Ecclesiastes 3

[upbeat music] Hi there, this is Dr. John Bergsma from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology in the Franciscan University of Steubenville, and we're in Ecclesiastes in our first reading, and the famous passage here from Ecclesiastes is, uh, the one immortalized in that song by The Byrds, right? "Turn, turn, turn." I'm gonna spare you my rendition of it, but there's a time to be born, time to die, time to plant, time to uproot the plant, time to kill, a time to heal, time to tear down, time to build, et cetera, et cetera.

Uh, there's a kind of repetitive, monotonous beauty to this poem embedded in Ecclesiastes 3.

At the end of it, the sacred author says, "What advantage has the worker from his toil? I have considered the task that God has appointed for the sons of men to be busied about.

He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts." I like the other versions that read, "Has put eternity into their hearts," without man's ever discovering from beginning to end the work which God has done.

And, you know, the preacher in Ecclesiastes goes through and points out all that stuff is a bunch of, you know, bolduki.

He calls it hevel in Hebrew, vanity, okay? We would, we would probably use a stronger term in contemporary culture.

But anyway, um, so what are we saying here in Ecclesiastes 3? We're saying that life is monotonous, and yet inside of us we have this hope for eternity.

And, and so life is frustrating just in the natural human condition if we don't have divine revelation, if, if we don't listen a- and we don't have access to God's voice that speaks to us from beyond and tells us to hope in the future.

I think there are times that we think, man, if I'm really hurting, if I'm really grieving, it's a mark of spiritual immaturity.

Can I just show you what Scripture says? Ecclesiastes 3, verse 1 says, there is a time for everything.

and a season for every activity under the heavens.

There's a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

hi there this is dr john bergsma from the saint paul center for biblical theology and the franciscan university of stewartville and we're in ecclesiastes in our first reading and the famous passage here from ecclesiastes is uh the one immortalized in that song by the birds right turn turn turn i'm gonna spare you by rendition of it, but there's a time to be born, time to die, time to plant, time to uproot the plant, time to kill, time to heal, time to tear down, time to build, etc., etc.

There's a kind of repetitive monotonous beauty to this poem embedded in Ecclesiastes 3.

At the end of it, the sacred author says, What advantage has the worker from his toil? I have considered the task that God has appointed for the sons of men to be busied about.

He has made everything appropriate to its time and has put the timeless into their hearts.

He calls it hevel in Hebrew, vanity.

We would probably use a stronger term in contemporary culture.

But anyway, so what are we saying here in Ecclesiastes 3? We're saying that life is monotonous.

And yet inside of us, we have this hope for eternity.

...by evangelical Christians in the United States who are still able to influence U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Netanyahu took that Bible verse from Ecclesiastes 3.

Netanyahu spent many years living and working in the United States and has always believed in his ability to influence America.

I

Hey, the promise of the day is he hath made everything beautiful in his time.

From Ecclesiastes 3, 11, that's the promise for the day.

He hath made everything beautiful in his time.

And boy, if you look at our guests, you're gonna go, oh boy, he sure did.

waiting for real life to start.

Ecclesiastes 3, 12 through 13 sums it up.

Nothing is better than finding joy, doing good, enjoying your work.

It's God's gift.

So God is revealing himself to all mankind through Jesus.

creation, through the testimony of the Spirit, through eternity in man's heart, Ecclesiastes 3, through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, through the gospel that's supposed to be preached by the church, by the conscience that's talked about in Romans 2.

And so God is revealing himself to all men, and because he wants all men to be Saved and to believe in him.

But when men don't, they turn back to what you were talking about, to their own desires, their own world, and reject God.