Time Is Meaningless without Jesus

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Main Idea: Because we are trapped in time, we should trust the eternal God’s plan and enjoy His gifts.

1. If This Cursed World Is All There Is, Then Time Is Meaningless (3:1-9).
2. Your Frustration Should Drive You to Trust Christ (3:10-15).

God wrote a pop song” (Begg, “Eternity on My Mind”). Pete Seeger and the Byrds made Ecclesiastes 3 famous in pop culture with the hit, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” All but six words of the song come straight from the biblical text, which is why Pete Seeger sends a portion of his royalties to Israel (Wikipedia, “Turn! Turn! Turn!”). The catchy tune comforts many people who think to themselves, It doesn’t matter how bad things get; good times are coming! Life ebbs and flows, and if I am in a bad season now, then good times are just around the corner.

But the comfort of “Turn! Turn! Turn!” does not accurately communicate Solomon’s mood or intention in Ecclesiastes 3. “Time” by Hootie and the Blowfish better communicates Solomon’s message because in that song time haunts rather than comforts. After all, the song talks about time as a punishment. The song says terrorizing things about time, like the fact that it crushes dreams, causes tears to fall, brings all kinds of pain and sadness into your life, and is an enemy rather than a friend. Time does not comfort; time haunts because it is fleeting and filled with sorrow that cancels out joy. Like watching sand run through the hourglass, you watch your life run out. As Isaac Watts reminds us, “Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away” (“Our God, Our Help in Ages Past”).

We feel this tension and foreboding in our own lives. It is revealed to us in phrases like, “Where did the time go?” “There aren’t enough hours in the day.” “I’ve got to make the most of my time.” “When will my time come?” (Eswine, Recovering Eden, 126). For some, most likely those in adulthood, time moves way too fast. The moment you begin to figure out and enjoy one season, you are on to the next one. Time will not slow down for you to enjoy anything. Each year passes more quickly than the last. For others, most likely the young, you are frustrated by the slowness of time. You cannot wait for more freedom, for your driver’s license, to be done with school, or to be out on your own. Time frustrates all of us. Why is that? What should we do about it? Let us look to God’s Word in Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 for the answer.

If This Cursed World Is All There Is, Then Time Is Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 3:1-9

So far in Ecclesiastes, Solomon has taught that if this cursed world is all there is, then all of our actions in this life are futile. We do things that don’t matter, and then we die. In that reality nothing in which you look for meaning, and nothing you turn to in to distract yourself from the harsh realities of life, really works. Pleasure will not satisfy human longings; neither will wisdom or work or a lot of money or any of the things we expend so much energy chasing. Solomon’s purpose is to expose the foolishness of a life lived without God in order to push us to enjoy God and His gifts. Satisfaction in God and His gifts is the meaningful life. The Spirit’s ultimate point in inspiring Ecclesiastes is to teach us that everything is meaningless unless you have Jesus. The time poem in Ecclesiastes 3 is another example to prove Solomon’s thesis that life “under heaven” is futile and fleeting.

Again, Solomon limits his observations to this present world when in Ecclesiastes 3:1 he states that for everything there is an occasion and a time for every activity under heaven. An occasion is a period of time in which certain activities take place. For example, winter is the period for snow, ice, and below-zero wind chills. Thus, the text states that there is an appointed time or season for every activity, and life moves from one season to the next. My son, Judson, is 17 months old, and it is perfectly appropriate for him to be pushed around the supermarket in a shopping cart, but if he is 17 years old and doing the same thing, then there is a major problem. We move from one season to the next as we grow up. Begg points out that a cycle to life is inevitable. When you were in high school and saw what the “rat race” did to your dad, you said to your buddy that you would never grow up and get a nine-to-five job, you would never wear a suit, and you would never settle down. But 20 years later you sit at lunch break from your nine-to-five job with your friend, both wearing suits and saying to each other, “How did we ever end up here?” (Begg, “Eternity on My Mind”). Life moves from one season to the next and one activity to the next.

