Read Ecclesiastes 3:1–15
Questions from the Scripture text: What has God assigned to everything (v1a)? What purposes/things are subject to time, and assigned a time (v1b)? What is the first pair of these things (v2a–b)? What is the second (v2c–d)? What is the third (v3a–b)? What is the fourth (v3c–d)? What are the fifth and sixth, related, pairs (v4)? What is he seventh (v5a–b)? What is the eighth (v5c–d)? What is the ninth pair of things to which a time is appointed (v6a–b)? What is the tenth (v6c–d)? What is the eleventh (v7a–b)? What is the twelfth (v7c–d)? What are the thirteenth and fourteenth, related, pairs (v8)? What question does v9 repeat from 1:3 and 2:22? What does v10 assert about these tasks? What has God done to the tasks (v11a)? And to the hearts of men (v11b)? But what has He put out of man’s reach (v11c, cf. Deut 29:29)?
What makes life fulfilling and joyous? Ecclesiastes 3:1–15 looks forward to the call to worship in public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these fifteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that embracing the sovereign providence of God makes life fulfilling and joyous.
Due to an American folk rock song from the 60s, this is one of the most well-known passages in the Bible—and one of the most incorrectly (indeed, oppositely!) understood. It is NOT about us figuring the right time to do things. That should have been obvious from the very beginning of the list (v2a–b). We most certainly do not pick the time to be born, and it is great wickedness for a man to attempt to select the time of his own death.
This passage is rather about the absolute sovereignty of God. Even those things that seem to be under our control (planting, sowing, killing, healing, breaking down, building up; v2c–3), and those emotional things that feel like they are both controlled from within us and themselves control us (weeping, laughing, mourning, dancing; v4). Even those have their season, time, and purpose assigned by God (v1). How much more those events that come upon us in v5–8 (though, the times for silence and speech in v7c–d are often misunderstood or misapplied by men).
The song famously says, “a time of peace… I swear it’s not too late.” Besides blaspheming, in flippantly using the oath and goading hundreds of millions into doing the same, this line misses what is being said about peace, and about everything else in the list. It is entirely under the sovereign providence of God. As such, if God is plucking up, tearing down, casting down stones, and throwing away (all language that Scripture uses for when the Lord brings war to destroy a nation)…the hope still remains of repentance. This was repeatedly offered to Israel (and famously accepted by Ninevah!). But that is the only “not too late” for peace that a nation may ultimately have.
It is uncomfortable for unregenerate man that he is not God. But, for the believer it is the key to purpose and joy. When v9 restates the introductory question from 1:3, it leaves off the “under the sun” this time and instead provides the solution to every problem in v10: the children of Adam (it’s singular) are to receive every moment and every part of their life as God-given, within the whole of His perfect, sovereign plan.
Why is every part of life beautiful? Because God has made it so (v11a). We trust the One behind the purpose, seasons, and times. We are temporary, and so are all of our labors and pleasures. But He is eternal, and our hearts were made for Him (v11b). Still, we must trust and love Him in humility, because we cannot comprehend His work (v11c). Those are secret things that belong to God (cf. Deut 29:29), and the key to purpose and joy is to leave the overall plan exclusively in His hands, where alone they are safe.
Our part is to rejoice and do good (v12), in every task, receiving the task as a gift from God. And also to enjoy the fruit of that labor as a gift, and to enjoy the enjoyment itself as its own separate gift (v13).
Our works may be fleeting as vapor, but God’s is exactly the opposite (v14), so that we are brought not to despair of our works, but to worship of Him and His. His works are determined from eternity, and perfect (v15a–b). So, we worship the perfection of the plan that we do not even know, and we do our part in it with obedience and joy. Even under God’s sovereign lordship, He has granted unto men to be free and accountable agents; He will require an account of all that we have done (v15c).
What, in your life, seems least fulfilling and enjoyable? How can this be remedied by the knowledge of God’s sovereign providence in/over it?
Sample prayer: Lord, we praise You for sovereignly ruling and overruling every part of our lives. Forgive us for indulging the idea that we are in control. Grant that we would rejoice to be under Your sovereign rule as part of Your sovereign plan. Forgive us for trying to find any purpose or pleasure apart from You, and forgive us when forgetting You robs us of purpose and pleasure. Fill our lives with the purpose and pleasure that comes from knowing that You assign to everything its season, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH222 “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”