Ecclesiastes 3-4, Seasons and Sightings, Dr. John Carpenter

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and 4 between both chapters here the word of the Lord For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven

Time to be born and the time to die a time to plant and the time to pluck up what is planted time to kill and the 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 together a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing a time to seek and a time to lose a time to keep and a time to cast away a

Time to tear and a time to sew a time to keep silence and a time to speak

The time to love and a time to hate a time for war and a time for peace

What gain has the worker from his toil I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with he has made everything beautiful in its time

Also, he has put eternity into man's heart Yet so that he cannot find out what

God has done from the beginning to the end I perceive that there is nothing better for him than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live

Also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil

This is God's gift to man. I Perceived that whatever God does endures forever.

Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it God has done it so that people fear before him that which is already has been that which is to be

Already has been and God seeks what has been driven away Moreover, I saw under the

Sun that in the place of justice Even there was wickedness and in the place of righteousness even there was wickedness

I said in my heart God will judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time for every matter and for every work

I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see

That they themselves are but beast for what happens to the children of man And what happens to the beast is the same as one dies so dies the other

They all have the same breath and man has no advantage over the beast For all is vanity all go to one place all are from that dust and to dust all return

Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward in the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth?

So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work for that is his lot

Who can bring him to see what will be after him? Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the

Sun and behold the tears of the oppressed and They had no one to comfort them on the side of the oppressors

There was power and there was no one to comfort them and I thought the dead who are already dead

More fortunate than the living who are still alive But better than both is he who has who has not yet been and has not seen

The evil deeds that are done under the Sun Then I saw all the toil in all skill in Work come from a man's envy of his neighbor

This also is vanity and a striving after wind The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh

Better is a handful of quietness than two handfuls of toil and a striving after wind

Again, I saw vanity under the Sun one person who was no other Either son or brother and yet there is no end to all his toil and his eyes are never satisfied with riches

So that he never asked for whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? This also is vanity and an unhappy business

Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil For if they fall one will lift up his fellow

But woe to him who has who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up again if two lie together

They keep warm But how can one keep warm alone and though a man might prevail against one who is alone?

Two will withstand him a threefold cord is not quickly broken Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish

King who no longer knew how to take advice For he went from prison to the throne though in his own kingdom

He had been poor and I saw all the living who move about under the Sun along with that youth

Who was to stand in the king's place? There was no end to all the people all of whom he led

Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind

May the Lord had his blessings for the reading of his Holy Word Well, are you excited a

New season is about to start this Saturday Joshua's excited. He knows what it's about.

Of course. I'm talking about college football season my yearly soap opera like drama With which the goal is to avoid defeat almost every

Saturday and in the end in January Be the team lifting up the trophy champions

These season it's almost on us. I know you're all very excited about that the signs You'll see the signs all around you that there be games on TVs.

Some people put flags of their teams on their cars Or on their houses Maybe football isn't your thing the season for school is here

It's almost here Virginia schools have already started some of you have already sent your kids back to school back to the routine of getting up early getting him or her to school and time a

Castle County has another week of the old seasons of summer vacation here in Castle County I can tell though that the season is created the end of the old seasons created a sense of uneasiness among the kids

With this change coming up last week none of the usual guys that pick up for Jim came as as soon as the new season is underway a

New routine and has settled in the guys will probably be back in force. I've been through this every year

You've see the rhythm of up and down and Jim and how it affects things Soon it will be getting dark early and then even more guys will come because it won't be able to play in the out

Outdoor courts and that's how the seasons affect us here How do the seasons affect you?

I'm told that Restaurants get more business in the winter hot foods that kind of thing become more popular

Some people though are emotionally affected by the change of seasons. There's even a psychological disorder I'm not sure whether it's really official or not, but they call it seasonal affective disorder sad

Less sunlight in the winter and colder weather. It keeps people inside and so it Leads some to depression

Mary found it especially hard the first winter we lived in Chicago Not only was the winter there long and cold

Chicago is mostly overcast in the winter and during the first January we were there. It had only one hour of sunshine the whole month

That's hard to take Especially if you're from Singapore, but there's no winter just perpetual summer all year round near the

Equator And so the daylight times don't change The only real seasons that I can tell they say there's a dry season

Seems to like it rains a lot during whatever dry season is the only season that I can tell of the man -made ones Holidays and that's mostly

Chinese New Year and like here, of course the school year Now some people love the changes of seasons.

