Chuck Larsen

Francis Schaffer said that the popular music of our generation will reveal the climate and nature and wisdom of each generation. As I’ve been studying through Ecclesiastes, I’ve been relating the truths written by Solomon over 3000 years ago to songs I remember in my own generation. It seems there are plenty of songs that attempt to do what Solomon did, find meaning and purpose in life, but come up with the same answer: vanity of vanities. It’s useless, and under the sun, there is no true meaning and purpose from the purely human perspective. Every evaluation in every generation of man’s purpose in life always leads to the same conclusion:

“The Answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind…” Peter, Paul & Mary.
“You may as well try to catch the wind…” Donovan
“It’s dust in the wind; everything is dust in the wind…” Kansas

In Ecclesiastes 2:17, Solomon wrote: “Everything is meaningless, like chasing the wind.” (New Living) “I had been chasing the wind.” (Good News) “…Everything here on earth is useless, like chasing the wind.” (New Century) “When I looked, I saw nothing but smoke, smoke and spitting into the wind. There was nothing to any of it, nothing” (The Message). From man’s perspective, that’s absolutely true. But God has a plan and a purpose for all life! The conclusion of it all is one must trust God. In a trusting relationship with Him, it will all come together. Man will never understand the puzzle of life outside of a personal relationship with God. Further, man will never really find fulfillment in life outside of a relationship with God. So, in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26, Solomon concludes with several observations. “So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that this pleasure is from the hand of God. For who can eat or enjoy anything apart from him?” Even in the middle of much despair, confusion, and disillusionment we can find joy.

There was an old cartoon in which a publisher tried to convince Charles Dickens to change the opening sentence in one of his most famous novels, “A tale of two cities.” “Mr. Dickens, either it was the best of times or it was the worst of times. It can’t be both.” Phil Ryken says, “But of course it can be both, and often is. We live in a world that is cursed by sin (see Genesis 3:17–19), but it is also a world that God created essentially good (see Genesis 1–2) and that he has visited in the flesh and is working to redeem through the life, death, and resurrection of his Son. Thus we experience joy as well as sorrow, especially if we know God in a personal and saving way.”

Pete Seger is credited with writing the song “Turn, Turn, Turn.”  It was written in the 1950s but was not set to music until 1962. Seger did a rendition of it, as did the Limelighters in the early sixties, but neither took off. It was in 1965 that the Byrds put it to a contemporary rock sound that it made it all the way up the charts to #1 on the American Billboards. I graduated in 1965, and our yearbook committee chose it as our theme song for the class. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 was the theme passage for our class. Pete Seger, who got all the royalties, wrote only one word of the song. That word was “turn.” He repeated it three times (Turn, Turn, Turn) as the chorus after the verses that were penned 3000 years ago by Solomon. The passage uses the word “time” twenty-eight times.

According to Phil Ryken, Plautus wrote about the tyranny of time, “Bemoaning the stress caused by the latest device for keeping time, the Roman playwright said, ‘the gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish hours! Confound him who has cut and hacked my days so wretchedly into small pieces. Confound him who in this place set up a sundial.’” How much worse is it for us today? We all wear watches to keep close track of what time it is so we can meet our next appointment or accomplish our next mini-mission. I remember the story of the missionary who moved to the jungle to reach a very primitive tribe. The tribe’s people referred to him by a particular word that he could not understand. When he got a translator, he told him that the natives had given him a name that he didn’t understand. He then asked what the name meant. The translator laughed and said it means, “The one who wears his god on his wrist.” Like most Americans, the missionary always checks his watch before doing anything. We are indeed slaves to time.

Ecclesiastes 3 begins with, “There is a time for every purpose under heaven.” It is followed by the repetition of the word “time” 28 times in 14 pairs of perfect opposites. Looking at these opposites, we might notice that they cover the entire gamut of the human experience. However, we might also notice that there is a “purpose” expressed. Each event has a sovereign design and order, beginning with “a time to be born and a time to die.” God is sovereign over birth and death. Once a year, we celebrate what is known as the “Sanctity of Life Sunday.” Ronald Reagan established that back in the 1980s. Its focus is to draw our attention to the fact that God, and only God, has the power to start or end life. Reagan believed that life began at conception. Each conception is a miracle. Think of all the circumstances that must take place for any particular person to be conceived. It’s not just sex! Abraham and Sarah had sex thousands of times (I’d expect), as did many other couples in the bible who never conceived a child. Each conception is a miracle planned and purposed under a sovereign God’s mighty hand who establishes a “time to be born” and “a time to die.” Life from conception to death in God’s time is sacred.

