3:1 a time to every purpose. In Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 of this chapter there is a remarkable listing of twenty-eight “times,” arranged in fourteen pairs of opposites (e.g., “a time to be born, and a time to die”). Every timed event has a “purpose” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) and every thing is “beautiful” in God’s time for it (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Even when in our time, we may not understand how a particular event can be either purposeful or beautiful, we can have faith that, in God’s time, it is (Romans 8:28). Although it is beyond our finite comprehension, it is still bound to be true that the infinite God “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1:11).

3:2 a time to die. God has appointed a time for each individual, and it is wrong for us to shorten that time (by suicide or by careless living). Our times are in His hands (note Psalm 31:15; also Ecclesiastes 7:17).