A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.

These are works of human life, but they are not in our hands any more than life itself is. In the spring there is planting, in the autumn there is plucking up. All of this is as God gives and ordains it, and it cannot be done otherwise by us.

3. A time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4. a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5. a time to cast away and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6. a time to seek, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7. a time to rend, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8. a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace.

This catalog requires experience, so that it may be applied to the entire course of life. For this is what happens: one man plants, and another plucks; or one man acquires, and another tears down. In short, for each of the works of human life there is a defined time, outside of which, regardless of what you do, you will accomplish nothing and work in vain. There is a time to weep, there is a time to laugh. It often happens that when we want to be very joyous, a sudden disturbance arises. Therefore joy has its appointed time. Experience proves all of this, namely, that by our own counsels we can achieve nothing, but whatever is to be done is presented to us at its appointed time. Therefore let us not torment ourselves about future things, but enjoy present things. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.51-52)

He now cites examples to prove what he has said about human affairs and human efforts. Birth, he says, has its own time, and death has its own time. And as we do not have our birth in our own hand, so we do not have our death either. Yet there is nothing that is more our own than our life and the various parts of our body—but only in the sense of use, for we have not been granted dominion over them even for a moment, and therefore it is useless for us to try to define them with laws. An infant is in the hand of God and is not born until its hour of birth comes. Women labor and are concerned about the birth of an infant, and they predict its time, but there is nothing certain about it. Nor do we die, in spite of great danger and extreme desperation, except at our appointed hour. Why then do we fear death? You cannot live any longer than the Lord has prescribed, nor die any sooner. For this is also what Job says in chapter 14:5: “The days of man are determined, and the number of his months is with Thee, and Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.”

But you say: Many people die of their own initiative and rashness, and they would otherwise have lived longer; and others have hurled themselves into death alive. Could they not have saved their lives? I reply: No, God has set this hour and even this means and kind of death. Experience teaches this also. Some men receive mortal wounds and yet are easily cured and survive, while others who are lightly wounded die nevertheless. The astrologers ascribe this to the stars, others ascribe it to fortune. But Holy Scripture attributes this to God, with whom the moments of our life and of our death are fixed, to whom it does not matter whether you perish of a large wound or of a small one, so that He may confound all the wisdom and counsel of man. To Christians this is a great comfort, so that they know that death has not been placed into the power of tyrants nor into the hands of any creature and so that they are not extremely fearful about death but die like children when it pleases God. Therefore what has been said about the time of being born and of dying should be said about all the other works of man, as now follows:  (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.50-51)

But you will say: How then has man been installed as the lord over things, according to Gen. 1:26,  if he cannot have dominion over them according to his own will and use them in keeping with his own desire? The answer is: We are installed as lords over things in such a way that we are able to use them for the present, but we are not able to have dominion over them by our anxiety and effort. No one is able by his effort to accomplish anything for the future. For how can someone who is uncertain about the future determine something about the future? Therefore God wants us to make use of creatures, but freely, as He has provided them, without our prescribing the time, the manner, and the hour. These are in the hand of the Lord, so that we should not think that it is in our hands to use things as we wish if He does not give them. Therefore Ecclesiasticus says (Ecclus. 15:14): “God left man in the power of his own inclination,” but He added the commandments by which man was to regulate his inclinations and actions.

“All things have their time,” that is, a definite hour.  If a man transgresses this and wants to accomplish everything by his own counsel and effort, he will have nothing from it but vanity. Many people work to get rich but gain nothing. … So also in the present passage: everything that men wish and desire. They strive for it and desire it, but they are merely undone; because they do not hit the precise hour that they have in mind, they accomplish nothing. Therefore one should commit things to God and make use of present things, refraining from a lust for future things. If you do otherwise, you will have nothing but affliction. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.49-50)

Chapter 3:1. For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.

Here too, as has been said before, Solomon is speaking about human works, that is, about works undertaken by human counsel. Because they do not observe this, the interpreters suppose that he is speaking here about the corruption of created things.  Therefore you should understand this as follows: All human works and efforts have a certain and definite time of acting, of beginning, and of ending, beyond human control. Thus this is spoken in opposition to free will. 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. Everything comes and goes at the time that God has appointed. He proves this on the basis of examples of human works whose times lie outside the choice of man. From this he draws the conclusion that it is useless for men to be tormented by their strivings and that they do not accomplish anything, even though they were to burst, unless the proper time and the hour appointed by God has come. Here the statement in the Gospel is pertinent (John 7:30): “His hour had not yet come”; and again (John 16:21): “When a woman is in travail, she has sorrow, because her hour has come.” So the power of God comprehends all things in definite hours, so that they cannot be hindered by anyone. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.49)

Eccl. 2:26.  For to the man who pleases Him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

He proves that it is a gift of God to be content with the things that are present, for this is given to the man who pleases God with-out any preceding merits. He divides the world into the pious and the impious. In addition to other common gifts, especially wisdom and prudence, joy is conferred on the pious, because they are content with things that are present and are not vexed with thoughts and desires as the impious are. They acknowledge in joy and peace that they are intelligent and wise in administering their affairs. But the impious suffer affliction, so that they continually add more and more, heap things up, and yet are never satisfied. In addition, even if they have wisdom and skill, it is still so mixed with troubles that it becomes more of a punishment for them. They do not enjoy their labors when they till the fields or build, but others enjoy them and get happiness from them. What the impious work at and build is not used rightly by anyone except the pious. Thus what sinners heap up belongs to the pious, because only they use it with thanksgiving and joy, even when they have very little. The impious, on the other hand, for all their anxiety and trouble, do not even use it. In short, the pious truly possess the whole world, because they enjoy it with happiness and tranquility. But the impious do not possess it even when they have it. This is the vanity which the impious possess. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.47-48)

