ECCLESIASTES 3.1-8

1 To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose 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;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to gain, And a time to lose;
A time to keep, And a time to throw 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 of war, And a time of peace.

Our lives consist of time, moments in time and the extended periods of time that we call seasons – and there are seasons in nature that depict, by God’s deliberate design, the seasons of life, the new birth of spring, the summer of growth, the autumn of maturity and the winter of decline and death.

Time is of the essence of existence – and the amount available to each one of us is extremely limited and leaking away and diminishing by the second, as Solomon wants us to appreciate. What, then, should we be doing with this precious commodity?

There is a time to be born and a time to die (verse 2), says Solomon, and we have no control over those two events, the two extremes of our existence. In the brief interval between, however, we have many choices to make and decisions to take – and the key message of this transitional section is, I suspect, the need for deliberate change and reversal, just as the acquisitive Solomon himself, the Acquirer and Accumulator, becomes the repentant Preacher and the Teacher.

To enter into the time-unlimited eternity of the Kingdom of God, says Jesus to Nicodemus, we must in fact be born again, for a second time (John 3:3). The body we now possess is mere flesh and blood, he stresses, a transient shadow of true reality, no more than a clay model, so to speak, of the glorious spirit-composed body to come – the nature of which he then compares, a few verses later, to the ethereal intangibility of the winds of the heavens. The teachings of Jesus, like those of Solomon, are packed with metaphors, like raisons and sultanas in a rich fruit cake.

Again, it is no accident that the wind serves as an appropriate metaphor for things of the spirit --and in both the Hebrew and Greek languages, the words are interchangeable. In fact, as he explains the need for a new birth to Nicodemus, Jesus may well have one of Solomon’s favorite phrases in mind -- suggesting, in a creative reversal, that the Holy Spirit is the real wind after which man should be striving, a pursuit that will not prove futile.

Paul echoes Jesus’ words to Nicodemus when he says that, Quote: “Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven”, adding: “I declare unto you brothers that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:49-50)

Solomon observes that as the seasons unfold there is a time to plant or sow seeds and a time to pluck up or reap the resulting harvest -- two natural processes designed by God to demonstrate, incidentally, the process of human creativity, but perhaps more importantly also death and the resurrection to eternal life, the very metaphors employed by Paul in the passage from Corinthians referred to above (verses 35-42).

As already noted, the term repentance as taught in the New Testament literally means to reverse, to turn around and go in the opposite direction, a major re-alignment of priorities. Repentance, in fact, appears to be the inspired theme of this whole section, as Solomon, who had lived for too long a season as a Koheleth -- a Getter, a Gatherer, an Acquirer – lists pairs of opposites and deliberate reversals, carefully chosen to rotate attention over all aspects of our existence, a checklist for introspection and self-analysis, a basis for spiritual brainstorming . . . a list of metaphors encompassing all the activities of life.

. . . Have we, for example, embraced and held dear what we should not have embraced? Can we embrace Wisdom instead, as Solomon urges elsewhere (Proverbs 4:8)?

. . . Is it time to forsake and throw away some of the things that we once considered important – as did the apostle Paul, considering them mere refuse or dung (Philippians 3:7-9)?

. . . Is it time to scatter stones, as if demolishing an old building, and rebuild a new life, a new spiritual house, so to speak, erected on a solid rock foundation, as Jesus taught (Matthew 7:24-29) – a time to stop saying the things we used to say and be silent, a time to hate things done wrong, and a time to join in the spiritual war against evil described by Paul (Ephesians 6:10-18)?

. . . Is it time to seek peace and become a peace-maker, as Jesus also taught in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) -- a list of Godly attributes that may well have been inspired by this very section of Ecclesiastes. Is it time to mourn in order that we may later dance and rejoice?

. . . Is this also the time to identify, confront and kill off bad habits (verse 4)? Is it time to deal with the fears and phobias that may have dogged us most of our lives, to analyze and heal them -- to identify, interrupt and break down the robotic patterns of acting and reacting that may have marred our character and personality since childhood, then build up better ones to replace them? All these matters could be confidentially discussed with a spiritual mentor.

Possibly referring yet again to the words of Solomon, Paul also urges Christians to reappraise their lives and make changes, saying, Quote: “Be careful how you live, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17).