SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/22/2013
7:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Look
Up: God Orders Time
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl. 3:1-8
Message of the
verses: In order to understand how
the next section of Ecclesiastes is to unfold I need to quote three paragraphs
from Warren Wiersbe.
“Solomon has presented four arguments proving that life
was nothing but grasping broken soap bubbles and chasing after the wind. But he was too wise a man to let his own
arguments go unchallenged, so in Ecclesiastes 3-10, he reexamined each of them
carefully. His first argument was the monotony of life (1:4-11), and he
examined it in Ecclesiastes 3:1-5:9. He
discovered four factors that must be considered beore you can say that life is
monotonous and meaningless.
“First, he saw something above man, a God who was in control of time and who balanced life’s
experiences (3:1-8). Then he saw
something within man that linked him
to God—eternity in his heart (3:9-14).
Third, Solomon saw something ahead
of man—the certainty of death (3:15-22).
Finally, he saw something around
man—the problems and burdens of life (4:1-5:9).
“So, The Preacher asked his listeners to look up, to look
within, to look ahead, and to look around, and to take into consideration time,
eternity, death, and suffering. These
are the four factors God uses to keep our lives from becoming monotonous and meaningless. We will consider three of these factors in
this chapter and the fourth in our next study.”
Look Up:
God Orders Time (Eccl. 3:1-8): “1There
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.”
It
was in the late 1960’s that a group of singers called the “Byrds” would sing a
song entitled “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Not a
lot of people at the time knew that the lyrics came right from the third
chapter of Ecclesiastes and verses one-eight.
We
do not have to be a philosopher or a scientist to realize that there are seasons
of life, there are times and there are seasons.
There are seasons of the year along with seasons of life and what
Solomon is talking about here is that God is truly the One who is in control of
the seasons of our lives. There are
fourteen statements found here that Solomon gives to us about these different
seasons that God is in charge of in our lives, and if we allow the Lord to use
these seasons to bring honor and glory to Him then we will see the fruition that
is found in verse 11b: “He has made
everything beautiful in its time.”
Let
us begin to examine these statements, although some of them will be evident as
to what they mean. Solomon begins by
saying that there is an appointed time for everything. I have believed for many years that God is
truly in control of all things, and I am not saying that he causes all things
to happen that are bad, but He does allow bad things to happen. If this were not so then God would not be
God. We can look at Romans 8:28 as see
that for the believer “that God causes all things to work together for good to
those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” This shows the greatness of our God for even
the bad things He has promised to work out for our good and for His glory.
Birth
and death are spoken of in verse 2a, as Solomon says that there is a time to be
born and an time to die. We have many
things going on in our world today that make us think that man is in control of
life and death, things like abortion, birth control, mercy killing, and
surrogate parenthood, however Solomon tells us otherwise. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Birth and death are not human accidents; they are
divine appointments, for God is in control.” I wish to site a few examples from Scripture
to show that Solomon does indeed know what he is talking about. Josh. 24:3 “’Then I took your father Abraham
from beyond the River, and led him through all the land of Canaan, and
multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac.”
Genesis 33:5 “He lifted his eyes and saw the women and the children, and
said, "Who are these with you?" So he said, "The children whom
God has graciously given your servant.’”
Psalm 113:9 “He makes the barren woman abide in the house As a joyful
mother of children. Praise the LORD!”
Gal 1:15a “But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb.” Psalm 139:16 is one of my favorites on this
subject “your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were
written in your book before one of them came to be.” Isaiah chapter thirty-eight tells the story
of King Hezekiah and how God extended his life for fifteen years as an answer
to his prayer. Dr. Wiersbe writes “We
may foolishly hasten our death, but we cannot prevent it when our time comes,
unless God so will is it (Isa. 38).” God
is the author of life and all humans are made in His image, so all life is precious
to the Lord.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I can see
that God is the One in charge from the passages that we are looking at and this
means that He is all powerful, and all knowing, and an all wise God worthy of
my worship.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
“5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own
understanding. 6 In all your ways
acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Joab” (1 Kings 1:19)
Today’s Bible
Question: “What are the two elements of
the Lord’s Supper?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
4/22/2013 9:19 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment