1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up 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 together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast 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 for war, and a time for peace.
9 What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
14 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.
(ESV)
STOP! Think a little 🤔 What is God saying to you?
- What is the writer saying?
- How do I apply this to my life?
There is a cycle to how God has built life that results in everything having a season and a time. Everything happens when God ordains for it to happen and then it happens for a season until its time is up. Your life began when God planned for it to happen and you have a purpose on earth for this season until God has allotted for you to die. In one sense this adds to Solomon’s claim that everything is meaningless—it just goes round and round in a repeating circle over which we have no control. But in another sense there is hope because the broken down, scattered, weeping and mourning will return to building up, gathering, laughing and dancing.
In this cyclical life, God has placed the concept of eternity into us so we know that beyond this life is an endless sea of time but we are not fully able to comprehend it apart from what God has told us. It is in eternity, beyond this repeating cycle of life, that we must turn for meaning.