Ecclesiastes is actually a book I really enjoy because it’s so unlike the other books in the Bible. It’s part of what contemporary Bible scholars consider to be the “wisdom literature” of the Bible, along with Proverbs and Job. So naturally, it’s full of wisdom. But the three books talk about wisdom in very different ways. Let’s consider Proverbs and Ecclesiastes before moving on to the passage.
Wisdom Literature
Proverbs is like a young, confident teacher, who teaches general rules of wisdom. “If you do good things, life will go well for you. If you do bad things, life will be difficult for you.” These ideas are based on a general sense of God’s justice, resulting in wise proverbs about how to live a good life.
Ecclesiastes, on the other hand, is more like a cynic who’s lived long enough to know that life isn’t always so simple. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and there are plenty of bad people that live lives of abundance. Ecclesiastes has a more cynical, and sometimes bitter tone about life, but is also full of its own wisdom.
There’s some debate about who wrote this book, since the tone of the writing sounds a lot like King Solomon, the wisest king of Israel. But most scholars agree that this book was written by a later Israelite teacher who decided to take on a Solomon-like persona, using the entire Old Testament as a point of reference.
Observation
I’m a proponent of the “inductive Bible study” method, where you study a passage in three phases: observation, interpretation, and application. So this study will follow this format.
The observation phase is merely that: observation. Don’t try to attach any deeper meaning or implications to the passage. This is a time to think about the content of the passage on a surface level. Keywords, setting, characters, actions, and dialogue are what you should be looking at in this stage.
Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 on your own or in a group and reflect on question one.
- What pattern do you notice in these verses? What keywords do you notice?
In this passage, there are all these pairs of opposites that run parallel to one another. Each one is addressing different “times,” a major keyword here. Within each pair, we have something we might consider “good,” and something that we might consider “bad.” But how are these pairs relevant to us now? Verse one helps to address this.
These times exist for everything. People, animals, plants, anything you can think of have these “seasons”—times of good and times of bad. Same for “every matter.” Every activity has seasons of good and bad. But there is one more piece of information that is crucial. Everything—every matter under heaven has these times. “Under heaven” is critical here. This tells us that these seasons of good and bad exist on earth—in the human realm. These patterns of good and bad don’t occur in heaven—in God’s realm.
Fascinating, right? This passage is talking only about earthly things. But what do these pairs imply, exactly?
Interpretation
Now it’s time to think what the passage might mean. For those big theological nerds, this is where you can do exegesis, where you consider the original context and try to interpret the meaning and implications for the original audience and context.
Take a look at question two below and reflect on it individually or in a group.
- What could be the purpose of listing these opposing pairs?
To put it simply, this passage is talking about the reality of life. Everyone can identify with at least one of these pairs with their own life experiences. We all go through seasons of abundance and good things—the birth of a child, a promotion, a great vacation, fulfilling relationships with others. But we also have seasons of hardship and suffering—the death of a loved one, losing your job, a pandemic, civil/social unrest, divorce, and other ruined relationships. We’ve all been there. In life, we go through seasons of good and seasons of bad.
Now, this passage is not necessarily saying that God creates or causes all these seasons. Some are surely acts of God, and some are more dependent on human will and decision. But all are determined by God and His divine counsel. All these seasons are under God’s divine authority, and He has complete foreknowledge of these events. Each moment is determined and fixed, fully known by God.
Whether we like it or not, this is our human reality. A fact of life. And these seasons are more or less unchangeable by us. They pass in and out of our lives without our control as reliably as the seasons change—as steadily as the moon phases. This is further reinforced by the author’s literary choices. The author lists 14 pairs of seasons—28 separate events—which incidentally represents the same number of days in a full moon cycle.
Application
So what do we do with this passage? The author has confirmed that this reality is part of our lives as humans. What can we do about it? It seems like we can’t do anything, so what’s the point?
We need to figure out how the meaning of this passage applies to our own lives and context. That’s the application stage (or, loosely speaking, hermeneutics for a more scholarly approach).
Read question three and use it as a guide to consider how this passage may apply to your own life.
- We are to take this passage as wisdom. How should we use this wisdom to not only live a life of contentment, but also to acknowledge the changeability of our life and the authority God has over it?
While there are several ways this passage could apply to us, here’s my take on it.
The good and bad times
In good times, we should be easy, but not secure. The good situation could change tomorrow for all we know. We live in a world of changes. We have no reason to believe that tomorrow will be like today.
Don’t get me wrong; we should definitely enjoy the good times. Those seasons are wonderful gifts that show us the goodness of God and His creation. But we must also remember that it will not last forever, and needs to be treasured that much more. We need to give thanks to God for His mercy and love during those times, and give all the glory and credit to Him.
And the bad times? Well, while they are difficult and at times may seem unbearable, we know that like the good times, the bad seasons will also not last forever. They, too, will come to an end and will be replaced by a season of abundance and goodness.
The stability of God in an ever-changing world
Moreover, we can rest in the fact that God knows what’s coming. God has known every moment of our lives until now, and He knows every moment that hasn’t come yet. We may be taken off guard by life, but God is never surprised. God is steady, stable, and unchanging. We can cling to the unchanging God in our ever-changing lives. Imagine how much easier it would be to get through life with the constant, stable, knowledgeable support of God, rather than stumbling blindly through life on our own.
If we rely on God and fully entrust our lives to Him, He will take care of us and sustain us through all seasons, until the glorious day when we are reunited with Him through Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. On that day, we won’t have to worry or live through these seasons anymore. We will finally live in peace with God and be closer to Him because of our trust in Him during this life. We can praise God for His faithfulness to us, and all the ways He’s taken care of us from one life to the next.
The Wisdom of Ecclesiastes
The wisdom we gain from Ecclesiastes is this: entrust your lives to God, and you will not only be sustained and cared for in this life, but you will also have access to a new life with God through Christ, full of peace and an abundance of good things.