A Time For Everything

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "A Time For Everything"

Podcast: Apologetics
Host: Apologetics
Date: November 13, 2025

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Overview

This episode centers on Ecclesiastes 3, exploring the meaning and purpose behind the changing seasons of life. The hosts discuss Solomon’s reflections on life’s cycles—both joyful and sorrowful—to prompt listeners to consider the difference between purely earthly ("under the sun") and divinely purposed ("under heaven") existence. The conversation addresses how believers can find hope and meaning despite life’s apparent futility and change, focusing ultimately on God’s overarching purpose.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Solomon, the Author of Ecclesiastes (00:29 - 01:37)

• Background on Solomon:

  • Identified as the ‘Preacher’ or ‘Koheleth’ in the text, traditionally believed to be Solomon.
  • Notable for being exceptionally wise, wealthy, and powerful.
  • His life is presented as a “memoir”—having pursued all earthly pleasures and ambitions to the utmost.

  Memorable Quote:

  "Every pursuit the fallen heart wants, every pursuit under the sun that can be pursued, Solomon pursued it, and he had it to the utmost of which it can be attained." – Brian (00:39)

2. Struggling to Relate to Solomon’s Perspective (01:26 - 01:56)

• Solomon’s experiences can seem unrelatable, yet his failures and sins make him accessible.
• He openly confesses the vanity of his pursuits: "chasing after the wind."
• Ecclesiastes builds toward the conclusion: "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." (12:13, paraphrased), though this episode focuses on chapter 3 as a representative section.

3. "Under the Sun" vs. "Under Heaven" (02:12 - 03:24)

• The phrase “under the sun” recurs, reflecting Solomon’s focus on earthly life versus a transcendent perspective.

• Human life is critiqued as vain and fleeting when evaluated purely on a horizontal axis.

  Memorable Quote:

  "Whenever he uses this pet phrase, 'under the sun,' he's critiquing and lamenting what we see in the horizontal plane. He's critiquing this mortal existence." – Brian (02:51)

4. The Structure of Ecclesiastes 3: Poetic Parallelism (03:34 - 04:37)

• Solomon uses "antithetic parallelism"—statements and their opposites:

  • E.g., "A time to be born, a time to die."
  • There are 14 couplets of events, each offsetting its opposite.

  Memorable Quote:

  "In this text, 14 different times uses 14 different couplets to declare something and then to declare the antithesis." – Brian (04:25)

5. Interpreting the Ledger: Is Life a Zero-Sum Game? (04:39 - 07:44)

• If we add and subtract these seasons, it could appear life nets to zero—gain balanced by loss.
• Historical and literary illustration:
  • Cites Shakespeare’s Macbeth:

    "Life is but a walking shadow… a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying what? Nothing. Big fat 0." – Co-Pastor/Theologian (07:05)

  • Modern analogy to pop songs and cultural nihilism—the common human intuition that life is meaningless if viewed only from an earthly perspective.

6. Purpose: The Missing Ingredient (07:47 - 09:16)

• The turning point: Solomon affirms every season has a purpose—a word that changes the entire reading.

  • Emphasis that God has sovereign intent in all things, even those we do not understand.

  Memorable Quote:

  "God has a purpose and utility for the good things, but also for the bad things... even when next year takes something from you that you don't want taken... There is a purpose." – Co-Pastor/Theologian (09:16)

7. God or No God: The Consequence for Purpose (09:16 - 10:49)

• Linking pop culture (John Lennon's "Imagine") to the biblical worldview—without God, all is meaningless.
• With God, meaning is found vertically; our worth and purpose are eternal, not just tied to fleeting, temporal cycles.

8. Apostolic Perspective: Transcending the Horizontal (10:49 - 11:42)

• Cites Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:
  • "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal… weight of glory."
  • Urges listeners to look not just at “what is seen” (horizontal) but “what is unseen” (vertical and eternal).

9. Categories of Change: Cycles, Relationships, Circumstances (12:25 - 13:20)

• Solomon’s couplets group into:

  1. Life cycles (birth, death, etc.)
  2. Relationships (laugh/weeping with others, embracing/parting)
  3. Circumstances (gaining/losing, war/peace)

  Notable reflection:

  • Changes in relationship are often the hardest to endure as we age and lose connections.

  Memorable Quote:

  "For some of us, we can deal with getting older… but... what's been harder on my heart growing older is the changes in relationships." – Co-Pastor/Theologian (12:50)

10. The Promise Beyond Loss (13:20 - 15:14)

• Affirmation: In heaven, there’ll be no more weeping, pain, or fractured relationships.

