SEASONS some Biblical thoughts

SEASONS … Eccl 3:1-15

Intro:

My life has been conducted in seasons. I have lived on the coast, and in the west. I have been single and are now married. I have been a teacher and a minister. I have lived in times of extended pleasure and extended pain. Some seasons I have chosen, others I have not. Seasons are the brackets of time, that life is lived in and through.

New Year is about season change. Each new season is to be thoughtfully evaluated "for what we do in life echoes in eternity" , Russell Crowe correctly taught in Gladiator.

Ecclesiastes is a book about eternity's view of our mortal existence. It is most healthy to receive God's insights into our plights and our activities. To understand a current season, is to then read contemporary life correctly.

Understanding Seasons:

Seasons are God's careful planning mechanisms for time. (NB Eternity = the absence of time and vice versa). God is no 'last minute merchant'.

Seasons are both opened and closed by God. They cover all facets of life on earth. They ‘scream' His sovereignty. (We can't change seasons!) There is no activity under heaven not governed by a season. They are God's appointed time for events, delights, decisions etc. (see also Dan 11:27, 35 & Hab 2:3)

Seasons are how God seizes time. They are God's cosmically established brackets until eternity is reached/available.

Seasons are the finiteness of existence, life with the beginnings and the ends in place.

Living well in Seasons:

To read seasons correctly I can then number my days aright.Ps 90:12 To do this is to gain a heart of wisdom. It impacts my behaviour.

Each season usually contains that which is both good and bad in life. This actually means that both the good and bad are transitory. Whatever transpires will end.

Seasons show the time for correctness of conduct or an activity. There is a season where study is correct and a season to then work. Sometimes this correctness can be separated by 180 degrees. The valuable activity will become valueless.

Each season must be conducted correctly, so that the next season is arrived at well. Not being faithful in a season will hinder both the current and proceeding seasons. (For example, if I am lazy and do not study well, the next season of a good job may not be arrived at). I arrive well at the next season and unhindered by completing the current one well.

It is not always helpful to hold onto the ‘good' of the previous seasons. Looking to the past can then rob the future. The new season receives no fresh energy as the old one is not released.Eccl 7:10

V11 explains there is a space and time for all things. God has placed the supernatural in ALL our hearts, this we hunger for. God has shown to man a place without seasons. Heaven is the opposite of earth. It is a place where I will never be out of fashion, for there are no seasons. (My teenage daughter will be forever thankful.)

V12 & 13 shows the real link between seasons is only that which we carry inside of us … this is the gift of God, it carries us between the years.

V14 realises the inevitability of seasons closing is that we will look to Him & revere Him. Seasons are to help us put God in His right place. To look to God is to look to He who is beyond seasons, the one who holds them in His hands. The permanence of God's actions are framed against the impermanence of man's.

V15 reminds me that my seasons aren't new, (we have all experienced them at some time... they are not unique to me), but they are accountable. This is a sobering reminder to live them well and faithfully.

Concl: