To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to gain, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, NKJV.
Most Gracious and Loving God, today we thank You for sparing our lives and granting us the privilege of studying Your Word. Please help us as we seek to know Your will and do it, while there is still time. This is our prayer in the blessed name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Yesterday I accompanied a group from our church to another church, where they presented a mini-drama entitled, Buying Time. It was a very timely drama, and very well presented. At the close of the drama, I was asked to say a few words in regards to the topic. Our Scripture for today, was the Scripture reading I chose. I will share with you some of the thoughts that I had planned to share with the congregation, but never did. The Lord impressed my mind with another message for the occasion.
As I thought about time, it became very clear, that time as we know it today, is perhaps not as it was, “in the beginning.” First of all, let us agree upon the fact that God, is the Author of time. In Genesis 1: 5 we read the following: “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” God took some light and some darkness, put them together, and created time, beginning with a day.
Several chapters down, after the explosion of sin; when God saw that in order to save humankind, a new start was inevitable, He sent a flood, in His great mercy. After the flood, when only one family who accepted God’s offer of grace, in the form of an ark of safety, was left upon the earth, God introduced a new phase of time, ” ‘ “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” ‘ ” (Genesis 8: 22). This new phase we know as seasons.
Sin had caused damage to the entire ecosystem, the temperature was no longer perfectly constant. There would be sharp changes in temperature, with great changes in nature (loss of leaves, change in the color and texture of the foliage, and the manner in which we “plant,” or “pluck what is planted”). There would no longer be a year round harvest time, because this was no longer paradise. Paradise had been lost with the entrance of sin.
In keeping with the theme of the mini-drama, Buying Time, another major change becomes evident. Have you ever heard the saying, “Time is Money.” Time was no longer an entirely free gift! Eventually, we all became sellers and buyers of time. Whenever you visit a doctor, you pay him or her for his or her time. Whenever you receive a check from your employer, he or she, is paying you for your time.
There is another change that I would like us to notice. If we go back to our Scripture reading, we will notice several negative times: a time to die; a time to kill; a time to break down; a time to weep; a time to mourn; a time to cast away stones; a time to lose; a time to throw away; a time to tear; a time to hate; a time of war. These times came into being, after the entrance of sin.
In our next devotional we will look at these times.