Ecclesiastes 3 English Standard Version (ESV)
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what 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 seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, 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 for war, and a time for peace.
9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 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. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. 14 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. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
Discussion
See how the times (seasons) of life are presented in partnership, one typically viewed as a positive, the other a negative. Are the times such as death, killing, weeping and mourning always negative? According to this passage, there is a definite place for these times. Some are obvious both in terms of their happening, and their purpose, such as the joy that comes from the time of the birth of a child. Other times might not be so obvious.
But they have a purpose. Consider verse 14. Sometimes what God does is to bring us to our senses ‘so that people fear before him’. Consider this from Luke 13 “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others that lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” This speaks to me of both fear and grace. There is obvious purpose here.
Consider the times of your own life. The good times (seasons) and the bad seasons. Where did God teach you lessons? Can you see times when God instilled a sense of fear? We are not often taught today that God should be feared, but this passage does tell us that. But then there may also have been many times when we saw his grace. Times where we have been blessed and we may know that we were in fact far from God and undeserving.
This unusual period of time associated with the global pandemic is a season. How do you view this season? Do you see that God has done this? Consider verses 14 and 15 which speak of God’s sovereignty.
One day we will all face death. That will be a time. A season. Christ has made it possible for the word ‘death’ to carry great hope, since by his grace we may be saved and look at that as a gateway to eternity with him. Keep that as a constant prayer and use it to right-size events such as the one we currently find us in.
For further perspective on this passage, please consider Proverbs 16 vs 1 – 7.
Derek Brown
