What Does Ecclesiastes Teach Us about Changing Seasons?

What is the #1 hit with the oldest lyrics? While you might be thinking it is something that Keith Richards wrote when he walked with the dinosaurs, it’s actually a song by The Byrds—well, it’s them ripping off Ecclesiastes. Almost all of the lyrics to their song, Turn! Turn! Turn! comes from Ecclesiastes 3:1-15.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
 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."

Today, you might say there is a time to plant your garden and rake leaves. This poem tells us that the world is built on seasons. They come, and they go. But what are we to do with this? Are we to relish the good seasons and hang on in the bad ones? Is this merely how things are or are we supposed to do something specific in each season?

We get a clue to our answer from the shortest verse in the New Testament.

Turn, Turn, Turn! ~ Lyric Video & Photos by Barb Syverson from Barb Syverson on GodTube.

Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Aaron Burden

The shortest verse in the New Testament is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” He wept because his dear friend Lazarus had died. Lazarus had been dead for several days, and some of the blame was placed upon Jesus. At least, that is from the view of Lazarus’ sisters. Had Jesus been there, they assume, then Lazarus wouldn’t have died, and they wouldn’t have gone through all of this pain.

When Jesus arrives on the scene, the grief is thick. The sisters are beside themselves. The stench of death is pervasive when Life comes to Bethany. Amongst all the despair, Jesus reassures the sisters that Lazarus will rise again, and it will reveal God’s glory. Yet, amidst all this, there’s that simple verse: “Jesus wept.”

Why did Jesus weep? Knowing that the situation was temporary and that he’d soon raise Lazarus, why are his cheeks wet with tears instead of rising with a gentle and knowing smile? It’s like if a child breaks a toy—one which his parents can easily fix. The parents don’t join in the crying because they know they can restore it. So why did Jesus, knowing He would raise Lazarus, still weep?

He wept because that was what the moment called for. Jesus was fully present in every moment. In a season of mourning, it was not appropriate for the Son of God to move through that bit of suffering into glory. It was a foretaste of the death to come. He had to experience all the facets of our death. To be truly human meant to embrace every season—both the good and bad seasons.  

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The poem in Ecclesiastes is about far more than the passing of time. It is about recognizing the correct season for different actions. Each season calls for a fitting response. There is a time to plant and a time to harvest—wisdom involves knowing which season you are in and responding accordingly.

If a farmer decides to plant seeds in winter, no matter how diligent or hopeful he is, those seeds will not grow. It’s not the right season. This is why certain jokes don’t land at funerals. And it’s why crying at your own party is odd enough to make a hit song. The wise person understands the season. Making the right decision at the wrong time is no longer right.

We want to control the times and seasons of our lives. We want to be able to hunker down and shell up in the negative seasons and fly high in the times of glory. But the two are connected. To be a wholly rounded person living the world as it is rather than the world we wish it to be, we must learn to live in light of eternity, whether it’s the time of pumpkin spice or picking flowers.

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After this poem, we are treated to an intriguing verse. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, 

“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."

Many interpret this as if it’s an altogether positive statement, sort of a celebration of each season. I think the Quester is doing something different there.

He tells us there is order in the world, but it is not an order we can easily perceive. Though we think we can predict the seasons, many things are outside our control. Yes, I am confident that we will get a bit of snow in January and that the rainy season is in the spring. But nothing prepared me for a flooded crawlspace at Christmas when the temperature shot up to 70 degrees (in Southwest Missouri) and we had a downpour of rain. We’re not in control of the seasons.

And this bit about putting eternity in our hearts doesn’t mean we are longing for eternity (though that is certainly true). Rather, it means that God has made us meaning-makers. And that is frustrating in such an unpredictable world. Everything is beautiful in its time, but we aren’t smart enough to know what time it is. It’s like what Andy Bernard said in The Office: “I wish we could know we were living in the good times when we were living in them.”

Ecclesiastes is telling us that we are all in a particular season now. It is a time fitting for something. Do you know what it is? Do you know how to utilize it for the glory of God? Probably only a little. It can be confusing because some parts of your life are given to weeping and others to laughter.

‌What are we to do with this tension? Ecclesiastes offers us a simple answer: make the most of the moment. Rather than becoming paralyzed by the mysteries of life, we are called to embrace each moment as a gift from God. Be joyful, do good, and find pleasure in the work and experience you’ve been given. Life is fleeting, seasons change, but God is eternal and never changes. Because of this, we can entrust ourselves to Him and live fully.

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We return to John 11:35. Do you know what it means for you that Jesus wept with Mary and Martha? What does it mean that Jesus was fully present in their season of weeping? And that Jesus would be fully present as they celebrated the resurrection of Lazarus? It means that Jesus is fully present in each of our moments.

For me, when I have seasons of anxiety, it is because I am afraid of a certain season of life. Will the winter months bring a deep depression that is hard to snap out of? Will the busyness of summer exhaust me? I don’t know. But I do not have to know. What I do know is that Jesus will be present with me no matter what the season brings.

Go back through that poem and add the word “Jesus is present.” He is present in your birth and present in your death. In each of the seasons, he is fully present. And because of this, we can be in every season.

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