Verse 1: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Verse 8: “A time to love, and a time to hate: a time of war and a time of peace.” Solomon seems to be fatalistic and pessimistic in Ecclesiastes, but if you look beyond what is written you can make sense of his fatalism and pessimism. We have to remember that the Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and what is written is truth whether we understand its complete meaning or not. I do have to admit that verse 8 of Ecclesiastes 3 has been off-setting to me at times. I don’t have any problem with “a time to love,” but I have to give some thought to “a time to hate.” Actually, I did give some thought to it, and it was really simple. Solomon did not write that there is a time to hate people. Jesus, especially, never told us to hate people. But there is a time to hate and I will share here some things that we need to hate. We should certainly hate the things that God hates. We find one of these things in Jeremiah 44:4-5: “Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. 5. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other Gods.” God hates idolatry of all kinds, but Israel could not seem to stay away from it. God does not want us to put anything ahead of Him, not because of His insecurity, but because He knows that it is better for us to give Him first place. Therefore, we should hate the things that might call our attention away from God. I could go on and on with this, because there are a lot of things that we know God hates, e.g., adultery, lying, cheating, stealing etc. In other words, we should hate sin in general because God hates sin. We should certainly hate things that keep us from being the best that we can be. There are a number of things that can do this. Some obvious things are alcohol and drugs. Until people learn to hate what these substances are doing to their bodies, they will not give them up. I don’t mean to be an old fuddy-duddy here, but our choices of entertainment and reading might keep us from being the best that we can be. I am certainly not against entertainment, and I am definitely not against reading. I love to read novels as well as other literature, but there are some things that we can read or watch that do not help us become better people. I don’t know what that might be for you, but I know what it means for me. At least we should learn to hate what the wrong kind of entertainment and reading can do for us. I can share with you something that it is always time for me to hate, i.e., when I want to feel sorry for myself. (Oh, come on, you know what I mean.) I think that this is one of Satan’s tools that he uses against us, because when we give in to self-pity, we are not any good to God or people. I have always said that every minute that we spend feeling sorry for ourselves is a wasted minute. The same could be said of hours, days, months and years. I don’t remember that I have ever done anything good or uplifting when I have been inside the trap of self-pity. After years of having plenty of opportunities to feel sorry for myself, I have learned to hate it and to bat it down before it takes hold in my life. I want to recommend the same to you. If you are having a “pity party” at the present time, you need to man or woman up, and get over it. Learn to hate anything that makes you shrink into yourself. I once read that the “smallest package in the world is a person wrapped up in himself or herself.” I don’t know about you, but I do not love feeling small in my heart. There are plenty of other things that we should hate, but people are not in that category. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Margaret M Jones
10/27/2015 09:59:30 am
Good explanation of this scripture
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