The poem describes these activities, but it does not remark on them. It does not evaluate them as good or bad, wise or foolish, righteous or sinful. Each could be appropriate, but that is not his concern. Solomon merely describes the seasons of life; he does not prescribe what we should do. He does not tell you how to capture the positive things on the list and avoid the negatives (Garrett, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, 297). The poem does not teach Proverbs-like wisdom to discern which is the right season for which activity. That is not Solomon’s intention. He merely describes the full scale of life’s activities on earth. He moves through 14 pairs of opposites. Matching opposites is a poetical device known as “merism,” which not only makes statements about the two extremes but also everything in between them. For example, one common biblical merism is “heaven and earth” which does not mean simply the ground and the sky but everything in creation. Thus, these 14 opposite pairings are meant to paint a complete picture of reality and life on earth (Enns, Ecclesiastes, 52). The picture is of the impermanent and mortal nature of life (Kidner, Ecclesiastes, 38). The poem gives the full range of human and natural experiences: birth, work, love, war, peace, and death.

There is a time to give birth and a time to die (3:2). These are the bookends of life under the sun, and everything else mentioned in the poem falls between them. This statement is another reminder of the frailty of life, and it recalls the endless cycle of the generations in 1:14. One generation dies, then another comes on the scene. That generation dies, and then another comes, and on and on it goes. Death is pervasive in a post-Genesis 3 world. And as Genesis 5 points out, there are always new generations, and they ultimately die as well. People sometimes look to Ecclesiastes 3 for comfort at funerals, and people will even sometimes say, “Death is just part of the cycle of life.” That may be true since the fall, but that is not how it was originally supposed to. God created life, and death is an enemy that reminds us we live in a cursed world. Not only does human life end, but so does plant life. There is a time to plant and to pluck up (3:2). You poured sweat and got your hands dirty planting that tomato garden. But eventually a season comes with an untimely frost or a lack of rain, your plants die, and you have to root them out.

There is a time to kill and heal (3:3). Kill can refer to appropriate forms like self-defense, just war, or capital punishment. In the context it might naturally refer to an agricultural setting. The farmer nurses an injured animal back to health, only to have to put the same animal down later. We have a pastor friend named Clint who told us about an unusual experience in the first church he pastored. It was in a small town in Mississippi, and he had one deacon, who was a farmer. He called Clint one day and said, “Pastor, I need your help. My favorite cow is sick and needs to be put down, but I don’t have the heart to do it. Can you come do it?” Even though that was not something Clint learned to do in seminary, he agreed and went to the farm. The deacon sat on the porch holding a shotgun, which he handed to Clint. He said, “The cow is up over that hill. Just walk on down there, put the shotgun right behind her ear, pull the trigger, and that will be it.” So Clint said, “You just stay right here, and I will go take care of it.” Clint walked over the hill and down to where the cow was lying on the ground. He put the shotgun behind the cow’s ear, pulled the trigger, and the cow jumped up and started bucking. So, “Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!” several more shots rang out. Clint walked back up to the house, and the deacon said, “What was all that commotion?” Clint said, “That cow was not as sick as you led me to believe!” That is part of the cycle of life. The animal you heal one day needs to be put down.

Now, remember that these are descriptions of reality not prescriptions for what to do. Your takeaway from this message is not “I need to go kill someone, and I have a working list ready.” People hear all kinds of things that preachers do not say, so let’s be clear. Ecclesiastes 3 is not a license to kill.

Not only is there a time to kill and heal; there is also a time to break down and build up (3:3). The houses previous generations poured their hearts and all their money into building are eventually condemned, torn down, and cleared for something else to be there.

There is a time to weep and laugh, and there is a time to mourn and dance (3:4). We live in a cursed world full of marriages and funerals. You get married, dance at the reception, rejoice when someone gets pregnant to start a family, and then find out they miscarried. That is life under the sun. David danced before the Lord in great joy when the ark came to Jerusalem (1 Chr 15:29), and he cried deeply at his son’s sickness (2 Sam 12:15-23) (Eswine, Recovering Eden, 135). There are moments of joy and levity, and there are moments of deep pain.

There is a time to cast away and gather stones (Eccl 3:5). The phrase is difficult to understand for modern ears, but most likely stone casting refers to an ancient war practice. For example, 2 Kings 3:19,25 lays out a war strategy for Israel in which they are to cast stones on their enemies’ fields in order to make them unworkable. It disrupts agriculture. Isaiah 5:2 describes the process of clearing stones from a field before you plant a vineyard.

