In 1965, The Byrds released an album called “Turn! Turn! Turn!” The title song for the album was originally written in 1959 by a man named Pete Seeger, and that song has been recorded by over 15 different artists since. The recording by The Byrds is the most well-known version of the song in American music history. However, the original author of those words is a man more famous than Pete Seeger, or even The Byrds. King Solomon originally spoke those words to the people of Israel in what we now know as the book of Ecclesiastes.
Life had taken a toll on Solomon. Being the wealthiest and wisest man in the world had not isolated him from unhappiness and discouragement. All his worldly pursuits left him feeling empty and unfulfilled. If your life is only about the pursuit of worldly things, you can expect to spend your life unfulfilled and end your life unprepared. Solomon concludes the sermon that is now a book in our Bible by saying, “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity. For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.”
Don’t spend your life unfulfilled and get to the end your life unprepared. Aaron Ferguson said in his “Bible in a Year Workbook” that because there is a “test” at the end of the “course,” it should cause all students to pay attention to what really matters. God’s judgment causes us to live with the end in mind.
In the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon teaches that God has arranged a time for every human experience. He lists different human experiences and suggests that each of them has a time and a place. There is a divine arrangement to the rhythm and seasons of life that we experience on this side of heaven. A time to give birth and a time to die. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. God has arranged a time for every human experience, and God has appointed a task for every human life.
Solomon says, “I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied.” Solomon is later in his life and reign. He has seen some things. He has experienced some things. He has learned there are some things within our control, and there are some things that will always be out of our control. We are to live and act responsibly over the things God has put within our sphere of influence and control, and trust Him for the things beyond our sphere of influence and ability to understand. There is a time arranged for every human experience, a task appointed for every human life, and a truth attached to every human heart.
Human beings have an innate belief in some type of reality after death. Solomon teaches in verses 11-15 of chapter 3 that God has put eternity in the hearts of people, and even though we cannot fully discover the work of God, we live with an innate desire to know and be prepared for what happens when this life is over. It has been said, “There are no atheists in the foxhole.” You don’t tend to find many atheists in the hospice house or being prepped for major surgery either. God has attached the truth about eternity to our heart. Sometimes we may ignore this truth, but when we feel vulnerable or in danger, we are serious about what’s on the other side.
The words of Solomon were teaching then, and even still today, God has arranged a time for every human experience, appointed a task for every human life, and attached a truth to every human heart. Chuck Swindoll once gave an illustration saying, “Let’s play ‘Let’s pretend.’” Let’s pretend your banker called you one Friday and said he had some very good news. He told you that an anonymous donor who loves you very much has decided to deposit 86,400 pennies into your account each morning, starting the following Monday. That’s $864 a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year. The banker tells you there is one stipulation…you must spend all the money that same day. No balance will be carried over to the next day. Each evening the bank must cancel whatever sum you failed to use. With a big smile you thank the banker and hang up. Over that weekend, you have time to plan. You get a pencil and notepad and start doing some figuring…$864/day times 365 days equals $315,360.
Swindoll continued saying, “Now let’s play ‘Let’s get serious.’” Every morning someone who loves you very much deposits into your bank of time 86,400 seconds of time, which equals 1,440 minutes, which amounts to 24 hours each day. Now you’ve got to remember the same stipulation applies, because God gives you this amount of time for you to use each day. Nothing is ever carried over on credit to the next day. There is no such thing as a 26-hour day (though some of us wish there were). From today’s dawn until tomorrow’s dawn, you have a precisely determined amount of time. As someone has put it, “Life is like a coin. You can spend it anyway you want to, but you can spend it only once.’”
Solomon would agree. The wisest man who ever lived wanted you and I to know if we live our life only for the things of this world we will spend our life unfulfilled and finish our life unprepared. However, if we will choose to live our life for the Lord and with eternity in mind, we can spend our life fulfilled and finish our life prepared.