THE RELENTLESS RHYTHMS OF TIME.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13.
‘Turn, turn, turn’ is the refrain of the old pop song based upon these verses. However, time is not circular, but linear: it is more like a river relentlessly, but always, running downstream. It is our subjective experience of time that gives us the loop-de-loop illusion of a roller coaster ride.
1. The Roller Coaster (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).
Times and seasons may trundle inexorably onwards under the watchful eye of God, but not without “purpose under the heaven” (ECCLESIASTES 3:1). It is God who has set these things in motion, and it is He alone who knows the end from the beginning (cf. Isaiah 46:10).
ECCLESIASTES 3:2-3 contrasts between constructive and destructive actions: birth and death, planting and plucking up; killing and healing, breaking down and building up.
“To kill” here probably presupposes the death penalty, which is taken for granted throughout the Bible. Or it might refer to livestock, which might be offered on the altar as a sacrifice to God. In this sense, there was a ‘fullness of time’ for even God’s own Son to be killed (cf. Galatians 4:4-5)!
Weeping and laughing, and mourning and dancing (ECCLESIASTES 3:4) are emotional opposites. The circumstances which lead to these reactions are often beyond our control.
We “cast away stones” (ECCLESIASTES 3:5) when we prepare the land for agriculture, and we “gather stones together” to prepare for a building. However, this might be a euphemism for having or not having intercourse: it is paired with ‘embracing and restraining from embracing.’
Getting and losing, and keeping and casting away (ECCLESIASTES 3:6) sounds financial. For example, knowing when to earn and when to spend, and when to save and when to withdraw.
ECCLESIASTES 3:7. People used to “rend” their clothes during a time of mourning (cf. Genesis 37:34). “A time for silence” is appropriate when we sit in solidarity with our mourning friends (cf. Job 2:13). But there is also a time to cease from mourning and getting on with life. And a time to speak out.
ECCLESIASTES 3:8. Loving our ‘neighbour’ includes loving our ‘enemies,’ says Jesus (cf. Matthew 5:43-44) - a fact illustrated by the history of the good Samaritan (cf. Luke 10:30-37). This is not just what we must do - it is who we are. Christians should not “hate” anyone personally, but there is a time to give expression to our hatred of evil.
Christians are engaged in a spiritual warfare throughout our lives. There may well be a time, too, when a peace-loving people might find it necessary to engage in war. Happily, the writer changes the order of the parallelism so that “Peace” might have the last word.
2. Making the Most of Life (Ecclesiastes 3:9-13).
ECCLESIASTES 3:9. “What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?” This is a question expecting the answer ‘None!’ (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:10-11). The writer has “seen” the cause of this in the Fall of man (ECCLESIASTES 3:10; cf. Genesis 3:17-19).
ECCLESIASTES 3:11. Prior to the Fall, God “made everything beautiful” (cf. Genesis 1:31). He has also set “eternity” (NKJV) in the hearts of the sons of men. However, we cannot comprehend the whole picture from beginning to end as God does.
The writer speaks now of what he has come to “know” (ECCLESIASTES 3:12). There is nothing better for us than to “rejoice” (cf. Philippians 4:4) and to “do good” (cf. Galatians 6:9).
ECCLESIASTES 3:13. “That every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the fruit of his labour, is the gift of God” (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:24; 1 Corinthians 10:31).
