For those of you who are a little older (than the rest of us), do you remember as a young boy or girl, your parents woke you up in the middle of the night because they thought it was important for you to watch a nationally televised broadcast of a NASA rocket launch? Either you were glad and your eyes were glued to the television screen, or you were cranky because someone had just rudely interrupted your sleep. But have you ever wondered why they couldn’t have scheduled rocket launches during the daytime? Well, there is a good reason for that. A rocket’s time of launch demands precision calculation of its flight time to the target destination. It must take into consideration the rocket’s traveling speed, its trajectory, forecast of local weather conditions, and the rate at which the Earth rotates on its axis, among a million other factors. Because rockets travel at ultra fast speeds, a launch time a few seconds too early or too late can spell disaster. All to say, right timing is everything.
Beginning in chapter 3 in the Book of Ecclesiastes, the author wrote, “There is an appointed time for everything.” Was he also saying that there is a right timing for everything, in the same way that there is a right timing to launch a rocket? For example, was he saying that there is a right time to plant, and a right time to uproot what is planted? Is there a right time to weep, and a right time to laugh? Is there a right time to enter into a war, and a right time to have peace? A man can choose to do any of these activities whenever he wishes. If he were to do these activities at the right time, he has done well. But if he were to do them not at the appointed time, would he in some way fail to see the results he hoped for? And how does it work? We know about planting a seed at a wrong time, but what does it even mean to weep at a wrong time? Is this what the author meant by “an appointed time for everything”?
The passage from Ecclesiastes 3:1–15 is all too familiar to Christians. Many of us cannot recall anything else from Ecclesiastes besides this passage. But did you know it is well known also to people of this world? I heard it is read in funerals and memorial services. Before you come to worship our God this Sunday, please read Ecclesiastes 3:1–15, and let’s come together and think together what was going through Solomon’s mind in this well-known passage.
Your Friend,
Alvin