I’ve been thinking about pastors who died on Sunday, and I remember the Pastor of Ft. Calhoun Presbyterian Church 20+ years ago, who was found dead on Sunday morning. I remember my good friend and a local pastor, who also died on Sunday.  I looked it up and found at least three stories a year in the past three years where pastors died on Sunday—some before they preached, some between sermons, and some after the services. Pastors experience extra stress on Sundays. We should give our pastors more time off. I don’t think anyone can relate to the stress a pastor feels on Sunday. I preached two different sermons every Sunday at three weekly services for almost 20 years. Looking back at that now, after several years of retirement, I can’t imagine doing that.  A news article I read one Monday morning made me think of this.  Here is what it said, “Smyrna (MI) Bible Church Senior Pastor Mike Jones died suddenly yesterday from a stroke. He was up early to get ready for church, and sometime later, his wife found him on the floor. They took him to the hospital, but he was declared brain dead by early Sunday afternoon. Mike was 45 years old, had no warning, no medical history, and was taking no medications. He just had a stroke and died. He leaves behind a wife and young family with six kids.” You never know!

I’ve been studying Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and the passage that struck me again was “there is a time to be born and a time to die.” Everyone should come to terms with that reality. We should live our lives knowing that a time is coming for each of us. Hebrews 9:27 makes it clear that “…it is appointed for man once to die.” Phil Ryken asks, “…Will you be ready when the time comes? Many people aren’t. When the Vicomte de Turenne was mortally wounded at the Battle of Salzbach in 1675, he wistfully said, ‘I did not mean to be killed today.’ By contrast, one sixty-five-year-old widow from Amsterdam was prepared. After the death of her husband in 2005, she carefully planned her own funeral, including the music. One day the next year, when she went to pay her respects to where her husband was buried, she lay down and died right next to the family grave, perhaps of a heart attack. The woman’s name was already inscribed on the headstone, and her will was found inside her handbag.”

I want to be careful how I talk about this subject because only a truly morbid person obsesses over the inevitability of his own death. Reminding people of the inevitability of death is not always the best thing to do. Alexander MacLaren tells of the overzealous Christian barber who wanted to share his faith with his customers. When he met his first customer one morning, he sharpened his straight razor on the leather strap. His initial approach to his customer was, “Are you ready to die?” One can imagine what went through the customer’s mind as he viewed the finely honed razor. On the other hand, only a foolish person refuses to ponder his mortality. One of the most profound truths come from the mouth of William Wallace of Brave heart fame. He said, “no man can really live until he is ready to die.”

God has chosen not to reveal the future to us. We truly don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Ecclesiastes 3:11 teaches us that God has “placed eternity into man’s heart, yet he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” No one will be able to second-guess God regarding the future, but we understand that there is one. Deuteronomy 29:29 teaches us that there are “secret things” which are only known by God and are not meant to be understood by man “under the sun.”

Astrology is one of the most popular pursuits in our society today. If I understand the deteriorating times of Israel’s history, it was popular then also. I remember the old TV commercials with Dionne Warwick. It would begin with questions like, “I’ve been going with Jim for three years now, and will he ever ask me?” Or “I’m going nowhere in this business. How can I make good decisions for my future career?” Do you want to know what the future holds for you? Call 1-900… for your personal reading with one of our gifted psychics. I remember a Newsweek Magazine article some time ago about a Psychic convention where all the crystal balls, tarot cards, Ouija boards, diving rods, and other paraphernalia were stolen. When asked why it wasn’t locked up at night, one psychic said, “We never thought such a thing would happen.”

God assures us that He holds the events of our lives, both the good and the bad, in the palms of His hands, and He leads us along life’s path with perfect and specific knowledge. He has chosen to lead us one step at a time through one episode at a time – that’s the summation of time. Psychics might claim to know the future, but the happiest life lets God be God. Solomon concludes his passage on the good and bad times of our life experience by saying in Ecclesiastes 3:12-13,  “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.” Trusting God in all life circumstances allows us to enjoy this life to the fullest. Learning to relax in the loving embrace of an omniscient, omnipotent God is far better than visiting the witch of Endor to discover something God has chosen not to reveal.