Let’s take our Bibles and turn to Ecclesiastes 3, Ecclesiastes 3. I want to come back to a sermon I started last Sunday morning entitled, It’s About Time. Let’s read from Ecclesiastes 3:1-11. “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, 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 silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.”
“What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen God, and that given task which He has given to the sons of man with which to be occupied, He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity in their hearts except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”
When Don Reagan became Chief of Staff for Ronald Reagan during his presidency, he was staggered at the immensity of his responsibility, that of managing the president’s schedule. Listen to him as he expresses that concern. “It’s a sobering experience to realize that you have been entrusted with managing the time of the most powerful man in the world.”
I think we can understand that. In fact, Don Reagan goes on in his memoirs to say this, “A president has no more than eight years. And he may be granted half that time or even less to keep his promises to the people. Therefore, it is true of the President as it is true of few other men, that he hasn’t a minute to waste. Every meeting, every conversation, every ceremony must have a purpose, and it must take place in the allotted time. What a president might feel to do for lack of time can have profound consequences”
I think we appreciate that, don’t we? Solomon would certainly appreciate those sentiments, because those in power understand better than most that there’s much to do, but so little time to do it in. Time indeed is a treasure that must be jealously guarded and highly valued.
And sort of, as we come back into Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon is continuing to look at life: its origin, its purpose, its goal, if any. And you can’t look at life without putting a value on time. If life is to have a purpose, then time must have a point. And so, here in Ecclesiastes 3, we find this ruler, this royal, reflecting on time and its purpose. And there is a purpose to time, and there is solid value to time, and Solomon begins that argument in verse one of chapter three. “To everything. There is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”
This section of the book turns a corner, as we acknowledged the last time. We’re beginning to look at things from a God-centered perspective. We’ve moved from skepticism to faith. We’ve moved from humanism to theism. The end of chapter two, Solomon encourages us to embrace life with all its complexities, with all its contrasts. Nevertheless, we’re to view it as a gift from the hand of God. And speaking of the hand of God, Solomon wants us to understand that that hand governs the hands of the clock; that God is the potentate of time, that He is the maker and the master of time, that He has a plan that embraces every man, every woman, every child, every king, and all their actions. And that plan in the end will be appropriate, fitting, beautiful according to verse 11.
And so, we want to catch up where Solomon left off. We started to look at this passage under three general headings. In verses 1-8, we started to look at the blending of time. In verses 9-15, we’ll come to see the sending of time. And in verses 16-22, we’ll come to consider the ending of time.
But this morning I want to finish this thought of the blending of time, verses 1-8. Verse one is a bold declaration that God is sovereign over the affairs of man, that nothing has been left to chance. Everything has its appointed time, everything has its allotted purpose. Everything in nature and life is fixed and under the divinely determined scheme. We reminded ourselves of that fact. Every activity, everything, every willful action of man has its proper time and its allotted season. To borrow the words of the hymn writer, “God is the potentate time.”
It’s worth noting the change in grammar here. Up until this point in the book, Solomon has talked about all that takes place under the sun. But will you notice in verse one of chapter three, he speaks of that which takes place under heaven night. Many commentators see no significance in that. I beg to differ. I believe there’s been a turning of the corner in this book. I believe Solomon is now becoming more God-centered in his thinking, more theological in his approach. And therefore, it would be appropriate that he would describe things not so much as under the sun, as under heaven. Because in chapter five in verse two, what do we read? “For God is in heaven and you are on the earth.” It seems to me that this is Solomon bringing a more positive perspective on things, that God is in heaven. And everything that takes place under heaven takes place at His appointment, according to His allotment.
Psalm 115:3 tells us, “God is in heaven and does whatever pleases Him.” We read in Daniel 4:17 that, “Heaven rules on earth.” And I would remind you and I that someday that truth will be made visible in what theologians call the Millennial Kingdom, the Millennial Reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. God will show His sovereignty. God will show His rulership in very stark, physical, visible terms. Revelation 11:15 tells us that, “The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God.” According to Revelation 20, “Jesus will reign on planet earth for a period of 1,000 years.” I take that literally. I believe that history will end at a doxological moment, when God’s glory will fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.
