Do you sometimes feel dark inside?
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(Eccl 3:1-10 NIV) There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: {2} a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, {3} a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, {4} a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, {5} a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, {6} a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, {7} a time to tear and a time to mend, 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. {9} What does the worker gain from his toil? {10} I have seen the burden God has laid on men.
At one point or another we have all heard these verses, and we also have often not paid attention to these verses.
Parents especially experience these experiences with their children. As they grow up, we want to give them the best of everything.
We often already have made the experience of
"weep and heal, love and hate. . . ." ,and so on and all we are trying to do is protect our children from the bad part.But when we read these verses, they have to do with the design of life for us.
In a way Salomon makes it clear that this very design is divinely appointed.
"But God, I do not want to mourn, I do not want to give up time, I do not want to hate."
"This tapestry of life is difficult for me . . . save me from these experiences."
Oh don
't we wish!Why is it that King Salomon reveals this to us about God
I believe there are several reasons: (1) I was recently sitting with a new friend in my life and as he was telling me some of his life experiences, one particular sentence stuck in my mind as I left. He said:
"After the experiences I went through, I never take anything for granted any more."That for me was quite a revelation! We in our lives often take things for granted. In fact we often take our entire life for granted! And when we do, we slowly believe we become untouchable and we sometimes rely more on ourselves then on our maker.
But then there is also another reason: (2) I visited with a congregation member recently and that member brought the sermon title to us today. The member said:
"I feel so dark inside." Just the thought of darkness within us brings goose bumps to me. The member felt very lonely and was reminded of sin at the moment of darkness.You know my brothers and sisters, maybe that is the second reason why we must experience the cycle of opposites in this life. To be reminded of ourselves and of our relationship with God and others.
We in fact sometimes need darkness to be reminded of our own being. Of our existence and of our flaws. Form the moment we do not experience darkness any more we lost all relationship, even with our own being.
You see the cycle of our being relates greatly how we navigate our future in life.
God has withheld from humankind the key to unlock the mysteries of life, in order to force man to trust Him.
The entire concept has to do with recognizing who we are, that our future is un-searchable and that all things are out of our control, though we remain dependent on our future, which will always be filled with the attributes Salomon talks about.
Blind fate would be a terrible consolation, but how comforting it is to know that the events of the universe are ordered by a compassionate, gracious, long-suffering, faithful God.
Get ready for tomorrow? No? Be now! Live now. Enjoy now. Give the moment now a purpose. Don
't hope for tomorrow. Live today as if today would be our last day.Even Jesus repeats this them: Don
't worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself. . . .And then Salomon has this divine revelation about God:
(Eccl 3:11-15 NIV) He has made everything beautiful in its time.
You see in God
's eyes everything that happens is beautiful in itself. We live our life and we think that it should be this way or that way, but the reality is that in God's eyes everything fulfills His purpose.He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
How true! What do we know about God? What do we know why things are the way they are or they are about to happen? What matters? If we believe in God, we must believe that we serve a wonderful God, who has ordained us to live life as a gift with all its
{12}
I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. {13} That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God.It tells us that God does want us happy. He does not want us unhappy. But we make us unhappy and we sometimes seek the bad moments out by our own actions. But you know? Even these moments are ordained by our God.
{14}
I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.Although we have choices to make in our life . . . God knew our choices long before we entered the womb of our mothers. There is nothing that you and I will ever add to the work of God.
There will never be anyone like our almighty God. Never will there be anyone who creates a universe, who can set a beginning and an end and never will there be anyone who will be able to give eternal life.
Salomon even gives it a deep philosophical touch:
God does it so that men will revere him. {15} Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.
Be assured, for our God there is nothing new! What you experience even darkness inside of you . . . has been before. Meaning that God knows how it feels inside.
But in the end Salomon says that God will call the pat into account
I like the KJV much better which says:
Eccl 3:15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
We are to live the experiences of those who lived before us. To accept the cycles of drama in life so we understand our past. That we may understand where we come from, where our pain comes from, how we can feel about sin. And most of all that we are able to recall God's wonders and His work through us.
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