Studies In Ecclesiastes

Studies In Ecclesiastes Presentation 03

The Time Trap Chapter 3v1-22 Presentation 03

Introduction Can you imagine picking up your phone, dialling the talking clock and hearing the following words at the other end v2-8 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance..” British Telecom would soon be out of business for reminding people of one of life's greatest frustrations, we are trapped in time with little control over the events which surround our lives. And secular man has good reason to be obsessed by time. The few fleeting years he on earth is all he lives for. He serves a tyrant called time. Presentation 03

Introduction Think of the expressions that punctuate human life; ‘meeting a deadline’, ‘missing the boat’, ‘beating the clock’, ‘no time to lose’, ‘no time to spare’, ‘time up’! It is easy to be a slave to time - people say, "We've so much to do and too little time in which to do it“. They are so busy being busy that life passes them by. Indeed, in the end they work themselves into an early grave with a variety of ulcers, and other stress related illnesses - all produced by an awareness of being caught up in a time trap. Presentation 03

Introduction Moving from the general to the particular, the preacher tells us that the really frustrating thing about time is its changeableness. We dance to a tune not of our own making. Nothing we pursue has any real permanence. The pendulum of change over which we have no real control swings in these verses from one side to the other. Man is demoralised by the contradiction of so many of life's experiences. Presentation 03

Introduction As the pendulum swings it chants, "a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal...". There is no permanence to experience! People expect this from life and say, "this can't last", for they are expecting the pendulum to swing back in the opposite direction. They fear that their Cinderella world will soon be shattered and what is presently a beautiful coach and fine white horses will soon be turned into a pumpkin and a few scrawny mice. The tyranny of time with its pendulum of change brings frustration and discouragement to men. Presentation 03

The Burden Of Time How do we explain man’s experience of frustration that does not seem to be shared by the rest of the created order? You are not likely to see a group of sparrows queuing up outside of a stress clinic are you? The writer provides the answer in v11. "God has set eternity in the hearts of men". That is the key phrase to understanding this chapter. God has built into the human constitution the consciousness that he has designed man for eternity. Presentation 03

The Burden Of Time Listen to these words of A. W. Tozer: “That God has placed eternity in man is both his glory and his misery. To be made for eternity and forced to dwell in time is a tragedy of huge proportion. All within us cries for life and permanence, and everything around us reminds us of mortality and change”. This is the frustration of human experience. This explains man’s longing for permanence found even in the most primitive tribe as well as in the most sophisticated civilization. Presentation 03

The Burden Of Time We should not be surprised that the preacher describes this as ‘the second burden God has laid upon men’ v10. This deep craving for immortality is expressed throughout human literature and certainly by these lines of Tennyson: “Thou wilt not leave us in the dust Thou madest man he knows not why He thinks he was not made to die And thou has made him thou art just.” This burden cannot be lifted from the secularist's shoulders without bringing God into the equation. Presentation 03

The Burden Of Time Instead, secular man attempts to freeze time and abolish change and produce a world that has more in common with a ‘still life’ rather than a motion picture. He searches for the freeze frame facility built into some TV’s, press a button and everything stops. Is this not what people are trying to do, who place their faith in plastic surgery? They want to stop the clock, keep their youthful appearance and remove the wrinkles. You can probably think of 101 other ways in which people attempt to freeze time and pretend that they are not getting older. They will not face up to the swing of the pendulum. Now attempting to freeze time is both a drastic and futile way to try to find permanence. Presentation 03

The Burden Of Time We are told in v11, God has made everything beautiful in its time. Now depending upon whether or not we see God in this world of change will cause us to view life as a mess or a masterpiece. Change is a part of the mechanism God has built into life. But the secularist is too short sighted to see this. He is like a snail crawling over a large canvass, each little bit viewed seems a mess of colour and texture but the man of faith is able to stand back from the canvass and admire the work of a Master-craftsman. Only the Creator God who is able to use change to produce something wonderful is able to give life any meaning. But all the secularist sees is a mess. Presentation 03

