Overcoming Futility—a sermon series on Ecclesiastes
“God’s Enduring Work” Chapter 3 -Pastor Bob Leroe, Cliftondale Congregational Church, Saugus, Massachusetts
What do we do with the brief time we’ve been given? In a lifetime, the average American will spend 6 months waiting at stoplights, one year looking for misplaced objects, two years unsuccessfully returning phone calls, 4 years doing housework, and 5 years waiting in line (if you served in the military, make that 6 years!). Benjamin Franklin cautioned, “Do you love life? Then do not squander time, for it is the stuff life is made of.”
Perhaps some of you have heard of Chaos theory, a complex model developed by mathematicians to find the underlying order in seemingly random events. In this chapter, Solomon shows how our lives have structure. To people without faith, time simply rolls onward, with no apparent rhyme or reason; accidents happen, and they are alone in the world. For believers, time is ordered by God’s providence. Events don’t “just happen” by chance; there is “a time for everything” (3:1). God is with us, and is actively involved in our lives.
We’re all familiar with chapter 3, but for a moment (skipping over the best-known passage), let’s focus on the key to this chapter, verse 11: “God has made everything appropriate in its time” (NASB). Some translations use the word “beautiful”. The idea is that of a “beautifully-fitting” structure. God is sovereign, He controls the “times”, yet in spite of this, we often fail to recognize God’s hand at work in the world. We have at best a limited view of all that God is doing. He causes all things to work together for good (Rom 8:28), and our times are in His hand. His timing is perfect. Faith means trusting God, even when our timing disagrees with His. In times of hardship we draw comfort from knowing that God is in control. He has a plan that one day will be made clear.
Thanks partially to folksinger Pete Seeger, verses 1-8 are familiar to us all. The seasons turn, and we see in them a series of opposites. We discover order and design, not only in Creation, but also in the events and cycles of life. Solomon lists things common to us all--a time to plant, a time to build, a time to laugh…and in so doing he unveils life’s structure and complexity. The world has a divinely-regulated, built-in flow. No one can alter God’s design. The original language implies that for everything there is a suitable time and a particular season. Life is not a string of random events. This list of opposites covers 28 events in 14 pairs, multiples of 7 – a number that symbolizes completeness and perfection in the Bible. We can perceive life as meaningless, endless cycles, or understand that the totality of life is regulated by God.
Time is a gift. For a clockmaker time is the essence of his handiwork. For a science-fiction writer it is the fourth dimension. A biologist sees time in the internal clocks that keep plants and animals in sync with nature. For a banker time is money. A philosopher once wrote, "Time is the best teacher. Unfortunately, it kills all its pupils." God is outside of the realm of time. He can see the beginning and the end and all points in between. He is sovereign over time and eternity…or as a teenager put it in a Confirmation class, “God does what He thinks is cool.”
We see structure in the timing of the coming of Jesus. He came “in the fullness of time”, and when attempts were unsuccessfully made on His life, it was because “His time was not yet come”. At the completion of His foreordained mission He cried out “It is finished!” God has a plan for us as well. Where we live, who we marry, our work, even our hobbies, fit in with His plan for us. Those who see God’s hand in everything can best leave everything in God’s hand. “History is a story written by the hand of God” (C.S. Lewis). There are no chance encounters in life, only divine appointments. This is a very comforting doctrine, and a warning to those who think that they control their fate.
There is a time for everything, but what do we gain from all our efforts (vs 9)? Whatever we do is profitless if we live apart from God. We’re in the dark until we give our lives to God. And what do we do with the time we’re given? We have time to be peacemakers, but we continue in our conflict; we have time to pray, but we’re distracted by the cares of this world. We have time to be refreshed, but we work to the point of exhaustion. We use time, or time uses us.
Verse 11 (the key verse) goes on to state, “God has also set eternity in the hearts of men.” God has given us a thirst for spiritual things that can only be satisfied when we receive the water that will satisfy our souls forever. Jesus promises in John 4, “The water I give takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring giving eternal life” (4:14). We innately sense that there is more to life than what we see.
Verses 13-14 recommend two things: enjoy life, and fear God. How can we do both? If we revere God, we will have the capacity to enjoy life, especially when we see the pleasures of life as gifts from His hand. My wife and I recently attended an all-Mozart chamber music concert at Jordan Hall in Boston. The brilliant music we heard performed is a reflection of God’s own creativity. I often think after such concerts that music alone is proof that there is a God.
Life is fleeting, transient. But “everything God does will endure forever,” verse 14. The prophet Isaiah writes, “The grass withers, and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever” (40:8). We can accomplish things of eternal value in our brief lifespan. Its been said: “Only one life, will soon be past; only what’s done for God will last.”
Verses 15-17 point out the seeming unfairness of life. There appears to be injustice everywhere we turn, but that’s because we’re missing the “big picture”. People express outrage when a killer or sex offender gets a light sentence. If consequences were limited to this life alone, that would be indeed unfair. The end of life isn’t the end of the story. We will all appear before God’s throne to give an account of our lives. God does not overlook human iniquity. There is an appointed time for accountability and judgment: “God will call the past to account” (15).
Verses 18-21 raise some concern. Solomon is returning to his overall theme, that without God, life is bleak and meaningless. There is a time to die, and if there were no life after death, then there’d be little hope for the future, and it wouldn’t matter how anyone lives. Like animals, we do not have long to live on this earth. Are we no different from animals? From a purely biological viewpoint we can’t detect any difference; both die and return to dust. A child at the Christian School asked me one of those tough questions only children manage to ask: “How do we die?” I explained that our bodies eventually wear out and stop working, the best way I could explain mortality. I added that when we leave our bodies we go to God. Unbelievers can only sink before the brevity of life and their fear of death and extinction.
People talk about “seizing the day” because, if this life is the only life we have, we might as well live for the moment. To fully live we have to resolve the issue of death. It remains the greatest of all evils, until we accept the promise of Scripture and realize that Christ conquered the grave. He died for us, and He takes us home by way of death. Some people obsess over death; some deny it. We’re unable to enjoy life until we’re prepared to die. For believers, death is more than a non-issue; it is a blessing.
Life is fleeting. Who can we live without God? Life is short. Eternity is long. Death is certain. Christ is the Answer. We who trust God live an abundant life that will stretch into eternity. God has set eternity in our hearts because we will live forever.
