It has been said that there are four seasons to a man’s life:
• There is the time when he believes in Santa Claus.
• There is the time when he no longer believes in Santa Claus.
• There is the time when he is Santa Claus.
• There is the time when he looks like Santa Claus.
I also found a couple of other illustrations this week that help us to understand the whole concept of the seasons of life.
For instance, there is this picture that needs little further explanation. It shows the bottles that accompany the various seasons in our lives.
And finally, there is this illustration from the animal world. [Pictures of a male lion at three stages of life].
This morning, as we continue our journey through the Book of Ecclesiastes, Qoheleth is also going to discuss the seasons of our lives and how we need to respond to them. You’re probably already familiar with at least the first portion of this passage:
1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: 2 A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck 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; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw 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 of war, And a time of peace. 9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. 12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor - it is the gift of God. 14 I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him. 15 That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God requires an account of what is past.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 (NKJV)
The first eight verses of this passage are arguably the most well known words in the book of Ecclesiastes. They’ve been used quite effectively as a great comfort at a multitude of funerals and in other appropriate ways. But they’ve also been take out of context and used in unfitting ways as well. They’ve often been employed to justify objectionable human conduct. For instance, someone tears down another person and then rationalizes it’s acceptable to do that because there is, after all, a “time to tear down”. As we saw in our introduction to the book several weeks ago, they have been used as the basis for the anti-war ballad written by Pete Seeger in the 1950’s – “Turn, Turn, Turn”. Which is quite interesting since I’m sure that others were using those same words to justify war – there is, after all, a “time of war”.
This is a really practical and helpful passage for us as we live out our lives here on earth. Qoheleth provides us with some very relevant observations about the seasons of our lives. But he doesn’t just leave us hanging there. He also presents us with some very practical wisdom about how we ought to respond to those truths.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE SEASONS OF LIFE
1. Life is full of change, but not of chance
1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
In verses 2-8, Qoheleth describes life with a very familiar poem that contains 14 pairs of antinomies. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines an antinomy as:
A contradiction between principles or conclusions that seem equally necessary and reasonable; a paradox.
Qoheleth begins with the biggest antinomy of all – life vs. death – and then he adds 13 additional illustrations to help us understand that life is full of contradictions and change. I’m not going to spend much time at all this morning looking at these 14 pairs of antinomies in any kind of detail because that would actually defeat the author’s purpose here. This list is not to be all-inclusive, but rather an illustration of the fact that life is always changing.
It’s interesting how many commentators have tried to discern some kind of pattern in these verses, but it is just not possible to categorize these 14 pairs in any logical pattern without forcing them into some man-made scheme. But that’s exactly the point. These pairs of antinomies don’t have any pattern because that is what life is like from our perspective – it has no discernable pattern.
It’s also no accident that there are 14 pairs here. In Jewish thought, the number seven is a number of completeness – like seven days in a complete week. So Qoheleth uses a multiple of the number seven here to make it clear that this is intended to be an overall picture of our lives.
But even though man is completely incapable of discerning any pattern to these seemingly random seasons of our lives, Qoheleth makes it clear that all this doesn’t just happen by chance. It isn’t really random after all. The word translated “season” in verse 1 could also accurately be translated “appointed time” as it is rendered in the NASB. So even before we begin reading through this list, we have been given a very clear hint that all of these things that occur in our lives are not random. But it is not until we get near the end of our passage that we discover why that is the case. That’s why we cannot take verses 2-8 and divorce them from the rest of this passage without the risk of coming to some completely incorrect conclusions about the nature of this passage.
In verse 14, Qoheleth finally reveals why all the change and apparent contradiction in our lives is not there by chance:
14 I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it.
We experience all these things in life because God, in His complete sovereignty has ordained all of them for our lives. And that goes for the bad, the difficult and the painful as well as the pleasant, the comfortable and the delightful. It all comes from the hand of God, even when none of it makes sense to us.
2. Life can be glimpsed but not grasped
Qoheleth describes this aspect of life in verses 10 and 11:
10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
This can be a very difficult section of this passage to understand. In fact, there are some difficulties even coming up with an accurate translation of verse 11. But if we keep this in the entire context of the passage, we can understand the point Qoheleth is making here.
Man is occupied with a burdensome task because of the conflict between our nature and our environment. On one hand, God has placed in the heart of every man this concept of eternity.
As it is used here, the concept of eternity is somewhat different from the way we understand it today on this side of the cross. To the Jew, eternity was not so much timelessness or the absence of time, but rather the idea of being able to look back and forward in time as far as one could imagine. The idea is that there is something more to life than can just be measured by our time here “under the sun”, which Qoheleth consistently refers to as a vapor.
In other words, God created every man with this sense that there is more to this life than just the kind of chaotic life that is described in the first 8 verses of this chapter. I really like how C.S. Lewis depicts this in his book Mere Christianity:
Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.
We have evidence all around us of this concept that God has set eternity in the hearts of men. Archaeologists tell us that it may have required the labor of 100,000 workers for forty years to build just one of the great pyramids. Which begs the question, “Why? Why would somebody put so much effort into building a tomb?” The answer is that the Egyptians understood that they would spend a lot more time in the afterlife than they would here on earth. Obviously some of their ideas about that afterlife were misguided, but nonetheless we can see that God had placed eternity in their hearts.
But that sense of eternity in our hearts, which is part of our nature, is in conflict with this physical world in which we live where everyone dies. Unfortunately, once we recognize that there is a God and that all that occurs in our lives is under His control, our humanity takes over once again and we want to try to “figure out” God and “figure out” our lives. But as humans all we can ever do is get a glimpse of the course of human affairs - we will never get a grasp. As Qoheleth writes, we can’t ever figure out the work that God does from beginning to end.
No matter how hard we work, no matter how much we study, we are incapable of understanding God’s grand design even for our own lives. The problem is that we can never step back far enough to view everything the way God does.
Let me illustrate. Can anyone tell me what this is a picture of? [Show close-up]. How about now? [Wider view]. The only way we could grasp what this picture is was to get a wider view. But the problem with our lives is that we’re just not capable of getting that view. Only God has that view. So we have to settle for a glimpse.
3. Life can be managed but not manipulated
Once again, Qoheleth returns to the question that he has already asked at the beginning of chapter 1.
9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?
This question is worded in a way that the expected answer is none – there is no profit. In this case, he is not referring to his previous pursuits of wisdom, knowledge or pleasure, but rather to the effort to try and manipulate the seasons of our lives in order to try and gain some advantage or profit in our lives “under the sun.”
To be sure, as we’ll see in a moment, Qoheleth is not advocating a life of fatalism. He is not saying that since we can’t control or completely understand life that we should just sit back and let things happen. Even though we cannot control life or figure it out, we are still responsible for how we respond to life. We must manage our lives in a way that is consistent with the guidance that God has given to us in his Word.
But we can’t manipulate life and the seasons of life for our own benefit or profit. We don’t get to determine when we experience these various seasons. That is completely in God’s hands.
This is such a needed message here in our culture. Most Americans believe that their own choices and hard work determine their success and that our destiny is in our own hands. And even the church is certainly not immune to that view of life. In far too many cases, Christianity has been presented as the means to personal gain, as if somehow becoming a follower of Christ gives us the ability to manipulate our lives for our own personal comfort and profit. But I’m convinced that one of the main reasons we have Ecclesiastes in the Bible is to guard against such thinking.
It is true that the Bible commends hard work and living a godly life. But the purpose of those pursuits is not to obtain success in our life here “under the sun”, at least not success as the world defines it.
So if the seasons of our life are governed by God, outside of our control, how are we to respond to them?
HOW TO RESPOND TO THE SEASONS OF LIFE
1. Choose faith over frustration
I’ve already hinted that one possible way to respond to what we’ve learned about the seasons of life would be to be frustrated and live a life of fatalism. We could take the attitude that since it’s all under God’s control and we can’t change the seasons, we’ll just check out of life. But Qoheleth’s words here certainly provide us with a more positive and rewarding approach:
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
14 I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it…
These two verses give us a great deal of confidence that even when life doesn’t make sense, God is in control. And no human being is capable of either adding to or taking away from His purposes, plans and ways. I’m reminded here of the words of the Psalmist:
But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
Psalm 33:11 (NIV)
Not only that, but we can be assured that God will use all the seasons of our lives to accomplish those purposes in our lives. Again the first part of verse 11 has often been taken out of context and misused, even in the church. The meaning here is that God has made everything “fitting”. The seasons of our life are beautiful because they fit perfectly into God’s plans for our lives.
