[A devotion on Ecclesiastes during and beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic)

PERFECT TIMING OF GOD


After 52 days AND COUNTING of COVID-19 lockdown, we are now at the limits of our mental toughness and spiritual resiliency. Do you now know how it feels like to be suspended in a hundred years of solitude?


Only God is the master of time. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He exists from everlasting to everlasting. He is not just a God of time. He is a God of timing. He knows the perfect time for everything.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon who was the richest, most powerful and most famous ruler during his time, concluded that there is really “nothing new under the sun; and that, everything has existed for ages even before us. He has seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and all is vanity and striving after the wind.” (1:9-14)


Thus, Solomon wrote his most famous and timeless lines (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 KJV)


To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace

Indeed, God makes possible the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly.
He allows both seasons of prosperity and of adversity in our lives. Why? So that we will get to know his absolute power, his sovereignty.


“All things done under the sun are in vain,” Solomon concludes. He recognizes that the great things are done through man’s intellectual, financial resources and political power if done apart from God, without the fear of God, without recognizing the sovereignty of God – will all be in vain, tiresome and wearisome. For we are like running after the wind.

HOW DO WE MAKE EVERY MINUTE AND EVERY MOMENT OF OUR LIFE COUNT?


If you are still young, millennials get to know God ASAP! Solomon reminds you to Always remember God in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them.”(verse 12:1) No amount of drugs, online video games, amusement games, cars, money or fleeting sexual relationships will fill your heart with meaning, significance and fulfillment. These temporary things do not make you truly happy.


If you are not young anymore, OF LET ME SAY YOU IN THE CONTEXT OF COVID-19, “YOU ARE IMMUNO-COMPROMISED,” remember God before “the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher from the well is shattered and the wheel at the cisterns is crushed.”(verse 12:6) We can only see a clearer picture of life by looking through the lens of eternity. Jesus asked, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? (Matthew 16:26)