God's Timing in Everything
Notes
Transcript
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
Introduction
I apologize because if you are anything like me, there will be a tune stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 may be the most popular passage of scripture next to John 3:16 in our culture because of a song written in the 50’s and sung by The Byrds in 1965.
And maybe because of this song, it is one of the most of requested passages to be read at funerals.
Unfortunately, it is most often misunderstood.
Many have taught that verses 1-8 are encouragements to have discernment, to know when it’s a time to speak and a time to be silent, or to have the wisdom to know when it’s time to plant or when it is time to pluck up what has been planted, but this is not what Qoheleth is teaching us.
Not that having discernment is something not to strive for, but that isn’t what we are looking at.
What we are seeing is not an agenda for us to follow, but a description of the way that God sovereignly works in our lives under the sun.
Now some people, for various reasons have problems with the way God rules the universe in His sovereignty over it.
But if God isn’t in control we have a major problem. Can you imagine this life that you are living with no purpose? Can you really believe that this is all that there is?
There is only one way to make sense of history, and that is if there is an Almighty, Sovereign Lord orchestrating it through His providence for an end or a purpose that will come to pass.
Some look at the Book of Ecclesiastes and see a book of depressing realities of life on this world under the sun, but it is passages like this that prove the book has a hopeful tone that this life under the sun is not all there is.
This is not an agenda for us to follow but a reminder that God is in control.
In the first 2 chapters, Solomon has looked at this life that we live through our eyes, but in the end of chapter 2 he transitions to a higher view by showing that all these things that we do under the sun are a gift from a God who lives above the sun and is in control of it all.
If we are to live in reality, we have to realize that everything we have is a gift. Every breath comes from God, our strength comes from God, every good thing in life comes from Him as a gift.
And because of this, we are to give thanks for everything because God is a gracious and giving God.
Our lives are not directed by some blind fate or by uncontrollable chance, but are in the hands of a sovereign Lord who has an end and a purpose for everything.
Man is constantly trying to maintain the illusion that we are the masters of our fate.
William Earnest Henley wrote a famous poem to this very idea in 1875:
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
And Frank Sinatra wrote his famous song My Way with the 2nd verse:
Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way
Both of these men, and many more who share this idea, think this is the way things should be.
But they are like the toddler running into traffic, the master of his own fate, saved by the unseen hand of their loving and more powerful parent.
They don’t realize, through their tantrum, that that hand that saved them had bigger plans for them.
And so Qoheleth transitions to the big picture from the small.
And shows us that we all must live this life under the sun with a sovereign God in mind.
And shows us that we all must live this life under the sun with a sovereign God in mind.
Because There is a Time for Everything
Because There is a Time for Everything
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.
Solomon writes a Hebrew poem in these verses.
And in it we are shown that God is in charge of both nature and history.
You can see that in verse 1 as he presents the main thought of his poem.
God appoints a season for everything. God predetermines a time for every matter or event that happens.
This is not saying that as life gives you lemons make lemonade, or we have to make the best out of the chaos of what happens to us.
Qoheleth is placing the events of all of our lives under the lordship of God almighty.
The good and the bad, the happy and the sad, are all from the hand of God, and all will ultimately arrive at the end to a glorious purpose.
Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
isa45.7
I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.
The will of God determines everything that happens and when it happens.
We have been looking at the amazing power of God in creating everything that we know and can know by the power of His words.
He spoke and it happened. It happened exactly the way that He intended.
And if you step back far enough and see the happenings in the universe, you see His hand.
We can hardly grasp the size of our sun, but it isn’t a star of any great size compared to others that we have found.
Our galaxy is just part of a neighborhood of galaxies each with billions and trillions of stars, and there are hundreds of other galactic neighborhoods that we know of, each with many galaxies with their own billions and trillions of stars.
And this is the God who arranges your life, from the beginning of it until it is over.
He is in control of the circumstances of it starting and ending and everything in between.
And the 14 lines of poetry that Solomon writes encapsulates it all.
We will not look at every pair, but I encourage you to do some homework and look at them for yourselves.
It begins in verse 2 with
ecc3.2 “a time to be born, and a time to die”
The time of our birth has been decided by God, the day of our death has already been written.
We are not in control of when we are born.
This is not just speaking of the hour or the day, but also the period of time, the circumstances of our birth, and the place where we are born.
Expectant mothers, not people, may joke and say that the baby isn’t ready yet, but we know the baby doesn’t have a say.
To this end there is ultimately no unplanned pregnancy. God know and appoints each birth, each child and each life.
God also knows and appoints the day of our death.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
We have been placed on this earth for a finite period of time.
And just as the circumstance and place of our births are determined by God, so the way and place of our death.
All of man, no matter what class or nationality, must face this fact, we will all one day pass from this life.
The world of men can try to hide it, or live like it’s not true, but it is unescapable.
We spoke this fact at the beginning of this pandemic when the whole world was afraid of death so much that it shutdown.
We changed our whole way of living to avoid the reality of death.
