1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Comment: Each of these ‘time’ phrases need to be thought about as one faces life. Read them quickly and you can say ‘I know that so what good does Solomon hope to teach us by stating the obvious’? Whether you are young or old it is wise to think that your life will end – but what comes next? Nowadays many are encouraging people to think that there is nothing beyond death. Jesus rose from the dead and alive ascended into heaven. Are you sure that this is a fake story? My body feels antique but my spirit feels as if it is just about ready to start living! I long for ‘heaven’. And…. so we can think on each one. I leave you to do it yourself but coming to the last one about war and peace. Now the world is full of wars. Most of us long for peace but are there some situations on earth in which accepting peace means accepting tyranny or genocide (the river to the sea)? Is there in this couplet a call for real commitment to peace on equitable terms? And to be thoroughly modern does ‘a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew;‘ refer to waste which our modern thrusts on to us with its call for new fashionable clothes cars, furnishings? Concerning our throwaway society would it give us at least a partial practical answer to our ecologically unacceptable rubbish dumps?
Prayer: Help me to think wisely and then act accordingly, please, my Father.
As I read it! 