Seasons & Times

This chapter begins with fourteen statements, a remarkable listing of twenty-eight "times," arranged in fourteen pairs of opposites

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; - We sometimes call this the circle of life. One is dying and another is being born. This has been since the fall in the garden.

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

"Plucking" may refer either to reaping or to pulling up unproductive plants. A successful farmer knows that nature works for him only if he works with nature. This is also the secret of a successful life: learn God's principles and cooperate with them.

Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary – Wisdom and Poetry, (Colorado Springs, CO: Victor, 2004), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 493.

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; - Some are healed and some die.

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 tour guide in Israel once said that God gave stones to an angel and told him to spread them across the world. He tripped right over Palestine. If that’s the case he must have tripped over southern Missouri as well. People would sometimes throw rocks in an enemies field so they couldn't plant until they cleared out the rocks. Some people also gathered the rocks to build walls and buildings.

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; - Could refer to the Near Eastern culture of hugging and kissing as a greeting. A time to say hello, and a time to say goodbye

6 A time to get, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away; (Warren Wiersbe says this phrase gives biblical authority for garage sales: a time to keep and a time to clean house!

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; Grieving was often shown by tearing one's garments - But then there came time they had to take up the needle and thread and sew it back together.

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Solomon starts this book with a famous phrase 1:2 "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity."

It sounds like a pessimistic attitude - but really what the Preacher is trying to get across if you read the book as a whole - that without God everything is vain.

How does he end, what is his conclusion? Look at it, chapter 12 - "Let us hear the whole conclusion of the matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Vanity and purposelessness has an antidote - that is the fear of God - the obedience of God.

Every timed event has a "purpose" (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

and every thing is "beautiful" in God's time for it (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Even when in our time, we may not understand how a particular event can be either purposeful or beautiful, we can have faith that, in God's time, it is

(Romans 8:28). Although it is beyond our finite comprehension, it is still bound to be true that the infinite God "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).

, The Defender's Study Bible, (Austin, TX: WORDsearch, 2012), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "Notes".