Time and Justice (Ecclesiastes 3:1-22)

Big Idea: Without God, life is just meaningless cycles and unchecked injustice; with God, our lives find eternal purpose and ultimate justice.

Occasionally, you come across a person who has some spiritual interest. My antenna goes up, and I pick this up pretty quickly.

When I meet someone on a plane, at a restaurant, or in social situations, they often ask, "What do you do for a living?" When I mention I'm a pastor, I quickly see if they are spiritually open or not. Usually, if someone is spiritually open, there's a longing for something more. They have probably enjoyed life, but they realize that there is a longing in their soul for something more. They have identified a hunger that is probably weak but growing.

We're lucky because today we're going to partake of a spiritual appetizer. If you're spiritually hungry this morning, I hope this appetizer will increase your appetite. It won't be the main course, but instead it will be like the aroma of a feast wafting from the kitchen. It won't fill you up, but it will prepare you for more.

You'll remember that we've been studying the book of Ecclesiastes. The author (possibly King Solomon) is on a quest to find meaning in life. In other words, there is a spiritual openness there. Solomon has tried many things, and he has found them all unsatisfactory. But if you read between the lines at the end of Ecclesiastes 2, there's a bit of spiritual openness present. God begins to enter the picture of his life, and he says, "Maybe life is worth living after all."

Two Areas

This morning we're going to pick up in Ecclesiastes 3. Solomon continues his look at life, and make no mistake about it: he is on a spiritual quest. This morning, in the time that we have, Solomon is going to direct our attention to two aspects of life: time and justice.

Solomon, the spiritual seeker, is going to explore these areas to see what satisfaction they bring to the soul. The implication is clear: if these two areas satisfy the soul, we don't really need God. However, if these two areas are unsatisfactory, we have to look elsewhere.

Now this morning you might be very cynical about God. But you're probably here because you have some sort of spiritual hunger. Or maybe you're not cynical about God – you've given your life to him and trusted Christ as Savior. But you still want more of God.

I'm going to invite you to open your hearts this morning to examine these two areas: time and justice. To discover whether they satisfy your soul, or if you want more.

There are two areas to investigate. Here's the first.

Time

If you went to my bank this morning, you would find that I owe some money. Basically, what I have done is pre-spent some of my income. I have spent yesterday what I have not yet earned. It was fun when I spent it, but it's not so much fun now.

But there is something which cannot be saved up or pre-spent. It's far more valuable than money. Every morning, you receive 86,400 new units. Every week you are given 6,000 new ones. Every year you are given 315,000 fresh ones. And once they're gone, they're gone. You can't save them, and you can't pre-spend them. No one has more than you do; no one has less than you do. What is this commodity? It's time.

Just in case you weren't aware, time is the new most valuable commodity. It has replaced money as the number one need, because you can always make more money, but you can't make more time. In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon explores whether time holds the potential for satisfaction. Is there something about time that can give some order to this world?

It seems promising at first.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

And then Solomon begins to list fourteen pairs of items that fill our time. Let's read them. After we read them, I want to ask you how they make you feel.

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up 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 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;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:2-8)

Solomon says, in effect, "These are the things that take up our time." Now, how do you feel? Is this encouraging or not?

Many people mistakenly see this as a formula for life, but it's actually more of a description than a guideline. And you'll find that it's not all positive. Solomon shows us that we are affected by times and changes beyond our control. And this can't be a good thing, can it?

Sometimes I'm asked how the church is doing. To be honest, I never know how to answer. At any particular time, I could tell you both good things and bad things that are happening. You know what I'm realizing? There are seasons over which I have little control. Sometimes it is tough slugging with no results; other times God is blessing, and things are happening, and I'm doing the same thing as before. I'm not doing anything differently, but it's a different season.

It's probably the same in your life. As Solomon says, you're born. You didn't ask to be born. You had no control over when you were born. And you're going to die. Chances are, you won't have much of a say over when you die.

Solomon continues by reminding us that there are times when we laugh. There will be times when we weep. There are going to be times of love and times of hate. For every good, there is probably going to be a corresponding bad. We don't have time in our grip; time has us in its grip.

If we properly understand what Solomon has written, there is a kind of restlessness in this poem. J.A. Loader writes, "There is a restlessness like that of a weaver's shuttle in it, a persistent uncertainty in the back-and-forth movement of its ideas. It is a restless and unfathomable sea in which the human lifeboat tosses about."

Solomon is saying that no matter what we do, unfavorable as well as favorable circumstances come upon us. Love and hate, war and peace, life and death are all parts of the equation. Solomon is saying, in effect, what is the use?

Every morning, we get 86,400 seconds from God. By the end of the day, what is left of it?

Charles Swindoll tells of seeing a photograph with the familiar, octagon-shaped yellow sign on it that says, "Dead End." Someone had spray-painted two more words on it, so that it read, "Dead End – What Isn't?"