The Burden Of Time Our attitude to change will also determine whether we see life as a jail sentence or as an assignment. God uses change to prepare man for eternity, to convince him of the purpose of his creation and to turn him into a worshipper cf. v14"so men will revere him". God wants to do something in our lives that will have an enduring quality but who is prepared to listen? The man who becomes aware that God has placed eternity in his heart. How so? He is open to listening precisely because he has been crushed by the burden of life’s impermanence and frustrated by the time trap. Presentation 03

The Burden Of Time This man is prepared to see that the answer to his frustration is found in a God who calls him to share his eternity. And as he stands back from the changeableness of this life he then begins to recognise how God uses the burden created by impermanence to prepare him for eternity. That is God's agenda and man's assignment! Have we begun to grasp that life down here is God’s workshop and heaven is his showroom? Presentation 03

Present Injustices Argue For Eternity The writer then drives his point home by turning on its head an argument regularly used by the atheist to try and demonstrate that God doesn't exist. He points to a horrific catalogue of injustices and cries out, ‘if there is a God in heaven why doesn't he deliver justice now!’ But God is not bound by time. He lives in eternity and that is God's time for judgement. The wicked are not let off the hook. God has created a moral universe in which we are all called to account. Cf. ‘after death the judgement!’ Heb.9.27.That is God's time cf. v17… God has built into our hearts a sense of justice and a desire for justice. Justice can’t be avoided for there is an eternity. Presentation 03

Coming To Terms With Mortality The writer buries the secularist’s philosophy at an open graveside. In v18 he tells us, "God tests or exposes man". In what sense? By suggesting to him he is no more than an animal. That shakes him! God asks, "what’s the big difference between you and an animal, you both die?" ‘Oh’ you say, ‘that sounds very similar to the claims of today’s secular evolutionist who claims, "man is no more than a highly developed ape." Now he is operating with a different agenda. He wants to deny the existence of God and reasons that, "man is an accident and indeed the product of a whole chain of accidents so that there is no substantial difference between man and animal”. Presentation 03

Coming To Terms With Mortality This thinking has contributed to the philosophy of meaninglessness, that developed at the beginning of the last century. It argued that if man was no more than an accident, then life has no meaning. However, there is a fundamental flaw in this approach for ‘God has placed eternity in the heart of man’. Man knows he is different and he possesses a hunger for eternity that is not shared by the animals. A hunger has been expressed throughout history. “The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless”. Tolstoy Presentation 03

Coming To Terms With Mortality Look at the pyramids of Egypt, or the burial tombs of ancient China, or the burial rites of the North American Indian. In each case man has stood before the open grave and said, “I'm more than an animal, I know deep down that I exist for more than this short lifespan.” Eternity has been placed in his heart. And this tells man that he is more than a freak accident of chance and more than a highly developed animal. And this means that he has more to look forward to than simply making the best out of this life v22. Such a limited point of view doesn't satisfy his longing for eternity! How then is death to be explained if man was created for eternity? Presentation 03

Coming To Terms With Mortality The writer knows the answer and in v20 quotes from Gen. 3.19 when after Adam’s disobedience God said, "by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." Adam, was then excluded from the garden and denied access to ‘the tree of life’. However you understand this, it is clear that God's original purpose for man did not involve death. Death came as an intruder into God's world as a direct result of man’s disobedience. Death became a new reality. We cannot freeze time. We cannot escape death. We live in a time trap. That is one of man's greatest dilemmas and frustrations. Presentation 03

Conclusion What is the answer to this longing for permanence and eternity? Jesus came from eternity in order to spring the time trap saying, "If the Son shall set you free you shall be free indeed" Jn.8.36. He spoke of from sin and its consequences. Death was one of the consequences! He came to defeat it and fill the longing for eternity found in our hearts. How does he do that? By bringing his eternal life into our lives when we place our trust in his sacrificial death for us! Are you in the time trap and frustrated by the swing of the pendulum? Augustine after his conversion wrote: “Thou oh God has made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until we rest in thee.” Presentation 03

Studies In Ecclesiastes