Life in Time
Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
“Like sands through an hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” This is the opening line of the soap opera, Days of our Lives. The show began in 1965 and has been running for over 50 years. Confession, I used to watch Days of Our Lives as a teenager with my mother over lunch when I was in high school. In my defense, it was before the days of internet streaming and YouTube so you had to make do with that was available. The Days of Our Lives is set in the fictitious Midwestern town of Salem following the disfunction of the Brady, Horton, and DiMera families as they face the intrigue of romance, adventure, mystery and drama. And the show would begin with that giant hourglass and the dramatic voiceover, “Like sands through an hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” Sadly, I still remember a few of the ridiculous plot lines and characters of the show, but the tagline is far from ridiculous. Life is an hourglass. The days of our lives are like sands through an hourglass, for our time is slipping away.
Each of us begin with a certain number of days, hours, minutes and seconds. And once the sand drops from the top to the bottom of the hourglass, it is lost forever. We live in time…with only a certain amount of time…then we are out of time. Gollum challenges a young Bilbo Baggins with one of his riddles in the Hobbit,
This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
Time. Time devours all. Horace Mann once wrote the following want ad, “Lost, yesterday, somewhere between Sunrise and Sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever.”[1] Like the sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. They are slipping away. We are only given a limited amount so we best use it wisely. And in order to use our time wisely, we must think of time wisely. And the Preacher of Ecclesiastes wants to help us do just that.
Above Time
In 1965, The Byrds came out with their hit song, Turn, Turn, Turn, (the same year as Days of Our Lives) quoting one of the most well-known poems in history, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8,
[1] For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter 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 together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
[6] a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast 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 for war, and a time for peace.
It is a beautiful poem that has seeped its way into broader American culture. I think I first remember hearing it was from a young Kevin Bacon claiming his right to dance in Footloose. Although is it often quoted, it is as often misunderstood. The key idea of the poem is time. The word is used 28 different times. Twenty-eight is a multiple of seven (seven times four) and seven is the number of perfection or completeness or wholeness in the Bible. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” The opening line tells the reader the purpose of the poem and then the poem confirms not only with words but through its grammatical style. The poem is full of opposites showing the full range and completeness of all human existence.
If we rightly understand this poem, we will appreciate its beauty, not only in its lyric genius, but in what it reveals about God. All of life is under God’s control. God is the master architect who has laid out the plans of human history that is perfectly setting each activity in its place to bring about his purposeful design. We can walk through the poem and see every activity under heaven. As a pastor, I experience the emotional whiplash of time often. I have visited a newborn baby in the morning only to bury a beloved saint in the afternoon. I help prepare a young couple bursting with love entering marriage while a few hours later I help an older couple rekindle that love in a struggling one. This poem has resonated with so many because we all have experienced its power. We know the power of a family embrace and we know the sadness when that embracing ceases in relationship tension or in saying goodbye after family vacation. We see every season in life, but we must realize that we are ultimately not in control those seasons come.
Our quest for control in ordering the times and the seasons of our lives, frustrates us. The poem in chapter three is similar to the poem in chapter one. And both poems are meant to humble us and teach us our creatureliness and God’s infiniteness. Our frustration and anger at the seasons of our lives result in our inability to control our lives because we question God’s rule and his ways in governing lives. Think about how frustrated we become when a season of our life lasts longer than we desire, whether it’s the season of infertility, the season of obscurity, or the season of financial and relational stress or a season physical recovery. Our frustration grows because the season of our life is not the season we want. Friend, you are not in control. There is one who lives over and above time. God is the one who sets the seasons of our life and has given activities and time for his creatures to live and to experience life.
The beginning of our satisfaction with time is to understand time as a wise child learns to trust the wisdom of his parents. Children usually want to experience things before they are ready for them. A good parent realizes what a child can handle and when a child should handle it. Children become frustrated with a parents’ decision when they question the wisdom or character of their parents. They assume their parents are wrong and they know better. And as you grow from a child into an adult you realize how foolish you were as a child. Children, trust your parents. They know more than you and their decisions are for your good. Our parents are organizing the different times and seasons of your life for our good. We learn this as adults, yet how often are we like a foolish child? When we question how God has arranged the times and seasons of our lives, we are questioning his character and his wisdom. We are trying to be like god, wise in our own eyes, thinking we know better in our limited knowledge. For we have no idea how our particular season of life fits into the grand plan and how God is working it for our good and his glory.
We are not in control and even as believers in Christ, we battle the flesh to trust God’s good providence in our lives. God is above time. He knows the end from the beginning. He is good. He is trustworthy. He kind. He is a good Father. We need to grow small and understand our place as creatures.[2] We may hold the individual brick but only God holds the blueprint. Once we realize to submit to the times and seasons that God gives us, we begin to find satisfaction in the time God has given us. Our time is a gift in whatever season of life we are in.
