8. Making Sense of Time and Life

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Hymns: 375 Speak, Lord, in the Stillness 380 Close to Thee 30 When This Passing World Is Done

Study of the Book of Ecclesiastes

(Remember Now Thy Creator)

– Making Sense of Time and Life

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

 

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which 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 get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 A time to rend, 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 of war, and a time of peace. 9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? 10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. 11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

 

OUTLINE

  • The Seasons (v1-8)
  • The Sweat (v9-10)
  • The Sweetness (v11)

 

INTRODUCTION

Last week, Solomon tells us what is the fulfilled life. When we have God in perspective, life makes sense. Not any god, but the God, the one living and true God who created all things. And God is the one that gives to man that which is good – not only the physical things (the ability to do an honest labour, the ability to eat, the ability to drink, the ablity to tell yourself that life is good), and the spiritual things (wisdom – what we think, and knowledge – what we know and joy – how we can find joy and enjoy life). It is from the hand of God. God is the one who gives us true perspective of what life is all about. And He tells us that apart from God there is no true enjoyment or joy![1]

But when you have God with you, as today’s Daily Light reading tells us, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. Sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing. We glory in tribulations also.”[2]

“The joy of the Lord is your strength. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. By him … let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”

Solomon continues to help us make sense of life by linking time into the equation of life. He spreads before us life through time and he measures it for us according to its events. After telling us that we cannot enjoy life apart from God, he now tells us that life paints for us the picture of life through its familiar events, and how we are to make sense of it all.

Three thoughts to help carry us through the text:

  • The Seasons (v1-8)
  • The Sweat (v9-10)
  • The Sweetness (v11)

 

(1) The Seasons (v1-8)

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

 Solomon tells us that in all the events of life there is a season for every common event that you experience in life. And it is set chronologically in time. And it is with a purpose. He is leading us to see that greater purpose of God in the chronology of life. You are placed in this earth for a greater glory, a transcending purpose that he is leading his readers to understand.

And he does so giving us the cross-section of life.[3]

Solomon gives to us fourteen contrasting episodes, scenes or events of life that pretty much covers the spectrum of a man’s life in all his encounters. Each one of them opposites, antithetical, converse but true.

He begins by showing us the beginning and the end of life before telling us the in-betweens of life.

 

2 A time to be born, and a time to die;…

The average 24-hour day, has 1,440 minutes and 86,400 seconds of time. And it moves in one direction. Time past is time expended, we cannot retrive it. It is only a memory. So it begs the question, how are we to spend it? Does it means that death means the end of all things, is there a possibility that our life can outlast itself?

I recalled when I was in primary school, I was in the choir. And we sang this song entitled “Sunrise, Sunset” which I understand now is Jewish in origin describing life through its seasons.

 

Sunrise, Sunset

Is this the little girl I carried,

Is this the little boy at play?

I don’t remember growing older,

When did they?

 

When did she get to be a beauty,

When did he grow to be so tall?

 

Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small?

 

Sunrise, sunset (x2),

Swiftly flow the days.

 

Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,

Blossoming even as we gaze.

 

Sunrise, sunset (x2),

Swiftly fly the years,

One season following another,

Laiden with happiness and tears.

 

What words of wisdom can I give them,

How can I help to ease their way?

 

Now they must learn from one another,

Day by day.

 

They look so natural together.

 

Just like two newlyweds should be.

 

Is there a canopy in store for me?

 

Sunrise, sunset (x2),

Swiftly fly the years,

One season following another,

Laden with happiness,

And tears

 

For a fully grown adult, on the average, your heart beats 103,689 times, your blood travels 270 million km, you breathe 23,040 times, you inhale 12.4 cubic meters of air, you eat 1.4 kg of food, you drink 2.7 liters of liquids, you lose 0.4kg of waste, you speak 4,800 words, including some unnecessary ones, you move 750 muscles, your nails grow .00011 cm, your hair grows 0.435mm, you exercise 7,000,000 brain cells. The day you person dies, all these activities of a normal day ceased. That’s the physical aspect of life.

But there is the emotional aspect of life. We build relationships. We touch lives with our lives. We cherish family ties. We build friendships. We laugh together, sing together, enjoy the company of one another. We care for one another, we help one another, we love one another. We eat together, go places together, support each other, strengthen each other.

Then there is a day of parting, when we say goodbye to one another when death strikes, goodbye in a physical sense when they die. And we would miss them, we would bring flowers to the tomb wherewith they are buried to remember the good times.

