“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 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; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

In what we’ve read of Ecclesiastes so far, Solomon deals extensively with the condition of man, and the futility of our vaporous existence. We’ve looked at elements of fallen, sin-stained human nature, and while there are better and worse paths that may be followed during our time under the sun, the final conclusion is that rich or poor, wise or foolish, good or evil, that tasks that we busy ourselves with serve no greater purpose, but just while away the days until we die. The counterpoint, the solution to all this, the purpose in the midst of purposelessness and permanence among the mist is summed up in the first two words of Ephesians 2:4,

“But God…”

Flesh in and of itself is useless – in fact, it’s worse than useless, as its work doesn’t grow into nothing, but rather into grief. However, in God, there is transformation, there is new life, there is eternal hope, and a promise of days that do not fade away into the abyss of time. The things that we’ve looked at so far and the angles we’ve appreciated them from have applications that range from the broad existence of mankind, to the personal life walked out by the individual in their toil. But as we enter into chapter three there’s a shift, a break in the lamenting tone and reflection that we’ve seen so far as Solomon observes in an even more broad fashion, the nature of existence as a whole. This is something we all experience in our own lives, the ebb and flow of seasons – times of crippling sorrow and times of great joy, times of shameful weakness and times of profound strength, these things come and go, but they don’t last. Your life may not rapidly oscillate between extremes, but the nature of our existence is that no thing, no condition seems to remain as a steady constant. This isn’t just the case for our lives as individuals, but again, has broad implications that apply to existence itself. Each point that Solomon makes is true, as well as the counterpoint, all are valid observations. But aside from their direct reality, each tells us something about our current condition, and this creates the opportunity to see the contrast between where we once were, where we are now, and where we’re ultimately going. Understanding the truth of these words allows us to live lives that are at the very least unsurprised when the skies grow dark, or the seas become rough – but as with everything Solomon has written so far, there is the opportunity not to just see and learn of the present condition, but to greater understand the hope and deliverance we’re called to in God, and the eternal balance that exists in Him and Him alone.

The Seasons of Existence

1. The Balance of the Beginning

There’s a discord that exists in creation that wasn’t there at the very beginning. Genesis 1:28–31 tells us,

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Of the things that Solomon observes, the vast majority of his list didn’t apply here. There was no sin, and so the violence and bloodshed that marks mankind wasn’t a factor. There was no weeping or mourning because there was no death, no war, no loss or destruction. Man was with God, and God had called all things good. Of the entire list the one thing we can be reasonably certain was present in Eden was that there was “a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.” Genesis 2:8–9, 15-17, which gives a bit more detail about the condition of things in Eden tells us,

“And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” … “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

There can sometimes be a misconception that work is a product of the fall. While our relationship with work was certainly shaped and transformed by the curse we brought upon ourselves in our sin, work itself had nothing to do with the fall, as we can see that part of the mission of Adam was that he “work and keep” the garden in which he had been placed. Adam, in his most basic description, was a farmer, or rather it may be more accurate to say that he farmed, as there was certainly more to what he was than just farming. In this, we can likely infer that there was a time to plant, and a time to harvest before sin ever entered the world. There was a balance, an equilibrium to things, but in this balance all that God had made was good, there was no sin or brokenness to operate as a counterpoint to the goodness of what had been made. What existed was perfect and harmonious – until we broke it. Genesis 3:17–19 says,

“And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’”

Because of our sin, the ground was cursed, because of our sin, what we once did with purpose and satisfaction is now undertaken with pain and strife – in opposing God and making our relationship with Him adversarial we made our relationship with creation and His original purpose for us to be adversarial too. We were exiled from the garden, from the place prepared where we could serve in protected order the will of God, and walk with our Father, cast out into the world, and in place of balance, what we had earned for ourselves was discord. The scales remained balanced in a sense – as Solomon notes, there is a season for everything and a time for every matter – but now creation itself accounts for the curse of sin, and rather than a gentle harmony that was enjoyed in the garden, the “balance” we have with sin in the mix ends up being an unpredictable and often chaotic oscillation. This is just a piece of what was lost in the fall, and the ever-present discord is something that marks out every day we spend in a world that is stained by sin.

2. The Discord of the Present

So the world was once without sin, until through the transgression of man it entered in, and we arrived at the broken state of things that we know today. Scripture provides countless examples of the dark and twisted depravity of man, countered alongside the bright and glorious holiness of God, but here in a little more than a handful of verses, Solomon gives a variety of points that provide us with a broad perspective of our overall condition, but also points us toward the promise of a future where this discord is no more. The first two things that Solomon contrasts are as opposite as day and night – the beginning of life that is birth, and the end of life that is death. Life certainly begins before someone is actually born into the world – this is affirmed in passages like Psalm 139:13 where David says to God,

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”

In Jeremiah 1:5 God says to Jeremiah,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

