Written by Paul J Bucknell on May, 10, 2024
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Three Life Views
I struggled for years to understand the vague term that the New Testament warns us of the world. As I studied this passage, God graciously widened my perspective of the world’s influence through culture and subculture, becoming dominant world views through which we view the world and make decisions. This subtle adoption of world views—what I call life views are grand corridors of deception, leading the masses away from the truth. They lie below the surface and escape our detection. Once adopted, usually early in our lives, it conditions how we receive and process information, making it easier for the evil one to tempt and deceive.
The three life views presented below help us understand the ruminating of Solomon’s mind and reflect on how our mindsets might influence us. With Jesus Christ’s soon return, we need greater clarity; otherwise, we will be duped by the many who fall away. I hope these reflections on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 will help guide young and old as we navigate the world views that affect our lives.
1. A Random Life (Ec 3:1b-8)
Solomon’s poem is verses 2-8, but the introduction is at the end of verse 1: “And there is a time for every event under heaven.” This is the first of many that the word “time” is used in chapter 3. The header introduces the poem that follows. It describes what I call a random view of life where the sheer magnitude of events hides mankind’s significance.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
1 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
2 A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear 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 throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
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. (NASB)
Solomon’s ancient poem reminds us of what we are familiar with: the modern mindset—a world without God. This is notated by the phrase “under heaven,” here and throughout the Book of Ecclesiastes, signifying a life lived apart from God.
Nowadays, wealth, along with evolutionary theory, cripples many people’s confidence in God’s existence. Reread these verses and note the numerous times the word “time” is repeated and the absence of people.
(a) A Contrast with Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Contrast this passage with the book’s opening poem to better understand it. Solomon starts the Book of Ecclesiastes by offering a poem (1:2-11) denouncing life’s meaninglessness. Chapter 3 is Solomon’s second extended poem. The first identifies the problem Solomon finds throughout Ecclesiastes, “I don’t matter.” Chapter 1’s poem suggests, “What I do doesn’t make a difference.” Chapter 3’s poem provides a slightly different perspective, “Time runs on, with or without me.” Solomon is reminiscing about when he looked at everything without God. Not only does it not make sense, but it hits at a fundamental fact of mankind—man’s significance.
Genesis 1 and 2 teach the origin of mankind. God made people in His image or likeness, giving man/woman self-awareness and the need for significance. People are made in God’s image and are designed to interact fully with God. As people turn away from God, they often sense a lack of significance in their lives. The presence of sin magnifies this feeling and leaves a deep yearning within to find meaning and purpose. This quest for significance drives people to search for meaning and a desire to feel important.
King Solomon reveals his search for meaning through this poem, which confirms his emptiness. At the end of his life, he uses his previous thoughts, like this poem, to lead people back to God. This second poem echoes the emptiness in King Solomon's heart, something commonly found in our modern Western world.
(b) An Analysis of the Poem (3:2-8)
Solomon repeatedly uses the word for time, season, incident, or event (עת yeth). “Time” is used 28 times in the 14 couplets of opposites, forming a powerful message and providing an empty view of life.
The word “time” is also used once in the header (3:1b) and at the end, outside the poem: “He has made everything appropriate in its time” (3:11).
Solomon’s repetition of extreme or opposite events portrays an odd world. By only mentioning events, he excludes people. It’s like having birthday parties and weddings without people, or photo albums without people in them. Perhaps more alarming is that it excludes what happens between the contrasting events.
People are not just born and die; it’s their lives and their decisions that count. Their lives are filled with many choices, but Solomon’s poem cleverly relays our insignificance without articulating God’s presence.
Rather than an instruction chart, these 14 couplets emphasize the diversity of life’s experiences.
Existentialism and its many philosophers arose from life’s emptiness. Without God, there is no frame of reference for life’s many events, which happen almost by chance. These events, including those without God, have become statistics in an extended database. People seek experiences to gain meaning in life. Once we look at our lives from under heaven–without God or a supreme being—we become insignificant microdots on a vast map. Solomon conveys his feelings, “I don’t matter,” throughout this second poem.
Let’s think through these polarizing events.
(c) The Opposing Incidents (Ecc 3:2-8)
These couplets only represent an incomprehensible number of possible incidents, each with a contrasting point.
2 A time to give birth and a time to die;
Beginning with birth is appropriate. Birth is celebratory; we are glad and happy. However, we don’t like to pair it with death, especially this way. It strips us of what is most important—our lives. What happens between birth and death?
2 A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
Connected to birth, we plant. Seeds are planted, causing what is not alive to become alive. All things have their purposes. I plant tomatoes to eat its fruit, and at the end of the season, I usually yank them out of the ground when the leaves become yellow or root rot strikes. It’s all part of gardening. However, he neglects to mention the exciting part of what happens before the plant is yanked from the ground.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal;
There is no thought of ethics here—what is proper to do. Life is thought through without God. He merely observes what happens across the earth. It perhaps depicts modern man’s willingness to treat people as pawns in a chess game, but it’s random; it doesn’t matter.
3 A time to tear down and a time to build up.
In our age of production, we can more easily adapt to this saying, “a time to tear down.” Older properties are often torn down to build new ones. All the old memories associated with the old are likewise gone, but this is the line’s point. Nothing of significance appears to happen between the two points in time.
4 A time to weep and a time to laugh;
Again, weeping and laughing are two opposite extremes. He speaks of our heart’s despair and its ability to join others in amusement. Both are genuine experiences but do not typify life or describe why we might cry or laugh.
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
As you consider mourning and dancing, consider the cries of distress as the Egyptian army approached Israel blocked by the Red Sea and how Moses and his sister, Miriam, led the people in dance and song to praise God (Exo 15). However, the meaning that creates such emotion is absent in these words; they only state the fact. It’s like showing up late to a dance after everyone is gone. The event’s significance is lost.
5 A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
Verse 5 points to other sets of opposing extremes—devoid of meaning and significance. Do you work in a garden? Somehow, rocks always come to the surface. We pick out the rocks and toss them into a pile. But at other times, we use those stones to build walls. No mention of purpose is given.
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
When names and faces are gone, the many endearing times of embracing others or cold, stony meetings with one’s enemies are lost. Dates, along with joys and bitterness, disappear.
6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
How many have wondered how long we should keep searching for something? At some point, however, we give up the search—maybe calculating the value of what we are looking for: “I can just buy another.” But these quests and failures are lost when their reasons are unmentioned.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
Some people insist on keeping everything they have, but many things are thrown away when he dies. However, nothing means anything if the things we value or have meaning to us are unstated. It’s like a picture of someone. You ask, “Who are they?” No one knows. The picture is tossed.
7 A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
We tear cloths apart to make rags and, at other times, sew fabric together to make clothing. Again, a pair of opposites add to the statistics of time.
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
While this is a good lesson for us, whether we are the talkers or quiet ones enmeshed in this poem, it only points to the commonplace events that happen in life.
8 A time to love and a time to hate;
We aren’t sure what context this love and hatred might refer to, but it doesn’t matter—they both happen, and in this world of opposite extremes, nothing matters.
A time for war and a time for peace.
When all the statistics are added together, war and peace don’t matter. It’s as if good and evil never existed. When thrown next to each other, all ethics are tossed aside as unimportant.
Conclusion
This poem’s words are not instructions for our lives but observations of many life events, reminding us of what we have witnessed and lived. The significance of life, however, is snuffed out. It reflects the echoes of the soul, the emptiness arising from thinking about our lives as a series of incidents, knowing we will be completely forgotten.
This poem’s words are not instructions for our lives.
What we have labored at doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if we exist. If God doesn’t exist, we only have the momentary experience that gives meaning.
Judgment Day, conversely, judges the rightness of things done and acknowledges their importance. The poem portrays a world without accountability and value. Being made in God's image makes humans want to leave their mark on the earth. Solomon’s words, however, give a stark and gloomy picture of modern man that occurs when God is erased from life. Without God, there are no records. All the photo albums mean nothing if no one knows you and your life decisions.
(d) The Random Life (2-8) — A Worldview
Let me summarize this random view of life by identifying its significant elements. It is common and shared by those living in the modern world, especially in the West. It also explains why people are willing to do all these momentary, random, often odd events to feel significant. People should seek God, for otherwise, they all become statistics like the person videoing himself as he hung and fell off a tall building, trying to prove his value.
- Life is viewed by its many random events and happenings (secularism with its evolutionary twist).
- Individuals, often seen as incidental, can find themselves engulfed by the sheer magnitude of events—be it moods, disasters, or moments of joy.
- Our lives, broken down, are just statistics in an extended database.
- Without God, the lack of structure and purpose creates an empty uncertainty about the world and life.
- There are no ethics, no control over life, and no meaning apart from God.
- Life’s random perspective seen in this poem resembles modernism’s emptiness.
- Mankind’s quest for significance fights randomness. “1 in 3 among adults aged 18 to 25, had a mental illness in the past year.” HHS
How does Jesus look at all this modern and post-modern man’s gloom? He states it quite clearly.
“Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” —Jesus (Mat 9:36; Mark 6:34).