By the way, as a little footnote, that to me is one of the attractions of Premillennial theology. What do I mean when I talk about premillennialism? It’s the fact that Jesus’ coming will happen prior to the Millennium, and His coming will bring about a Millennium, a thousand-year reign. I believe that’s going to be true. I believe it’s going to be centered in Jerusalem. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ is going to plant this feet again back on planet earth, on the terra firma of this planet. The last time the world saw Him, He was crowned with thorns. He hung in shame upon a cross. The next time they will see Him, they will fall on their face, they will cry for the rocks to hide them. Jesus will appear in power and glory.
History is His story, and I like that about Premillennial theology. I think it reflects the promise of the prophets, the hope of the gospel. And it reminds me that indeed history is not a runaway train; that everything is moving towards a doxological moment when Jesus shall reign where earth, the sun, its successive journeys run. In the end, we win. Amen?
Amen.
That’s the whole point of the book of the Revelation, which would remind you and me that for the Christian, it’s not a case of the sky is falling. There’s a lot of panic in the church today. I don’t understand it. Oh, yes, times are difficult. We’re told they’ll be difficult. The last days will be difficult times. But there’s no need to panic. There’s no need to lose our head or our faith or our joy or our peace. It’s not a case of the sky is falling. For us, it’s a case of the Son is coming. Even so, come Lord Jesus.
Maranatha was the watchword of the early church. How did I get there from here? I can’t remember, but it was good. No, I know why I got there from here. Because you see, back in Ecclesiastes chapter three, Solomon is reminding us of God’s reign over time and the seasons allotted to man. God is the potentate of time. And He blends all of our history together beautifully, and over time He will make it appropriate.
We started to look at this poem. This is a merismus, as we said. It’s a linguistic device where Solomon sets things in opposition to one another. And the point is that it takes us to the extremes, and the implication is that it includes everything in the in-between. We talk about north and south, we talk about heaven and hell. That’s the thought here. And so, what we have is God has appointed a time for everything. And then, Solomon goes on to summarize life and the stuff that we will find ourselves experiencing and encountering. Remember, God is the antecedent to all the action here. This is God’s will, that God appoints a time for you and I to be born and a time for you and I to die, and all that follows here is the description of life.
And we started to look at this description, didn’t we? There’s a time to be born, a time to die. There’s a time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted. There’s a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to break down, a time to build up, a time to weep, a time to mourn, a time to laugh and a time to dance. That’s where we got.
So let’s pick it up here in verse five. “And a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones.” What in the world does that mean? Because that’s not part of our experience. Well, the tour guides of Israel tell us that God gave stones to an angel and told them to distribute the stones throughout the world, but he tripped over Palestine because Israel’s a very stony, rocky terrain.
But that aside, I think the meaning of this text is the first half of the text speaks of an ancient military policy of scattering stones across a field to impede the advance of the enemy. It’s kind of the ancient equivalent to a minefield. It was just to stop and impede the advance of the enemy or it may be a defensive move. You’ve got it back in 2 Kings, 2 Kings 3. Elisha is speaking to the king of Israel and he says this: “Also, you shall attack every fortified city,” as it regards to the Moabites, “and every choice city, and cut down every good tree and stop up every spring of water and ruin every good piece of land with stones.” So there’s a time to scatter stones. We’re probably talking about war time here. There’s a time to make it difficult for the enemy.
What’s the other half of the verse? Well, the gathering of stones clearly speaks of clearing the stony ground, stony ground that it’s either stony naturally speaking or is the work of the military. What you want to do is you want to gather those stones and build something with them. You’ve got that over in Isaiah 5, where we read this: “Now let me sing to my well-beloved the song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard, a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, he cleared out its stones, and he built a tower in the midst of it.” So the stones were dug up, the scattered stones were dug up, walls were built with those stones, and watchtowers were built with those stones. So we’re probably talking them at a time of war and a time of peace, and life will sometimes have us scattering stones and sometimes gathering stones. I do like a point that one commentator made that when your enemy sows your field with stones, don’t throw them back, build something with them. It’s not a bad thought.
“There’s a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.” That’s our next part of the poem, and it probably just in its plain reading speaks about saying hello, hugging, kissing, signs of affection. Israel was a very tactile culture. And then, there comes a point where you can’t kiss that loved one anymore, you can’t embrace them anymore. There’s a hello and there’s a goodbye. There’s a time to embrace and there’s a time to refrain from embracing.