Appropriate Time
It would be a mistake to only focus on the beauty in the poem of chapter 3 without looking at the power of the prose that follows. The prose explains the poem. Ecclesiastes 3:9–13,
[9] What gain has the worker from his toil? [10] I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. [11] He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. [12] I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; [13] also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.
The Preacher again asks the question, “What gain has the worker from his toil?” He has answered time and time again so far in this book. Nothing. We labor and labor and can ultimately take nothing with us. We must learn not to question the season that we are in, but to look for and enjoy the good gifts of God in the season we are in. We must not long for the future but live in the present. There is something for us from God in the “right now.” Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matt. 6:34).
God has made everything beautiful in its time. Beautiful usually refers to physical appearance in the Old Testament, but here it is referring to something that is good, pleasing or appropriate. God has made everything appropriate in its time. God knows what he is doing with time. I am amazed at how my wife perfectly times all the food to be done at the same time every night for dinner. There are three or four dishes that have require different preparation and different time in the oven and they all come out at the same time, hot and ready to eat. I am glad I am not responsible for the cooking. For balancing even a few dishes, can be overwhelming for me. Imagine if I, an unexperienced novice cook, was constantly in the kitchen question what my wife was doing. You need to put the chicken in now. You are using the wrong spices and you put them on too early. You need to cut up the vegetables smaller and should have done that already. Don’t forget you need to boil the water and you are using the wrong pot. First, we know that would not be good for marital bliss, but it is also foolish. My wife has cooked thousands of meals and it the timing is just right. Why would I not trust her? Why would I act as if I know better? She is a much better chef.
Beloved, God is the ultimate chef. He is not merely balancing three or four dishes for a dinner but three to four billion things in the world to bring about his purposes. And his timing is always perfect. His meal is always hot and ready on time. He has made everything beautiful or appropriate in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:11, also says, “he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” We have a deep-seated desire to know all the purposes of the world and the meaning of things, but we will never understand what God is doing. We are limited in our perspective and only God know what will happen with the sands of our hourglass. He knows the beginning and the end and he is bringing his purposes to bear in our lives for our good. Have you ever been frustrated in a season of life only to look back at the end of it to realize it came at the perfect time? We can try to figure out the why of everything happens in life and be frustrated with it and question God in the process or we can listen to the Preacher and learn, “I perceived that there is nothing better for them to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil — this is God’s gift to man.” (Ecc. 3:12-13). Rather than question God, rejoice that someone else is in control.
One of the blessings that I get to experience is serving alongside Pastor Grant. He is a godly man. He a competent and gifted brother. A hard worker. He is a gift to me for I get to delegate tasks to him for him to handle and he plans and executes it. In a recent men’s breakfast, I was able to come and serve but not be in charge. I was not the one gathering the supplies for the day or making decisions on who was going to do what, and what needed to be accomplished in the time we had, I was just there to work and enjoy the time together with the brothers. How freeing is it not to be charge, but to hand over control to someone else? Now, it is not natural for me to handle over control because I like to be in charge, but it is freeing when someone else is in control.
Friend, give up the control of your life and give it to God. Stop frustrating yourself by trying to be a mini-god over your life and this world. Give control to God. You cannot figure out all that God is doing in the world. You are a creature. Grow small and trust God’s bigness and goodness to bring all things to his purpose. God always makes everything appropriate in its time. I believe that God has made this time, this message, appropriate for those listening to it. I do not know everything that God is doing in your life today. I don’t know your struggles, your pains, your frustrations, your sins, or your joys. But I know this, God makes everything appropriate in its time. He has ordained this message for you today. He knows what you need to hear and when you need to hear it.
Time is important throughout the Bible. Everything has its season. Today may be the season of salvation for you or repentance of sin or forgiveness or freedom or surrender. Friend, we all are sinners and need a Savior. The story of stories helps us understand how God makes everything beautiful at exactly the right time. God has come in time to save you and me from our sins. Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Romans 5:6, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ die for the ungodly.” We all are ungodly. To be ungodly is not to be like God. If God is perfect and holy, we are imperfect and unholy. Our unholiness separates us from God. But Jesus made a way. As he began his ministry, Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in gospel.” Friends, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand for you. Repent and believe the gospel. Jesus Christ came and lived as a perfect man and at the right time died for the ungodly. He died to the pay the debt for sin of all who would surrender control of time (repent) and give their time to God. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot try to rule your own life and have the Lord as your master. You must surrender as a creature and fear God who lives forever.
God has put a longing into your heart and beckons you to another world. If you have yet to surrender control to Christ, listen to this quote by C. S Lewis,
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing…The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing … to find the place where all the beauty came from… the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”[3]
God has put that longing in your heart and it is calling you to look beyond this world to the one that is come.
