God who makes beautiful in time (1)
[Ecclesiastes 3:1-14]
What time do you think now? Around October, 2010, I attended one of my church’s cell bible studies. And I heard one of the brothers in Christ talking about a new movie called “2012” during the dinner time. He told us that the movie was about 2 hours long and there is a lot of action. So I did some researches on Internet about this movie “2012”. This film was a disaster movie, which stated that the Earth would be destroyed on December 21, 2012. The story of the destruction of humanity, which had been constantly being talked about since the ancient Mayan civilization, was that the earth's destruction on December 21, 2012 was probably because the Mayan calendar was only created on December 21, 2012. In addition, prominent scientists say that the time of destruction is actually 2012 after many years of research. After the 1940s, especially in the last 11,000 years after the melting of glaciers due to rapid global warming at the end of the ice age since 2003, the sun is acting wilder than ever before. The physicists studying the sun, based on their observations, predicted that the solar activity would peak again in 2012. If there would be a storm in the sun, then there would be a storm occur on the earth too. As a result, they would be earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, gigantic tsunamis, and other natural disasters all over the world and it would be an end of the world. After I heard about this movie on Saturday, I talked about that movie with one of my church member who was over 90 years old during the lunch time on Sunday. The reason was because he had previously talked to me about the destruction of the earth in 2050 based on a Japanese newspaper. At that time, I told him in a joke that in 2050, ‘You won’t be alive so you don’t have to worry about it’. But now since the movie said that the end of the world was 2012, I wanted to know what he thought about it. What do you think about these movies and newspaper articles, the stories of this world about the end times? My personal thoughts still feel like people in this world know that someday the end of this world will come. So Luke 12:56-57 came into my mind: “Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? Why don't you judge for yourselves what is right?” Although people know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, they cannot interpret this present time. Of course, like the movie “2012”, there are a lot of disaster movies and books about the destruction of the earth, it seems that many people do not know that this age is the last time.
When we look at Ecclesiastes 3:11, the Teacher King Solomon said God had made everything beautiful in its time. So I want to meditate on Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 under the heading of “God who makes beautiful in time (1)” and think about how God makes all things beautiful in its time. I just want to think about one thing today.
First, God makes everything beautiful by fulfilling all the purposes.
Look at Ecclesiastes 3:1 – “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” Here, King Solomon says that there is time in all things. He says that because God is in the midst of our individual lives, he eventually achieves God's purpose and God's will (Wiersbe). And he speaks about many different times in verses 2 through 8. I divided these times into five:
(1) There is a time to be born and a time to die.
Look at Ecclesiastes 3:2 – “a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot.” King Solomon already said that “Like the fool, the wise man too must die!” (2:16). And he said that for sure there is a time to be born and a time to die (3:2). If we say birth and death in terms of a tree, there is a time to plant and a time to uproot. Here, the important thing is the sovereignty of God. In other words, man is born in the sovereignty of God and man dies in the sovereignty of God. Not only man's life but also the life of the tree is in the sovereignty of God. The important thing is that through life and death, the will of the Lord must be fulfilled. In other words, through our lives and death, only the glory of the Lord must be revealed. By doing so, our lives and death will be beautiful. God makes all things beautiful by fulfilling his sovereign will through our lives and death. As I was meditating on this passage Ecclesiastes 3:2, this became my prayer of wish: “God, make my death more beautiful than my birth.” Even now, I am praying to God to grant me a beautiful death. If I speak in terms of tree, my prayer is that God may plant me and make me to grow more and more and bear a lot of fruit for God’s glory and then God will uproot me in his perfect time. But I pray that God's sovereign will will be done through my life and death, not my will. The reason is because only if God’s will be done and not my will through my life, my death will be beautiful.
(2) There is a time to be disciplined and a time to be restored.
Look at Ecclesiastes 3:3, 5-7: “a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, … a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, … .” These words mean that there is a time when God discipline us and a time when God restores us (Park Yun-sun). The phrases “a time to kill”, “a time to tear down”, “a time to scatter stones”, “a time to refrain”, “a time to give up”, “a time to throw away” and “a time to tear” refer to God’s discipline. And the phrases “a time to heal”, “a time to build”, “a time to gather them”, “a time to embrace”, “a time to search”, “a time to keep” and “a time to mend” refer to God’s restoration. Why did King Solomon talk about the time of discipline and the time of restoration? The reason is because even though we believe in Jesus by God’s grace until we die, we tend to go back to our old nature and commit sins against God, and thus God had to discipline us. But the amazing grace of God is the fact that our God is not only disciplined when we sin, but also he restores us. Here, we must remember that there are two important elements in God’s discipline and God’s restoration. And two important elements are God’s love and our repentance.
