The March of Time

​Ecclesiastes 3:1 ~ “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
 
Time is the one commodity that you must spend. You cannot save time, nor can you stop time. There is no means of slowing time or reversing time. All you can do is march through time from this point to the next until you arrive at the end. And, beloved, all will come to that final conclusion. As Solomon pursues the exploration of all things pertaining to life and the value and meaning of things upon this earth, with his statement that “all is vanity” (see Ecclesiastes 1:2) and it is merely a “chasing after the wind” (see Ecclesiastes 1:14), we come to the grand chapter on the disposition of time. Let me encourage you to take your Bible and read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 as they will have a voice in today’s reading.
 
So, let me ask you as we consider the text for today: how do you spend your time? Many will pursue the grand materialism of this world, chasing after the proverbial rainbows of prosperity and personal gain. They go from one potential investment of time to another in the hopes that they will amass enough wealth as to be outside of the reach of earthly struggles. We read in James 4:13-14, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Others will chase after the hope of pushing the very limits of life, desperate to extend their stay in this world, fearful of what might come beyond the boundary of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 states, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” They have a fear of death and are enslaved because of it. Then there are those who see the opportunities afforded by life are there to collect as much pleasure as possible, desperate to find that one delight that will help them feel alive. They fall into the mindset as stated in Isaiah 22:12-13, “In that day the LORD God of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’”
 
All of these conditions Solomon pursued with wisdom (see Ecclesiastes 1:12-13). And in our text today, we read that “for everything there is a season.” Verses 2-8 define for us the very extremities of experience. Birth and death, war and peace, love and hate, in all these experiences there is a season. And in all these things I am certain that each of us have experienced the very elements of such extremes. Your one, singular life is amassed with a multitude of experiences that come through without fail. And soon you will discover, if you have not yet already found out, that the second part of today’s text is also true: “a time for every matter under heaven.” Both suffering and joy, both love and hate, both war and peace, both life and death will find their way through your life—and there will be nothing you can do to stop it, for the relentless advancement of time is appointed unto all of God’s creatures.
 
There will be those who ask concerning their life, or perhaps the life of a loved one, the insistent question: why. They look at their circumstances and ask, “why must I endure this?” Or they see the tragedy of suffering in another and ask, “why must they go through that?” Perhaps they see the advancement of the unjust or the prosperity of the wicked and wonder, “why would God allow that?” Dear ones, all things will be taken care of in time. Because, my friends, someday there will come an end to time. God is eternal, He is not burdened by time, but has created it for the express purpose that mankind would hearken to His call to believe. Ecclesiastes 3:14 says, “I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.” If you are to examine the passage of time in your life, then look through the lens of faith in Christ. See that all things are done so that you will come to know and fear the LORD your God. Consider the words of Paul in Acts 17:26-27, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.”
 
Let us spend our time, in every season (whether good or bad) and with every activity (whether great or small), in the pursuit of and living for the LORD. That, my friends, will be time well spent.


In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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