Some other commentators would argue it maybe refers in a deeper sense to sexual intercourse. And it’s interesting that in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul will later say in the New Testament, “You know what? Enjoying physical intimacy is a regular part of a marriage and a home, but sometimes you can refrain from it. You can set that aside as you pray and fast about some particular situation you’re in. And then, after a while you come back together again lest the evil one tempts you.” Maybe. There’s a time to embrace and there’s a time to refrain from embracing.
By the way, I do want to remind you that Christians are friends forever. And even though we say goodbye, in a real sense, we never say goodbye because we’re going to be friends forever. I saw this demonstrated in a most touching way at a funeral back in Northern Ireland, where an old pastor who worked alongside me, Eddie McCluskey, went to his brother’s funeral, and I went with him just to encourage him. It was in Portadown, Northern Ireland. And I watched him as he went up to the open casket, and he kissed his brother’s brow and he said this, we all heard it, “Brother, it’s not goodbye. It’s only good night.”
Why did he say that? Because he knew that someday there’d be a resurrection. Someday all the church will be gathered in the era. We’re friends forever. But while we’re in time, there’ll be times when we embrace and times when we do not embrace. We’ll say hello and we’ll say goodbye, but we never say goodbye forever. Amen.
“There’s a time to gain and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to throw away.” God has appointed all of these things. You and I will find ourselves on the different sides of this poem at different points in our life. And what’s the message that comes out of this thought? Well, the bare bones message is this, nothing in this world is ours forever. Whatever you have, you won’t be able to keep. That’s the way life is. Everything comes with a sell by date on it or a use by date on it. And so, whatever we have right now may be taken from us tomorrow. The gain may become a loss, or we should give it away tomorrow because we can no longer use it.
Just look at your garage when you go home today. This is a biblical justification for a garage sale, by the way. Have one. Throw some stuff away, because we hoard, we gather, we clutter our lives. We hold on to stuff when we should throw it away. And some things we can’t give up that have been taken from us, and we haven’t realized there’s a time to gain and there’s a time to lose. Sometimes in life you have to let go. Sometimes in life you have to clean house. Sometimes in life you have to hit the delete button.
“There’s a time to tear and a time to sew.” And more than likely, this refers to the Middle Eastern practice of rendering their clothes in an act of sorrow at a time of bereavement. If you go back to Genesis 37:29 and Genesis 37:34, when Reuben comes back, he expects to find Joseph in the pit. Remember that act of betrayal by the brothers? But he’s not there. And the Bible says, “He rends his closes.” He thinks the worst. Then he’s informed, “Hey, we didn’t kill him. We sold him to the Ishmaelites. He’s on his way down to Egypt.” That wasn’t much better, but Reuben realizes he’s part of this thing. Well, how are they going to sell this to their father Jacob? Well, they kept Joseph’s tunic. They rip it, dip it in the blood of a slain animal, and then they go home to tell Jacob. The hoodwink came sadly at the thought, “You know what? A wild beast tore Joseph limb from limb.” And you know what it says” “And Jacob tore his clothes.”
There’s a time to be born and there’s a time to die. And because we die, there’ll be a time to mourn.” There’ll be a time to rend our clothes, so to speak. But here’s what it says. “And then a time to sew.” If we carry this thought through, then the sewing is that the time of mourning must come to an end. You’ve got to wash your face. You’ve got to go back to life. And you know, that’s not easy. There is an appropriate time of grief, but there can be an inappropriate time of grief that’s extended and prolonged, where we sorrow endlessly and hopelessly. We’re trying to keep what we have lost. But we have lost it, and we need to let go. That’s life. The Bible says what? 1 Thessalonians 4:13, follow me, “We sorrow, but not as others.” Our sorrow is not hopeless nor endless.
Now, I may be speaking to someone this morning who’s just lost a loved one, and this is very fresh. And I want to be sensitive and tread carefully. But I do realize as a pastor and I’ve seen it and I’ve counseled people because of it, that sometimes there’s a double death. There’s the death of the one who has deceased, but then if it’s not handled properly, some people are killed on the inside. Their enthusiasm is killed, their love of life is killed, and they get stuck. And that’s not healthy and that’s not helpful. There’s a time to rend your clothes and there’s a time to sew them back together again. There’s a time to grieve and there’s a time to get over your grieving.
Please hear this as I share it. There’s an indulgent sorrow that’s selfish. I’m trying to be sensitive, but hear me, receive it for what it is. If you and I grieve endlessly but become indulgent, and if you really think about it becomes very selfish. Because there are other people in our life that need to be loved and ministered to. And the person that’s deceased would want us to minister to them. It can become selfish.