  • Cites Revelation 21:4:

    "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death… there shall be no more pain."

  • Relationships, though often broken here, will be restored and made whole in eternity.

11. The Transience of Earthly Accomplishment (15:22 - 16:43)

• Example: Alexander the Great conquered the world at 32, died at 33, showing how swiftly fortunes can reverse.
• Solomon asserts our possessions and achievements are fleeting; ultimately, our “circumstances can change overnight.”

12. On Lament and Shared Human Experience (17:07 - 17:56)

• Even biblical prophets lamented loss, calling, "How long, O God…?"

• Observation: Celebration and sympathy are equally common, as seen in the greeting card industry—a testament to universal gains and losses.

  Memorable Quote:

  "What Solomon is telling you is the same thing God would tell you right now, which is, this is the nature of under the sun. This is the nature of this place." – Co-Pastor/Theologian (18:41)

13. Futility Here, Hope Hereafter (18:52 - end)

• Life under the sun is futile—a “chasing after the wind.”

• In Christ, loss and sorrow are temporary; heaven means endless gain, peace, and joy.

• The ultimate hope: “No one is singing The Birds’ song in heaven”—sorrow, loss, and pain are left behind.

• Solomon’s message is ultimately hopeful because God’s purpose and eternity outweigh all earthly vanities.

  Memorable Quote:

  "Jesus Christ makes possible not only for us to be right with God, but he makes possible our entry into that golden estate for which you were made. And it is far better than this one." – Co-Pastor/Theologian (19:38)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Pop Culture & Nihilism:

  "What's the point? Enjoy yourself. Eat, drink and be merry, for today we die." – Brian (06:38)

• On Purpose Amid Loss:

  "There is a purpose under heaven for everything that has happened in your life, whether you understand it now or not." – Co-Pastor/Theologian (09:16)

• On Life’s Final Sum:

  "In a sense, human existence is nothing more than a mathematical equation which bottoms out when you die, which bottoms out at 0 plus 14 minus 14 equals 0 upon your death." – Co-Pastor/Theologian (05:43)

• On Eternal Perspective:

  "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal… weight of glory." – Brian, quoting Paul (2 Corinthians 4) (11:02)

• On Hope Beyond the Sun:

  "No one is singing the birds song in heaven. Why? Because... the nature of how it is typically ascribed in our culture doesn't apply there." – Co-Pastor/Theologian (18:56)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:29 – Background and credentials of Solomon, author of Ecclesiastes
• 02:51 – Explanation of "under the sun" vs. "under heaven"
• 04:03 – Poetic structure in Ecclesiastes 3 (antithetic parallelism)
• 05:09 – Mathematical analogy: 14 minus 14 equals zero
• 07:02 – Quoting Shakespeare’s nihilism from Macbeth
• 08:05 – The pivotal idea of "purpose" in the text
• 10:02 – Critique of John Lennon’s "Imagine" and the consequences of a godless worldview
• 11:02 – Pauline explanation: earthly suffering versus eternal glory
• 12:29 – Shifts in relationships as seasons of change
• 13:20 – Revelation 21: eternal restoration and joy
• 15:22 – Alexander the Great: an illustration of fleeting achievement
• 17:56 – Greeting cards as metaphor for life’s gains and losses
• 18:52 – The futility of earthly striving and hope in Christ

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Conclusion

The episode masterfully weaves biblical exposition with literary, historical, and cultural references to reveal the wisdom in Ecclesiastes 3: Life, with all its shifting seasons, is not meaningless—it is suffused with purpose by a sovereign God. The hope for believers lies not in balancing out the ups and downs, but in trusting God’s eternal design and looking forward to the restoration that comes through Christ.

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Transcript

[Dr. Holt]

In the book of Ecclesiastes, we read that there is a season that is appointed for everything. A time to weep, a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to be born and a time to die. In listing all of these things, what was the author's point? What can we learn from the various seasons of life that will be the focus of today's sermon? From Ecclesiastes 3.

[Brian]

Who wrote Ecclesiastes? What's his name? Solomon. Right. He's identified as Koheleth, he's identified as the preacher in the text. But we know it to be Solomon.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Based on a lot of clues within the text itself.

