Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven: 
?2? a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
?3? a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
?4? a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
?5? a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
?6? a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
?7? a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent 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 does the worker gain from his toil?  ?10? I have seen the burden God has laid on men.   ?11? He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.   ?12? I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  ?13? That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.  ?14? I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
?15? Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account.

Dear brothers and sisters, who have made the Lord your refuge.

There Is a Time for Everything

A.     2009 was a full year. A friend of mine once said that God invented time so that everything wouldn’t happen all at once. Sometimes it did seem that everything was happening at once. Because we are creatures who are born in time and who live in time, we can only look backward. We can’t look forward– at least not very clearly. We can make our plans, mark days on the calendar, yet as the Germans used to say, “Man proposes, God disposes.” God’s plan is the ultimate plan. The Bible tells us, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:26-28). We have a free will, but that free will has its limit. God may have different plans than we do. God’s will has no limit. This morning, King Solomon will teach us there is a time for everything. Everything is within God’s control. Everything is a gift from God.

I.  Everything is Within God’s Control. (vv. 1-11, 14)
A.     King Solomon began this chapter with a list of opposites: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal...” and so on. Here Solomon is telling us more than how to do the right thing at the right time. In his list, there are some things we do not and can not choose to do. None of us chose when we would be born. As good as the doctors’ ultrasounds and other methods of predicting are, they can never predict exactly. When they give a date, it’s usually wrong. Nobody can predict death. Sometimes people seem healthy one day and are gone the next. From God’s perspective, nothing is a matter of chance. “He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live” (Acts 16:26ff.). The psalm writer said, “My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:15). “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” Life and death are in his hands.

B.    There are also some items in Solomon’s list that do not come from the hand of God. God is not the author of evil. I am thinking of “a time to kill, . . . a time to weep . . . a time to mourn . . . a time to hate . . . a time for war.” The world is different than it was when God created it. At the end of each day, God said that everything was good, and when he was finished, he said that it was all very good (See Genesis 1:10, 12, etc, 31). When sin came into the world with the devil’s temptation and Adam and Eve’s disobedience, then there was death, pain, and trouble (See Genesis 3:16-19). For Adam and his children, the trouble would be a constant reminder of what they lost– Genesis chapter 5 reads like an obituary column. Paragraph after paragraph reads: “One man lived so many years and had a son. After that, he lived so many years and then he died.” Again and again. Death was in the world, instead of  constant life. Sorrow was in the world, instead of constant joy. And among the people of the world, there would be strife, instead of constant peace. Adam’s first child killed the second because of jealousy.

C.    The evil that does not come from God’s hand is not beyond God’s control. While we live in a sin-darkened world, we still live “under heaven.” Solomon teaches us, “I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.” If we could choose, we would probably choose nothing but good. Nothing but health. Nothing but life. But our God has  a purpose for us as we endure the evil. He does it to draw us to himself. “God does it so that men will revere him.”  We see disasters, and we ask why? In God’s wisdom, he allows evil, and then turns it around for good. After a disaster or tragedy, people tend to slow down. They take time to think about their blessings. Why did we have hardships, tragedies, health problems, car accidents, losses? God knows why. “In all things, God works for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). We wouldn’t have chosen any trials at all. But our God knew what was best for us. He did it to lead us to himself. He gave us opportunities to trust in him. There were times to be born and times to die. Times to weep and times to laugh. Times to mourn and times to dance. A time for war and a time for peace. All our times were in his hands. Everything was within his control.

II. Everything is a gift from God. (v. 13)
A.    Some things will always be mysterious to us. Solomon says, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Rather than think of this as a curse, we ought to think of this as a blessing. The fact that God’s ways are beyond our understanding is an invitation for us to put our faith in him and his power, since so much is beyond our understanding and beyond our power. Faith is not so much a matter of knowing and understanding as it is not knowing, not understanding, but trusting in the word of the Lord anyway. The Lord has given us this gift, a promise that he is just, and that “he will call the past to account.”

B.    We just celebrated the greatest gift of all. The eternal Son of God stepped into time, and while he lived among us, he was born, died, he wept, and surely he laughed. He experienced life and death and joy and sorrow. He stood by the widows and sick and blind, and showed that he is God by healing the sick, giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. He knows  from firsthand experience what it means that there is “a time to be born and a time to die, . . . a time to kill and a time to heal, . . . a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.  He himself endured the lowest to bring us to the highest. He suffered and died to pay for our sin. Jesus showed himself as Lord of all when he defeated death.  We have his promise that when there is no more time, he will raise us all from death. As hard as life may be, we have a Savior at our side, who can help us in every trial, because he endured the same things (See Hebrews 2:14-18). He was our Savior from the manger to the cross. He is our Savior now. In the midst of each trial he invites us, “Come to me and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Rest from 2009. Rest from whatever troubles us– because we know that everything is beyond our power. Nothing is beyond his.

Conclusion: “Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before.”  Yes, today we do have electronic gadgets and many other things  Solomon never had or dreamed of. Yet his God-inspired words are still very true. Human nature is the same as it was. And God’s gracious plan to work history out for the good of his people is still the same. “Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before,” “from everlasting to everlasting [he is] God.”  He is faithful in all he does, unchanging despite all the change we see.

Amen.

© 2010 Rev. Paul C. Stratman