Also, it’s fruitless because it doesn’t change a thing. We just keep digging a hole for ourselves. If you want to get out a hole, the first thing you’ve got to do is stop digging. There’s a time to sew, time to put your life back together again and realize that there’s a time and a season to everything, and God’s got something else for you. And He will get you through this time, and He’ll move you into a new season.
And I know that’s not easy. You know my heart. I’m not speaking callously. But I’ve got to cover these points in kind of some stark manner. I tell you, that kind of indulgent sorrow is not only selfish, it’s not only fruitless, it’s devoid of the gospel. If we really believe the gospel, then we do not say goodbye. We only say good night. We’re forever friends. We’ll see them again. We’ll be together with the Lord forever.
“There’s a time to keep silent and a time to speak.” I want you to notice that. There’s a time to open your mouth and there’s a time to stick a sock in it. And it takes wisdom to know what and to know when. Why do we need to be sensitive to that? Because according to Proverbs 10:19, “In a multitude of words, sin is not lacking.” If we speak too much, if we’re never quiet, if we don’t stick a sock in it, if we don’t zip the lip, more than likely at some point we’re going to transgress. We’re going to trespass what is good and godly. Proverbs 10:19. “In a multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who refrains his lips is wise.” The motor mouth speeds past the boundaries of God’s law without recognizing the fact.
Secondly, timing is everything. Timing is everything. Proverbs 15:23, “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth. On a word spoken in due season, how good it is.” There’s a wrong time to say the right thing. So we’re being reminded here, when we look at life, there’s a time to say something, there’s a time not to say something, and there’s a time to say something later because it’ll be better received.
I like the story of Vance Havner. He tells it in his book, On This Rock. He says, “My wife and I were taking a bus trip through the mountains, and the bus broke down right in front of a hillbilly grocery store. We could tell that the woman had never been anywhere very much. My wife said, ‘I don’t believe she knows what’s going on in the world outside.’ To which he replied, ‘Well, don’t tell her. Let her die in peace.'” There’s a time to say something, there’s a time not to say something, and there’s a time to say something later when it would be better received.
Footnote, there is a time where keeping silent is cowardice, where keeping silent is cowardice. That’s when truth is being attacked. That’s when justice is on the gallows. That’s when the gospel is being censored. I’ll give you one example of this. Over in Acts 5, remember, the disciples were told not to speak the doctrine of Jesus Christ because they were filling the city with it. But as soon as they get released, they go about the business of sharing the gospel. And they were told, “Hey, we told you not to teach in His name. You’ve filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.” And Peter in the other apostles answered, “We ought to obey God rather than man.”
When it comes to the gospel, when it comes to truth, silence sometimes isn’t golden, it’s just plain yellow. We need to preach to the Word. We need to be a prophetic voice as a church in our culture. I like the story of Pastor Martin Niemöller who was imprisoned by the Nazis. He said this, “They came first for the communists, but I didn’t speak up. I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionist, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up.” There is a time to speak. And certainly, when it comes to the gospel and righteousness and issues of justice, we need to speak up.
Look at this. “There’s a time to love and a time to hate.” The first part of that verse, we have no problem with. The second part stops us in our tracks. We know as Christians we ought to love. It’s one of the badges, isn’t it, of discipleship, that we love one another, that we love our enemies. But what about hating? That jars our spiritual sensibilities, but is there a time to hate? Can Christians hate? Yes. I believe that. Because we’ve got an imbalance in our thinking and an imbalance in our theology. God is love, but God is holy. He’s righteous. There are things that God implacably hates. There are things that God stands against. There are things He will pour out His wrath upon. There are things that are morally repugnant, socially unacceptable, and theologically erroneous.
If you go to Proverbs 6:16-19, I won’t turn to it for time. We read there are six things the Lord hates. He hates a lying tongue. He hates those who run to commit evil. He hates those who sow discord among the brethren. There’re things that God hates. There’s a place for anger. There’s a place for holy hatred. It’s an expression of God’s love. I like what Christensen, the great preacher many, many centuries ago said. “He who is not angry when he has cause to be, sins.”
Remember that first time Lincoln saw a living slave offered in New Orleans on the slave block? He recoiled, and within himself he’s reported to have said, “There was a rising hatred inside of me against slavery. And I swore if someday I could do something about it, I would do something about it.” Hatred was rising in him, a holy hatred.
