Ecclesiastes Chapter Three, Times & Seasons

 Ecclesiastes 3:2b A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; [3] A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

The cycle of life and death is explored a little differently from the perspective of the farmer. Clearly ancient Israel would relate well to this concept of planting and harvesting. The seeds are planted with the expectation of them to grow into maturity, with their purpose being to feed those who do the work.

Purpose is being explored in this chapter, that is, purpose under heaven. Heaven’s light is revealing something man lacks apart from it: purpose. Crops are a fair example. Farmers don’t plant wheat or corn randomly with no intention behind it. It is to feed people, and to another degree, make a profit from. In either event the causality comes from man’s intention to put an idea into action and reap the result, no pun intended. The result in this instance benefits those that partake in it, and beyond that benefits those who did not even have a part to play in it. How many are fed (my own family included) by the actions of a small percentage in our country that grow the food that sustains us?

Then there comes a time to uproot what is planted for the sake of feeding those that need its provision. As this chapter progresses, it would do us well, I think, to walk the chapter back to its genesis with birth and death, and ascribe the same purposive actions. Clearly human intention is involved with birth. A woman cannot become pregnant without a male counterpart, whether the pregnancy was planned or unplanned. Intercourse’s purpose (there is that word) is procreation. God designed the human body that way, just as He designed the plants of the field that would yield food for humanity to reproduce for future generations, Genesis 1:11. Perhaps it is not shocking that the preacher chose farming as the next logical choice in this chapter since our first parents were farmers, Genesis 2:8, 3:23.

God the Holy Spirit inspired the preacher to share these words, and in them we find the shocking statement that, yes, there is a time to kill. Note that it does not say a time to murder, which is notably different, but a time to kill. After the Flood God gave Noah the mandate of capital punishment: that is the execution of a criminal for the murder of another human being, Genesis 9:6. This suggests that Cain was not permitted to be killed prior to the Flood because God had not administered the law to mankind making this legislature legal yet. In the time of Christ we find John the Baptist addressing soldiers, not berating them for their profession but encouraging them to live honestly and contentedly, Luke 3:14. The Torah addresses murder as the death of another through malicious, premeditated plotting. In other words, the murderer wanted to kill and followed through on his desires. Execution by the government is a justifiably reactionary response to punish the murderer and demonstrate the heinousness of the crime to anyone thinking to follow suit.

As there is a time to be born and a time to plant, there is a time to heal. Man sadly must kill in war or self-defense, or even by accident through events beyond his control or awareness. Today hospitals stand as institutions to remedy the hurt of humanity and cure illness or treat injuries. The preservation of life is sacred, and when it is not the season of war, it is the season of healing when our concern should be not to protect what is behind us from a foreign threat, but to treat and care for those around us.

Finally there is the dichotomy between breaking down and building up. The previous chapter of Ecclesiastes demonstrated the preacher’s penchant for constantly building up. He built Israel and Jerusalem into the world power of its time. His pinnacle was the temple of Yahweh. Perhaps for him his entire reign was a time or season for building up. God had blessed him with enormous wisdom to shepherd Israel, and from that wellspring came fame and wealth abundantly. In short, he was blessed with the gift of building, not just material things but people. The whole of his society and culture blossomed under his rule, until his many wives lured him from true worship into idolatry. Then, and without warning, the season for breaking down began. Alliances started to fracture, his walk with the Lord was stunted, and eventually Israel itself would be broken down into rival states, antagonistic toward one another. This breaking down, which was from the Lord, would not be built back up in his time, or Rehoboam’s time, or any time thereafter, and one may say that the season for Israel’s breaking down is still not entirely past, though they are gathered back into the land of their fathers. No, the time for national building up will come with Messiah’s return in glory to defeat Antichrist and establish His throne on the earth, when all Israel will see Him and mourn, and then will come complete restoration. We know this because the word of God has revealed it as Israel’s ultimate fate.