The New Testament parallel is familiar to most of us:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 (NIV)
This verse confirms that rather than being frustrated and taking on a fatalistic attitude, we can have faith and trust that God is using all the seasons of our lives in order to accomplish His purposes in our lives and in the lives of others. Everything is appropriate and helpful to us, even those things that appear to be negative and painful. These are not obstacles and curses – they are God’s blessings, deliberately provided by Him. And ultimately, even though we may never understand it in this lifetime, they are all for our good.
2. Choose gratitude over grumbling
12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice…13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor - it is the gift of God.
I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time here since this was the focus of last week’s message and Qoheleth is going to return to this same principle again frequently as we continue our journey through Ecclesiastes. This gets back to the idea of just enjoying the simple gifts of life – eating and drinking and even our work. Although we are never to seek an advantage or profit in these things, God does intend for us to be grateful for them and to find enjoyment in them.
Earlier I shared a quote from C.S. Lewis from his book Mere Christianity. In that same section, he goes on to write this:
Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage.
That’s some pretty good advice. We can either chose to look around and grumble about what we don’t have in life or we can be grateful for what God has already given to us and just enjoy those things, recognizing that they are only temporary and that we will never find fulfillment in them apart from God.
3. Choose good over gain
9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?
12 and to do good in their lives
In these two verses, Qoheleth clearly lays out for us two extremes. On one hand we can try to use our labor in order to create some kind of advantage or gain for ourselves. Or, we can use that same labor for the purpose of doing good. And there is certainly no doubt which of the two alternatives we are to pursue.
Paul confirmed this principle of choosing good over gain:
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Galatians 6:9, 10 (NIV)
Paul is writing here to believers and he is encouraging them to do good in the lives of others, not because it is a means to their salvation, but because it is the fitting thing for a follower of Jesus to do. And then there is this familiar passage which we’ve already looked at in our journey through Ecclesiastes:
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.
1 Timothy 6:17, 18 (NIV)
Those who have already chosen faith over frustration, who have put their hope in God, are commanded to do good in the lives of others.
Since, as we’ve seen frequently in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing to be gained personally from our labor here “under the sun”, life is much more fulfilling when we direct our labor to doing good in the lives of others. We can’t change the seasons of life through our efforts, but we can be a part of God’s purposes and plans in the lives of others by choosing to do good in their lives.
4. Choose to fear God rather than fear life
If we just look at these seasons of life from our own perspective, it would be really easy to fear life. Let’s face it, one half of each of the fourteen pairs of antinomies are things that none of us really look forward to experiencing in life. And when we add to that equation the fact that we can neither control the seasons of our lives nor figure them out, the tendency to fear life is increased even more. But God’s purpose in all this is not that we should fear life, but rather that we should fear Him, as we see clearly in verse 14:
God does it, that men should fear before Him.
In other words, everything that happens to us in life – the good and the bad, the positive and the negative, the pleasurable and the painful – are all designed to lead us to fear before God. Obviously, fear, as it is used in this context and in the other places where it is used in the Scriptures to describe how we are to respond to God, is not the kind of fear that would cause us to reject or be drawn away from God. Perhaps it would be better to use the phrase “reverent awe” to help us understand the kind of fear that we are to have before God.
We live in a world today where there are certainly enough reasons to fear life. We live under the constant threat of terrorism. The global economy is in shambles and more and more people are losing their jobs each day. We are witnessing an erosion of moral standards. In fact, we are witnessing our country go through many of the same things which have characterized the decline and destruction of every great civilization in history.
But none of that is outside of God’s control. He isn’t surprised or caught off guard by any of these occurrences. And His purpose in all these seasons of life is that they would draw people to fear Him rather than fear life as this verse from Proverbs clearly points out:
The fear of the LORD leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.
Proverbs 19:23 (NIV)
Notice that the fear of the Lord doesn’t prevent trouble in our lives. It only gives us the ability to live life among all those troubles and to allow us to go through all those troubles and maintain our relationship with God.
Right now, every one of us here is in a different season of life. For some of you, life couldn’t be better. And for others, life is painful and difficult. But no matter what season of life we are in, we can be confident that God is in control and that He is using it for His purposes and for our good. We can’t change those seasons – only God can do that. But we can choose how we respond to them.
