Get the appMEANINGLESS! MEANINGLESS?Sample
These verses are one of the high points of Ecclesiastes – and the inspiration, of course, for one of the hit songs of the 1960s, The Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!”.
If Chapter 1 offered us a glass-half-empty version of the relentless churn of reality – nothing new under the sun – this passage sees the glass as half-full. Not meaningless repetition, but rhythm. Human life is seasonal.
We humans are not in control of our circumstances. We are subject to time and tide – to seasons. The Teacher urges us to accept the season we find ourselves in, and to discern what this particular moment requires of us.
2020 has certainly been “a time to refrain from embracing”! Can you pick out two or three other “times” that describe the season you’re currently in, and/or the response it requires?
Prayer: Father, give me wisdom to discern the season, and to respond rightly to my circumstances. Help me to trust that you can bring beauty and good out of this moment that I’m in. May I keep in step with your Spirit, to the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
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About this Plan
The book of Ecclesiastes is not an easy part of the Bible – largely because it plumbs depths to our souls and experience that are not easy either. Strap in for an unflinching, possibly uncomfortable, but ultimately hopeful encounter with a very ancient and also very contemporary anguish about what it’s like to be human in God’s marvellous, broken world.
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We would like to thank Bible Society of Australia for providing this plan. For more information, please visit: http://biblesociety.org.au