And in Luke 1:41, John the Baptist, still inside his mother’s womb, responds at the prompting of the Holy Spirit to the voice of the virgin Mary, who is pregnant with Jesus. These sections of Scripture, along with others, support the fact that you are alive prior to your actual birth. But when you’re born you begin life as a more active member, a person actually out in the world, still very reliant, but no longer entirely bound to your mother. Part of what is so precious about little children is that they are a clean slate, it’s impossible to imagine the sheer amount of potential that exists in a newborn baby. There is also a purity, a kind of blamelessness that exists in little children – it’s not exactly that they’re without sin, given that they’re still born with the stain of original sin upon their flesh. Rather, God’s grace covers their sin during a period of time when they simply do not understand right from wrong. The “age of accountability” as it’s commonly called is a hotly debated subject, sometimes within individual church circles, but especially if you start to cross lines between denominations. When the first child of David and Bathsheba died, 2 Samuel 12:22–23 shows David’s words to his servants,

“… While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

Now someone could try to take this and say that David was just saying that his unborn child had gone into the grave, and he too would one day die and enter the grave as well. But if we look at the closing words of Psalm 23:6, we see this the grave was not the home that David counted as his eternal hope,

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Concerning young children, Isaiah 7:15–16 gives some interesting insight, saying,

“He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.”

This makes it plainly clear that there is a time in a child’s life where they simply do not comprehend the differences between good and evil. The implications of this land without question once we consider Jesus’ words to His disciples in Matthew 19:14,

“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

In the flesh there is a blessed time to be born, to enter into life, to meet a world which is horrifying and sin-stained, but also a world in which the grace of God exists, in which the call to His glory is extended to all. You enter the world vulnerable, yet protected by divine grace, and in each little child there is more potential, more possibility than anyone can properly wrap their mind around. Throughout our lives God uses us, we serve Him obediently, and the might of His Spirit is displayed in all manner of ways – or we spurn His invitation and rebel against Him, in which case the glory of His wrath is revealed against all unrighteousness – either way, God is undiminished, still holy, and righteous above all. But as for the individual, your potential ends with your life – your legacy may live on for a time after your mortal end, but you yourself no longer remain as an influence on the world. All the wonderful and unpredictable potential that you were blessed with at your birth has ended in your death – and there is a time designated for each event. Now in the flesh, your mortal end is your entire end, if you’ve lived a life in opposition to God then death is something that bad that only leads to something far worse, because what awaits is the second death. Revelation 21:8 tells us,

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

To those who are redeemed, the divinely appointed time of our natural end doesn’t mean the same thing. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:54–58,

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

And returning to Revelation, chapter 20 verse 6 says,

“Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.”

The natural equilibrium of creation brings with it a beginning and an end to life, both with their appointed times. But in Christ the dark end that is the counterpoint to the bright beginning is undone, through His blood death is defeated. Of the rest of what Solomon lists, moving on from the point of birth and death, some are fairly self-explanatory, while some aren’t quite as clear. That being said, they all merit consideration, so let’s run through them line by line. We’ve already looked at “a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted,” though considering that this comes immediately after the points of birth and death, we can see the parallel – the seed with all its potential that is planted in the ground, the fruit that is picked that ends the process of growth and development. Next we see,

“… a time to kill, and a time to heal…”

It’s interesting that these two aren’t exactly the polar opposites we might imagine – it’s not “a time to kill and a time to save,” but rather to heal. While this could be talking about external action, it also seems likely that this is talking about yourself – there may be a time appointed for you to take up arms, for you to fight and kill your enemies, for you to enter into battle against those who oppose you. But there is also a time to break from this, to rest in peace, to heal from times of violence. In Genesis 16:12 the angel of the Lord says to Hagar concerning her son Ishmael,

“He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

Ishmael was to grow to be a man of power, but we can’t say that his nature of conflict served him and his descendants particularly well by comparison to other nations – while they may endure, they do not know peace. We don’t see examples in Scripture of anyone who is consistently pursuing violence (think Jehu in 2 Kings 9) who does not suffer for it in some regard.

“… 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…”

While there could be many nuanced implications for each of these, they read as fairly straightforward observations on the nature and conditions of life. What we see next however is one of the more curious and somewhat cryptic comparisons that Solomon gives.

“… a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together…”

After reading this I had some thoughts and theories as to what the contrast might actually mean, but I was curious as to what some general commentaries might say. The opinions are varied, though none of them seem particularly heated. Some theorize that this pertains to structures, collecting stones for building, versus tearing down and dispersing what has been built. I’m not saying that this couldn’t be somewhat relevant, but it seems like that sentiment was largely covered in the “break down/ build up” portion of things. One of the most popular interpretations deals with conquering armies throwing stones into the fields of those they’d defeated to ruin them. This is recorded in 2 Kings 3:25 as Israel drives back and pursues the Moabites,

“And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of land every man threw a stone until it was covered…”

There is a time to destroy, to ruin, but there’s also a time to clean up, to set right and put things back in order. The logic of this tracks, and it fits thematically, but it’s not the first place my mind went, and since its meaning is not explicitly stated I’d like to share another possible perspective. Leviticus 20:1–2 says,

“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones.’”

Deuteronomy 13:6–11,

“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you.”

