‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3:1-22‬
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account.

And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

I said to myself,
“God will bring into judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”

I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

WE’RE ART AND ARTIST

Ecclesiastes 3:10-11
I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Ecclesiastes 3:18-20
I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

Human beings are made of both eternity stuff and earthy stuff.

In Genesis 1, we’re told that God made the very first human out of dirt and then breathed life into him, making something that is a part of creation but also more than that, because we have God’s own image baked into us. Ecclesiastes is echoing that, saying that we’re made with something eternal in us, something that longs to be connected to the Eternal One, to God. At the same time, we’re made of the same dirt the animals are, and we’re presently bound to the same rules of birth, life, and death.

The word “meaningless” could better be translated “vapor” or “mist,” and the author’s point in Ecclesiastes is not that everything around us in the physical world is worthless, but that it’s fleeting and not ultimately fulfilling. He also said that while it can’t satisfy a human heart, all that “vapor” (the land, water, light, stars, plants, animals, and everything else that God made in Genesis 1) is a means for us to see and experience God. It’s like a masterful work of art that God made, and like all art, it reveals the heart of its Maker.

Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

Romans 1:20
Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse.

Unlike anything else we know of in creation, humans were given the privilege and responsibility to manage, cultivate, and enjoy God’s creation alongside Him. We are both a part of this great work of art that God’s made and participants in it.

‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3:1-11‬
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

NARROWING OUR FOCUS

Specific Timing

Those moments that God reaches out specifically to you, through the scriptures, through that Holy-Spirit sense, through an audible word or whatever else to tell you that in this moment or this season of life, it’s time for you to be about something you wouldn’t ordinarily do.

• God one day telling Noah to get into the shipwright business (Genesis 6:11-22)
• God telling Ananias it was time to knock on the door of a government-sanctioned murderer of Christians and share the Good News (Acts 9:10-17)
• Jesus telling Peter to try throwing his net over the other side of the boat (John 21:6-8).

The key factor is a specific instruction that it’s time to _________. It’s a decision taken mostly out of your hands, and it’s your job to obey.

Those moments, or even seasons are important, they’re critical, and I know a lot of us have had experiences like that with God.

General Timing

Us, as human beings made in the image of a characteristically rich and perfect God learning and practicing the art of knowing the right times and places for all the things God’s given us to do in this world. It’s knowing when to speak and when to be silent, when to step into conflict and when to let it be.

So, those are the times we’re talking about, the ones we tackle every, single day, a hundred times a day. And the reason we’re looking at it this way is that all those tiny choices every day pile up. They become the weeks and years and overall trajectory of our lives. Every song in the musical is composed of individual notes; every line of dialogue is made of chosen words.

EVERYTHING IN ITS TIME

Everything we could do in creation has a place and time in which it beautifully fits in God’s artwork and fills up the heart of the person engaging in it.

Everything has a beautiful and fulfilling place and time.

FULLNESS TAKES BOTH SIDES OF THE SPECTRUM

Which on is better?

• Laughing or crying?
• Hugging or maintaining space?
• Silence or talking?
• Love or hate?

Both sides are correct because you and I can’t leave either side out without sacrificing some aspect of the fullness God wants for you and for all the people around you.

We all mess this one up all the time, and when we do, we sacrifice the beauty of God’s creation and actually wind up undermining our own satisfied participation in it.

BALANCE ISN’T FULLNESS

While we do pick and choose which side of these 14 spectrums we see as beautiful and actually engage in, I think we just as frequently sit complacently in the middle and do neither of the things God’s made available to us.

Ecclesiastes 9:10
whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might

MATURING INTO FULLNESS

So we know that God’s beauty and our fullness don’t come with always doing only one side of these dualities that God built into the world. We also know that God’s beauty and our fullness don’t come with sitting apathetically between the extremes. The actions we take each day that both add to the overall beauty of God’s creation and bring fullness to our lives are those that we fully commit to in the right way and the right time.

After this, the writer goes on to recall all kinds of the Teacher’s wisdom about how fleeting the world is and what’s good for men and women to do in it. This list, this 14 lines of 28 actions, that’s just the beginning. And Ecclesiastes represents only a fraction of the Bible, which is all about who God is, who we are, and how he wants us to live good, full lives now and into eternity. It covers all kinds of additional topics that could be put into opposing lines like this:

• A time to eat and a time to fast
• A time to have a sex and a time to keep your hands to yourself
• A time spend money and a time to save it
• A time to run and a time to rest
• A time to work and a time to play
• Etc, etc, etc

This isn’t an overnight thing. Where we’re immature and inappropriate in our choices, Jesus, God’s Son never was. Whenever he added something to God the Father’s script, it was gold, every single time, because he was perfectly aligned and harmonized with whatever the Father was doing: the right action at precisely the right time, even when it led him to his own crucifixion. And when he died in our places, despite never doing anything wrong, he forever shared his status of always-rightness with us. So if you trust and follow Jesus, you have an unending grace washed over every mistake you make along the way. And if you don’t yet trust and follow Jesus, please talk to one of the leaders that’ll be at the back of the room when worship starts. The offer’s for you too.

THIS WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE COMPLICATED

Finally, remember what else Ecclesiastes says—multiple times, actually:

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

Partaking in God’s creation, playing our roles day in and day out, and adding choices and actions that make it even more beautiful and fulfilling—that’s meant to be simple. Not necessarily easy, but simple. So much of all this time-for-this-time-for-that stuff boils down to humility.