As Christians, we bury our dead. And so, when we visit the Christian cemetery, we see many of our friends and loved ones who had gone before us. And we cherish the good memories how their lives were an integral part of our lives once before. That’s life!

 

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

This is a farming imagery that tells us the seasons in the farmers’ work. There is a time to plant, a time to water, a time to add fertilizers, a time to let the sun and the rain to come, a time to prune and a time of harvest. Each work has to be done in its time. In Israel, we see the olives, the figs, the vines. The figs come in spring time August to September period. And timing is important. The fruit comes its season. When it is not the season, there is no fruit. The farmer knows when to plant and when to let pluck up and let the land fallow before he would plant again.

In the seasons of life, you move on and uproot yourself from one place and move to another locality to work, to serve…there is a season.

 

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal;…

One pastor puts it well, “Life seems somewhere strangely fixed between a battlefield and a first-aid station, between murder and medicine. There is the Mafia in one part of the world and a missionary in another. Sometimes there appear in adjacent columns in our newspaper, and we are forced to deal with those opposites, killing and healing at the same point of time. One article tells us about a murderer who took someone’s life in savage, cold blood, and there’s another article that tells about a miracle drug that will help you live much longer. There’s a time to kill, and a time to heal.”[4]

We cannot understand how one person who contracted cancer would wither and die and how another would survive the disease.

 

….a time to break down, and a time to build up;

This is a picture of renewal. I saw a picture of the Marina area as a reclaimed piece of land in the year 2000. Today, it is bustling with activity as an extension of the central business district.

I was with one of our brethren to pray before the roof of the house would be taken down and construction will begin for a new family home. Pray for the safety of the construction work to the construction workers, the neighbours. God to bless the new home to be built for His honour and glory.

God sent the Babylonians to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C. And seventy years later, God sent them back to the land to rebuilt the Second Temple that stood until after the time of Christ in A.D. 70.

The Bible tells us that there is a Temple that will come during the time of the Tribulation. When will this be? Israel is now in the land since 1948. Jerusalem is given back to the Jews in 1967. When will the temple be rebuilt?

 

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

I visited the wake of a brother in Christ last Saturday. His grandmother went home to be with the Lord at 94. She accepted the Lord in her latter days. Though the family was sorrowful for the loss they were happy that she is in heaven, safe in the arms of Jesus.

This is life. Then there is a wedding that is coming up and we are all dressed up to congratulate the wedded couple and their family.

 

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; 

In human relationships, there is the ups and the downs. There are those times when family would embrace one another. There are those times when siblings hurt each other so much so that there is deep hatred and unforgiveness.

When Israel cross the Jordan and came to Gilgal, they made a heap of stones to mark their first entry to the Promised Land.

 

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A successful investment and business venture. A failure in a business venture. What is ours today is lost tomorrow. How uncertain is life.

 

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew;

The sewing speaks of the preparing of a dress for a joyful occasion and a time when calamity comes and we rend our clothes and mourn like the situation of Job.

 Job 1:18-21 While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house: 19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. 20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

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

There is a time when silence is golden. But there is a time when we need to speak. The Apostles in the Acts of the Apostles continued to preach the gospel even though they were asked by the authorities to stop preaching, they said, “We ought to obey God than men”.

And Jesus toward the latter part of His ministry was silent to the accusations and hatred of religious leaders.

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

 

8 A time to love, and a time to hate;

The embracing of the brethren, a holy hatred for those who perpetrate evil.

…a time of war, and a time of peace.

We speak here of national calamity…uprising against unjust government. A coup or civil unrest to usurp governmental authority.

 

(2) The Sweat (v9-10)

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth? 10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

Solomon tells us that unprofitable works of men in their time of life when they sweat to no avail. They have not understood the purpose of God in His creation of this world. And are not aquainted with God’s divine purpose for life.

 

(3) The Sweetness (v11)

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

But God is the one that makes sense to life because He is the One that orders the events of life. All who knows that will know that they are in good hands under the care of the God Almighty.

We shall dwell more here next week.

 

CONCLUSION

  • The Seasons (v1-8)
  • The Sweat (v9-10)
  • The Sweetness (v11)

 

[1] Charles Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge, W Publishing Group, 2004, 56.

[2] Bagster’s Daily Light, 20 July Reading.

[3] Charles Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge, W Publishing Group, 2004, 56.

[4] Charles Swindoll, Living on the Ragged Edge, W Publishing Group, 2004, 57.