There is also a time to embrace and refrain from embracing (Eccl 3:5). There are times when you greet friends with a hug, and there is a time to sever friendships. When I (Jon) was in high school, I had great friends, and I thought we would be close forever, but my dad (Danny) cautioned me by saying, “Most people do not remain close with their high school friends.” He was right. Life moves on, you move to different places, and other relationships come. These are the facts of life.

There is a time to seek and lose (3:6). When you lose something, you look hard to find it, but a time comes when you have to give up the search. I am convinced the Bermuda Triangle is located somewhere inside our house because we lost two remote controls years ago, and despite our best search efforts, we have never found them. When our girls lose a toy and get real upset, we say, “Don’t worry. It’s in the house somewhere. We will find it.” But then we look at one another and quietly say, “Unless it’s in the same place as the remotes.” There is a time to continue looking and a time to stop. There is a time to keep and a time to cast away (3:6). You have a picture your daughter made in kindergarten. It might look like junk to everyone else, but it is a treasure to you, so you hold on to it. But it might be time to consign those clothes you keep thinking you will eventually fit back into or at least take them to Goodwill (Driscoll, “Peering over the Loom”). There is a time to store and a time for garage sales.

There is a time to tear and sew (3:7). Most likely this statement refers to the Jewish practice of tearing your garment in times of grief, mourning, or repentance (Hunt, Ecclesiastes, 12). For example, when Jacob thought a predatory beast had killed Joseph, he tore his clothes (Gen 37:29). But when the time of mourning ended, then it was time to sew up the garment. There is also a time to keep silence and a time to speak (Eccl 3:7). The phrase might refer to the wisdom practice of discerning the right time to confront or refrain as outlined in places like Proverbs 26:4-5 (Longman, Ecclesiastes, 117). Sometimes you confront the fool; other times you refrain. There is a time to confront people, and there is a time to be silent, praying and hoping they will repent (Driscoll, “Peering over the Loom”).

There is a time to love and hate, and there is a time for war and peace (3:8). The author moves from personal experience to national experience (Longman, Ecclesiastes, 117). Again the poem does not advocate war or pacifism. It simply describes part of the human experience. For example, a country like Japan that has a foreign policy of pacifism begins to rethink its policy when ISIS beheads a Japanese journalist in 2015. It is inevitable that peaceful nations will eventually be pulled into conflict.

The point of the poem is the inevitable sameness and monotony of life under the sun. We all go through these actions of birth, life, work, love, and then death. Nothing really changes for humanity. Meaninglessness in life and death in the end pervade our experience in this cursed world. Here today and gone tomorrow. This is just the way it is.

We see this truth reinforced as Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 comments and reflects on the poem. Ecclesiastes 3:9 restates the question of Ecclesiastes 1:3—What gain is there in this reality? What profit or advantage is there in this world where God has imposed a curse on our toil and activities (see Gen 3:17-19)? The answer is nothing. There is no purpose to life because everything we do is nullified by the curse. There is no net gain or change from all the planting, building, and warring. There is just more work to do, more dishes to clean, more wars to fight with no lasting peace, and all of it ends in death. The poem in Ecclesiastes 1:3-11 makes this case in nature with its endless but profitless cycles, and now Solomon makes the same point about human activity, both realities being set by God (Enns, Ecclesiastes, 52).

The poem reveals the great absurdity of life because each activity cancels the other out. There are 14 pluses and 14 minuses, and that adds up to zero (Begg, “Eternity on My Mind”)! Every birth ends in death, every planted crop is pulled up, every building is eventually condemned, every celebration gives way to a funeral, and every peace gives way to another war. Nothing is gained.

