Did anyone use notes also known as "CheatSheets" in high school or college? They helped you study for exams by having a couple of pages of synopsis and important facts about a piece of literature, art or musical composition. It was invaluable for a required class where a person didn't excel. As I read over the posts from this series I realized it might be helpful to have such a list to remind us of all the things we've learned in Ecclesiastes 3. Let's start by reading the passage.
3 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 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.
Time, What is it? This passage talks a lot about time but I have found the concept of time to be very abstract. It is one of the most difficult concepts to teach the concrete thinkers that I tutor. It is a hard thing to define in objective terms. With this said, time is measured in various ways but today I will define it as a duration of an event or season from beginning to end. This is sometimes a very concrete measure and sometimes it's hard to know the exact moment of beginning and end.
Alright, the passage talks about time which is hard to define. How can we understand what God, through the human author, is communicating? Let's go with what we know for certain. God has ordained emotions and experiences that are a part of living on planet earth.
- God has distinct times that each of his creation to experience varied emotions and events.
- These times are perfectly ordained by God in his sovereignty.
- There are no accidents or interruptions. They are part of our human experience.
- God orchestrates these experiences perfectly in His time.
- God makes everything beautiful in his time!
- He has set eternity(which won't be bound by human time) in our hearts.
- In our understanding of time, we can't comprehend what He has done from beginning to end.
- God is the giver of satisfaction in our tasks as we use time to accomplish His will.
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Why? So people will fear (awe and respect) for God
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