Ecc 3:1-11 | JFB | STEP | . Earthly pursuits are no doubt lawful in their proper time and order ( ), but unprofitable when out of time and place; as for instance, when pursued as the solid and chief good ( , ); whereas God makes everything beautiful in its season, which man obscurely comprehends ( ). God allows man to enjoy moderately and virtuously His earthly gifts ( , ). What consoles us amidst the instability of earthly blessings is, God's counsels are immutable ( ). 1. Man has his appointed cycle of seasons and vicissitudes, as the sun, wind, and water ( ). purpose-- as there is a fixed "season" in God's "purposes" (for example, He has fixed the "time" when man is "to be born," and "to die," ), so there is a lawful "time" for man to carry out his "purposes" and inclinations. God does not condemn, but approves of, the use of earthly blessings ( ); it is the abuse that He condemns, the making them the chief end ( ). The earth, without human desires, love, taste, joy, sorrow, would be a dreary waste, without water; but, on the other hand, the misplacing and excess of them, as of a flood, need control. Reason and revelation are given to control them.

‏ Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

CHAPTER 3

Earthly pursuits are no doubt lawful in their proper time and order (Ec 3:1-8), but unprofitable when out of time and place; as for instance, when pursued as the solid and chief good (Ec 3:9, 10); whereas God makes everything beautiful in its season, which man obscurely comprehends (Ec 3:11). God allows man to enjoy moderately and virtuously His earthly gifts (Ec 3:12, 13). What consoles us amidst the instability of earthly blessings is, God's counsels are immutable (Ec 3:14).

1. Man has his appointed cycle of seasons and vicissitudes, as the sun, wind, and water (Ec 1:5-7).

purpose--as there is a fixed "season" in God's "purposes" (for example, He has fixed the "time" when man is "to be born," and "to die," Ec 3:2), so there is a lawful "time" for man to carry out his "purposes" and inclinations. God does not condemn, but approves of, the use of earthly blessings (Ec 3:12); it is the abuse that He condemns, the making them the chief end (1Co 7:31). The earth, without human desires, love, taste, joy, sorrow, would be a dreary waste, without water; but, on the other hand, the misplacing and excess of them, as of a flood, need control. Reason and revelation are given to control them.

2. time to die--(Psa 31:15; He 9:27).

plant--A man can no more reverse the times and order of "planting," and of "digging up," and transplanting, than he can alter the times fixed for his "birth" and "death." To try to "plant" out of season is vanity, however good in season; so to make earthly things the chief end is vanity, however good they be in order and season. Gill takes it, not so well, figuratively (Jr 18:7, 9; Am 9:15; Mt 15:13).

3. time to kill--namely, judicially, criminals; or, in wars of self-defense; not in malice. Out of this time and order, killing is murder.

to heal--God has His times for "healing" (literally, Is 38:5, 21; figuratively, De 32:39; Ho 6:1; spiritually, Psa 147:3; Is 57:19). To heal spiritually, before the sinner feels his wound, would be "out of time," and so injurious.

time to break down--cities, as Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar.

build up--as Jerusalem, in the time of Zerubbabel; spiritually (Am 9:11), "the set time" (Psa 102:13-16).

4. mourn--namely, for the dead (Ge 23:2).

dance--as David before the ark (2Sa 6:12-14; Psa 30:11); spiritually (Mt 9:15; Lu 6:21; 15:25). The Pharisees, by requiring sadness out of time, erred seriously.

5. cast away stones--as out of a garden or vineyard (Is 5:2).

gather--for building; figuratively, the Gentiles, once castaway stones, were in due time made parts of the spiritual building (Ep 2:19, 20), and children of Abraham (Mt 3:9); so the restored Jews hereafter (Psa 102:13, 14; Zec 9:16).

refrain ... embracing--(Joe 2:16; 1Co 7:5, 6).

6. time to get--for example, to gain honestly a livelihood (Ep 4:23).

lose--When God wills losses to us, then is our time to be content.

keep--not to give to the idle beggar (2Th 3:10).

cast away--in charity (Pr 11:24); or to part with the dearest object, rather than the soul (Mr 9:43). To be careful is right in its place, but not when it comes between us and Jesus Christ (Lu 10:40-42).

7. rend--garments, in mourning (Joe 2:13); figuratively, nations, as Israel from Judah, already foretold, in Solomon's time (1Ki 11:30, 31), to be "sewed" together hereafter (Eze 37:15, 22).

silence--(Am 5:13), in a national calamity, or that of a friend (Job 2:13); also not to murmur under God's visitation (Le 10:3; Psa 39:1, 2, 9).

8. hate--for example, sin, lusts (Lu 14:26); that is, to love God so much more as to seem in comparison to hate "father or mother," when coming between us and God.

a time of war ... peace--(Lu 14:31).

9. But these earthly pursuits, while lawful in their season, are "unprofitable" when made by man, what God never intended them to be, the chief good. Solomon had tried to create an artificial forced joy, at times when he ought rather to have been serious; the result, therefore, of his labor to be happy, out of God's order, was disappointment. "A time to plant" (Ec 3:2) refers to his planting (Ec 2:5); "laugh" (Ec 3:4), to Ec 2:1, 2; "his mirth," "laughter"; "build up," "gather stones" (Ec 3:3, 5), to his "building" (Ec 2:4); "embrace," "love," to his "princess" (see on Ec 2:8); "get" (perhaps also "gather," Ec 3:5, 6), to his "gathering" (Ec 2:8). All these were of "no profit," because not in God's time and order of bestowing happiness.

10. (See on Ec 1:13).

11. his time--that is, in its proper season (Psa 1:3), opposed to worldlings putting earthly pursuits out of their proper time and place (see on Ec 3:9).

set the world in their heart--given them capacities to understand the world of nature as reflecting God's wisdom in its beautiful order and times (Ro 1:19, 20). "Everything" answers to "world," in the parallelism.

so that--that is, but in such a manner that man only sees a portion, not the whole "from beginning to end" (Ec 8:17; Job 26:14; Ro 11:33; Re 15:4). Parkhurst, for "world," translates: "Yet He hath put obscurity in the midst of them," literally, "a secret," so man's mental dimness of sight as to the full mystery of God's works. So Holden and Weiss. This incapacity for "finding out" (comprehending) God's work is chiefly the fruit of the fall. The worldling ever since, not knowing God's time and order, labors in vain, because out of time and place.