Now or Never
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven— Ecclesiastes 3:1 NASB
Time – How difficult it is for us to not read this verse (and the following elaboration) as if it is about dates on the calendar! The addition of just a few extra words pushes us to imagine that the author uses our cultural presuppositions. The Hebrew text reads (literally), “For everything a season an occasion for every joy (delight, matter, business) under heaven.” Does this verse imply that each and every event is fixed? If I add “there is” to the translation, does that make me think that everything is already appointed? If I read the verse without “there is,” doesn’t this verse merely express the orderly repetition of opportunities? Is this verse prescriptive, i.e., everything is already determined, or descriptive, i.e., when things happen they seem to fall into repeating patterns? The answer is very important.
If you read this verse as though the Bible is teaching that God (or whomever) has already appointed times and seasons so that every event is already fixed in the divine calendar, then you will inevitably arrive at the logical conclusion that no matter what you do it is only the fulfillment of an already predestined plan. That means life is really an illusion since your experience of “free” choice is actually nothing more than the fulfillment of the dates on the divine calendar. Personal responsibility is a joke. Whatever you do has already been appointed. So do whatever you wish. Only God is to blame.
But if you read this verse as nothing more than a description of human experience concerning the appearance of repetition, the feeling that we are going around the wheel once more, then there is no predestined arrangement. Things just seem to happen in cycles. It appears as if everything has a proper place but this appearance is not a statement of the ontological reality of a fixed universe. Personal responsibility must be exercised as the opportunities presented by the patterns become clear. What you do about those opportunities changes the world. You are accountable. You are to blame.
Such a simple little idea. Such a small change. Just insert “there is” and suddenly an entirely new logical problem emerges. “There is” gives the verse ontological status as if this verse confirms what already is. But remove the inserted “there is” and the verse is just a description of human experience, of the way things seem to be.
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear 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 throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:2-8)
So tell me. Are these verse about “times” fixed in the future, or are they about what happens in human existence experienced as opposites?
Ah, and once you answer that question, what do you think about this verse: “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,” (Ephesians 1:5).
Topical Index: time, ‘et, experience, predestination, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Ephesians 1:5
If Ecclesiastes 3 is about life’s experiences, which I think it is, then predestination is about God’s will rather than an accomplishment set in time. His will is that He desires all to come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved. Clearly not all do…at least as far as I am aware. So as I see it God’s will is sovereign but that does not mean he is unwilling to allow us to pursue our own ends. His will is to be merciful thereby allowing us a measure of time to come to our senses and recognise the superiority of His will over ours. We rail against His will at our peril yet He is gracious to warn us of the consequences and more importantly offer us the only way out through Christ Jesus.
The trouble with that analysis is that I cannot square it up against verses such as John 17:2 “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”.
Consider Luke 8:10 and others that seem to say that Yashua did not wont every one to understand…..always puzzled me
But read the passage as an allusion to similar verses in the Tanakh. How did the prophets communicate?
Have you ever lifted a car off of a child? If you haven’t, perhaps you never have had the opportunity. Does love really make the world go ’round? When I pray for another, does that prayer change things? Does the prayer of faith really heal the sick? Would G-d have saved Sodom from destruction if there had been 10 good men in it (a minyan) BECAUSE Abraham asked?
Love changes things. Literally changes things. If Yeshua kept the ones given Him, then His love was the constant factor that held them. His love made His Father’s faith true. Faith without love is dead, for love is the action that follows faith up and turns it into reality. Love on the ground creates the space for faith to be true. SO, what is faith? I don’t think we can have a discussion about time without having a discussion about faith as the correct usher for that time, for the verse that tells us that any action not motivated by faith (powered by faith), is sin, tells us that faith is what keeps us from sinning in that time frame. We have to move ourselves forward by faith. But wait: are we perhaps propelling reality, and not ourselves, forward with our faith? What is really going on here?
There is a verse that says “I shall not be moved”. Moved from what? What does it mean to be forced? What is power? When I make a choice that is righteous (i.e. in faith) is that not power over the future? When I sin (which is a reaction to the past) am I not being shoved around by my previous choices? So, I can either move the future, or be moved by the past. When I was suffering mightily by my inability to be righteous no matter how hard I tried, because I had a trust problem (no kidding!), and believed (put my faith in) that notion that I had to EARN love, I used fear of failure and fear of man to force myself to do good so as to ‘deserve’ favor. I was under force; literally enslaved to, works. And, it didn’t work. LOL! I would get so shoved around I would lose my grip on reality, and get weirded out. I would go lay on the ground, because I trusted the ground, and let myself go, and stay there for hours, until I felt I was synching with the rotation again. Then I would get up and go throw my body back into the insanity of trying to manage chaos, and go crazy again. I began to see that power is where you stood still, and reality moved AROUND you. A correct choice was one where reality AGREED with you, and behaved accordingly. Someone who made ALL the right choices, then, would be someone who stood still, in the exact middle of the dance, and conducted the rest. THAT is stewardship. THAT is a “tree planted by the waters”.
To understand our place in time correctly, then, is to understand what faith does to time, for we are either dead – one second in the past; literally propped up by grace and mercy and held by the curses (which are by no means PUNISHMENT, or, payment for, sin, but are a placeholder for mercy to work), or we are alive in the present through the exercise of faith, on the cusp of reality, in the malleable edge where the baby future forms. And what exactly IS that future? Is it pre-determined? If we believe that time is a river, and we are spectators on its bank, then the future is something already there, and I can conceivably time-travel into it, (given the right mechanism, of course). If faith is what forms the future, though, then Skip is going to have to write another TW on the “faith of Yeshua”, and the faithfulness of YHVH, and how our faith intersects with that. Its gotten light outside, and I have to go clean a fence line.
Laurita, Thank you….again. I followed along with most of what you said untill I got to the end where you used an unusual metaphor I couldn’t perceive. You said: “Its gotten light outside, and I have to go clean a fence line.” I think I get it. Do you mean that the forces of light, the sons of light as spoken of and about the sect of the Essenes…oh,wait…you aren’t speaking mystically anymore you really do have a fence line to clean! That’s good, you don’t want to know how I personified that analogy!
Michael,
Knowing Laurita what she meant was “the sun has come up and I’m going to go clean that fence line…”
No metaphor, she’s probably out there cleaning the fence line as i type this.
Based on personal experience, I’ve noticed that there are times when things that happen in our lives follow a pattern that is set forth in Scriptures; however, there are some events in the pattern that happen in opposition to the original pattern. In my situation, the timing of my father’s death was amazing. It happened according to the pattern I was in, but it was 3 weeks instead of 3 days from a certain point in time. It was as if his death took place at the appointed time that had been predestined. Other thematic events in the pattern took place too, as well as a couple of oppositional occurrences. I believe the reason for the opposition to the pattern was a result of personal choice on behalf of the people I was dealing with. This was a horribly painful period of my life but amazing at the same time because I watched it unfold while being fully aware of the pattern I was in. The times of opposition were disappointing; things could have turned out differently if personal choice had been according to the pattern. At the same time, I have see that God still accomplishes His plans despite and/or through our personal choices…according to His plan and timing.
NOW is the Time
~ The times of ignorance God overlooked, BUT NOW He commands all people everywhere to repent..~
(Acts 17.30)
[and] ~ today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts..~ (Hebrews 3.15)
from Laurita’s comment – “When I make a choice that is righteous (i.e. in faith) is that not power over the future? When I sin (which is a reaction to the past) am I not being shoved around by my previous choices?”
Somewhere I heard, probably on Skip’s blog, that wisdom doesn’t come from experience; wisdom comes from revelation. So if this is true, which I believe it is, then wisdom, which is what God reveals to us in His Word, is what empowers us to make choices that please our Heavenly Father and draw us closer to Him. Those right(eous) choices cause us to live right(eous) and have true success.
Therefore, our choices are directed by Him and at the same time our freedom is involved because we chose to obey His Word. Paul reminds us in Galations 5 that we are called by Him to live in freedom, but also that we should not use our freedom to satisfy our sinful nature. Instead, we are encouraged to use our freedom to serve one another. The choices He gives us lead us right back to community in Him.
Thank you, Bridget. This helps me.