There was much ado about Jeff Bezos when he flew to the border of space in a rocket, but there hasn’t been the same reaction when it was found out that he was investing in a project run by Altos Labs.
This project seeks to eliminate the effects of aging on a cellular level to beat death and extend life.
The scientists working on the project are getting paid huge salaries, some around 1 million dollars a year.
But no matter what they discover they will not be able to cure death.
And although the author of the poem Invictus thought he was the master of his own life, no matter what he did he couldn’t control his fate to the point that he didn’t have to face death, he died in 1903.
Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
Like all of these pairs, birth and death are intended to be like bookends. Ways of saying, birth and death and everything in between.
God is in control of every aspect of the circumstances in our lives, and He deserves glory for it.
Then verse 2 says
Ecclesiastes 3:2 (ESV)
... a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
God is also in control things smaller than life and death.
He has created seasons and climates that are better for panting seeds and others that are better for harvest, taking care of our needs.
You can say, “God didn’t plant the garden, I did.” but you didn’t determine that those seasons would take place, you didn’t make the sun shine on those plants or the rain to fall on them.
You can’t plant tomatoes in the cold of winter and cause them to grow.
And sometimes you can do everything right, and not get a good harvest. Some of us don’t have a green thumb.
Because these things are in the providence of God, He is taking care of us.
Verse 3 says
a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
There’s a time to kill, like in self-defense, there’s a time to heal, like an accident.
There’s a time to break down, to demolish a building so a new one can be built.
Verse 4
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
There are seasons of life that bring you to tears, and seasons of pure joy.
We are faced with these constantly and sometimes simultaneously.
Think through your life and your relationships.
They are filled with ups and downs.
The birth of a son or daughter, and grand son or grand daughter.
Sickness of a family member or your own.
God is control of all these things, down to our crying and our laughing.
You don’t put weeping on a calendar, like I’m going to uncontrollably sob on Thursday at 9.
God is in control of the circumstances that cause you to weep for sorrow or laugh for joy.
I’ll just read verses 5-8
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.
All of the situations of life, God orchestrates with His providence.
Some may say, “God is not a micromanager.” but proverbs 16.23 says
pro16.33 “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”
Some people say, “Well, God is sovereign over the good times, but not over the bad times” trying to protect God, but there is no other way to interpret these verses.
Remember Isaiah 45.7
I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.
God is sovereign over all things and this is a good thing, otherwise who would be in control? How would those things that make us weep and mourn, things like war and sickness come to any real meaning, to any real purpose?
How else would we be able to lift our eyes above and past this life under the sun and find any real comfort?
Everything has a season, and every matter or event has a time, worked out in the providence and care of an Almighty, ultimately good Lord and Creator.
Because God Has a Plan
Because God Has a Plan
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.
Solomon gives us the first 8 verses with no interpretation. He just lays it out, God is sovereign.
Whether we understand it our not, whether we like it our not, God is in control.
So what are we to do with this information.
Will understanding this turn us into apathetic stoics who just shrug when we are faced with a tragedy?
“All well, God’s in control, whatever will be, will be.”
So what gain has the worker from his toil? What is the point?
If God is in control of everything, down to the weeping and the laughing, what do we do?
Qoheleth’s answer is in this part of our passage.
Verse 10 says
I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
We are to live with this truth in the forefront of our minds.
Every situation and circumstance is to be guided and understood with the fact that God is in control and everything we have comes from Him.
Verse 11 has two of the most astounding statements in this book and maybe in the entire Old Testament.
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.
These truths have giant implications on the way we live our lives as Christians.
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
God has made everything that happens appropriate.
Everything fits in place, just the way He intends it to fit.
Nothing is out of place.
This is an amazing truth that should overwhelm us with awe of our God, and fill us with comfort.
It fits so well, that Solomon calls it beautiful.
Why is this so astounding?
Because we live in such a fallen world and it is hard sometimes to see the beauty.
Daniel Corey said,
When was the last time you were stuck in traffic and said, “Behold! Such beauty!” When was the last time that someone cut you off and stole your parking spot and you said, “At this time and in this place, that’s beautiful.”
We can laugh at that and see how ironic it feels, but there are times in our lives when we can’t laugh.
There are times of sickness and pain. When a child dies or someone commits a terrible crime against you and your family.
This is when this truth hits us hardest and we have to rest in our faith that God is in control and has a purpose.
Then the second most astounding statement comes next.
ecc3.11 “Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart...”
This reality seems to be in contrast to how we and those around us live.
We seem so set on the right now that we forget the future and the consequences of our thoughts and actions.
And that is not to mention the unbelievers and the atheists.
But there are times in our lives when the brevity, or the hevel, of our lives comes in full view.
And no matter how much of an atheist you are you cannot escape the reality of eternity, because God has put that reality in our hearts.
The proponents of the worldview that Philip’s been preaching about in Genesis 1 may say they believe that we all evolved from life that made it’s way from one celled organism, to swimming thing, to crawling out of the ocean with no purpose and no point don’t live like life has no purpose or point.
