Every appetite in nature and grace has its appropriate satisfaction.” (Meyer) “God made man in his own image and nothing more surely attests to the greatness of our origin that those faculties of the soul which are capable of yearning for, conceiving, and enjoying the Infinite, the Immortal, and the Divine…. We can say that eternity is in our hearts because we are made in the image of an eternal God. Also He has put eternity in their hearts: The Preacher understood that man has an awareness and a longing for the eternal, and that God has put this in their hearts. Solomon thought of the good and bad as they were described and understood that God has made everything beautiful in its time.Ĭ. He has made everything beautiful in its time: This sense of balance considers the poetic list in the previous section. What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task which the sons of men are to be occupied: The Preacher asked the kind of question he had asked before but this time he found an answer in the God-given task that God gives to man.ī. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.Ī. He has made everything beautiful in its time. What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. (9-11) A glimmer of hope in seeing God as the master of time. If the gale of grace be over-past, the gate shut, the drawbridge taken up, there is no possibility of entrance.” (Trapp) 2. Esau came too late so did the foolish virgins. “Many a man loseth his soul, as Saul did his kingdom, by not discerning his time. This list also shows us the need to take full advantage of the time God gives us (Ephesians 5:16, Colossians 4:5). The poetic quality of the list shows that even the tragic, dark aspects of life can be artfully – and powerfully – presented. A time to cast away stones: In the ancient world they commonly scattered stones on an enemies’ land to hinder farming. Where there is dancing, there the devil is, saith a Father: and cannot men be merry unless they have the devil for their playfellow? Dancing, saith another, is a circle, whose centre is the devil, but busily blowing up the fire of lust, as in Herod, that old goat.” (Trapp) “Here is nothing for mixed immodest dancings…. A time to dance: The English Puritan commentator John Trapp seemed to be wary of this time to dance. “Significantly, the Hebrew word used here for ‘to kill,’ is not the word reserved for murder in the sixth commandment, where premeditation seems to be in view.” (Wright) A time to kill: Solomon did not tell us there was a time for murder. “Birth and death, the boundaries of life under the sun, are mentioned first.” (Wright) The Preacher understood that though there are good things in life, the bad things can’t be escaped. A time to be born, and a time to die… a time to break down, and a time to build up: A bad facet answers each good facet. Whatever may be our skill and initiative, our real masters seem to be these inexorable seasons: not only those of the calendar, but that tide of events which moves us now to one kind of action which seems fitting, now to another which puts all into reverse.” (Kidner)ī. “The repetition of ‘a time…, and a time…’ begins to be oppressive. “His ceaseless reiteration of the words, ‘A time… a time… a time,’ are intended to indicate his sense of the monotony of all things, rather than of their variety.” (Morgan) Yet it also casts a dark shadow because it reminds us of the inevitability of trouble and evil, and of the relentless monotony of life. To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: The poetry of this list – describing the different seasons and facets of life – is beautiful.
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