They'll go fly up summer or fall or spring or a Miss one winner a flag.

They'll decorate their houses in their yard According to the seasons in about six weeks

We're going to see a lot of Halloween decorations come up and then soon after that Christmas lights. They're constantly marking time by celebrating the seasons you can see signs of the seasons and soon we'll start to see the leaves turning colors and Seasons affect what you see your personal season of life

Affects how you see if you're a child saw was a basketball court

And that looks like fun to him looks like a place to play That's what you see this season in life affects what he sees a ball in the court

That's fun. You know if you're older a little more responsible you see something maybe Something that'll keep your kids at your kids happy or maybe help them with their development place to work out

Or maybe a place you have to clean If you're like me See a gym you see a place say that you're gonna attract youth with that and use that for church use that for evangelism

What do you see in your season of life? Here we see seasons here in this passage seasons and sightings first season first Seasons, what season are you in?

Do you know? For everything there is a season don't try to stay in a season.

That's past Nostalgic sentimental people often try to stay in a past season that they just loved it back then and they want to Stay there and they miss the season.

They're in they say stop the world. I want to get off they want to camp on Some season and when they think that life is as good as it can possibly be maybe when they were young when they were full of dreams they thought they had a great future or when they're the kids are young and they were fun to play with or Marriage is sweet or the career looks promising.

Maybe they loved high school. They love hanging out with friends and dances and That kind of thing and so they spend their old age trying to go back to that They go to reunions and they still have dances and and clubs others love college

And so they're trying to cling to the college life Still go to the games and hang out with the same people for some young adults.

There's what they call a failure to launch Of never quite being able to grow up and move on still living with a sense of Dependence unable to become a real adult but life refuses to keep still and you have to be able to change

With the seasons for everything there is a season Some people think there's there's never a time and our place for some things for everything

There is a season some people that know there's not seasons for some things They want everything to be positive and encouraging

Always about being born never to die always to heal never to kill always to build up never to break down Always laughing never crying always dancing never mourning always weddings never funerals

Always keeping never casting away always speaking never quiet always loving

Never hating always at peace Never at war and even some people think such one -sided lives are precisely what it means to be spiritual to always be about The positive never the negative don't even acknowledge that the negative exists and they think they can live in a bubble

Sealed off from all negatives from death from killing for breaking down from weeping for mourning from funerals

I'm casting away from tearing from silence from hatred from anger from war When I was a teenager with my extended family or out outside a hospital and we could see the staff from a distance load of corpse with a sheet draped over it into the back of a hearse and My aunt said to one of her children my cousin

Don't look Let's pretend that there's not death. Let's pretend there's not a season not a time for that When our dog died about a decade ago,

I made sure our boys took part in burying her now I could have buried her myself

When they were when they were in school Go buy another dog. Let's pretend You know our make up the story

We sent her to a farm Couldn't try to cover it over somehow like some people do but I made sure that they took part in burying her when they got back from school

So they would know that there's a time to die. You need to know that Our culture doesn't want to admit that there's a time to die

Although they'll say they know that they're gonna die But they don't they don't really believe it a switch for the song puts it

She pretends that she pretends that she's immortal the culture thinks we're immortal and when we remind them now you're gonna die

They'll say I'm just pretending but really They're pretending

That they're pretending That's why over the last two years we saw such a panic over a virus that in fact didn't turn out all that deadly

At least not for most people turn out deadly for some particular kinds of people in certain specific groups

But for most people who are young and middle -aged relatively healthy It's not particularly severe, but if you ever if you've ever tried to calm someone down from the hysteria

Assure them that if they're young and healthy, there's very little danger from kovat Only whatever tiny percent chance of dying

And for healthy children, there's really almost no chance at all if you ever try to calm someone down from the hysteria that was around their response first is

There's a chance you say there's a small chance but that there's a chance however small that I could die from this and then second

How dare you you you monster for being so cold -hearted not to care that I or someone could die

Oh, yes, there's there's a chance. There's always a chance. You are going to die. There's a season for death

It might come slowly and predictably like winter. You just got you know, it's coming certain time

Or it might come suddenly like a bolt of lightning now until it comes. This is the season to live

Don't live Not to die Don't be careless

But don't stop living just out of fear of death You can live indefinitely in a lockdown

Sealed off from all germs because you want to live forever. It's impossible. It's trying to live not to die

The season for death is coming. You can't stop it until it comes Live Live in this season to live because what it's time to die

You won't be able to go back Now some people read that poem this first eight verses and they this guy

Called Hebrew called koalath the preacher translated here that he's cyclical

Talking about cycles We're going through cycle seasons of being born and dying and planning and planning harvesting killing and healing breaking down and building up so forth

They think the preacher is like a Hindu Teaching some Sara. That's the name of the Hindu doctrine eternally repeating

Cycles of birth and then misery which is what they see as life and death and then rebirth reincarnation and then another life as miserable as it is and then death and over and over again and it never ends like The hands of a clock which never unwinds or never runs out of batteries

This keeps on going around around eternally cyclical, but that's not what he's saying Now sure some things that he talks about here.

Some things do repeat. They do have cycles They have seasons if you're a farmer you plant in the spring and you

Harvest in the fall you heal your animals when they're hurt and then slaughter them when it's time You might have a spring cleaning when you get rid of a lot of stuff

And then you have a shopping season when you get more stuff you might go through a season of having your own children your own or your own grandchildren or through a season of bearing your grandparents and parents you see weddings wedding receptions or you go to funerals

Depending on your season in life But that doesn't mean that that first pair of times a time to be born time to die is something you'll re -experience over and over Cyclically the first pair of times shows us that those some seasons repeat and cycles for a while Like a song set on repeat just after it's done as a loops around starts over again

Eventually there comes a time a season to end all seasons a time when the cycle stop

There's a time to be born and the time to die and in between is the time to live

Without pretending that the season for death isn't coming You'll never get another time to be born or die.

In fact, that's kind of the theme of Ecclesiastes isn't it that this death is coming as you'll say later in chapter 4 we die like the animals and that's that's it

So not in all insinuating that this will be born again reincarnate and then die again

Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 says that is appointed Appointed by God God is appointed that we die once and then comes the judgment in between our birth and our death

We experience seasons Repetitious times rhythms of life by going around on a merry -go -round

And we get the feel ahead. I've seen that before go around again. There it is Again, we've seen summer and fall and winter and spring before we know how it goes

I've been around the block a few times sunny. We tell people this isn't my first rodeo.

I know the routine All I got I think seed is planted then crops are gathered animals grow and it's sent to the slaughterhouse

People die we have funerals and cry people graduate or get married or whatever we celebrate something if a party we laugh or dance

We run or we play we get get injured we heal we go back to it

Some of go through cycles of gaining weight and exercising losing weight and goes on like that. We acquire stuff

We get rid of stuff then we get more stuff We have Christmas and New Year's and Easter and Mother's Day and summer in between Memorial Day and Labor Day then

Thanksgiving It's Christmas again, and it goes seems to go on and on we even get into routines of shopping

We know we got a shop because Christmas is coming. We either decorating we can get the illusion that the whole life is like that That it's all repeatable

But one day the music stops the merry -go -round grinds to a halt and we have to get off the cycles the seasons our

Experience of repetition all these things can fool us into thinking there are a whole life. It's like that Samsara the

Hindus call it cycles of birth and death, but it isn't birth and death is the beginning and the end of those other seasons someone introduced me before I Started to preach at a church in Oakland, California With John is here to help you know how to die

Some people may not like that introduction. I kind of like it if you don't know you're going to die and after that the judgment

You won't be ready for that season when it comes and it is coming Like winter or like lightning and you won't be able to make the most of this season the season to live

You might make the horrible mistake the horrendous mistake of wasting your life

Trying not to die Well, those are the seasons some cyclical for a season some not and there are sightings

Several times in this passage at least six times in this passage. He says I saw I saw

You see you notice that what do you see in this season to live in fall? You see football and brightly colored leaves and winter.

