The Meaning of Time in a Meaningless World (Eccl 3:1-15)

It’s Too Late

On July 25, 2000, Air France Concorde flight 4590 crashed on takeoff in Paris. A hundred passengers were killed along with nine crew and four people on the ground as the Concorde banked, stalled, and then plunged to the ground, exploding on impact.

The cause of the crash was a sixteen-inch strip of metal on the runway. The metal burst the aircraft’s tire, and debris from the blowout ruptured a fuel tank in the aircraft’s wing. With the plane on fire, the pilot could not halt the takeoff, though he planned to make an emergency landing at a nearby airport. His last words as he fought to save his stricken craft were “too late.”

For that pilot, and the hundred passengers on board the Concord, time ran out for their time on earth. Some could look at the accident and see it as meaningless. A piece of metal left on a runway killed all those people? it seems like such a senseless way to die. But that is life for us under the sun. And if you do not understand that there is a God who ordained time and orders time to work out his plan for our good and his glory, you are left with meaninglessness.

God has ordained and ordered time in a meaningless world for your eternal good.

God has ordained time in a meaningless world for your good (Eccl 3:1; 11)

In verse 1, Solomon says,

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

To say that there is a “season” and a “time for every matter under heaven, is to say there is an appointed time for everything. God created time to govern the fabric of humanity. God is the one who ordained time and God is the one who gives time its purpose.

Time, like everything else, has its origins in Genesis. It first shows up when God creates the sun and the moon creating a twenty-four hour life cycle.

Genesis 1:5 ESV

God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

Time is for humanity, his image bearers. God is not bound by time, nor does he need time. The Bible teaches that God is a forever God, and everlasting God.

Psalm 90:2 ESV

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

also

Psalm 93:2 ESV

Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.

Because God is not bound by time or governed by time, God’s perception of time is not like ours. Peter says

2 Peter 3:8 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Days and years do not matter as much to God as they do us. God may appoint a work to happen, and then wait four hundred years for it to come to pass. For humanity, generations have come and gone, but for God, it’ not even day. There is an important point to understanding time in relation to God.

God is sovereign over time.

Solomon reminds you and I that God is sovereign over time, and that He is not bound by our time to do his work. He starts and finishes his work according to his wisdom in is time. But we know that God is good and works all of time for our good and his glory. We face this life, all of its mountains and valleys, knowing that the God of grace uses time in a way that is best for you.

Think about how God used time for your salvation. First, Jesus came in the “fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4-5) to fulfill God’s perfect plan of salvation. Jesus understood this when he announced his kingdom

Mark 1:15 ESV

and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

And at the perfect time in your life, God opened your eyes and your heart to see that you need a Savior. He granted you repentance (2 Timothy 2:24-26) and faith (Eph 2:8-9; John 1:11-13; 20:31) to believe. You reasoned to his invitation and now enjoy abundant life in Jesus, now in this time, and for all eternity. Furthermore, for us who know Jesus, who love Him and adore Him, we know without a doubt that God is using our time right now to conform us into the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). That means we know all suffering will have its season of time in our life, just as joy will have its season in our life. We can also be confident that even the mundanes(ness) of life that happens in between the joy and suffering serve its timely purpose. we can be confident of this truth about time because we know God promises to work all things, suffering, joy, and the mundane for our good (Romans 8:28).

What’s more, we also know that time will come to an end. There is going to come a time when Jesus comes back and restores all that is broken, and he gathers his elect, those whom he has redeemed, and we live in a timeless eternity with him (Revelation 21).

There is good reason for us to only have twenty four hours in a day. There is good reason for us to have a life span of a few years on earth. Can you imagine if you were able to eat of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden as a fallen sinner? There was good reason for God to kick Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden with no chance or returning.

Genesis 3:22–23 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

God showed his mercy to Adam and Eve by keeping them from living forever under the condemnation of sin. God uses time as an instrument of grace for you and I in this broken world. There is always a season for things as Solomon points out in v2-8.

God has ordered time in a meaningless world for your good (Eccl 3:2-8)

Life is filled with with these intense contrasts or tensions. The R&B group Maze wrote a song called, “Joy and Pain.” Rob base and DJ EZ Rock wrote a song using a few of MAZE’s lyrics from this song in the early 1990’s. MAZE’s lyrics captures a familiar contrast that all of experience in this life.

It seem to me that Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain

Love can bitter, love can be sweet Sometimes devotion and sometimes deceit The ones that you care for, give you so much pain Oh, but it's alright, they're both one in the same.

There may be a time for weeping but there is a time for laughing. There may be a time for lamenting, but there is also a time for dancing. Joy and pain are like sunshine and rain. Love and be bitter and can be sweet; sometimes devotion and sometimes deceit. That is life in God’s ordered time under the sun. That is somewhat the point of what Solomon us saying in his poem on time.

In verse 2, he begins with the bookends of life. He says

Ecclesiastes 3:2 ESV

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

Unfortunately, in a world ridden with sin, Solomon points out in verse three that destruction and killing are a part of our existence. He is not advocating killing, he is simply point out that, as Duane Garrett notes, “where death is a central fact of life, there will also be a time to kill.”

In verse 4, Solomon recognizes that there is as much joy as there is sorrow in this life. As a matter of fact, as Garret points out again, “without one the other is unrecognizable.” You cannot have a true sense of joy without pain. Again, life under the sun lives in a tension; you can’t enjoy sunshine without the rain.

Verse 5, might seem a little for us. What do we know about the significance of casting stones? Even the Hebrew is a little shaky here. What it boils down to, in my opinion, is similar to what you read in 2 Kings 3:25

2 Kings 3:25 (ESV)

And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of land every man threw a stone until it was covered...

When an enemy wanted to destroy ones crops or food supply, they would cast stones into the field until the ground was unworkable.

The other side of casting stones is picking them up to make the land useful. Again, this all part of the process of life. There is a time to destroy and a time to rebuild.

In verse seven, Solomon may be alluding to mourning and funerals. Mourners tore their clothes, and their comforters kept silent during times of grief, but people were free to repair clothes and freely converse at other times ( Duane A. Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, vol. 14, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 298) In the process of life in a Genesis three world, words have consequences. Untimely placed words can bring trouble. Solomon says of the fool and his words,

Proverbs 18:6–7 ESV

A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating. A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

Well words, spoken at the right time can bring peace and comfort.

As Solomon wraps up this section he ends with

Ecclesiastes 3:8 ESV

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

As Duane Garrett rightly points out, perfect peace does not exist on earth. You will notice that love and hate are emotions derived in the human heart. War and peace are the outward actions of hate and love. This is life under the sun for you and I. Thank God he governs time. He ensures that life is lived in seasons. The sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning. Moreover, he uses these seasons of joy and pain to work in your life.

In 1965, the band The Byrds released their rendition of Pete Seeger’s song “Turn! Turn! Turn!. Seeger wrote it because he was angry at his producer. Seeger was really involved in the protest moment, which is the main theme of most of his music. So, in protest, he went to the book of Ecclesiastes and wrote a melody to verse 2-8. Eventually a few years later it made its way to the Byrds.

To understand the meaning of life, you need to come to grips with the reality that and eternal God who is not bound by time governs your life with a short amount of time. God’s plans for you always have eternity in mind. Eternity is coming, and what you do with your short amount of time on this earth matters in the life to come. Having a true meaning of life understands that the time you have on earth is best used for serving Christ and His kingdom. Heed the wisdom of Paul in Ephesians

Ephesians 5:16 ESV

making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

and in Romans 13:11-12

Romans 13:11–12 ESV

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

God ordained time for your good. Don’t waste. In verses 2-8, Solomon shows us how God has ordered time for our good. He uses the seasons of your life, the ups and downs, and inside outs, to conform you into the image of His Son. Your joy in this life serves a purpose. Your sorrow in this life serves a purpose. Your mundane day serves a purpose in God’s ordained and ordered time under the sun. You must not waste it. Time will haunt you if you are not careful.

How does time haunt you?

Time haunts you in two ways. First, the past is never a path for the future. Solomon gives a word of advice in

Ecclesiastes 7:10 ESV

Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this.

In other words, do not dwell on the past, whether it was good or bad. It will do you no good. Nostalgia is not a friend to those who are running out of time. You cannot go back in time and enjoy the good old days, or redeem the mistakes you made. The past stays in the past. Your cannot resurrect it. Solomon is not saying you can’t learn from mistakes. He is saying you cannot live in the past, the way Uncle Rico did in Napoleon Dynamite.

Uncle Rico never got over the fact the his head football coach didn’t put him in the fourth quarter of the state football championship. He believed that had he been in the game life would be different for him. If he could just go back and to that time life could be better for his future. He was so desperate to get back to 1982 that he bought a gimmicky time machine off the internet that uses electricity and fake quartz crystals. Napoleon finds it the hard way that the only thing that machine is good for is sending volts of electricity through your growing. The saddest part of the movie might be after Napoleon exclaims that the machine doesn’t work, Uncle Rico comes out holding his side saying, “I could’ve told you that.” Well, Solomon could’ve told the both of them it wouldn’t work. Most of you sitting here might even say, “Common sense will tell you that you cannot go back in time.” But how many of you still live as in the past?

How many of you dwell on the past? How many of you reminisce about the good old days, and long for the good old days at the expense of what the days ahead could be like? How many of you use the past to criticize the present? We see this in church. This church is not what it once was. This were the days when the church was really the church. We see in the community. Our community use to be (fill in the blank). We see it in the home. When I was a kid, we never acted like this or did that. Friends, nostalgia is not a friend to those who are running out of time because living in the past does nothing to help you use your time wisely for the future.