I saw this reality clearly in my family life. Our family had a humongous Great Dane named Samantha. She was a wonderful dog, but she came near death several times in her life. She ate gauze, and it wrapped around her intestines. Surgery saved her life. Then she ate my mom’s panty hose, it wrapped around her intestines, and surgery saved her life. Finally we left her in a kennel when we went on Christmas vacation to Georgia, and she got pneumonia. The vet had to put her in a doggy oxygen tent to save her life. My dad did with Samantha something he would have sworn earlier in life that he would never do. He spent thousands of dollars saving that dog’s life! But do you know what happened? Samantha eventually had serious injuries to her back knees so she could not walk. My parents would have to carry her outside to go to the bathroom, and eventually she would just mess herself. So they had to call the vet to come put her down. Through tears they spent their last moments with her giving her things to eat that she liked but was not supposed to have, like chocolate (and tissues—for some reason!). They spent thousands saving her life, but eventually she had to be put to sleep.

Life is a big nonplus. We seek meaning in all of our activities and come away frustrated. What do we do? Where do we turn in this frustration? The frustration of our current existence should drive us to fear God.

Your Frustration Should Drive You to Trust Christ

Ecclesiastes 3:10-15

Ecclesiastes 3:10 restates 1:13, and thus it gives a negative evaluation to the poem of 3:1-9. God imposed a curse on creation because of Adam’s rebellion, so now we experience burdened toil. Activity and work were not designed to be frustrating, but they are now in a cursed world. Our frustration is therefore a God-enforced burden. But why? What is the purpose? We see God’s intent in the following verses.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 is an extremely difficult verse to understand. People love the verse and quote it, but they only quote part of it. I am not sure they understand what it means. We will walk through each of the three clauses separately to see what they say, and then we will attempt to put them together to see the whole and how it connects with the negative tone that led to this point.

God made everything beautiful—or perhaps it is better to say “appropriate”—in its time. “Time” calls us back to the poem to show that the author is now commenting on these times. The phrase “He has made” refers to God’s initial act of creation, but it can also refer to everything He has done since the creation (Longman, Ecclesiastes, 119). The word translated “beautiful” or “appropriate” means God made everything good and right, so that everything perfectly fits its own place and time. Bottom line, the phrase sums up the poem to show that God is the One in charge of these times and appointed activities. And it sets up what follows. The overarching point seems to be that God has appointed or ordained all of these things as part of His bigger, hidden plan.

The next phrase famously says that God has put eternity into people’s hearts. Eternity here contrasts with “time,” which was used 29 times in the poem (Greidanus, Preaching Christ, 72). We know that life under the sun is not all there is, thus it is absurd to live as if this life is all there is. There is a desire to live forever; there is a desire for more than life under the sun, and there is knowledge of an eternity out there beyond this life.

The final—often-ignored—phrase of Ecclesiastes 3:11 gives the problem: “But man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.” We cannot know or see God’s entire plan or fully grasp it, no matter how much we want to. The limit of man’s knowledge is a major theme in Ecclesiastes, and the purpose of exposing that reality is to drive us to faith in God. We know there is more out there, and we want to know our purpose and our destiny. However, we are still dependent creatures who can only know and handle a sliver of what the Creator is really doing. And if we doubt in any way the truth of that statement, we need to be reminded that, mysterious as it may be, when the Son of God set aside His glory and took on human flesh, even He did not know all the times set by God (Matt 24:36). As Matt Chandler points out, we are like a child in the “why stage” (“Ingredients”). When you tell a child in the why stage to do something, he or she can ask “Why?” into infinity, and eventually you have to say in exasperation, “Because I told you so.” In a sense we cannot handle all of the whys of God’s plan, so He tells us, “Even though you cannot know it all, you can trust Me!”

Here, then, is the main idea of 3:11 and how it fits with the absurdity of life described earlier. We perceive and long for better things than this cursed misery, but we cannot see the full picture, and we must lean on God. We are trapped between time and eternity, and we must trust that God uses the details to work out a grander plan.

