This morning, I want to talk about TIME. People in the ancient world (like Solomon) probably thought of time a lot differently than people in the modern world. Not that Solomon didn't have a calendar… he probably relied on the moon and astrologers to get the date. But he certainly didn't have Outlook 365! I doubt he had a personal (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly) planner either. I'm pretty sure he didn't have a wristwatch (or personal device) with alarms and notifications, ticking off the seconds, minutes, and hours.
The modern conception of time generates incredible anxiety. They always do these studies where they count how many times a day you look at your phone, or ping someone on social media, or text a loved one, or friend. I would venture to guess we spend as much time glancing at the TIME as any other thing. Is it time to get up (I always wake up 2 minutes before my alarm goes off)? How much time do I have to shower, get dressed, run the dogs out, run the kids to school, grab breakfast or just coffee? Am I on time for work? For school? For appointments? For Lunch? For Dinner? For School activities? For my favorite show or game? Is it time for bed? Or how about a micro-nap? My micro-naps infuriate Lara. First, because I can do them. I can take a five-minute nap while she runs into Home Goods. But then also because sometimes she has to put her plans on hold while I happily snore away. I’ve got to let my brain transition!
But we are obsessive “time” watchers. We'd like to think we manage our time, but time manages us. BTW, how much time do I have left to preach? There is a timer on the wall. When the time turns red, it means I'm in big trouble! So let me share some of Solomon's perspective on meaning “full” TIME…
First, Solomon would have thought of TIME in terms of “SEASONS” or even “OCCASIONS." I think this can have profound implications for our anxiety-driven lives. Instead of stressing about wasting seconds, minutes, hours, or days… Solomon would have thought about not wasting seasons or occasions of life. So in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 he writes, “There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to give birth 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 throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing; 6 a time to search and a time to count as lost; a time to keep and a time to throw away; 7 a time to tear and a time to sew; 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.”
Solomon isn't only reflecting on “seasons” of life here, but also “rhythms” of life. Sometimes when you are in a season of life, it feels like eternity, it feels like it’s going to last forever. But as you age, seasons seems to “go away” about as fast as they come. There is a joke in Illinois that if you don't like the weather, just wait another day. Sometimes you get a little winter in spring, and a little Indian summer in winter. On a very serious note though—the tragedy of suicide is that a person feels like they are trapped forever in a season maybe of grief, or sadness, or loneliness, or loss, or war, or hate, or break up, or what not. A depressed person cannot imagine things will ever change, or be better, so at the 11th hour of the night they tragically take their life. I think Solomon would say if you don't like your season of life just wait another day. Life is so changing and fluid.
Trust me, when you are younger a month seems like eternity. If you are a 1-year-old, a month represents 1/12th of your conscious life. But if your fifty, what is a month, or even a season? I think every one of should read Ecclesiastes 3 and honestly name the season of life we're in. On the one hand, ask what is God teaching you through this season of life? But then also, what will please God in the next season of life? Life has up and down rhythms. When you are on the down slope weeping, remember you will laugh again. And when you are laughing, don't forget those times you were weeping. You will weep and laugh—it's the ebb and flow of life.
Second, Solomon thought of Time not just as a “Season or Occasion" but as a “Stewardship.” This is intriguing to me. Ecclesiastes 7:15-18, “In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil. 16 Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.”
Now Solomon's words on the surface seem confusing. Don't be excessively righteous, or overly wise? Don't be excessively wicked or foolish? It almost sounds like Solomon is telling us to live a lukewarm life! Don't be excessively hot or cold as a Christian? The longer I've been a preacher, I intuitively understand exactly what Solomon is saying. Jesus once criticized the Pharisees, because in their hypocrisy and legalism, they were “straining gnats.” Is it wise to eat healthy? Should you obsessively count every calorie? Is it wise to exercise? Should you obsessively track every step taken, every calorie burned, every minute your heartbeat exceeds XYZ? The Pharisees were so obsessively righteous and legalistic about the Sabbath they never enjoyed it. Timothy was so guilt stricken about taking a little wine for stomach ailment, he chose to stay sick rather than be judged evil (until Paul set him straight).
Is it bad to have impure thoughts? Well yeah… so then should you obsessively filter your eyes and ear from every book, movie, image, album, TV show, website, app, place, person, event that could potentially corrupt you? Should you completely avoid unsavory sinners and tax collectors? If so, Paul says you may need to just leave the world, because everything is tainted. At some point you also have to live your life! To some Christians I want say, “Chill Brother. It’s okay. You can laugh at a bad joke once in a while. You can enjoy this thing or that guilt free…" The big issue of stewardship is FEAR GOD! If you can keep the FEAR of GOD in focus, it’s enough. Don't become a religious freak, zealot, or legalist but then don't become a total pagan or lukewarm cultural Christian… find that space in life, and learn to roam while in the fear of God.
Solomon sees time as a season, as a stewardship. He also sees time as SHORT and FLEETING. First of all, going back to Ecclesiastes 7:17 he asks, “Why should you die before your time?” If you want to shorten your life, live according to folly instead of wisdom! Life for pleasure. Jettison Fear of God. Rebel against your parents, and despise anyone trying to speak wisdom or caution into your life. Life is short, yes… but one reason it can be extra short is if you think stupid, do stupid, and live stupid. That’s how blunt Solomon is about it—and read Proverbs too!
Life can be extra short if you are stupid, but it can also be extra short because we live in an evil time. Ecclesiastes 9:11-12 he says, “Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them…” Let me pause here. You can cut your life short living stupidly, yes. But just because you are the swiftest racer, the strongest navy seal, the shrewdest penny pincher, the most savvy wealth creator, the most skilled craftsman or athlete or tradesperson… competence alone isn’t any guarantee you'll have longevity of life! Time and chance happen to the best and the worse. In Ecclesiastes 8:8a he says, “No one has authority over the wind to restrain it (wind, hurricanes, climate change), and there is no authority over the day of death;” Ecclesiastes 11:2-3, “Give a portion to seven or even to eight, for you don’t know what disaster may happen on earth. 3 If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain on the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or the north, the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.”
In Jesus day, he was asked about a tower that fell and killed a bunch of people. He was also asked about a bunch of people that got killed. Jesus’ response wasn't to speculate on the character of the people who died, but to point out the character of time itself. Life is short, we will all stand before God soon enough. Be ready now, live in a fear of God now, don't take your chances! Live generously toward those affected by calamity and disaster. The clouds may come your way, the tree may fall your way… And of course, don't be foolish or stupid but know what God's will.
The other reason time can is short is because there are evil people. We are subject to the goodness and the evil of people. So Ecclesiastes 9:12 says, “12 For certainly no one knows his time: like fish caught in a cruel net or like birds caught in a trap, so people are trapped in an evil time as it suddenly falls on them.” We shouldn't be presumptuous about this—we live in an evil time, with evil people. People plot evil. We shouldn't be naïve about our safety. We shouldn't be overly spiritualistic, thinking bad things only happen to bad people. Most of the New Testament teaching is directed toward fearing God while being subject to insults, persecutions, hardships, trouble, distress, evildoers…
Solomon sees time as a season, a stewardship, as short-lived, and finally he sees time as SACRED. So many verses point to this in Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 Solomon explains the seasons of life this way: “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts.” The word appropriate means well-fitted, orderly. There is a certain story to life, and God is sovereign in each chapter and season. God's sovereign power might not seem so evident when life seems to be spiraling downward. His power might not seem too evident when good times are multiplying either. God's sovereignty is most evident in the conclusion of the story—God has set eternity in our hearts. He's set eternity as our goal. Everything in our lives ought to give us a special yearning for eternal life in Jesus—we need salvation from this evil time, this evil people, we need curse broken and God has given us victory over all sin and death in Jesus. All things work to the good of those who love Jesus… it may not seem so in this season or chapter but in the conclusion of your life you see how God made everything appropriate in its time.
Time is SACRED. Ecclesiastes 5:18 refers to the “few days God has given…” In Ecclesiastes 7:14 he says, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.” I take that to mean we should accept each day we’re alive as a precious gift, and we should do that regardless of whether we think one day is appropriate or another not. Perhaps only God, sovereign over all time and all things is in best vantage point to judge appropriateness of this or that thing in our lives? Joseph probably thought his whole life pretty inappropriate… but from the vantage point of his throne late in life everything (even things intended for evil) had a certain sweet appropriateness to them though at time unbearable.
Again, Ecclesiastes 8:15, “So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.” Thank you Lord for another day… I receive it with joy.
Ecclesiastes 9:9. Woe is me. I'm stuck with my spouse. No… “Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun.” You don't need to lose someone to realize their value. Life is short, love faithfully, love deeply, love fully. You get a portion—enjoy your portion.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Woe is me I'm trapped in a dead-end job or assignment. “Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.”
Ecclesiastes 11:9-10, “Rejoice, young person, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. And walk in the ways of your heart and in the desire of your eyes; but know that for all of these things God will bring you to judgment. 10 Remove sorrow from your heart, and put away pain from your flesh, because youth and the prime of life are fleeting.”
Such a great summation of Solomon's thinking. Rejoice! Be Glad! Walk. Know. Put away pain. Have humility—your youth and prime of life are fleeting.
Ecclesiastes 12:1-2, “So remember your Creator in the days of your youth: Before the days of adversity come, and the years approach when you will say, “I have no delight in them”; 2 before the sun and the light are darkened, and the moon and the stars, and the clouds return after the rain;” (v. 1-7 is a list of befores… before this, that)
Young people don't squander this sacred, amazing gift of life. Ultimately it’s not really time we're talking about, it’s life, and every moment, day, season is sacred and to be lived in fear of God. Ecclesiastes 12:7, The key to meaningful time and life? “Remember your creator in the days of your youth…. Before “…the dust returns to the earth as it once was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” Let Christ Jesus show you the way!