[Brian]

This is Solomon. Now, what do we know about Solomon? Well, we know, among other things, he was the wisest of all men. All men not named Jesus. He was the wisest of all men to ever walk this globe. But not only was he the wisest, he was also the richest. He was the wealthiest, he was the most powerful. He had the most wives and concubines. Every pursuit the fallen heart wants, every pursuit under the sun that can be pursued, Solomon pursued it, and he had it to the utmost of which it can be attained. You want money, success, wealth, fame, wisdom, whatever. Solomon had all of it to the furthest degree any man could ever attain it. And because of that, when such a man writes his memoir, so to speak, which Ecclesiastes, we believe, is written towards the end of his days, when such a man of wisdom and all these experiences writes his memoirs, on what?

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

One hand it seems like it's hard.

[Brian]

To relate to, and there's parts of.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Ecclesiastes you just go, huh?

[Brian]

How do I relate to what's being said here, the musings and memoirs of Solomon? How do I relate to this?

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

On the other hand, Solomon is a very relatable character because he was a great sinner. And we know something about that. In Ecclesiastes, he unpacks.

[Brian]

He says, I'm going to share with you my experiences and the things I pursued. And I'll tell you at the outset, the bulk of my pursuits have been vain. It's been futile. Chasing after the wind is what he's.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Going to say for chapter and after chapter. But then he's going to build to the conclusion in chapter 12. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. He's going to come to a conclusion that we won't have time to look at today, but today we're looking at a microcosm of his overall argument, he's.

[Brian]

Going to talk about that which is.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Futile, that which is vain, that which.

[Brian]

Is a passing thing, that which occurs under the sun.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

And he's going to identify 14 things in that category. Now, before we look at verses one through three, I want to remind ourselves of the phrase under the sun because it's significant. Earlier, Brian read from chapter one just.

[Brian]

To give us a flavor of the overall book.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

And in chapter one, Solomon says a couple things.

[Brian]

Number one, he says everything's futile. Everything's vanity of vanities, futility of futility.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Is everything is futile. Which sounds kind of like a downer.

[Brian]

But he also caveats. He qualifies that statement. He says, everything's futile, everything's vain, everything's stupid and silly.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Even under the sun.

[Brian]

Under the sun. Whenever he uses this pet phrase, under the sun, he's critiquing and lamenting what we see in the horizontal plane. He's critiquing this mortal existence. But he's not necessarily critiquing the vertical, because he will change. In today's text, I'm talking about, well, that which is done under the sun.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

That we see, and that which is done under heaven. He goes from that which is horizontal to that which is vertical. And we're going to see that in today's text. All right, let's return to our text. I'm going to reread verses one through three. Then we'll work our way through the balance with the remaining time, verse one.

[Brian]

To everything, there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Those words are important. We'll get back to them. For everything there's a season, a time.

[Brian]

For every purpose under heaven. There's a time to be born, there's.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

A time to die. There's a time to plant, there's a time to pluck that which has been planted.

[Brian]

There's a time to kill, there's a.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Time to heal, There's a time to. To break down and a time to build up. All right, let me get the English lesson out of the way here as we begin.

[Brian]

If you're looking at this text, if you're hearing this text written, you say.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

That sounds poetic, right?

[Brian]

There's some poetry going on here. The way he's phrasing it, if you believe that, you're exactly right.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

There is a structure here.

[Brian]

It's called antithetic parallelism.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

It's more syllables than I'm used to.

[Brian]

Antithetic parallelism. And what it means is that for each, he posits like a Time to be born. He posits the antithesis, the opposite. There's a time to be born.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Yes.

[Brian]

This morning you are all in this room because at some point you were born. And yet, if history proves accurate, there will also come a day when we all die.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Right?

[Brian]

There's a time to be born, a time to die. So in this text, 14 different times uses 14 different couplets to declare something and then to declare the antithesis.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Antithetical parallelism is what we see here.

[Brian]

Now, for those of you who prefer.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Math over English, I've got you covered as well. For those of you who prefer math, let me ask you a question. If you're an accountant and you add 14 to your ledger, you know, plus 14, you put that on the books.

[Brian]

But then right next to it, you subtract 14. So you add 14, then you subtract 14, and then you put the sum of these things. What is the sum? The Sum equals what? 0. 14 minus 14 equals 0. Well, in a sense, that's what we see in this text.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

If 14 wonderful things happen to you next year. Wonderful things.

[Brian]

14 wonderful things, but 14, just terrible.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Things happen to you as well, how.

[Brian]

Are you going to evaluate that year?

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Well, probably is a big zero, right? You're going to look at the things that went well and the things that went bad, and on the balance, it's going to seem like a wash to you. Well, in a sense, human existence works that way.