You might see snow in spring You see new leaves and flowers in summer. You see greenery growing crops and here the preacher

Sees six things in this season first the business Second wickedness third oppression then envy and then vapor and finally youth the illusions of the promise of Youth the illusionary promise of youth first the business though.

The preacher says in verse 10 I've seen the business. What's the business? You should be up to in this season.

What's your business now? starting verse 9 Well, if you're in the restaurant business the most popular foods change according to season

If you're a multi -sport athlete What you play changes with the season? Coming up on football season and later.

I'll be basketball If you're a teacher whether and what you teach depends on the season Maybe some others you have different seasons that affect what you're doing in verse 9

What gain has the worker from his toil remember gain means? profit getting more than what you started with and remember from last week since the end is death and We all die with exactly what we were born with which is nothing

Then what are you working for? What's the worker here working for preacher says

I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man and Hebrew of Adam of Adam The cynic the depressed person says well since it's all vanity

It's vapor. It's useless. There's no business that we need to be doing just drop out give up Live with the attitude of you know, whatever dude

But that's wrong everything under the sun might be vanity

But God has given us some business to take care of in verse 11 God has made everything all those things for which there is a season under heaven

Beautiful in his time The business he's given us to do is beautiful if the timing is right

There's something beautiful about a child playing Now you're 70 years old and you're out trying to play.

That's a little odd It's probably not beautiful know what your season is God has placed eternity in our hearts unlike animals

We yearn for something more than just to have food and to drink and safety and to reproduce we want something eternal

We keep trying to to make the things we make our work our money our family our fun our games the football championship

Keep trying to make it eternal to make it meaningful Something that will last forever and we're frustrated when it's not when we find this like vapor because it's under the

Sun You know, whatever team wins this season Next year at this time

It won't matter much. You've been looking to the next season. You'll forget about it So we're frustrated

When it's not eternal vapor like we long to escape the transients of this always changing life

We step into a river we step out step back in again. We step into a different River We want something that lasts and we can't find it here under the

Sun And so maybe we try to study God study theology go to church Listen to long sermons, but we're frustrated because we can only see so little at once like a seriously desperately nearsighted man

Trying to take in a huge Painting but he's only able to see a few inches ahead of him as he creeps along looking at that That's like us trying to study

God So at the end of verse 11, he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end We can't see the big picture

So what's our business? in verse 12 There's nothing better and to be joyful You know enjoy your life

Since this is the season to live enjoy it do good in verse 13 eat and drink and take pleasure in your work

This is God's gift To man to you

It's given you a capacity to enjoy use it our business isn't try to figure God out We can't our business is to do what

God has given us to do and enjoy it For everything there is a season we sometimes wanted to stop to freeze in one place

Maybe to go back To make something a life that's eternal if a yearning for the eternal in our hearts, even though we live in a world

It's always changing the preacher says in verse 14. I know that whatever God does

Endures forever. Everything we do is vapor is a puff of wind Doesn't last it's all forgotten and soon.

So are we? But everything that God does last

We can't add to it or take anything from it. God has done this He's made it so that everything we do is futile

He's subjected creation to Futility so that our works end in nothing and everything he does is eternal

We can't make more of it. We can't make less of it. God has made our lives like this

So that we would fear him We would tremble at his word We would know that he's the creator

The one longing for eternity in our hearts reaches out for the only way that we can have that our longing for eternity

Satisfied is by doing the business God gave us to do

Fear him Let's revere him glorify him Enjoy him like the

Catechism says what's the chief end of man to glorify God and enjoy him forever? See him seek what has been driven away

That's our business second in this season

Of living under the Sun we see wickedness starting verse 16. I saw what's deciding?