Perhaps my favorite movie series is the Star Wars franchise, especially the original trilogy. Imagine if you had no prior knowledge of that series, and I took you into a movie theater and showed you the final scene from The Empire Strikes Back (1980). I showed you the fight between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. I showed you the revelation that Darth Vader is Luke’s father, to which Luke screams like a baby, “Nooooo!” I showed you Darth Vader cutting off Luke’s hand with a lightsaber and then Luke falling down the tunnel and the rebellion retreating. Then I shut the movie off. You would be perplexed and confused, but you would also inherently know there was a bigger plot and story line at play. You would know that there is a backstory you are missing, and you would want to see what happens next because you would inherently know that could not be the end of the story. You had only been shown a sliver of what the director/storyteller was doing in his grand masterpiece. The pain of the few moments I showed you would not make much sense. If later on you got to see the end, and you got to see how in Return of the Jedi(1983) Darth Vader turns away from the dark side of the force and rescues his son from the murderous emperor, then all of the painful details would fall into place. You would see how they were part of a masterpiece that worked out well in the end. There is a resolution that your heart yearned for.

That is the frustration Solomon feels but also the confidence that something more is going on. We have a small vantage point. We are frustrated because we cannot get past the fragmentary image to see the whole picture. We want our lives to matter, and we try to find ways to make that happen. We look to all kinds of pleasures, experiences, relationships, and possessions in vain hopes of making sense of things. But we need to understand a divine purpose and plan were set in motion at the beginning and will work out in the end. There is a sovereign God reigning over all things who not only sees all that will happen but declares all that will happen.

You were made for the Divine and for His purpose, so there should be no surprise that you get frustrated when you turn away from Him. That is the frustration Solomon has been exposing throughout the book. God wants you to be dissatisfied until you come to fellowship with Him. And you will never be satisfied without Him (Begg, “Eternity on My Mind”). Augustine famously put it this way: “You made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they can find their rest in You.”

This tension leads to another carpe diem passage in which Solomon encourages us to enjoy the details of our lives because they are part of this beautiful picture. He says there is nothing better for Adam’s sons than to enjoy good things as long as they live (3:12). Your life is a fleeting mist, so enjoy it while you can. Eat, drink, and enjoy your work because this is God’s gift to man (3:13). As Solomon said in chapter 2, enjoyment of life is a gift that God gives to the one “who is pleasing in His sight” (2:24-26). Again the question must be asked, Who pleases God? The answer is that none of us do because we have all sinned, but Jesus Christ is the well-pleasing Son who never sinned but took God’s wrath against our sins on the cross, so that by means of faith we might become pleasing and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, only those who believe the gospel can rightly enjoy God’s blessings as God intended instead of turning the blessings into idols.

Resting in Christ and being reconciled to God through Him, we are satisfied in the Creator and enjoy, rather than worship, created things. So drink deeply of life as a gift from God. Cuddle your children, learn to fish, hit a golf ball, teach a class, eat a fattening dessert, work out, spend time with your family, and so much more as a means of worshiping your Creator (Driscoll, “Peering Over the Loom” and Chandler, “Ingredients”). Our middle daughter Emma will say to us from time to time, “I’m so thankful to be part of this family.” Solomon says to drink deeply of those moments because they do not last forever. Enjoy everything that is happening around you as part of the loving plan of your heavenly Father.

Solomon concludes by saying that whatever God does endures forever (3:14). Nothing can be added to or subtracted from God’s work in the world. God’s plan cannot be changed, and He has a specific purpose for His plan and even the frustration we feel. It is to cause people to revere Him. This is key in Ecclesiastes. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and it is the key to alleviating the frustrations of life trapped between time in this cursed existence and eternity. There is no use trying to change the past, the present, or the future. God uses all of this tension, frustration, and burden to drive us to Him. It is a sign of God’s goodness. He knows there is no such thing as happiness apart from Him, and He wants us to learn that.

Some might object, “I don’t like that.” We do not like the limit of human knowledge or the mystery around what God is doing. Some may even say, “Why will God not make Himself more clearly known?” Begg replies, “God is under no obligation to cater to your intellectual curiosity. You cannot pull a string and make God dance for you. He only caters to the contrite of heart” (“Eternity on My Mind”). We must revere Him!

