Seasons Fade into Eternity

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 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. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. 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. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Introduction:

I’ve always heard that the older you get, the faster time goes. I don’t think there’s science behind that but it sure feels true in our experience. I can remember this summer I was looking at the front of my house and the thought crossed my mind that I should probably take my Christmas lights down. Someone else said to me, “you’re halfway there.” So I thought, why bother. And sure enough, here we are almost ready for decorating the house once again. It seems like all of the time, the things we feel so pressed to get done for a particular time fade quickly into the background as new times and seasons arrive. The endless cycle can feel exhausting and in our humanity, hopeless because it will never end until our lives do. And even then the time will pass without us. This feeling is what is called up by the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes.

I am guessing that if we took a poll, Ecclesiastes wouldn’t come up as many of your favorite books of the Bible. It’s a difficult book and at first or second, or sometimes third read, we aren’t sure what to do with some of it. Martin Luther said,

“This book is one of the more difficult books in all of Scripture, one which no one has ever completely mastered.”

If that wasn’t enough, Craig G. Bartholomew said,

“Ecclesiastes is a lot like an octopus: just when you think you have all the tentacles under control—that is, you have understood the book—there is one waving about in the air!”

It was daunting that during my time this week at the Simeon Trust Workshop, we had to prepare and present sermon work on passages from this difficult book. For this morning and next Sunday we are going to take a brief step out of the book of Luke and look at two passages from Ecclesiastes. The timing is providential as we are moving into a nostalgic time of year that can be quite difficult for many people. This book will help us understand more about the toils and troubles of life and the beauty that lies therein.

The main idea today is this: Enjoy your life and trust God to make your times beautiful in His time.

I’m going to argue this point to you in two intricately related points: Our Work in Our Time, and God’s Work in God’s Time.

I. Our Work in Our Time (v.1-8)

If you are familiar with classic pop music you’ll no doubt notice that the lyrics for the Byrds hit song Turn, Turn, Turn from 1965 were partially take from this passage. That is actually not the first version of the song but likely is the most well known. When Pete Seger wrote the song, I think we can be relatively sure he didn’t fully understand the implications or meaning of the text that he was using from Ecclesiastes.

The first eight verses are a poem. This poem is specifically about life in our fallen world. The preacher spends these lines walking through the various seasons that we go through in life. There is both activity and loss. It’s a busy passage. Times appear and are lived for a brief moment before they fade as a vapor into the following season. The time to be born gives way to the time to die and so on and so forth.

Whichever of these times that you are currently in will pass and before you know it the next time will come and pass. If you solely focus on this passing of time and how temporary the nature of our lives and work is, you can get pretty frustrated. Everything we do passes away and another time comes. It can make us feel like what we do and experience doesn’t matter. Our temporary nature causes us to ask the big questions in life: What am I here for and what happens after I die?

In verse nine you have this transition from the poem about the passing seasons and time for every matter under heaven into this explanation of our toil and God’s involvement in it.

If you will notice, God doesn’t appear in the poem. But the preacher, after considering this brings God into the explanation in verses nine through fifteen.

II. God’s Work in God’s Time (v. 9-15)

Ecclesiastes 3:9 ESV

What gain has the worker from his toil?

The preacher feels our frustration. He’s stared into the vanity of toil and wondered the same things that we have.

We have all this toil in life, what gain comes from it? What advantage or profit is all this toil if it all fades away?

Ecclesiastes 3:10 ESV

I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

God has given us tasks to do in life. These times are ordained by God for us to experience. We see more revealed about this in verse 11.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV

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.

We see and experience our finiteness as humans in comparison with God’s eternality and sovereignty. God has ordained times and seasons and we see that He has made EVERYTHING beautiful in its time. If you look back at the first eight verses, there are some things in there where you read that they’re beautiful and you just kind of scratch your head and say, “how?” In the small group portion of our workshop I was presenting some work I had done on this passage and the pastor sitting next to me spoke up on this. He was a vet who had been deployed twice and he said, he’d been to war and it wasn’t beautiful. You may see some things in the poem and wonder how in the world they can be beautiful. Let me point out the past tense nature. He HAS made everything beautiful in its time. That doesn’t mean we look at these things and see them as beautiful.

Verse 11 is both crushing and encouraging.

God has ordained all of these as part of His larger and currently hidden from us plan.

It reminds us of what it says in Isaiah 55:8-9

Isaiah 55:8–9 ESV

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God has put eternity in our hearts that we would know there is more and desire it but not be able to get to the bottom of it on our own through search and study. We must seek our purpose and our meaning in life, not in work itself but in He who gave us the work to do. We will know only frustration without God.

Rather than becoming bitter from this frustration, the Preacher in Ecclesiastes would have us enjoy the gifts that God has given us in this life.

The author has brought God into the reflection on the first eight verses because we can not understand our lives and passing time without God. Our finite lives would be hopeless without God. We would only be living for pleasure for the moment and not knowing what our purpose or eternity was about. Yet with God, we can enjoy the good gifts He has given us.

For those of us who live on this side of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we have information that Solomon did not have. We have more of the story.

Galatians 4:4 ESV

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,

God has revealed Himself to us in Jesus and made a way for us to live for eternity with Him. Without Jesus, this life that is described doesn’t make sense. With Jesus, we have a purpose to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Instead of restless wrestling we should be resting in Christ.

Rest in reconciliation with Christ and enjoy deeply the life He has given as an act of thankful worship to Him.

Know that God will not waste even one second of your life. Every part are fit together into a beautiful picture that God is painting. We are too close to see the larger plan but we must trust the artist who is painting the picture.

Apply

Consider what it is that you are chasing after in life. Where are you seeking your satisfaction?

What do your priorities in life say about what you view as the most important thing in life?

Are you living for God while enjoying the gifts of life as an act of worship?

Enjoy the gifts that God has given in this life, knowing where they came from and the purpose for them in our lives.

Related Media

Related Sermons