Some of them are the biggest pharisees since Saul, with their cult of environmentalism and government control for the good of mankind.
But no matter what they call it, fate, luck, chance, karma, they cannot escape it because God has put eternity into man’s heart.
Augustine said,
You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they can find peace in you
ecc3.11 “... yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
Although we can recognize the beauty of how everything works out and we have the God-given understanding of eternity in each of our souls, we still can’t comprehend it all in this life.
This may be the hardest part of what we have been made busy with.
Why do bad things happen?
What possible good or glory can God get from some of the terrible consequences of living in a fallen world?
Why did God work life out in such a way that we all ended up in a time of prosperity and health unlike so many other places and times of history?
God has wired us so that we know there is a puzzle, but we can’t figure out how it goes together.
We know what the cover looks like, the big picture.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
But we can’t understand how this piece of pain, trouble, sickness, or evil fits in.
No easy answer is given on this side of the sun.
So we believe that God is sovereign, but He doesn’t give us all of the answers.
When we back up and look at our lives, we may not be able to say that we see the beauty, we can’t understand the ins and outs of eternity, but we trust that in the end of it all, when we are able to look back over all of history and see our lives through heavenly eyes we will understand and say with the preacher, “God has made everything beautiful in its time.
We have been given the great gift of faith as Christians to be able to see past this vaporous life into that time and say, “I don’t understand now, but I will understand.” “I don’t know how this puzzle fits together now, but I’ve seen the top of the box and believe it will come together one day.”
Because God is in control. He knows what He is doing.
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sov’reign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow’r.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
We live this life under the sovereignty of God because God does everything in His time, He has a plan, and because...
Because God’s Sovereignty Brings Peace and Joy
Because God’s Sovereignty Brings Peace and Joy
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.
So what are we to do with this understanding?
Verse 12 says
I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;
Some have read this as “all well, the best we can do in this situation is accept it.”
But that reading doesn’t make sense with being joyful.
It is better put as, “ I have found the best best thing we can do”
And he gives us two best things.
Be joyful.
Do you remember what Solomon did in chapter 2?
He pursued everything he thought would bring him joy in this life.
Laughter
Pleasure
Wine
Architecture
Agriculture
Possessions
Women
Earthly Greatness
And in all of these things he found no ultimate joy.
But here he tells us that living under the understanding that God is sovereign and that He will make everything beautiful a source for real and lasting joy.
Then he tells us to do good.
How many times have you heard the argument against God’s sovereignty that if God is sovereign then what’s the point of us doing anything.
That’s not how Qoheleth sees it. He puts forth the balance between between God’s sovereignty and our responsibility.
Obedience and joy are often separated, but they shouldn’t be, they are sisters.
Often we sin because we think we know better than God what will bring us joy.
Like the teenager that wants to rebel against the parents who love him, but finds the thing he wants to do a path of sadness and regret like they told him it would be.
also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
The one who understands that everything he has comes from God’s providence and rejoices!
All these things that we face in life can bring joy, ultimately.
We may not find immediate pleasure in them, but through faith we can be joyful.
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.
God is working out His plan and we can’t help it along or nudge it in any direction we think will be best.
No amount of fist shaking can get Him to change the world to be more like the one we think it should be.
We are surrounded by a culture that is suppressing the knowledge of God.
The reality of what’s good and bad, right and wrong, cannot be changed by legislation or protest.
Changing the language to conform to our warped sense of reality doesn’t change the fact that the way things work are the way things work because the One who created them made them that way.
And in the end, after the fruitless attempts of the sinner to hold the beach ball of the knowledge of God below the surface of the water, as soon as they let go it comes shooting back in their face.
God has done it so that people fear before Him. In other words, give Him the reverence and respect He’s due.
And it is the same for us who believe.
It’s easy for us to give a nod to the sovereignty of God, but it’s a completely different to feel the true weight of it on out lives.
To react to the traffic, or the parking lot, or the sickness, or whatever may come before us with faith in the One who controls not only our end, but also the path to that end.
Fear of God is not like the child afraid of the unknown in the dark, fear of God is said to be loving the smile of God more than the smiles of the world.
Conclusion
Conclusion
That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
While the book of Ecclesiastes opens with the hopelessness of the man who lives completely under the sun, the Preacher here shows the hopefulness of the man who lives looking past this life into the next to the God who’s good providence rules over his life.
God has written the beginning, the middle, and the end and is faithful and powerful enough to see it through.
And the last part of the verse means nothing gets away from God.
He seeks the loose ends, the things that others would miss.
The problems of the lowest servant of the earthly king may escape the concern of that ruler, but nothing is too small for God to be concerned with.
He knows who you are out of the billions that are alive, and He is working out the intricate details of your life so that in the end, your life and the things that happen in it will be woven into His great tapestry and bring Him glory because it is beautiful.
One day even that little puzzle piece that doesn’t make sense will be put into place, and it will look just like the beautiful picture on the box.