Solomon gave us a list of opposites—fourteen positives, fourteen negatives. In a sense, they cancel each other out and leave us on a dead-end street. We can't find life's meaning here. That's why Solomon says in verses 9 and 10:

What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. (Ecclesiastes 3:9-10)

We could very well say, what difference does it make in life? No matter how hard we work and no matter what we do, calamity and misfortune still come upon us. That's what the seeker has to say about time. It's as much bad as it is good.

For the person without God, this is as good as it gets. Enjoy the good times, because it's going to get worse. And suffer through the bad times, because eventually it'll get better. Is that any way to live?

But wait. There's another option. Solomon changes one thing in this equation, and it changes everything. To this futility, Solomon adds God, and look what happens:

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. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Now underline or highlight this verse: it is the key verse of this chapter. Here's what it says. Two things.

First, God is the one who orders time. He is sovereignly in control, with a purpose for everything. Even the hardest moments can be made beautiful in His time because nothing is outside His plan. God's plans are never in vain.

Second, we weren’t made for time, we were made for eternity. The things of this world, bound by time, can never fully satisfy us. We were created in God’s image, with eternity set in our hearts—a longing for something beyond the temporary.

If life were limited to a finite number of years and ended in nothingness, it would just be a series of brief highs and lows. You'd focus on enjoying more highs than lows, even though it all leads to nothing. If you knew eternity was ahead and that every moment in life had meaning, wouldn’t that change everything? It would for me!

When God enters our life, we can live today in the light of eternity, and look what happens:

I perceived that there is nothing better for them 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. (Ecclesiastes 3:12-15)

Understand what Solomon is saying. He suggests that life is temporary and beyond our control, but God's actions are eternal. Therefore, live for him to truly enjoy life. Only when we let God take over our lives does life make any sense.

As Warren Wiersbe writes:

How can life be meaningless and monotonous for you when God has made you part of His eternal plan? You are not an insignificant insect, crawling from one sad annihilation to another. If you have trusted Jesus Christ, you are a child of God being prepared for an eternal home.

God has put eternity in our hearts, so we can live above the here and now. Let's pause here before we continue. You have a choice.

You can live in the present with no thought to eternity. But then you will be living out the philosophy I read on the bumper sticker: life is hard, and then you die. That's option A.

But option B is this: you can live in light of eternity, knowing the good is a gift from God and the bad has a purpose. And that eternity is in your heart. Which one will it be?

We were made for eternity, and the things of time cannot ultimately satisfy our souls. So stop looking to the things of time and start looking to the things of eternity.

Ecclesiastes wants us to examine time to see if it will satisfy. It also wants us to look at one other area:

Justice

Solomon invites us also to look not only at time but at justice – at what is fair and not fair. And he concludes that life isn't really fair.

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.. (Ecclesiastes 3:16)

Solomon points out a problem. There is injustice in this world. Life is not fair. Solomon points out that, everyday, wickedness wins out over justice. As James Russell Lowell said, "Truth forever on the scaffold; Wrong forever on the throne." Cynicism reigns.

But to the seeker, Solomon reminds us to look past the here and now. Solomon reminds us that injustice only has a temporary reign.

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. (Ecclesiastes 3:17)

There is a fundamental injustice in this life, but God will judge. Sadly, Solomon returns to a human and horizontal worldview in concluding this chapter, and he forgets God for a moment:

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 beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into 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? (Ecclesiastes 3:18-22)

Solomon depicts life without God as a purposeless cycle of good and bad that ultimately ends in death, devoid of hope for justice or meaning.

But the gospel offers a radically different story. God, in His love, sent Jesus Christ to rescue us from this futility. Jesus lived a perfect life, died for our sins, and rose to conquer death and injustice. Through him, we are invited into a relationship with God, giving life eternal significance and every moment a role in his beautiful plan. When God enters the picture, he doesn’t just make life bearable. He makes it beautiful, purposeful, and eternal.

ship with God, where life has eternal meaning and every moment is part of His beautiful plan. When God enters the picture, He doesn’t just make life bearable—He makes it beautiful, purposeful, and eternal.

The choice is clear: will you live a meaningless life without God or trust in Jesus for hope, justice, and eternity?

I'm going to close in the words of J. Parker:

God holds the key of all unknown,
And I am glad;
If other hands should hold the key,
Or if He trusted it to me,
I might be sad.

I cannot read His future plans,
But this I know;
I have the smiling of His face,
And all the refuge of His grace,
While here and now.

Let's pray.

Father, Solomon is good at explaining problems. And he's shown us this morning that apart from you, life is just a series of ups and downs. It's full of injustice, and who can tell from a human perspective if we're any better off than animals?

But Solomon also shows us in Ecclesiastes 3 that you have put eternity in our hearts. That you will judge all injustice and wickedness.

Lord, this morning I know that there could be some here who don't know you. I ask if there is that you would show them that without you life is just ups and downs, and then you die. But if they trust you, you make all things beautiful in your time. You have a purpose in everything. That injustice will finally end.

For the believer this morning, I pray that you would give them the satisfaction that Solomon writes about. That the gift of God is that they enjoy life because they have their eternity squared away.

Lord, this is my prayer in Jesus' name, Amen.