Feb. 10, 2013
M. Kelly
Eccl. 3:1-8
Solomon is teaching that life is empty without God. It doesn't make sense and it ends in dispair.
We need to remember where Solomon is going with his thoughts. The only thing worth knowing is to fer God and keep his commands. 12:13
He ends chapter 2 with the acknowledgement that we need to live before God to find meaning.
3:1 There is an appointed time for everything. It's not by chance that our circumstances change. These things are in God's hands and Solomon is giving us a proper perspective of our circumstances. Paul found him self to be content in whatever circumstances he found himself. So our circumstances are appointed by God. Life is in motion and has a rhythm. It is in constant change and has no permanence. God is in control of all of it.
God deals with man in time, words and works of Providence. All three things are working together.
We are not in control. God is in control. Our hope is in the One Who never changes.
The list in this passage is meant to embrace all of life. V. 2-8 holds our own experiences there. This is what life is like. There is a time for everything. It is a picture of the flow of life.
V. 1 Solomon acknowledges it is God who is control....under heaven
It should humble us to know that God is in control, not us. It is all directed against the free will of man!
The list is descriptive not prescriptive. It's just telling us what life is like under the sun.
V.2-3 Beginning and endings
V.4 Contrasting emotions
V.5 Sometimes things and not valuable and sometimes they are
Some things can be good at one time and bad at another
V.6. Possessions
V.7. Sorrow and speaking
V.8. Love and hate privately, war and peace nationally
1. Notice the sovereignty of God.
V.1There is an appointed time for everything and time for every event under heaven.
v. 11 Everything is made beautiful in its time
It's a mind boggling truth that God is in control and sovereign over all the events.
The list includes many things we don't or choose to happen. Death, killing, tearing down, weeping, losing, tearing apart, hating, war.
God's Providence
Gal 4:4-5 When the fullness of time came....
Acts 4:26-28 ...to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined...
You can't buck what God is doing. You might as well enjoy God through it.
God has two wills
Preceptive Will~that which he commanded.
Decretive Will~that which comes to pass.
No man can buck His Decretive Will. It will come to pass no matter what, but man can buck His Preceptive Will.
Psalm 31:14-15 my times are in Your hand
V. 2 a time to give birth and a time to die. God is sovereign over all of life. Ps. 139:13-16; Jeremiah 1:4-5
Romans 5:12 Everything is appointed by God
There is a time to plant and uproot...more on beginnings and ending
V. 3 At time to kill, heal, tear down & build up
We are forbidden to murder, yet there is a time for war and war is a time for killing. Circumstances can come upon us and that would be a wise time to kill...intruder coming into your house, for example.
There were times when God commanded killing of the wicked. God Himself is the one who take people out of this world. Deut 32:9
The government may have spies to commanded to go eliminate someone, but they often fail. God never does.
1 Sam. 2:6; Matt. 10:28
There is also a time for healing....physically and spiritually. Only God can heal and he does it through means. He makes the body capable to heal itself if that is His will.
God {2 Kings 20:5}heals in a spiritual sense.
Jer. 33:6-9; Hosea 6:1-2; 14:4; Ps 51:11-12
v. 3 Tearing down and building up. We see this in our city and neighborhoods.
2 Cor. 5:1-
v. 4 time for the full range of human emotions
Job 5 says we are born for trouble....so there are many reasons for tears.
Heb. 12:11...discipline is sorrowful but yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness
Laughter and dancing follows weeping and mourning. If we always look for laughter we will be disappointed.
2 Cor. 4:16-18 do not lose heart....both weeping and mourning and joy are in this verse.
Don't be too focused that which we see. We must focus on what we do not see.....glory.
Heb. 12:2
Rev. 21:3-4
V. 5 There are times when that which is useful and good becomes not useful and good.
Everything is appropriate in its time.
V. 6 Keeping and losing possessions, looking for what to keep and what to throw away.
Spiritually there are things to keep and toss out.
Mark 10:29-30; Matt. 13:45-46;
V. 7 A time to tear apart~to show sorrow in the tearing of the garments and a time to sew up
Joy would mean it's time to sew your garment back up or make a new one.
Time for silence and time to speak....knowing when is a difficult thing.
v. 8 a time to love and time to hate.
time for war and time for peace.
At all times we should love righteousness and hate evil. Ps. 97:10; Prov. 8:13; Amos 5:15; Cultivate hatred for evil.
*Let us trust in God in all seasons of our lives.
The holy hand of God is in one as well as the other!
He works all things for our good. He is the only one who will not change. Don't look for comfort in creatures and what is created by creatures. It never lasts!! We are to trust in God no matter what our circumstances are!! He is our comfort in the middle of a world that is always changing. We need to learn to be still before God.
2. God knows our condition.
Look at the list in Eccl 3:1-8
It's an up and down life. The Lord knows the way. He is working the circumstances. He is working within us. He knows what He is doing and He works all things for the good of the church! We can go to Him and commune with Him in the midst of these things.
We need to cry out, "Lord what would You have me to learn in these circumstances? How can I learn and grow through them?" We often only thank God for things that work in our favor and call those things blessing, but shun the unhappy circumstances.
⛄Marsha⛄
But none of these things move me, (not knowing what shall befall me v. 23) neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24 KJV)
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