Under the Sun that in the place of justice even there was wickedness The problem isn't just there's wickedness

Among criminals now in the mafia in gangs with the immoral We expect wickedness there that's what he says in the place of justice

He saw wickedness the problem is where justice should be where right should be declared right and wrong should be denounced as wrong in Courts and in pulpits and the government and in churches right there

Instead is crime is corruption is sin is evil is greed is

Injustice is telling people whatever they want to hear instead of the truth In the past in this country instead of justice for black people of was there was slavery

Enforced by the state declared in laws and verdicts from judges on benches Dred Scott decision if you did a slave act and then segregation and Preachers in the

South at least upheld it when Charles Spurgeon spoke out against slavery clearly denounced it from London Southern preachers and editors denounced and threatened him now in our day

Instead of protecting the least of these the most vulnerable the pre -born courts or legislatures Declare that they can be killed at our convenience and some preachers remain silent about that or about sexual immorality

They won't speak up against that or the perversion of marriage or maybe they actually support it Where there should be righteousness

There's wickedness That's what the preacher saw then and that's what he'd still see a lot of today

But the time will come in verse 17 for judgment. God has a season in which he will judge

Everything the season now in verse 18 He says is for testing for God to see who will take the side of justice and righteousness when wickedness isn't

Being clearly immediately punished, right? That's right now. Sometimes Wickedness is not

Severely immediately punished like it is going to be That's our season now when it sometimes appears to be thriving appears to be successful When polls show that some whatever majority of Americans support whatever injustice whatever perversion when the wrong is now

Strong so strong Now then in this time when the wrong is strong Do you believe that God is the ruler yet?

God is testing us to see if we know they're going to die like the animals in verse 19

Just like animals die. So do we except we see judgment. Do you know that if so, it will show in You now

Taking the side of justice and righteousness Here and now even when the wrong seems off so strong Just like animals we die and our bodies go to the dust in verse 20 dust to dust

Sure, the spirit of people in verse 21 goes on goes to God But the breath the same word for in Hebrew for spirit of animals that goes nowhere

And so what do you see in this season when there's wickedness in place of justice and righteousness in verse 22?

I saw That there's nothing better Than to rejoice in your work.

Enjoy what you're given to do You can you can't see what will come after you whether the wickedness will be judged soon in this season or Later, but you're being tested now in this season on Whether you fear

God Third You see oppression in chapter 4 verse 1 again

I saw all the oppressions that are done under the Sun like above with wickedness at the place of justice

Behold, look at this the tears of the oppressed they're crying in The past because of the lashes of slavery the oppression of segregation or now

Maybe the victims of crime often which could be prevented if it's not the the silent screams of the aborted or the future tears of the children and the youth who are now being lied to that they can become a sex other than the one they're born into and It will be mutilated or irreparably damaged by drugs all to fulfill the demented fantasies of some people in our culture

That reality is whatever we want it to be there is weeping of the victims of these delusions our delusions that we are

Our own creator and there's no way to comfort them No one to comfort them

The oppressors have power They have the courts the police the army on their side now they have the schools

Universities the media social media who will oppress you if you dare to say something that they don't want you to believe

They won't have anyone to comfort them either Even if for now in this season

They don't think they need comfort There's so much oppression in verse 2 that those who who've already had their time to die are better off for not seeing

Any more of it better still in verse 3 are those who've not yet had their time to be born

That they've not seen the evil deeds that are done under the Sun the ongoing oppression

Forth envy Then I saw in verse 4 the rat race

See all the work the long hours the toil all that people deprive themselves of Depriving themselves rubbing yourself.

Maybe a fun a pleasure trips to the beach Family sleep your favorite shows watching college football

Church can't make can't make it to church because we got them make more money All to get ahead to get a better house a better car better vacations more gadgets more stuff

More and better than the next guy the guy next door you envy him

You envy what he has you want what he has or you want better or to be the richest in the family?

The one they talk about with the most cash and the most houses the successful one

This also that is this being driven by envy the quest to be the high flyer

He says in verse 4 this also is It's vanity It's vapor.