Jesus Christ died for you, but he also was raised from the dead. He conquered the grave and in his resurrection offers us more time. He offers eternity to you if you would repent of your sins and trust in him. We all must come to grips with the limited sands in our hourglass. Time devours all. But today, this day, this time, could be the day of salvation for you. At the right time, at the fullness of time, Christ came and died for the ungodly. The righteous one, Jesus Christ, was sent for the unrighteous, you and I, to bring us to God and to offer through faith a future inheritance that is undefiled, imperishable, and unfading… beyond time. Friend, God ordained the death and resurrection of Christ at the right time. He perfectly timed salvation for the world. He perfectly timed salvation for you and me. Will you be like Zacchaeus when Jesus visited his house at the right time and said, “Today salvation has come to this house?” Let salvation come to you today. Repent and believe the gospel.
Believer, think on all the circumstances that brought you to faith. How you were introduced to the right person at the right time, how you heard the message, how circumstances in your life happened to you were at a place you could hear and believe. Never forget how the Lord work in the seasons of your life to reveal Christ to you.
Apply Time
God is above time, God makes all things appropriate in time, and God challenges us to apply our time as we look to the end of time. Ecclesiastes 3:14–15,
[14] I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. [15] That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
Whatever God does, endures forever. God works and acts so that we would fear Him. To fear God is live before him. To live knowing that he sees all and knows all and he will hold us accountable for everything done under the sun. Preacher can be confusing, but do not miss his point in saying, “God seeks what has been driven away.” This is a poetic way of saying that God will seek what has happened in the past and bring it back to be judgment. It is not forgotten. It will be addressed. For us the past is lost and we move forward, but not so with the Lord. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” He will seek out the past and bring every deed to account. To fear God is to take the time that is given us and use to do good as long as we live knowing that one day we will answer for it.
The Preacher says in Ecclesiastes 3:12 that there is nothing better for us to do then to do good as long as we live. The Apostle Paul makes the same claim. In light of eternity, we should do good in the power of the Spirit.
[6] Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. [7] Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. [8] For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:6-8)
Paul is challenging us to view our lives in light of eternity. We reap what we sow. What we do in this life will be judged. We either will sow corruption and reap death or reap eternal life by surrendering to the Holy Spirit and doing good.
[9] And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. [10] So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:9–10)
Beloved, do not weary in doing good. It will never be in vain. We may not see the fruit in this season but we will reap a harvest in due season.
There is so many ways for you to use your time to do good to others. I could spend hours unpacking all the different ways you can redeem your time, but through a few moments of quiet prayer, the Holy Spirit will direct you how to apply the sands of time for good. By God’s grace, I see our body following the words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes and the charge of the Apostle Paul. I see you doing good to one another. My heart is full of joy as I see the body doing good to the household of faith. I see how you are doing good in serving one another by taking each other to hospital visits, doing good by providing encouragement for one another through dropping off food and flowers on doorsteps, by doing good in writing notes of encouragement pointing people to Christ during trying times, doing good in serving the body in tearing up a gym floor and knocking down walls, doing good in making a meal for a grieving friend, doing good praying for sickness, or sharing God’s word to the lost. Beloved, we are called to do good to all people. You are doing good to one another, let me encourage you to not grow weary in your well doing for you will reap a harvest in due season.
We are called to use the sands in our hourglass to bring God’s good purposes to bear in the lives of those whom God has entrusted us. We are called to do good as God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared to be appropriate for us to do for the sake of others. Your good works are beautiful and appropriate for the good of others and for the glory of our great God. We all have been called to do things individually, but we also have been called to do things as a body. What does God want to do with Park Baptist Church? Puritan Thomas Boston wrote,
Each generation has its work assigned it by the sovereign Lord; and each person in the generation has his also. And now is our time. We could not be useful in the generation that went before us; for then we were not: nor can we [be useful] personally in that which shall come after us; for then we shall be off the stage. Now is our time; let us not neglect usefulness in our generation.[4]
Beloved, I do not know all the things that God is calling our congregation to do, but I know this, God wants us to do good in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for his glory. Now is our time. Let us make the most of our time.
We all have to answer for our time and we all have so precious little of it. Beloved, knowing that eternity awaits, and the sands of our hourglass will one day run out, how will you use your time to do good for God’s glory for ‘Like the sands in the hourglass, so are the days of our lives?’ Time is given by God. It is short. It is precious. Use it well.
[1] Ryken, P. G. (2010). Ecclesiastes: Why everything matters (p. 78). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
[2] Gibson, David. p, 57.
[3] Ryken, P. G. (2010). Ecclesiastes: Why everything matters (p. 93). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
[4] Ryken, P. G. (2010). Ecclesiastes: Why everything matters (p. 95). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.
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