Ecclesiastes – Meditations (3)

 

“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a season for every event under heaven.” Ecc. 3:1

 

There is a grand difference between knowing what something says and knowing what something means; in education it’s called “reading comprehension.” The Fathers of the Church knew that there are different levels of comprehension, from the moral and ethical which in one sense is accessible to all humanity, to the knowledge and wisdom that only the Holy Spirit can impart. The New Testament gives us many examples of people reading the Old Testament and knowing its content, but not comprehending that content, not “seeing” it (e.g., John 5:39 – 40; Acts 13:26 – 27).

 

The idea of seasons of life is introduced to us in Genesis 1:14, “Then God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from night, and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years.” In the LXX (the Greek Old Testament), in Ecc. 3:1 the word “time” is chronos, which is where we get the concept of chronology, of linear time; and the word “season” is kairos, which is the concept of “the right time,” or “a certain season” of time and of life. Ecc. 3:1 is telling us that life has times and seasons, we live on both a chronological timeline, and we live through, and in, various seasons of life.

 

Genesis 1:14 portrays both of these concepts, for not only do we kairos (seasons), but we also have “let them be…for days and years,” which is chronos. The spiritually intelligent reader of Scripture knows that as we read the Bible that we read on both planes – that of chronos and that of kairos.

 

Another example of chronos and kairos in the Bible is in Daniel 9:1 – 3. Here Daniel reads Jeremiah’s prophecy of 70-years captivity, and he realizes that Judah is coming to the end of that chronos, that linear time. Then Daniel realizes that it is the kairos, the season, for deep intercession. It is one thing to look at the date on a calendar, it is another thing to know what season of life we are in and what we should be doing in light of what God is doing.

 

While chronos and kairos have their distinctives, they also have similarities. In Mark 1:15 Jesus preaches, “The time [kairos] is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” Then in Galatians 4:4 Paul writes, “But when the fulness of the time [chronos] came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law…”

 

Some other considerations:

 

“A man has joy in an apt answer, and how delightful is a word spoken in due season” (Proverbs 15:23). Timing can be critical in communication, and there is a time and a place for certain kinds of communication. It is generally ill advised and counter-productive for an employer to correct an employee in front of other employees. If a friend is going through a season of crisis, is there a word of encouragement and affirmation that I can speak to him? If I am in the midst of critical decision-making, is there a wise friend who may give me counsel? (It is not only important to know when we are to speak a word in due season, but also to know when we should seek a word in due season for ourselves).

 

There are seasons when we should simply be quiet and “be” with others; people going through tragedy don’t need simplistic answers from us, they need to know they are loved and supported, they need to know we are there for them.

Life has “windows of opportunity” that do not last forever. Ancient Israel had a window of opportunity to enter the Promised Land; that window closed because of their sin and would not open again for forty years.

 

There are some things that do not require a kairos, while they may have special seasons, they don’t require special seasons, in fact we are taught that we are to practice them in all seasons. We are to love in all seasons of life. In all seasons we are to allow faith and hope to live within us, we are to nurture them. Looking unto Jesus is to be our mode of life in all seasons. Now for sure our Father and Lord Jesus may engage us in different ways in all of these things in various seasons; in some seasons our faith may be particularly challenged, in other seasons our love for God and others can be put to extreme tests, and in yet other seasons we may learn what it is to “hope against hope.” That is, we may be taught to hope in Christ when everything around us shouts that there is no basis for such hope.

 

Paul tells Timothy (2 Tim. 4:2) that Timothy is to “be ready in season and out of season” in his preaching and ministry, exercising “great patience” and instruction. Is this the way we live with respect to our witness to Jesus Christ? Doesn’t it appear that Christian witness is the exception rather than the rule? In other words, rather than witnessing in all conditions and seasons, do we rather witness in some conditions and seasons…if we witness at all?

 

For sure, there are special windows of opportunity to witness, special circumstances in which we can give a particular Gospel witness in due season. However, if we have not cultivated a life of witnessing in season and out of season it is not likely we will respond to special windows of opportunity…we may not even recognize them.  

  

“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a season for every event under heaven.” It is one thing to recognize a season, it is another thing to know how to live in that season.