Why does God discipline and restore us? That's because God loves us. If God doesn’t love us, he doesn’t need to discipline us. God disciplines us when we disobey him and commit sins against him because he loves us. And he restores us because he loves us. Another thing is there is our confession and repentance between God’s loving discipline and restoration. It is because without our confession and repentance, there is no restoration. Eventually, through God’s discipline and restoration, through his love and our confession of sin and repentance, God fulfills his sovereign will and makes us beautiful.
(3) There is a time to weep and a time to laugh.
Look at Ecclesiastes 3:4 – “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” This world is full of sorrow, affliction, sin and death. As Moses said in Psalms 90:10, the length of our days is seventy years, or eighty, if we have the strength. Yet our span is but trouble and sorrow. Thus, whether we are believers or not, we all have to experience sorrow in this world. But the sadness of the believer and the unbeliever is different. It must be different. We must not shed the same sorrow as non-believers do. The tear we the believers must shed is tears of repentance. When we sin against God and are disciplined, we must weep and sorrow in suffering and pain. These tears and sorrows are precious. King Solomon says that sorrow is better than laughter (Eccle. 7: 3). We must have grief on our faces. The reason is because our hearts can be good with grief on our faces. How can our hearts be good? It is because godly anxiety makes us to repent our sins so as a result, it gives us laughter and joy. That is to say, it is good to have grief on our faces because godly sorrows enable us to enjoy God’s restoring grace by forgiveness of our sins. That’s why we must thank God for both sorrow and joy. We must thank God because we can confess and repent of our sins through the sorrow that God has allowed in His sovereign will. When we confess our sins and repent, we can get the true joy God gives us. In the end, God makes us beautiful by fulfilling his purpose when we cry or laugh.
(4) There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.
Look at Ecclesiastes 3:7 – “… a time to be silent and a time to speak.” This is what King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 5:2 – “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.” King Solomon said when we pray to God do not be hasty in our hearts and to do be quick with our mouth. This doesn’t mean that we should pray short. I think instead of keep on praying the same thing over and over again and pray long, it’s better to pray truthfully by pouring our hearts. What is important is not how long or short we pray to God. It is ‘How’ we should pray to him. First of all, we must be quiet before God when we pray. Here, being quiet has two implications. And the two implications are fully trusting God and listening to God’s voice. When we pray to God, we must first have silence of total trust in God. And in that trust we must strive to hear God's voice. In order to do that, we should try to listen to God’s voice through the Word of God rather than to say many words to him. Especially, we must let the Word of God to speak to our hearts by being silent before God. By doing so, we must realize our sins through the Word. Then we must open our mouth and confess our sins to him. Eventually God makes us beautiful by calming us and making us to speak. In other words, God makes us beautiful by making us to completely trust in him and opening our hearts and mouths to confess our sins to him.
(5) There is a time to love and a time to hate.
Look at Ecclesiastes 3:8 – “a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” We who believe in Jesus are beautiful when we obey God's Word and love their neighbors. And we are beautiful when we obey God’s word and hate evil. But somehow, when we look at our church these days, we hate our neighbors whom we should love, and we seem to love our sins that we should hate. That’s why the church is ugly instead of beautiful. We must clearly distinguish between the objects we should love and the objects we should hate. God says to love our neighbor and hate evil. The reason is because God wants us to be beautiful as we love each other with his love. God also wants us to be beautiful by making us to hate evil. Therefore, in obeying God's Word, we must fight spiritually against the temptations of Satan to confuse the object of love with the object of hatred. And in fighting this spiritual war we must have the conviction of victory. The reason is because Jesus has already won the victory on the cross. And Jesus' victory is our victory. God makes us beautiful by giving us the victory in our spiritual battle. And he makes us beautiful by giving us peace in Jesus Christ. In this way, God makes everything beautiful in love and peace, and makes everything beautiful even in hatred and war. Eventually, God makes us beautiful by fulfilling his sovereign will in the midst of love and hate and war and peace. Our God is the God who makes everything beautiful in his time. God makes us beautiful by fulfilling his sovereign will when we are born, when we die, when we cry, when we laugh, when we are disciplined, when we are restored, when we are quiet, when we speak, when we love and when we hate. The sovereign will of God is working in all these times and makes us to be like Jesus. In doing so, though we may not have a beauty to have attraction (Isa. 53:2) in the sight of God we will be his beautiful children. Therefore, we are to praise God “My Jesus, as Thou wilt”:
“My Jesus, as Thou wilt! Oh, may Thy will be mine! Into Thy hand of love
I would my all resign; Through sorrow, or through joy, Conduct me as Thine own,
And help me still to say, My Lord, Thy will be done!
My Jesus, as Thou wilt! Though seen through many a tear, Let not my star of hope
Grow dim or disappear; Since Thou on earth hast wept, And sorrowed oft alone,
If I must weep with Thee, My Lord, Thy will be done!
My Jesus, as Thou wilt! All shall be well for me; Each changing future scene
I gladly trust with Thee. Straight to Thy rest above I travel calmly on,
And sing, in life or death, My Lord, Thy will be done!”