God’s Timing and Purposes – Ecc. 3:1-8

Part 1

Vicky Moots - Pastor Kingman, Kansas

Ecc. 3:1: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”  

God has a time clock and a plan which will be fulfilled in His time, according to His purpose.  God started time on this earth in Gen. 1:5 where it is stated, “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

God also created seasons, or specific time periods, for everything.  These were first mentioned after the flood in Gen. 8:22 as He spoke to Noah: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”  He has a purpose for the cold and the heat, for the seeming death of winter and the resurrection of spring.

This is true in our lives, spiritually, also.  We go through hard trials where there seems to be no hope but then God brings something new and living out of it.  We would certainly not appreciate the springtime as much if we had never experienced the cold of winter or the heat of summer.  Nor would we appreciate our blessings if God always gave us everything we wanted.

Seasons are also appointed for times of remembrance or celebration.  An example of this is found in Num. 9:1-3: “And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come up out of the land of Egypt, saying, Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at his appointed season.  In the fourteenth day…, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season.”  This was an important season to commemorate their deliverance out of the bondage of Egypt and their protection by the blood of the Passover lamb.

We also set aside a season to celebrate the birth of the Lamb of God who was born in a stable, and a season to celebrate the death and resurrection of that same Lamb whose blood delivered us out of the bondage of sin.

But God does not count time the same as we do when it comes to fulfilling His purposes.  Peter informs us of this in II Peter 3:8 where he is speaking concerning the Lord’s return: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  We must be patient and wait on God’s timing, based on His time clock, not ours.

He does, however, give us signs, much like the changing of leaves on a tree that signal a change in seasons, warning us that His coming is soon, as Paul tells us in I Thess. 5:1-2: “But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”  Verse 4: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” We are to be awake and aware and watching for His coming as we see the night approaching and observe prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes.

Now is the season to be ready, for the time is short.  Paul instructs us in Eph. 5:16 that we are to be “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”  Redeeming the time means to buy up every opportunity, making use of our time wisely each day to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord by studying His Word and yielding to its transforming power.

Paul warns us in II Tim. 3:1 regarding the last days, stating, “This know that in the last days perilous [fierce] times shall come.”  Then in vs. 2-5 he lists many conditions that would prevail which are all happening today, confirming that we are, indeed, in the perilous times of the last days.

Because of this, Paul admonishes us in Rom. 13:11-12: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation [deliverance] nearer than when we believed.  The night is far spent, the day [of deliverance] is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”  Oh, how we need to let our light shine in these dark times!

It is the season to resist the devil and to stand on the Word of God, having on the whole armor of God, allowing God to produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives so that we may draw others to Christ.  David states in Ps. 1:3 that the man who delights in God’s Word “…shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither…”.  That season is now!

I would like to add one more Scripture concerning the present time in which we live with all its unrest and uncertainty.  We read in Dan. 2:21 that God “…changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth Kings and setteth up Kings.” America has been through a season of prosperity in recent years but now times have changed.  God has allowed the seasons to change and the leaves to wither and fall from the trees in our nation, but it is according to His time clock.  He is bringing down and setting up kings or leaders, according to His plan to fulfill His purpose in these end-times.  But we need not fear if we are planted by the rivers of living waters, for our leaves will not wither.  Let us trust God as our source of supply and peace until we hear that trumpet sound!