Lastly, “There’s a time for peace and a time for war.” History has ricocheted between times of peace and times of war. One cynic has said that, “The times of peace are simply the times when nations reload.” I don’t know if that’s true. It’s a bit cynical. But you’ll find throughout history there are times of peace and there are times of war. And the fact is, that sometimes we have to fight for peace through war. I don’t think pacifism can be biblically justified. I think there’s a doctrine of just war in the Bible, and here we’re reminded of there is a time for peace and there is a time for war.
Do you know how God is described in the book of Exodus? As a man of war. The Lord is His name. Sometimes evil must be opposed because it’s so pervasive and so threatening to life and liberty. Sometimes tyrants must be toppled. As Jefferson said, “The tree of liberty must from time to time be refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” There are times when wars are just, and there are times when wars must be fought.
I just finished a couple of movies on the life of Winston Churchill. And you see a man who understood the threat of Nazism before anybody else did in the English and British government. Chamberlain tried to placate Hitler. Churchill realized how, “We’re dealing with a crocodile. And all you’re doing is feeding the crocodile, making him stronger. We’ve got to kill the crocodile.” The European War everybody knew would be an awful war, but it had to be fought. I’m glad it was fought, and I’m thankful to brave men and women, some of them in the service this morning here, who fought it. Sometimes wars have to be fought.
Nobody should be a warmonger. I’m not a warmonger. War is horrible. I pray for times of peace, not times of war. But sometimes as a last resort, it must be fought. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the only thing to do. Remember that famous quote, I’ll need to track it down, the beginning of the war of Independence where an American commander of a militia stands up before his man and says, “Do not fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have war, let it begin here.”
This is life in all its extremes, in all its contrasts. And according to Ecclesiastes 3:1, there’s a time and a season for everything here, and God governs it all. I like what Warren Wiersbe said, “Life is something like a doctor’s prescription. Taken alone, the ingredients would kill you. But properly blended, they bring healing.” I don’t think any one of us wants to face any one of those things alone. They’re properly blended and by God, purposefully and providentially.
For a few minutes we were beginning to make some applications. We covered two of them the last time. We need to come to terms with the sovereignty of God. And I won’t rehearse that, only remind us of that fact. There are no accidents, only appointments. And whatever you’re going through, God has allotted that. God has purposed that directly or indirectly. And therefore, we need to stop blaming God. We need to stop trying to tame God. We need to stop trying to domesticate God. He is sovereign, and we must never raise our puny fists towards heaven. He’s in heaven. He does whatever pleases Him. Make peace with that.
But don’t be frightened by that, because He’s just, He’s all wise, He’s loving. But at the same times, we need to rediscover a high view of God, that the heavens are his throne and the earth is His footstool. We need to feel small again. We need to tremble again. We need to cry for mercy again, for we are at His mercy because there is a season and a purpose to everything that God appoints.
Let me go back to Vance Havner. I commend his writings, an old southern Baptist. September 2, 1973, he stands up and preaches in his little Baptist church in the hills of North Carolina. 2:30 that morning, his wife had slipped into eternity, his companion of many, many years, beloved. Can you imagine the heart weighted down with sorrow, bursting with grief? But he gets up that day and he preaches from Matthew 11:5-6. It’s the forgotten Beatitude, where Jesus says in answer to a question by John the Baptist, “Blessed is he who’s not offended by me.” John’s not sure of Jesus’ credentials as a Messiah. He expected a big overthrow. He expected fireworks. And so, he sends word to Jesus. “Are you the one that is to come or should we look for another?” And Jesus sends the word back. “Hey, tell John the blind see, the lame walk. Blessed of those are not offended by me.” Vance Havner preaches that, talks about the forgotten Beatitude, and then he says this. He translates that verse like this. “Blessed are those who don’t get upset by the way I run my business.” I love that.
Are you upset with the Lord at the minute for the time He’s appointed you, for the season He’s allotted to you? It’s a time of loss, of mourning. It’s not a time of peace. I don’t know. But are you irked? You need to remember this forgotten Beatitude. Don’t get upset at the way God runs His business. He’s sovereign and He will make it all beautiful in His time.