Note that in both of these cases (as well as in others), the execution of the guilty is carried out by the community. Even in the passage from Deuteronomy where the transgression starts privately we read, “Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.” Passages like this can sometimes be difficult to apply in the context of the new covenant – we will certainly rebuke and even excommunicate false teachers and heretics, but we don’t put anyone to death over blasphemies. The position of the Christian is one that desperately hopes that the sinner would repent and be saved, but that also absolutely hates the sin. There is a time for us to collect stones, to hear and consider, to judge through the discernment of the Holy Spirit what is right and what is unholy blasphemy. And then there is a time to cast those stones, to attack, not the person, but the teaching, the lying dogma, the false doctrine, the thing that seeks to undermine or malign the Truth of the Word of God. I can’t say for certain that this is what Solomon meant here, but I do know that it’s absolutely true that there is time allotted that every believer might be prepared, and there is a time that comes when the preparedness should turn to action, to tear down lying strongholds and lofty opinions that oppose the one, living Truth.

“… a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing…”

This again could read as fairly straightforward, and could be lumped in with weeping and laughing, or mourning and dancing – but there’s something more we can learn from this. In 1 Corinthians 7:5 Paul instructs husbands and wives,

“Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”

Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit, it’s one of the supplements of faith listed in 2 Peter 1:6, and within a marriage there is a time for self-control. There is great joy shared between husband and wife, and as Paul says, neither party should deprive the other – there is absolutely a time to embrace. But also, there should exist a measure of self-control, there should be a time where, for whatever reason, it will be appropriate to refrain, to pause embracing for a time – both have their purpose and neither should be discounted.

“… a time to seek, and a time to lose…”

This again is one where the opposite side of the scale doesn’t hold what I would have expected – it’s not a time to seek and a time to find. Jesus teaches during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:7–8,

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

If this is what is promised to those who are children of God, what then are we to think when Solomon writes that there is a time to lose? Something that was pointed out to me at some point that really stuck in my head, is that people (probably all of us at some point) will pray about something, and then we’ll wonder why God isn’t answering our prayer, failing to remember that “no” is an answer too. In Revelation 3:7 when Jesus gives His introduction to the church at Philadelphia He says,

“… The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.”

What God has opened will not be shut before you, what He has blessed you to find you will never count as lost – but if the Lord has closed a path, if there is something that He has not delivered to you, then there’s a reason. There is a time to seek, and a time to count what was sought as lost. This can apply to many different things, and before anyone grows angry or disheartened – “no” might not mean no forever, that which is counted as lost today may well be delivered to you tomorrow. But for the Christian we have to know that so long as we have Christ, whatever else may be lost or found, we have the One who is our eternal Hope, and whatever seasons come and go, He remains our Rock.

“… a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

With these again, though there can be deep reaching implications, their reading is fairly straightforward. It’s worth noting that as Christians we’re called to love, because He who is Love indwells us. We are called to peace, because the one called the Prince of Peace is our God, our great example, our Shepherd and our King. But because of who we are in Christ, we should absolutely hate sin, we should absolutely dress each day in the armor of God and prepare to war with all that we are against the wickedness of the world – not out of some unbridled rage or wrath that spurns us to rampant violence against our fellow man, but with the purity and righteous zeal that we have from God alone.

3. The Balance of Eternity

Paul writes in Ephesians 6:10–13,

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

Each day we fight another battle as part of a war that was decided before it began. There is a time for war and a time for peace, but there will come a day when the time for war ends in one decisive victory – the conclusion to a war that will end all wars. In Revelation 19:19–21 we witness the conclusion of the “battle” of Armageddon,

“And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.”

Everything the world could bring to bear, all the dark might and influence of the enemy gathered together, and they are all destroyed in an instant. In Revelation 20:7–10 after the end of the thousand year reign on earth, we see a similar event unfold,

“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

There’s a time for war, there’s a time to fight, God certainly isn’t shy about the brutal and just victory He will claim against all unrighteousness. But what we see in the aftermath isn’t the same as human wars, where the fighting dies down only to be rekindled after time has passed. God’s victory is final, and in the aftermath of the last season of war, there is a new season of peace ushered in, one that is perfect and eternal. Isaiah 11:6–9 described this saying,

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

None of this fits in the creation that Solomon described in today’s passage – we don’t read, “There is a time for the cow to graze, and a time for the bear to attack; a time for the child to play, and a time for the snake to strike.” There is a balance described that simply does not exist in this world, and that’s simply because we’re not reading about this world. What is described is a new creation, a new reality, a new heaven and earth where the time of peace is permanently established. If we want to understand the depth of the transformation Revelation 22:3–5 may give us the best insight, saying,

“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

The balance of eternity is so perfect that not only does the pendulum no longer swing between life and death, weeping and laughter, love and hate, war and peace – there’s not even a night and day anymore. The Light of the Lord, His perfect provision, His everlasting peace is forever, and the children of the Living God are there with Him, present in a new creation, a new Eden, surpassing the first. Solomon’s observations of the present conditions of the world are dead accurate as usual, but what they guide us toward is the realization of a future where the laws that so tightly bind a broken and dead world no longer apply in the perfect deliverance of our eternal home in the presence of Peace.