It's like smoke see it for a second. It just dissipates. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of life

It's win chasing You can't catch it. And even if you do You've got nothing

Then Solution then do nothing be lazy sleep late It's been your life parked on the couch stuffing your face with Doritos while watching

TV. Is that it? Oh No, that's the way of the fool. He says in verse 5. He folds his hands

Because he's got nothing to do Nothing put in his hands and he says he eats his own flesh

He's consuming himself and he will eventually have nothing to live off of instead of the lazy fool

Devouring himself on one extreme or the greedy rat on the wheel Always running always scurrying for another crumb another scent always more

Two handfuls of toil he can't fold his hands are full of work instead of that on the other dream better as a handful of quietness, he says a

Handful one handful of quietness One hand maybe it worked sure But the other at rest some stillness some time off a closed shop for a day week

Even if you lose some money on Sundays so you can go to church Sure, you'll make a little less.

You'll make less money. You won't be quite as rich You may not be able to afford a beach house or a New York apartment

But it will be better than two handfuls of toil which is in the end

Wind chasing fifth What do you see in the season of living under the

Sun? vapor There's that word again in verse 7 again,

I saw what's he see vanity vapor a puff of wind a whiff of smoke an illusion that appeals to your ego

To being vain the strut of having the most expensive handbag or the looks you get from driving the best car

You look at this season of life under the Sun and that's what you see Someone who has no family but works and works never satisfied

But never ask himself of her say for whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure? That's vanity and an unhappy business

The better how successful he is in the end It's an unhappy business

Better at least have someone to work for people today sacrifice family for career.

It's been their life working they say often for their family and their family it's gone because they They ignored it while working so much forgetting that career isn't worth anything if it doesn't help someone else to are better than one having a

Companion to work for in verse 9 if you fall you break your leg You have someone to pick you up take you to the hospital take care of you

Woe to the one who is alone when he falls And verse of 10. This is what a church is supposed to be the spiritual family that will lift you up if you fall to work alone

Unwarmed by a companion without partners It's vain It's vapor may look like something for a second, but Then there'll be nothing there

So be intertwined with others like a threefold cord So you're not quickly broken

Just you alone That's vain Six last you see in this season of life under the

Sun You see the youth see a new generation Maybe now generation

Z whatever that is. Are there gonna be different? They're gonna be better generation what the baby boomers they were so materialistic and hedonistic after them

They were this they have this problems, but the new generation, uh, they'll solve all the problems. They'll overcome everything we fell into So have hope for the future because this rising generation starting verse 13 the poor but wise youth some rising young star

He's better than the old and foolish King who won't take advice the old generation. They won't learn stuck in his ways

But you have a hope This is a new leader on the horizon a young man.

He's risen through the ranks The new generation the young leader. He'll make things right

So you see all the living in verse 15 who move about under the Sun? Along with that youth this rising star from among them who'll finally turn things around Who finally build something that will last?

Finally, you could see it's the youthful leader coming. He'll do it for us a new order of the ages

He'll end injustice He'll establish righteousness He'll let us have the rewards from all our work

Who'll be our big brother and He leads he leads the revolution.

He leads the reform. He leads us into a new season So we put up statues in his honor his pictures on the money and when he's long gone

He won't be celebrated anymore He'll find something to criticize they'll tear down his statues and Imagine that they are better than him

Surely at the end of chapter 4 this also is It's vanity.

It's vapor and a striving after wind just more wind chasing

So what do you see in the season of living a whole lot of nothing?

Your heart yearns for more something eternal something that lasts And you keep trying to build it with your work your hands, but you end up empty -handed

But the one thing you can see That's not nothing is What God has done the salvation he worked through Jesus and we spent those six months in Romans surveying it

Last it's eternal the church. Jesus is building Nothing can prevail

Against it it lasts So God is testing you now in this season

Whether you believe that Or Or do you believe that you'll finally catch the wind?

So tomorrow a little more work. You'll finally get it We can see which one you really believe.

What do you see we can see what you believe By how you spend your life? by What's in your hands?

How they fold it Did you just waste your life? Or you have two handfuls full of toil or work too busy working to hold on to anything else or Are you grasping laying your hands by faith on the

Lord who endures forever? What can we see in?