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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Ecclesiastes 3:1 - 3:1
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Ecc 3:1-22. Earthly pursuits are no doubt lawful in their proper time and order (Ecc 3:1-8), but unprofitable when out of time and place; as for instance, when pursued as the solid and chief good (Ecc 3:9, Ecc 3:10); whereas God makes everything beautiful in its season, which man obscurely comprehends (Ecc 3:11). God allows man to enjoy moderately and virtuously His earthly gifts (Ecc 3:12, Ecc 3:13). What consoles us amidst the instability of earthly blessings is, God’s counsels are immutable (Ecc 3:14).
Man has his appointed cycle of seasons and vicissitudes, as the sun, wind, and water (Ecc 1:5-7).
purpose - as there is a fixed “season” in God’s “purposes” (for example, He has fixed the “time” when man is “to be born,” and “to die,” Ecc 3:2), so there is a lawful “time” for man to carry out his “purposes” and inclinations. God does not condemn, but approves of, the use of earthly blessings (Ecc 3:12); it is the abuse that He condemns, the making them the chief end (1Co 7:31). The earth, without human desires, love, taste, joy, sorrow, would be a dreary waste, without water; but, on the other hand, the misplacing and excess of them, as of a flood, need control. Reason and revelation are given to control them.