2. An Ordered Life (Ec 3:1, 9-11a)
Studying poetry in another language is always intriguing, giving a unique picture of another culture’s perspective. We are not disappointed here. We have already spoken on line two of the poem’s header (verse 1).
1 There is an appointed time for everything.
And there is a time for every event under heaven—
Before this, at the top, he uses another word for time: “appointed time” (זמן zemen). This is Solomon’s hint of God’s participation in this world before picturing it without God.
King Solomon's opening statement, "There is an appointed time for everything" (Ecclesiastes 3:1a), may surprise modern men who believe they have successfully eliminated God's existence by removing the Lord's Prayer from public schools. King Solomon, however, reminds us that even if we deceive ourselves with a particular worldview, God is still present.
But to be sure, he doesn’t mention God here and only hints at God’s role by using the word “appointed time” (one word in Hebrew). Solomon is not afraid of using God or referring to Him; he does so in Chapter 2. But this header’s vagueness points to a time in his life when he got lost in uncertainty. Perhaps he has observed too many causes and effects in life to totally dismiss structure in the world—even though the poem portrays life without meaning.
This first verse does not give us a biblical perspective but a religious or philosophical one. After all, unless we believe in smart aliens, someone has appointed man’s affairs down to some very detailed actions (“all things”). Perhaps, this is why some people are drawn to Islam with its absolutes, despite its impersonal fatalism—quite contrary to the Lord Yahweh. They react to the lack of life’s purpose and meaning. Mankind screams for the need for personal value. “I must be important.” But though these religions and philosophies provide structure, they are imaginary. Their departure from truth in God’s revelation becomes prison bars.
Three times, this one Hebrew word, “appointed time,” is used in the Bible: Neh 2:6; Ec 3:1; Est 9:27. Each reference stands apart from the randomness we find in time.
“Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, “How long will your journey be, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time” (Neh 2:6).
“The Jews established and made a custom for themselves and for their descendants and for all those who allied themselves with them, so that they would not fail to celebrate these two days (of Purim) according to their regulation and according to their appointed time annually” (Est 9:27).
Many are disoriented by the modern era’s long, blaring secular broadcasts, stating that life has no meaning and that we ought to get what we want. This makes people very vulnerable and open to manipulation on many different levels. They can easily believe a scam or make a political group’s goal all important. At least they feel important; they are an agent of force, even if they protest by staging a sit-in. Their collection of molecules, atoms, and cells has at least caused an interruption in life. So people will turn to that which gives some form and overall guidance. Religions are adopted, but this is religious secularism, differing greatly from biblical teaching (see point 3).
We have witnessed our society go from value-driven and hard working to indulgent, lazy, ruinous, and self-seeking—all in a generation. Wealth and abundance, like in Solomon’s time, ruin peoples’ conclusions, allowing them to be seduced by the evil one’s words. God uses Solomon’s Ecclesiastes as a pre-evangelistic tract, converting souls. His conclusion is at the end of the book. While “God” is used 37 times in the book, God’s name, Yahweh, is not used at all. Before the lost are open to tender information of God’s forgiveness and mercy, they need to reorient themselves to God Himself—His existence and expectations. Ecclesiastes becomes a wake-up call to a lost generation.
Not a few are getting lost, giving way to modernism’s push and pull. Many have doctrine and Christian tradition but have become irrelevant because of lost fellowship with God, who made and designed us. Young people wonder what they are doing in church—it doesn’t make sense.
Solomon, who had previously lived in close fellowship with God, now in his old age, realizes his many mistakes. He regrets running after greatness, sex, and nobility instead of obeying God. He acknowledges that wisdom alone wasn’t enough to keep him from being tempted by the world; he needed a deep love for God. If you are in a similar situation as Solomon, where you've emotionally distanced yourself from God, you're no longer sure of your faith or have been caught up in the world's ways, he wants you to know that God is still present. It's not just a figment of your imagination or a creation of human culture. God is the Creator of all things and has complete control over everything.
Twice in verse, 1, Solomon captures the totality of matter and life with the word “everything” (and “every event”). Solomon is giving us a broad perspective—teaching us what he is thinking when, in verse 1, he says “all things” twice. This proves that the world lives under the heavens, that is, under God’s providence.
Solomon is silent about who appointed “every event,” however this little structure, in the form of religions and philosophies, to some degree satisfies people’s search. This viewpoint, however, is incomplete and unbiblical. Without knowledge and respect for God, God doesn’t have a proper bearing on their lives. It’s like puzzle pieces without a master picture showing how things are put together. Solomon is trying to convince the next generation—perhaps stimulated by his own self-indulgent ways when he left God. But this deeper longing and knowledge has returned to him.
