Man has the limitation of time and death, but God experiences no such limits. (This makes the incarnation of Jesus that much more glorious and breathtaking.) What God does endures forever (Eccl 3:14). This is in stark contrast to the works of man which will pass away, be forgotten, or both. God has designed this permanence to point to himself, that we might fear him (Eccl 3:14).

Final exams have been marked and course grades submitted. Graduation has come and gone, along with the mad rush of landscaping, picture taking, and moving out of dorm rooms.

For me, I have a few more end-of-year reports to write until I will be firmly in Summer Time.

This is a nice thing about being a college professor—our schedules and duties are usually obvious. We know when to prepare syllabi and course material; we know when common exams and paper deadlines fall during the semester; we know when the end-of-term chaos begins and ends.

Many jobs have predictable rhythms like this. But if we zoom out a bit, knowing the times and seasons of our lives is not always so obvious.

A Season For Everything

Ecclesiastes 3 opens with the most well-known portion of this little-read book. The Byrds made Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 popular with their 1965 hit Turn, Turn, Turn. This song has tremendous cultural staying power in spite of lyrics which are mostly just Scripture.

But while the Byrds turned this passage into a peace song, this biblical poem does much more. Yes, there really is a time for everything (Eccl 3:1). The opposites that pepper these verses indicate that there is a time for each of those extremes as well as the whole range of options in between.

By the end of this passage, we’re left with two questions. Who controls these seasons? How do we know when our seasons are changing?1

The Limits of Time

As the Preacher transitions from poetry to prose, he writes about how man interacts with God regarding time. Though the worker has no gain from his toil (Eccl 3:9, compare with 2:22) and the business God has given man is unpleasant (Eccl 3:10, compare with 1:13), everything is beautiful in its time (Eccl 3:11).

God has put eternity into man’s heart, so that he would be curious and long for the infinite (Eccl 3:11). Man wants to know like God knows and to understand like God understands. But man is not God and does not have the capacity for the same knowledge. This explains our questioning hearts—in seasons of suffering, grief, and confusion we desperately want to know why.

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