A Time for Everything

A seed goes into the ground. A baby cries for the first time. A friend says goodbye. A crowd starts to dance. Different moments, happy and sad. And an old teacher looks at all of them and says: there is a time for each one.

The book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most unusual books in the Bible. Its writer calls himself the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Many have connected him with King Solomon, famous for his wisdom. The Teacher sets out to understand life. He looks at work, pleasure, money and learning, and keeps saying it is all like breath, like vapour, here and gone. He is honest about how confusing life can be. But in chapter three he stops and looks at time itself, at the way life comes in seasons. And he writes one of the best-known poems in the world.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Then he lists them, in pairs, like the swing of a pendulum. A time to be born, and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pull up what was planted. Think of a farmer's year in ancient Israel: rain and ploughing, sowing, harvest, then the dry summer. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.

The list goes on. A time to throw stones away, and a time to gather them. A time to hug, and a time to hold back from hugging. A time to look for something, and a time to give up looking. A time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear, and a time to sew. A time to keep silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate. A time of war, and a time of peace. Fourteen pairs, covering almost everything a person goes through. The Teacher is not telling us to do these things. He is noticing that life is like this. We don't control the seasons. They come, and we live through them. So he asks, what does a worker really gain from all his effort?

And here is his answer. God has made everything beautiful in its time. “He has also set eternity in their hearts,” yet we cannot fully work out what God has done from beginning to end. That is why we long for more than this life. There is something in us bigger than the seasons, a hunger for what lasts for ever. And the Teacher draws two lessons. First, enjoy the good gifts of each day. It is good to be happy and do good, to eat and drink and find joy in your work. That is God's gift. Second, trust what God does. Whatever God does lasts for ever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away, and God does it so that people will stand in awe of him. The seasons change. God does not.

The Teacher's Hebrew title is Qoheleth. It comes from a word for an assembly, a gathering of people, so it may mean someone who gathers people to teach them. When the book was translated into Greek, the title became Ecclesiastes, from ekklesia, the Greek word for an assembly. In the New Testament, that same word ekklesia is the one usually translated as church.

You'll find this poem in Ecclesiastes chapter three, verses one to fifteen. A teacher who saw all of life's seasons, and found God's hand in every one. So here is a question to carry with you. What season of life are you in right now, and how can you trust God in it?