[Brian]

In a sense, human existence is nothing more than. Than a cyclical pattern of gain and loss on our ledger, so to speak, a cyclical pattern, a cycle of gain and loss.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

In one sense, human existence is nothing.

[Brian]

More than a mathematical equation which bottoms out when you die, which bottoms out.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

At 0 plus 14 minus 14 equals 0 upon your death. Now, the poets, the philosophers, the rock.

[Brian]

Stars have all seized on that idea.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Which is part of why I think that song is popular. The poets and the philosophers and the.

[Brian]

Nihilists and the rock stars have all seized on this. This idea that life is meaningless because they look at it and they say, one day I could have a great day. The next day it could be terrible. One day this wonderful thing will happen to me. But I know that in due time, something terrible will happen. And if this cycle continues, if 14 -14 continues to be the case for me, as it has for everyone else in my world, if it continues to be the case for me, then when I die, it's a big fat zero. That's why the music of Nirvan and everything going back to the 90s and the grunge. That's why now I am dating myself again. That's why that stuff is so popular, because it told people what they intrinsically sort of thought, that what's the point?

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

In fact, most pop music has taught that for decades.

[Brian]

What's the point? Enjoy yourself. Eat, drink and be merry, for today we die.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Right? Solomon will write that also in the book of Ecclesiastes, and people take that part to heart. Never get to chapter 12 when he gives a conclusion on the matter.

[Brian]

With that said, with that said, in one sense, our human existence is a mathematical equation that bottoms out of zero when you die.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

You know, Shakespeare, Macbeth and Macbeth. We're back to the English lesson. Shakespeare and Macbeth, he said this.

[Brian]

He said, life is but a walking shadow.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

It's a poor player that struts and frets its hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It's a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying what? Nothing. Big fat 0. 14 minus 14 equals 0. Even back in the day of Shakespeare. Same thing, same thing, same thing. That's what is been taught.

[Brian]

And in a sense, if that's all you extracted from verses one through eight, if all you took was the birds, that one song, and never read the rest of the book, let alone the rest of the Bible, you'd be a very confused individual, because you could say, yeah, it seems like my life is.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

A big fat nothing.

[Brian]

But that's not really what Solomon is saying.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Now. Let me explain why.

[Brian]

Notice in verse 1. Notice in verse 1 that before Solomon ever lists the antithetical things, the plus 14 and the minus 14, before he ever does that, he uses a word, and the word starts with a P.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

It's the word purpose.

[Brian]

For everything there's a season and a.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Purpose, a purpose that occurs for everything under heaven. To everything there's a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. Not only does he use the word purpose, but he also refers to what happens under heaven and not under the sun. And again, that's not accidental, because most.

[Brian]

Of his letter he talks about that which is under the sun.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

And when he does so, he talks with a very melancholy mindset. If you were to evaluate your life apart from the presence of the vertical, apart from the presence of a transcendent God in heaven. If there is no God, then Shakespeare's right.

[Brian]

If there is no God. If you evaluate your own life that way, or you kind of just default.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

To that position, I don't know if God's there.

[Brian]

If you act accordingly he's not there.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

And. And if there truly was no God, then life has no purpose. It has no meaning.

[Brian]

There's no value to it. 14 minus 14 equals 0.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

And it always will, if that's how you were to evaluate things.

[Brian]

But notice in verse one that Solomon.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Predicates everything he's about to say with this idea.

[Brian]

There is a time to be born, there is a time to die, and yet both things are united by this.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

God has a purpose in the life and even in the death. You doubt that. Then you can't make any sense of the cross. God has a purpose and utility for the good things, but also for the bad things, the things that we don't care for as much. And that should give Solomon and the rest of us some hope that even when the minus shows up on our.

[Brian]

Ledger, even when next year takes something.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

From you that you don't want taken, it does not necessarily mean that a. It's the negative that you see it to be, and it doesn't mean that it happened. The futility and the vanity that Solomon indicates earlier. There's a purpose under heaven for everything that has happened in your life, whether you understand it now or not. It's another story. But there is a purpose. And so he says that at the outset. However, some don't believe that. Some believe there is no God, there's no heaven. Remember John Lennon? Well, I'm getting all the cultural references out today. Imagine there's no heaven. It's not hard to do. That's the worst song.

[Brian]

There's not many songs.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

I will turn the knob. I don't care where it comes on. I turn the knob every time that song comes on. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it with a passion. But it's another song that came out in that same era, this idea. Imagine there's no heaven. It's not hard to do, right? As if there being no heaven is.

[Brian]

Some wonderful thing, you know, there's no God. No religion too. As if that's yay for us. If that were true. It's a terrible song. It's a terrible song because the implications of that song is that your life has no value, that your life has no meaning. But what if the opposite is true? What if John Lennon got it wrong? But now he knows? What if he got it wrong? What if there is a God? It's not hard to do that either. It's not hard to imagine there is a God. In fact, I got a whole book that declares it. That came from his own pen. It's not hard to imagine there is a God. So what if there is a God? If there is a God, then your purpose and your utility is not just horizontal, but it is vertical. In fact, it's more vertical than horizontal because you're only going to be here for this long. You'll be there forever. What if your reality is not the horizontal reality that you are inclined to see it as, and the world tells you it is, and the academic institutions and the media and John Lennon and whoever. What if your world is something bigger and better and more vertical than that? What if that's true? If that's true, it's a game changer. If that's true, it is a game changer. The apostle Paul, hundreds of years after Solomon knew it to be true, he says this in 2nd Corinthians 4. He says, because all the terrible things that happen to us, we do not lose hope, even though our outward man is perishing and we're getting old and terrible things are happening to us, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal. Remember, vertical, eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen horizontal, but things which are not seen vertical. That's what faith does, for the things which are seen are temporary, horizontal, under the sun. But the things which are not seen.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Vertical are under heaven. These are yet eternal. It says second Corinthians, chapter four in.

[Brian]

Verses one through three.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Solomon was honest about the seasons of life, but he also yoked those seasons to a purpose. And he also said that in due time and due time, it's not going to be 14 minus 14, but 14 plus infinity, when we're on that side where we're made for all. Right, let's look at verses 4 and 5, verse 4.

[Brian]

There's a time to weep, there's a.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Time to laugh, time to mourn, time to dance, time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones, time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. All right, across the 14 couplets, remember antithetic parallelism? There's this and there's that. Across the 14 different couplets that Solomon gives us, there's a pattern, a grouping to consider. The first three.

[Brian]

First three verses, he talks about changes.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

In our life cycles.

[Brian]

These verses, verses 4 and 5, are.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

About changes in our relationships, right? And then finally, verses six through eight are changes in our circumstances.

[Brian]

So the first three verses, Psalm was.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Talking about the big picture in our life Cycles. There's birth and death and the like.

[Brian]

But in these verses, he's talking about.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Changes in our relationships.

[Brian]

For some of us, that's been the.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Hardest changes we've ever had to endure.

[Brian]

For some of us, we can deal with getting older.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

I mean, I don't like getting gray hair. I don't like losing hair. I don't really like that stuff. But you know what's been harder on my heart growing older is the changes in relationships. There are people that were there one time, they're no longer there. There's relationships I had with people at one point that for various reasons, might.

[Brian]

Be fractured in the present. This is challenging for us because if.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

You live long enough, you'll endure the.

[Brian]

Loss of certain relationships. There will have been a time when you've laughed with individuals, and there'll be another time when those individuals won't even.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Be there and you'll weep.

[Brian]

So in verses four and five, he's.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Talking about the changes that occur in our relationships. And if we're honest, those are some of the very, very hardest. Sickness and the passing of others, sinful friction that yanks people apart. These things can weigh harder on us than just growing older can be more pronounced, more difficult. With that said, it won't always work that way. And we see that in verse four. In verse four, Solomon says, while we're under the sun, there'll be some days when we laugh, right? But there'll be other days when we weep. Let me ask you this. Are you going to weep forever when you're in heaven? Will you weep? You know the answer is no. But why is there any verses that tell you you won't weep? How can we be so sure? Remember Revelation? I'm hearing it. Revelation in Revelation 21. Let me just quote it for us here. Revelation 21:4. God says this. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There should be no more death. That's the second thing. There's no more of.

[Brian]

No more sorrow, no crying. There'll be no more pain.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

For the former things have passed away.

[Brian]

If your relationships are fractured, if they're broken, if people have passed. The good news is that while this is true and the heartache lingers here under the sun, the good news is that you and they were made for something better. The relationships that are fractured in the here and now won't always be fractured. Why? Because in due time, we'll be on the other side of the veil. When we're on the other side of the veil, it'll be a whole Lot easier to interact with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ than we have here. Relationships will not be fractured in that place, as they are oftentimes here. Furthermore, relationships will be restored there. It's not simply that Jesus comes up and just wipes away the tears and then you never cry again because you don't have tear ducts or something like that. You have no cause to cry again. In fact, you have cause for the exact opposite. To rejoice and be excited and joyful and embrace Christ and embrace loved ones and to dwell in a sinless existence from now on unto eternity. All these are reasons to be excited. And Solomon here doesn't want us to.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Miss that, even as he's talking about the things that are the antithesis of one another. All right, let's look at our last verses. Let's focus on verses six through eight.

[Brian]

Now. There is a time to gain.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

There's a time to lose. A time to keep. A time to throw away, a time.

[Brian]

To tear, A time to sow, a.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love, a time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace. You know, at 32 years old, Alexander the Great conquered the largest empire in recorded history. Did something no one ever done at that time or since.

[Brian]

At 32, he set the bar pretty.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

High, conquered the world. At 32, however, guess what? At age 33, he was dead.

[Brian]

Why?

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Did he die in battle? Did he die, you know, fighting off some marauders? No, he died of malaria. One minute. He's got it all. A time to gain.

[Brian]

A time to acquire. A time to be successful. A time to be powerful. A time to win. A time to have all the things your fallen heart wants. There's a time that you'll pursue these things. There's a time Alexander pursued these things. When he was 32, he had all of them. When he was 33, he died of malaria. And verses six through eight, Solomon says, this is coming to the Alexanders and the rest of us. There's a time to acquire and to purchase and get the new car and get the mortgage and do all that. But there's also a time when all that stuff will go away. In the case of Alexander the Great, it was like a singularity.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

He got it, then he died. Right. Well, Solomon suggests that in the fullness of time, even if you should go.

[Brian]

From 32 to 92, it's still just a vapor.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

It's just a hand's breath. That's not a lot of time in the scale of things in verses six through eight, Solomon says your circumstances can change overnight. They often do change overnight. Sometimes we lament the way that they have changed.

[Brian]

If you've ever lamented the way your circumstances have changed during good company, that's pretty much all the prophets did when they were complaining. You know, talk back about the glory days of how things used to be, how things should be, and then they look at how things aren't and they'd.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Say, how long, O God, how long until you right these wrongs?

[Brian]

If you've ever lamented your circumstances going.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

South on you, what I would tell you is this, you're in good company because whether you're the prophets or the apostles, your circumstances can and do change. I hope that is not a news flash too.

[Brian]

They often change for the worse.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

You know something that's kind of interesting? Hallmark sells a lot of greeting cards and the like. You get the congratulation cards. But you know what they sell? I looked this up. They sell roughly the same amount of.

[Brian]

Stuff, sympathy cards as they do congratulation cards. It's about 300 different ones they have, each roughly the same amount of sympathy cards that they do. Congratulation cards.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

What does that tell you?

[Brian]

It tells you that your circumstances will change. Just go down the aisle, pick the card. One of those cards might apply to your life right now. The one over there.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

I don't want to.

[Brian]

I don't ever want to get that card right. If you live long enough, you'll probably get that card. Something else that's interesting. Over 90% of the sympathy cards or.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Given by people over 40, 25 year olds are not giving each other sympathy cards. Why? Apart from tragic circumstances befallen younger people, generally speaking, they have a larger canvas on which to paint. The older you get, the canvas gets smaller and the losses accrue and the sympathy cards start showing up in your mailbox again. What Solomon is telling you is the same thing God would tell you right now, which is, this is the nature of under the sun.

[Brian]

This is the nature of this place. We can forget it when we look at shiny cars and beautiful days and the beach and the like, right? We can forget it for a bit, but it remains an unshakeable truth.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

On this mortal coil of all we.

[Brian]

Have, that which is horizontal life is.

[Co-Pastor or Theologian]

Futile chasing after the wind. And if that was true, then every part of Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1 through 8 is true as well. Every part. You'll gain, you'll lose, you'll gain, you'll lose, you'll gain, you'll lose. But you know what? No one is singing the birds song in heaven. Why? Because the melancholy contents of that song, the nature of how it is typically ascribed in our culture, doesn't apply there. Is there a time in which you will lose, in which you will hate, die, tear, pluck, break down, and so on? Yes. But in Christ that time is soon over. Jesus Christ makes possible not only for us to be right with God, but he makes possible our entry into that golden estate for which you were made. And it is far better than this one. In due time, in short time, we will be there. And that's why Solomon ultimately glorifies God across the bulk of this book and rejoices. Because he knows that his life story was not categorized simply by what happens under the sun, but rather by that which happens under heaven. Let's pray.

[Dr. Holt]

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