Then we looked secondly at the fact that we need to realize life is a mixed bag. We need to prepare for change. We need to drop the “happy ever after” myth. There’s an incompleteness to life. There’s an unevenness to life. Life has many loose ends, as many as a half-knit sweater. There’s the job you never got. There’s the marriage that was severed at death. There was the relationship that never blossomed. There was the dream that never came true. There’s a time and a season for everything. There’s an unevenness to life, an incompleteness to life. And once we’ve settled the sovereignty question, it’ll help us deal with that kind of issue. We’ve got to drop the “happy ever after” myth.
Here’s a concluding thought as the guys come up. Solomon has presented to us a comprehensive view of life in all its contrasts, in all its comparisons. That made me think a little further. I need to have a comprehensive view of God, because just as life is made up of war and peace, gaining and losing, love and hatred, killing and healing, being born and dying, you and I can have a limited view of life that will not work. The good times won’t roll for a long time. Birth will give way to death. Gain will give way loss. Peace will give way to war. You can bank on it. And remember, if God has appointed all of this, you must guard yourself against what I call a one-dimensional view of God.
This is where many Christians suffer. This is why their faith collapses. This is why they have trouble in the middle of trouble. They have a one-dimensional view of the deity. “He’s loving. He’s good. Therefore, He would never put me through this. He would never allow this to happen.” And so, we like the loving God. We like the imminent God who’s near. We like the heaven-inviting God. We don’t like the God of wrath. We don’t like the God who sends people to hell. We don’t like the God who’s transcendent and does whatever pleases Him.
But He’s all of those things in beautiful balance. They’re not in competition. They’re complementary. But we take a little slice, a little sliver of an understanding of God, and we live by that to our own detriment. We have a pigeon-hole theology of the Almighty. He’s not a neither/or God; He’s a both/and. He’s the God who kills and He’s the God who heals. He’s the God who makes peace and He’s the God who makes war. He’s the God who loves and He’s the God who hates. And you and I need to grasp that, because the most important thing about us is what we think about God. Because the most important thing is God. And the pinnacle of our experience as human beings made in His image, redeemed in Christ, is to know Him. Remember what Jeremiah said? “Don’t make your boast in your strength, your riches, all of that. Make your boast in that you know me.” Well then, we mustn’t misunderstand who God is. We mustn’t have a one-dimensional deity. We mustn’t be blind-sided. That means our worship will be off. That means our faith will be challenged.
Listen to these words of David Clotfelter in his book, Sinners in the Hands of a Good God. He’s dealing with sovereignty and election and different things that make us scratch our head. “No single analogy will lead us into a full and perfect knowledge of God. No single divine attribute so completely describes Him that it does not need to be set in careful relationship to other attributes.” And in his book he’s dealing with, “Is man not responsible? Yes, he is. But is God not sovereign? Yes, He is.” And he tries to think that through. I commend the book, it’s very good. But he’s just reminding us we hold the sovereign piece and we hold the responsibility piece, and we hold the love piece and we hold the hate piece. And we can’t fit it into the puzzle exactly. But that’s because sometimes we’re trying to create this limited God, this one-dimensional deity. And often, we create God in our image and we fail to grasp the glory of His person.
In a sermon on God, Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Seminary, tells of a poll that was done in Britain. Like America, most Britons say they believe in God. But they were asked this question, “Do you believe in a God who can change the course of events?” One man’s response is indicative of the public in general. Asked the question, “Do you believe in a God who can change the course of events on the earth?” He says, “No.” Just the ordinary one. The ordinary God. The one-dimensional God. That’s not the God that Solomon presents. He presents one who stands behind history, whose hands govern the hands of the clock, who’s appointed a time and a season for everything we’re going to go through. And praise God, He goes through it with us. Make peace with His sovereignty. Drop the “happy ever after” myth, and get ready for the contrasts and the complexities of life. Don’t worship a one-dimensional God.
Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this adventure, this excursion into this marvelous chapter of your Word. We thank you it reminds us that history is not a runaway train, that our lives are not a matter of chance. Whether we’re talking about birth or death, sickness or health, loss or gain, O God, you’ve got your hand upon it all. Our times are in your hands. As the hymn writer says, “Lord, we wish them there.” Help us to trust you more. Help our understanding of you to grow. Help us to anticipate that day when Jesus will come, and history will end in a doxological flurry as every knee bows and every tongue confesses that He is Lord, Lord of creation, Lord of time, Lord of us. For we pray these things in His name, Amen.