There is something that humans tend to appreciate about seasons. Many people like moving to the autumn season and watching the leaves change and fall. People often will question how I can live in Florida because they say I do not get to experience the seasons. I tell them that we have seasons down here. We have hurricane season. We have snowbird season. But seriously, we do enjoy seasons down here. We can feel the difference when autumn comes. We enjoy winters, not as a time of bone-stinging cold and shoveling driveways, but as a time to stand outside and feel a cool breeze contrasting the warmth of the sun on your face. But the idea of seasons also speaks to inevitability. We understand that one season must give way to the next season. It is never summer forever. Eventually summer breaks and autumn comes. It is never winter forever. Eventually even winter breaks and spring arrives. In fact, we are approaching a season of Thanksgiving right now, a wonderful holiday season that turns our eyes upward with grateful hearts. But whether we love a season or dislike a season, no season ever lasts. This is the picture we are to have in our minds as we come to Ecclesiastes 3. The third chapter of Ecclesiastes turns our attention to the idea of the seasons of life.
Observing Seasons (Ecclesiastes 3:1-9)
The teacher begins by telling us that there is a season for everything. There is a time for every activity. As you read through the first eight verses of chapter 3 you will see fourteen pairs of opposites. There is a time to be born and a time to die. There is a time to plant and a time to uproot. There is a time to kill and a time to heal. There is a time to tear down and a time to build up. There is a time to cry and a time to laugh. There is a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. There is a time for embracing and there is a time to avoid embracing. There is a time to search and a time to consider something lost. There is a time to keep and a time to throw away. There is a time to tear and a time to mend. There is a time to be silent and there is a time to speak. There is a time to love and a time to have. There is a time for war and a time for peace.
As you read these various seasons, the point the author is not making is that you must have the wisdom to choose when to do one and when to do the other. Rather, the teacher is showing us that life is constantly changing. We are being shown that life is full of opposite seasons. You do not choose these life seasons. The point is that these are the seasons that come to you. The song by the Byrds that made this scripture famous has a flaw in its intention. The song indicates that you can turn to a different season. But that is not at all what the author is saying. Rather, the author is saying is that there is a time and occasion for all of these seasons. There is a time where each season of life is going to come to you and there is nothing you could possibly do to change it. We often think that we are so powerful over life that we can just change our season of life. But that is just as arrogant as thinking we can change the seasons of the earth that we move through.
This is the very point that the teacher is making as he thinks about the seasons. Verses 1-8 are not a stand alone teaching. The first eight verses reveal the observations about life. But the teacher wants us to feel that helpless emptiness about the seasons of life. This is what he says in verses 9-10. What is the point of all our efforts in this life when we know that the season is going to change (cf. Ecclesiastes 3:9)? For example, you can try to make your life always about laughing and dancing but there is nothing you can do to change the fact that you will have a season of crying and mourning (3:4). You can try to give all your effort to be all about life, planting, and healing. But there is nothing you can do to change the fact that there are seasons of life in which there is death, uprooting, and tearing down. Nothing is permanent. Life is always changing and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Try as you might, there is nothing you can do to stop the changing of the seasons. You might try to keep life in the summer but it is inevitable that winter is coming.
Interpreting The Seasons (Ecclesiastes 3:10)
Why is this the case? The teacher tells us in verse 10 that God made life this way. God has given us the business of being occupied with the seasons of life. I think this is a very important point to underscore. Sometimes people think that this book is trying to show us what life is like without God. But this is not the case. This is the way of life with God. This is the way of life, period. The seasons of life happen to us whether we are followers of God or not. The teacher is telling us that God has made life to be this way. This is the business God has given to us that keeps us occupied (3:10). Tying this back to the lessons of the chapter 2, we think that if we had enough wealth, enough wisdom, enough achievement, or give enough effort that we can insulate ourselves from these seasons. We think that we can prevent these seasons if we work hard enough or have enough or know enough. But the teacher is telling us that this is unfortunately not the case. We cannot overthrow the way God has made this world to give us ever-changing seasons. So do we throw our hands in the air, give up, and say that this is all a waste? Not at all! The teacher is going to give us some important life lessons now that we have the understanding about the unchangeable seasons of life.
Humans Do Not Know When the Season Will Change (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
We are to accept an important truth in verse 11. God has made every season beautiful in its time. The conclusion is not that for you to change your season but to understand that God has given each season and each season has an appropriate time. God is in charge of the seasons, not us. This leads into the rest of what the teacher says in verse 11. God has set the seasons this way so that no one can know what God is doing from season to season. I want us to think about what we are learning. God has put eternity in our hearts. Everyone has a sense that there must be something more. There must be something more to this life. There must be reason and purpose. Everyone has this sense that there must be a reason for why we are here. But even with this sense of eternity and learning what is going to happen next, we do not know what is going to happen next. Even though we have eternity placed in our hearts, we still cannot see what God is doing. We want to know what is next. We want to know what the next season is going to be. But we do know what God is working and do not know what the next season of life will be. Every season is going to have its time in your life. But we cannot discover what that time is.
I believe this is one of the greatest challenges about the seasons of life. If we knew when our season of life would change, maybe it would be easier to endure. But we are not given that information. So every season tempts us to think that this season will never change. So when we are in the winter seasons of life, we can become discouraged and depressed because it seems like this season will never stop. There does not seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel. There does not seem to be any hope because we do not see how things are going to change. But there is another temptation. When we are in the summer seasons of life, we can also think that this season will never stop. We think the good times will always continue and nothing will ever change.
Now here is what makes this even more challenging in verse 11. We are unable to see how God is making all these seasons beautiful in their time because we cannot see what God is doing from the beginning to the end. This is perhaps our greatest question as we try to live by faith. We want to know what God is doing. We want to know how all the pieces fit together. We want to know what God is doing through the seasons. We have been spending time in our Sunday night series looking at how to look at life when we do not understand. The teacher of Ecclesiastes is acknowledging this truth. No one can find out what God is doing from the beginning to the end. No one is able to say that they see how these life puzzle pieces are fitting together. We do not control the seasons. We do not control God who is over the seasons. We do not know how God is using these seasons. So what are we to do as we move through the seasons of life? Look at verses 12-13.
Enjoy and Appreciate the Season You Have Been Given (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13)
We are told that there is nothing better than to appreciate and enjoy the season of life you are currently living. Since every season will have its time, then we need to appreciate the season God has given to us right now. Appreciate the moment you have right now. In last week’s lesson we considered that we needed to appreciate the blessings we have been given by God. Now the teacher tells us to look at the whole season of life with all of its wrinkles and enjoy this season God has given to you. God’s gift to you is to enjoy the season you are in.
Now this counsel makes sense when we are in a good season of life. Appreciate the good times you are having right now. Appreciate the times of your life when things are going well. Enjoy life when you can go to bed with a smile on your face. Embrace when you are in a season of planting, building up, dancing, laughing, embracing, mending, and loving. One of the important reasons to appreciate the summer season is because we know that it is only a season. There is one certainty given to us about the seasons. The certainty is that the season will change. Enjoy the good seasons of life when God gives them. There is something terribly sad about the person who is in the good season of life and yet that person spends that good season being critical and complaining about the things they do not like. We are being instructed to be joyful and take pleasure in this good season. Do not be sour when God is giving you your summer season.
But how are we supposed to appreciate and enjoy life when we are in a winter season? You will notice that the teacher does not say in verses 12-13 to rejoice and enjoy only when we are in a good season. We are to have this attitude in every season. The apostle Paul told us to rejoice always, not only when things are good. So how can I appreciate the winter seasons of life? First, remember that it is just a season. Even though winter feels like it will never end, it will. Nothing in this world is forever. Nothing in this world is permanent. I know that the darkness feels like forever. I know the hurt feel like it will never end. But this is just a season and we can put our hope in know that this season will eventually give way to another season. Second, we can appreciate the winter seasons of life by knowing that it is in the winter when God does his greatest work on our hearts and on our faith. This is what James was proclaiming when he said that we could count it all joy when we put into various trials of life. God is at work and he is producing spiritual character in us when we are in the winter seasons. So we do not just wonder what God is doing in the world or in life. Rather, we deeply consider what God is working inside of me. We are thinking about what God is trying to change in me so that I can be ready to live with my glorious Lord for all eternity.
Trust In God Who Arranges The Seasons (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15)
Therefore, whatever season we are given, we will trust God who is in charge of the seasons. This is the point of verses 14-15. No season lasts and God has done this so that we will fear him and trust him (cf. Ecclesiastes 3:14). Life will continue to be circles of seasons so that we will trust the God who is arranging the seasons of our lives. Understanding this truth might help us appreciate what the song, In His Time, is saying. To say that God has made all things beautiful in its time is a statement of faith. We are stating our faith in God. Even in my time of hurt, God can make all things beautiful and work together. Even in my time of joy, God can make all things beautiful and work together. The apostle Paul summed up this beautiful teaching of hope in Romans 8.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30 ESV)
Paul did not say that everything is good. Paul said that for those who love the Lord, he will work the pieces together for our good. There is a season for everything and a time for every activity. We cannot see how God is moving the pieces. But we know that God loves us and he is moving the pieces, making all things beautiful in his time.