end where Solomon’s poem ends with “Shalom,” saying it is not too late. May the Prince of Peace now come and set all things right. May the Prince of Peace come and make all things new.

One of Christ’s most precious promises is that He will provide rest for your soul.

Matthew 11:28–30 ESV

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Have you been convinced of our own inability to provide rest for your soul? Are you persuaded of Christ’s ability and willingness to save your soul? Have you laid hold of Him for Salvation today?

Come to Jesus, and He will bring you rest. rest in Him alone, and you will find rest for your weary soul.