Christians love Romans 8:28 and the promise that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. But Paul assures us that means we will experience famine, peril, nakedness, and other pains. God uses all of these to conform us into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). So Solomon and Paul call us to trust God and be confident that His plan is good. He knows all of your days, and He is sovereign over the details and seasons of your life. He mixes the good and the bad—the joys and the pains—together to make something beautiful. We often do not like that. We would rather pick and choose. Let me have the good only, Lord, and none of the bad! He does not allow us to pick and choose because He loves us too much to allow us to turn into Veruca Salt (Chandler, “Ingredients”). She is the girl from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory(1971) whose daddy caters to her every desire. She wants the golden goose, and if she does not get what she wants, then she will scream and pitch a fit. God loves us too much to allow us to become spoiled brats. He uses both pleasure and pain as part of His plan to conform us into the image of Christ.

Now some of you may be thinking, as you look from your earthly vantage point, How could what happened to me ever be beautiful? Not that! Not what happened to me. God lovingly tells us we are too close to see the big plan, but we can trust Him. He has us, and He has your pain that seems like a jagged piece of glass, and He says that once you can step back and see the stained-glass window, you will see that it is gorgeous (Chandler, “Ingredients”). Yes, it hurts, but yes, God has you, and you can trust Him.

This reality shoots our life through with meaning. God does not abandon one second of our life under the sun (Eswine, Recovering Eden, 134). He fits each part—even the smallest of parts—into the whole. This is the God who turns evil into good. This is the God of Joseph, a man who was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, and wrongfully imprisoned, but who then became a ruler in Egypt. God used all of the mess that happened to Joseph to put him in a position to save the world from famine. When his brothers were afraid he would exact his revenge now that he had a position of power and their father Jacob was dead, he said to them, “You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people” (Gen 50:20).

While we live in this cursed existence east of Eden and long for the Redeemer promised in Genesis 3:15 and hope to once again have access to the tree of life, we know something better is out there. And in this context the Bible tells us about our God, that “when the time came to completion” (Gal 4:4), God sent His Son Jesus into this cursed world to experience all of the times and seasons that we do. There was a time for Jesus to be born, a time for Him to heal the sick, a time for Him to build up, a time for Him to tear down long-held structures, a time for Him to party with sinners, a time for Him to weep at his friend’s grave, and a time for Him to die. He entered into this miserable world to take on all of its pain and suffering. He took the curse on Himself so that God could turn the evil of the cross—wicked men murdering the Son of God—into the salvation of the world. Romans 8 tells us our lives fit into this same plan, where joy and pain ultimately bring us into conformity with Christ.

Conclusion

Ecclesiastes 3 says that God appointed the seasons, and Ephesians 1:10 tells us that all things will be summed up in Christ. There is a reason God wove the seasons into the fabric of creation. There is a reason why there are seedtime and harvest. There is a reason there are winter and spring, and it is not so that we do not get bored. God created the seasons to point us to Christ. So when we look outside in the literal dead of winter at trees with no leaves and barrenness all around, we know that in a few months or even weeks everything will spring to life again. God wove winter and harvest into the fabric of creation to show humanity that Jesus would be raised from the dead and make all things new. All of the times of our lives and the seasons point us to find our rest in Him because He is the One working out the ultimate plan to make all things new!

Perhaps “Turn! Turn! Turn!” did not get the feel of Solomon’s words just right, but they did get the final note right. They end where Solomon’s poem ends, with “Shalom,” and they say it is not too late. Indeed! May the Prince of Peace come and set all things right.

Reflect and Discuss

1. In what ways do you find the seasons of your life comforting? In what ways are they concerning?
2. Do you feel that time is moving too fast or too slow? Why?
3. Is there something you do or experience in life right now that earlier in your life you promised you would never do? What might that be?
4. Even though we do not typically live in an agricultural setting today, what are some ways our lives mirror the times in verses 2-8?
5. In what ways do you feel you are spinning your wheels?
6. What are some indicators in our life that we were made for more than time and were meant for eternity?
7. Were there trying times in your life that you did not understand at the time, but as you look back, you can see God’s good purpose in all of it? What were they, and how did God use them?
8. How can you trust God during painful times that you do not understand and cannot possibly see how they might be used as part of His plan?
9. How does knowing that God has a grand plan help you enjoy life now? What are some things you need to enjoy more deeply in light of that reality?
10. How can the fact that Christ experienced the same frustrations we feel help us deal with difficulties in our lives?