The Byrds were inspired...
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The Byrds were inspired by this text as they sang "To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season, turn, turn, turn." But they failed to convey how this is a text not of peace (until the last verse), but about the meaninglessness of life. French philosopher Albert Camus well captures the meaningless of life while quoting the ancient Greek thinker Epicurus: "We can take precautions against all sorts of things; but so far as death is concerned, we all of us live like the inhabitants of the defenseless citadel" (The Rebel, p. 28).
On the meaninglessness of life described so compellingly in this text, John Wesley wrote:
... all vicissitudes which happen in the world, whether comforts or calamities, come to pass. Which is here added to prove the principal proposition that all things below are vain, and happiness is not to be found in them, because of their great uncertainty and mutability and transitoriness...
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 314)
Martin Luther adds similar observations with a word of hope echoed in the lesson's final verse:
All human works and efforts have a certain and definite time of acting, of beginning, and of ending, beyond human control... It is not up to us to prescribe the time, the manner, or the effect of the things that are to be done; and so it is obvious that here our strivings and efforts are unreliable.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 15, p. 49)
There is nothing better for a man in such a disastrous business than to enjoy the things that are present and to have a happy and joyful heart, without anxiety and care about the future. But the ability to do this is a gift of God.
(Ibid., p. 54)
This is a lesson about gallows humor that by the grace of God we can enjoy life even if it does ultimately lead to chaos and nothingness. That's a vision that might be worth a New Year's toast.
On the meaninglessness of life described so compellingly in this text, John Wesley wrote:
... all vicissitudes which happen in the world, whether comforts or calamities, come to pass. Which is here added to prove the principal proposition that all things below are vain, and happiness is not to be found in them, because of their great uncertainty and mutability and transitoriness...
(Commentary on the Bible, p. 314)
Martin Luther adds similar observations with a word of hope echoed in the lesson's final verse:
All human works and efforts have a certain and definite time of acting, of beginning, and of ending, beyond human control... It is not up to us to prescribe the time, the manner, or the effect of the things that are to be done; and so it is obvious that here our strivings and efforts are unreliable.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 15, p. 49)
There is nothing better for a man in such a disastrous business than to enjoy the things that are present and to have a happy and joyful heart, without anxiety and care about the future. But the ability to do this is a gift of God.
(Ibid., p. 54)
This is a lesson about gallows humor that by the grace of God we can enjoy life even if it does ultimately lead to chaos and nothingness. That's a vision that might be worth a New Year's toast.