Therefore he says This also, I saw, is from the hand of God. This is a noteworthy statement and an outstanding doctrine, but he stresses it less than he did the earlier one. This is because an affirmative statement affects us less than a negative one, as, for example, even the affirmative statement “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 20:2) is quickly said but does not affect us, while there is greater force in the negative statement “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3). Thus here also he treats the affirmative statement “It is good for a man to eat, etc.” in few words; but he uses many words in the negative statement, to prove and show us our foolishness, namely, that we accomplish nothing by all our counsels and our toil, distracted as we are by anxiety so that we do not use the things that are present. To crude people it is necessary that he speak in crude and lengthy terms and with examples. To wise people he could have said it all in one word: “The Lord Himself is your God.”

Eccl. 2:25.  For who has eaten or enjoyed himself more than I?

He is citing his own experience. “For if I who achieved many things and had an abundance of good things still have not attained what I wanted, how much less will others do so if God does not grant happiness?” (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.47)

Eccl. 2:20. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun,

21. because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and industry must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22. What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun?
23. For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.

“I called a halt,” he says, “and refrained from all the anxiety about the business that goes on under the sun.” This is the voice of a wise man, who calls his heart back from anxiety to peace. “I shall be content with present things and shall do what lies at hand. I shall bear what God wills and shall not be anxious about tomorrow” (cf. Matt. 6:34)….

Eccl. 2:24. There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.

This is the principal conclusion, in fact the point, of the whole book, which he will often repeat. This is a remarkable passage, one that explains everything preceding and following it. This is how it agrees with the preceding: Those pleasures are to be condemned which we by our own counsels seek to achieve for the future, and those labors are to be condemned which we strive to carry out by our own counsels. But those pleasures and labors which God gives are good, and they are to be used for the present without anxiety about either future afflictions or future pleasures. But who is capable of such things? It is rightly said, but what is wisely set forth does not happen. Indeed, hearing we do not hear and seeing we do not see, and no one follows it. We are immersed in striving and anxiety about planning and carrying out our affairs. The heart is averse to plans, and every day it becomes more irritated and restless. Those who are pious refrain from anxiety; the rest of the human race have a restless life until they die. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.45-47)

GOOD Jesus, Word of the Father, Splendor of the Father’s glory, on Whom the angels desire to gaze; Teach me to do Thy will, that led by Thy good Spirit I may reach that blessed City where is eternal day, and One Spirit amongst all, where is certain safety, and safe eternity, and eternal peace and peaceful happiness, and happy sweetness and sweet enjoyment where Thou livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen  (Oremus, 1925, p.41-42).

Eccl. 2:18. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me;

19. and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled.

This is exactly the same sentiment as the preceding. For Solomon is abundant in his use of words and treats this subject at great length. “Thus,” he says, “I am tired of life. For even though I have carried on and administered all my affairs very well, I still do not know whether I am going to have a wise heir or a foolish one. If a wise one, he will grow weary and look for something else, since after all I myself grow tired of my own things and wish for something new. If he is a madman, he will destroy things and will have the same labor in wrecking that I had in establishing them.” As the proverb says, “One man builds and the other destroys.” Thus Octavius Caesar decorated the city, and Nero laid it waste. Pompey had collected an enormous amount of money in the public treasury, with the intention of helping the state. Caesar later confiscated it, and that money contributed more to the downfall of the state than to its welfare. “Therefore regardless of whether my heir is wise or foolish, I have labored in vain and have destroyed my life with silly cares by wanting to provide for the future instead of using the present.” Therefore he adds: (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.45)

Eccl. 2:17.  So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

That is, whatever was being done under the sun was completely displeasing to me, because it was nothing but vain labor and a source of useless trouble. This does not imply that Solomon wishes for death, but that he regards it as a misery and a calamity to deal with these matters. He intends to say: “I became sick and tired of it.” For who can bear having nothing but labor in establishing something and nothing but contempt once it has been established or done? In Scriptural phraseology, “to live” or “life” means to live well, to live in plenty. Ps. 22:29 says: “And they did not keep their soul alive,” that is, their soul did not live well, they lived a difficult and grinding life like paupers, like those who have been oppressed and who are otherwise miserable and destined for death. Such people are called in Scripture “not living.” Therefore he is not saying that he yearns for death, but he is displeased with the way of life that wearies and afflicts a man with human counsels. Therefore Solomon means that we should stand ready for death or for life, and he recalls us to the use of things in the present. We should be content with these things, without anxiety about the future, and should commit everything to God, who does indeed want to work through us but in such a way as though we were ignorant of the process. As an ox that threshes and eats does not know what he is doing and has no anxiety about food or about the success of his labor, so we also ought to do what the Lord has assigned and carry out what He has willed. Yet all these things ought to be like a crust of bread that we have on earth, so that we do not strive for the cultivation of this life by our own efforts; for that way lies perpetual disquiet, as now follows: (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.44-45)