WISDOM OF TIMES AND SEASONS (1)

“To everything there is a SEASON, and a TIME for every purpose under heaven” – Ecclesiastes 3:1

We must learn to walk in the WISDOM of TIMES and SEASONS: “To everything there is a SEASON, and a TIME for every purpose under heaven” (Ecc.3:1). Our Creator has fore-ordained the Times of our lives: “There is an APPOINTED TIME for everything. And there is a TIME for every event under heaven” (Ecc.3:1, New American Standard Bible). God has appointed times and seasons, which influence our lives’ affairs and all that happens, down through the annals of history. Wisdom demands that we live by Faith, trusting in His Timings for all things.

Timing has been vital from the Beginning and remains so. The cyclical pattern of times and seasons was ordained by God Himself, as in wisdom, He set in motion a series of unchangeable, natural laws, designed to influence all aspects of life, the wider world, and universe: “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the DAY from the NIGHT” (Gen.1:14). The Creator positioned the sun and the moon in heaven’s firmament, for signs, seasons, days, and years. He called them into being, to govern the day and night (Gen.1: 15-17).

When God called Israel out of Egypt to be His people, He set appointed times and seasons for them, with feast days, sabbath days, and holy convocations during which offerings and sacrifices were to be presented (Leviticus 23). Little wonder, Solomion declared that God has made everything beautiful in its time and placed eternity in Man’s heart (v.11). In God’s economy, there is an appointed time for every event under heaven: Times of birth and death; planting and gathering; killing and healing; tearing down and building-up (vv.2-3). There are times for contrasting events on earth: Weeping or laughing; mourning or dancing; casting stones or gathering stones; embracing or rejecting; gaining or losing; keeping or thrashing; silence or speech; love or hate; and war or peace (vv.4-8).

Also significant was the timing of Jesus’ coming to the earth to redeem humankind. That He came during the Roman domination of the world was not by chance. If He had come at a different time, we probably would not be talking about the cross and its import. He had to die on a Roman cross. The timing for saving the world had to be right. God has a time frame even for the devil, who has a short time (Rev 12:12).

Walking in Wisdom involves learning to be time-sensitive: “See then that you WALK circumspectly, not as fools but as WISE, redeeming the TIME, because the days are evil. Therefore DO NOT BE UNWISE, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Eph.5:15-17). Timing is everything! Every purpose is time-bound. The Timing must be appropriate in all we do. People have lost precious opportunities to carelessness in timing. Great breakthroughs have slipped off the hands of others, because they did not align with divine times and seasons.