Second, time haunts you because it is fleeting. It goes by too quickly. We know this all to well. We say things like, “Where did the time go?” I told a lady last week, “There aren’t enough hours in the day.” Students with busy schedules will often say, “I’ve got to make the most of my time.” How often have you said, “My time will come, or when my time is up, its up?”

One of the things I first noticed as I was getting older, leaving adolescence and growing into adulthood was how fast time seemed to speed up. It slows down for no one. Every year I get older, it feels like time goes faster. That makes time frustrating to me. But, God shows me

Even though time haunts you, it is for your good (Eccl 3:9-11a; 12-13)

In verse 9, Solomon says that we are mortal, that is we are bound by time, and thus our labor is a “life long affliction with no eternal results.”(v10). And yet he qualifies verse 9-10 with 11a. he says that God has made everything beautiful in tis time. That is, God has made everything appropriate, under his sovereignty for you and me. Going back to the beginning of the sermon, God uses time and everything he purposes for your time under the sun, to his glory and your joy. What I mean is, God makes wise use of your time and you should accept his use of your time as appropriate for you.

If God gives you eighty years on this earth, and he governs all eighty years of your life-bringing you from mountain to valley to plain to mountain top, and though the valley of the shadow of death, you should realize that he has appointed your time inside the magnificent fabric of his hidden eternal plan. Every bit of your life is under his sovereignty and as long as he has you on this earth, he is working every good and right in your life, even the difficult stuff, to fit perfectly into his eternal plan.

I go back to people like Adoniram Judson. I’ve mentioned him before because he is one of my hero’s of the faith. One of the realities of his life that makes him my hero is his steadfast commitment to King Jesus when his ministry appeared to look unfruitful. He brought the gospel to Burma. He spent 30 plus years of his life living in poverty and suffering. He lost his wife and children. He was imprisoned as a spy. When he came to the end of his life, he had a handful of converts. That’s it. By all standards given by Christian pragmatists, it looked like Judson wasted his time in Burma.

God is not worried about Christian pragmatist, and Judson did not waste his time, nor did God waste his time. Judson translated the New Testament into Burmese. His handful of coverts used that New Testament to preach the gospel and bring millions to Christ. God’s ordered time is good for you when you recognize his sovereignty over it.

Time should drive you to Jesus, your eternal good (Eccl 3:11; 14-15)

Solomon says,

Ecclesiastes 3:11 HCSB

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.

God did a spectacular thing to every human heart in relation to time. He ordained time giving us the bookends us by birth and death. But, he put eternity into our hearts, making time in and of itself meaningless to us. Time only applies to life under the sun. If we lived solely for life under the sun, Solomon has already shown that is meaningless life. God ensured that you could not be content with time under the sun by putting forever in your heart.

Solomon says something that is hard to understand in the second half of verse 11. He says, “But man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.” This is the product of having eternity in man’s heart. We can never fully grasp God’s plans in our life under the sin.

We know there is more life out there to live. we intuitively know there is something beyond death. we know that this life must serve a greater purpose. That’s eternity talking to you in your heart. The problem is you are a finite creature of time. You are dependent of God to reveal to you his truth, and we cannot handle all of his truth at once. That is where faith comes in to play. God has to say to you, “Just trust me.”

You are stuck between time and eternity. That is is frustrating and absurd at times, but is the perfect place for faith. God put the tension of time and eternity in your heart to move you to trust him.

There is more tension in verse 12.

Ecclesiastes 3:12 HCSB

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life.

For now, there is nothing better for you to do than to enjoy the good life while you can. Eat. Drink. Be merry. Enjoy your labor for that is God’s gift to you (v13). God gives good gifts to those who are pleasing to him (Eccl 2:24-26). But who are those who are pleasing to God? It is those sinners who have repented of their sin and by faith have accepted Jesus as their Savior. All of us have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. All of us deserve his wrath in hell. But God gave his Son, Jesus, to die on a cross to take his wrath in our place, so that he can atone for our sin, and make us pleasing in God’s sight. By faith we embrace Jesus, we trust Jesus as our way into God’s presence, and our faith in his cleaning blood makes us pleasing to God. This work of salvation will endure forever. Jesus ensures that the work that God does in your life for his kingdom, will endure forever (3:14). Jesus will not waste your time.

It’s Not Too Late!

It’s not too late. Your plan has not crashed. God has give you this time to know Jesus, to enjoy Jesus, to make the most of your time by joyfully advancing the kingdom of God by making much of Jesus int he church, community, and home. Now, you don’t know when God will call you home, or to hell. That makes time pertinent to you right now. You must act. If you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, friend, today is the day for your salvation. Do not delay. Ask Jesus to forgive your sin and give you eternal life. He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you.

Christian, what are you doing with your time? Are you resting in Jesus? Are you working for Jesus? Are you finding meaning in your time on earth by advancing your own kingdom, or do you have true meaning for your time by using it to advance God’s kingdom?

Jesus redeems your time. Don’t waste it!