3. A God-focused Life
Lastly, we should understand God’s sovereign control over “all things.” We call this providence; it becomes a critical belief for Christians. We are not only concerned with a monotheistic world perspective but also the involvement God has in the world, but let me first briefly review all three viewpoints to help us focus.
Is He merely a Deistic Creator who set everything in motion and let the world unwind, determining its own destiny? If we only looked at verses 2 to 8, we could view life without God or as a secular society. That is the Random View; things have no interrelationship. People are confused and troubled. It’s for this reason that people are open to doing odd things.
The Ordered View is more in accordance with religious humanism or religion. It provides some order and understanding of life, though mistaken. People look to religions, including Christianity, to give order to their lives. But this is wholly inadequate.
This third view espouses what Solomon rejected—a Biblical view of God, a God-focused life.
The Providence of God
The word providence comes from two Latin words: before (pro) and sees (video), but the teaching is much grander than foreknowledge. God wholly controls life affairs and pays attention to people’s lives and needs.
“I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’” (Is 68:9-10)
Behind the doctrine of providence lies the basic biblical teachings:
- God kindly cares for His children.
- The Lord is intricately involved in our world.
- God controls all of humanity’s affairs.
- God carefully oversees our personal affairs (Jacob, Joseph).
- The Lord powerfully and wisely intertwines our minds and situations to conduct His higher purposes.
The English term providence is derived from two Latin words: pro, which means "before," and vide, which means "see." With respect to divine providence, a key aspect of its meaning is that it refers to God's foresight in a temporal sense. God sees and knows the future, having declared the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:8–10). Yet this is not passive knowledge. The Lord does not look at the future as if it were on a movie screen and learn what will happen; rather, His knowledge of the future comes from His foreordination of whatsoever comes to pass. He works out all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11), which means His will establishes all that ever happens. Our Creator also "sees before" in a spatial sense. Being omnipresent, He cannot ever overlook or miss anything in creation (Ps. 139:7–12). (Ligonier Ministries)
In summary, the Bible assures us that God sees and remembers all things. Second, He exerts His will through what is made. Lastly, He promises His goodness to those who rely on Him.
Jesus modeled this trust in God His Father. Inwardly, providence helps us accept and trust God in our situation. Outwardly, the providence of God helps us step out of our situation because of love and focus on the needs of those around us. We live our lives in light of God’s presence and purpose.
God deliberately controls the good and bad around us, even the misdeeds at the cross. The truth of God’s providence should not haunt us but confirm God’s greater purposes in our lives.
Providence teaches that God’s people can trust Him completely to interweave their circumstances with His love towards them—ALWAYS!
Made in God’s image
Because we are made in God’s image, if we are spiritually alive, we seek His company. This relationship produces the fulfillment and significance we seek.
- Ultimate relationship: A relationship without God lacks Creator-creature affirmation (Father - son).
- Ultimate meaning: Productivity only fulfills when we accomplish God’s purposes to please Him.
To understand God’s providence, we must understand how His sovereignty interfaces with our world. And remember, though we speak of Esther—or Jacob, Adam, Joshua, we are not to conclude that these are the only people God involves Himself with. He seeks us to relate to Him.
A lack of trust in God’s providence produces uncertainty about the world, life, and our significance.
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ.” — Blaise Pascal
God’s oversight delights us for we have full confidence in whatever path we cross, He is there to help, guide, and even save. Your life is an opportunity for you to catch hold of God’s love for you in Jesus Christ. You can’t be fulfilled until you surrender to God.
A Note on Ecclesiastes 4:11-13
The first eight verses form a well-defined poem. The header in verse 1 subtly hints at the conclusion found later in the chapter in verses 11-13. Solomon wrote the poem during a disturbing time in his life when he could not easily find meaning. He discovered that it was not just him, but others who had the same problem of unforeseen changes in our lives.
In these later verses, we can see that Solomon better grasped the world from a later vantage point. Everything was not as random and meaningless as he had painted it: “I know that everything God does will remain forever” (Ecclesiastes 4:14). Here, he regained great confidence in God’s ways and called others to join him in this more solid view of life. Life is not ‘ruled’ by chance but planned by God our Father.
It’s true that we may lack control, as the poem suggests. However, when we trust in God’s greater control over life, we, as God’s people, can find confidence in the knowledge that He works all things according to His good and gracious will for those who seek Him (Romans 8:38-39, 12:2). We don’t need to worry about controlling life’s surprises if we trust our Maker to handle them for us.
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