TIME AND ETERNITY

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 / Keywords 3:11

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.

 

 A Time for Everything

3:1 There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

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 from embracing,

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 do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their 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 people will fear him.

15 Whatever is has already been,

    and what will be has been before;

    and God will call the past to account.[b]

Footnotes

a. Ecclesiastes 3:11 Or also placed ignorance in the human heart, so that

b. Ecclesiastes 3:15 Or God calls back the past

1. After a generally pessimistic reflection on human life “under the sun”, especially without God, the Teacher poetically describes the passing of time. This section may be the most quoted part of Ecclesiastes. It should not be understood as a meditation on the randomness of life. Rather, it is an encouragement for us to have a proper view of God’s sovereignty over all things. God has sovereignly ordered a time for everything. Birth and death, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing - each activity has its time in our lives as set by God. We toil and groan under the burden God has laid on us (Ro 8:22) but God has also allowed us to experience beauty (11a). We often avoid pain and struggle and seek ease and comfort. But God, in his wisdom and grace, allows us to have a full range of human experience so that we may always seek him and know him better.

 

2. Though we live out our earthly lives in finite time and space, God has also set eternity in our hearts. We long for eternity even though we cannot really understand what our eternal God has done. God alone gives us satisfaction in our work. His will endures forever. God will judge how we live (15). May we have a healthy fear of our sovereign God.

 

Prayer Father, thank you for being eternal and sovereign over everything that happens. Please grow our faith in every season of life and to live with an eternal perspective.

One Word God is sovereign in every season