Ver. 1. To everything there is a season.] A set time, such as we can neither alter nor order. This is one of those keys that God carries under his own belt. (Acts 1:7) To seek, to do, or get anything before the time, is to pull apples before they are ripe, saith a father, which set the teeth on edge, and breed stomach worms. They labour in vain that would prevent the time prefixed by God, as those hasty Ephraimites in Egypt (1 Chronicles 7:22 Psalms 78:9,10) those heady Israelites in the wilderness. (Numbers 14:40) Moses would be acting the judge before his time, (Exodus 2:12) he is therefore sent to keep sheep in Midian. (Exodus 2:15) David stayed God’s leisure for the kingdom, those in Esther for deliverance—they knew that God would keep his day exactly, as he did with the Israelites in Egypt. “Even the self same day,” when the “four hundred and thirty years” foretold were expired, God’s people were thrust out of Egypt. (Exodus 12:40,41) So in Daniel 5:30. In that night was Belshazzar slain; because then exactly the “seventy years” were ended. And as God fails not his own time, so he seldom comes at ours, (Jeremiah 8:20) for he loves not to be limited. We are short breathed, short sighted, apt to antedate the promises in regard of the accomplishment. (Habakkuk 2:2) And no less apt to outstand our own markets, to let slip opportunities of grace which are ever headlong, and once past, irrecoverable. “Oh, if thou hadst known at the least in this thy day,” “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3) “Therefore shall every one that is godly seek thee in a time when thou mayest be found.” (Psalms 32:6) There is a certain time set for men to come in and be saved; as Alexander set up a taper when he besieged a town; as Tamerlane hung out first a white flag and then a red. Many a man loseth his soul, as Saul did his kingdom, by not discerning his time. Esau came too late; so did the foolish virgins. If the gale of grace be past over, the gate shut, the draw bridge taken up, there is no possibility of entrance. “Let us, therefore, fear lest a promise being left us,” and an overture made us “of entering into God’s rest, any of us should seem to fall short” υστερηκεναι, (Hebrews 4:1) or come late, a day after the fair, an hour after the feast. God, who in his eternal counsel hath appointed things to be done, hath also ordained the opportunity and time wherein each thing should be done, which to neglect is such a presumption as he usually punisheth with final hardening. (Ezekiel 24:13) Poma importuni tempore decerpunt. -Tertul.
Ver. 2. There is a time to be born, and a time to die]. We do not hear the wise man say, There is a time to live. What is more fleeting than time? yet life is not long enough to be worthy the title of time. Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in our grave. Orimur, morimur. we spring forth, we die. “ Multos ostendunt terris bona faeta, nec ultra Esse sinunt…Finisque ab origine pendet.” How many have we seen carried from the womb to the tomb; from the birth to the burial! And what a short cut hath the longest liver from the grave of the womb to the womb of the grave! Men chop into the earth before they are aware many times; like as he that walks in a field covered with snow falls suddenly into a clay pit. A time to plant, &c.] In point of good husbandry fit seasons are to be observed, or else little increase can be expected. God also, the great vinedresser, plants and plucks up more churches or particular persons at his pleasure. (Isaiah 5:1-8 Matthew 15:13) Jerusalem, that plant of renown, is now of an Eden become a Sodom, and that which Moses threatened (Deuteronomy 28:49-57) is fulfilled to the utmost. Susa in Persia signifies a lily, and was so called for the beauty and delectable sight; now it is called Valdac, of the poverty of the place. Nineveh, that great city, that once had more people within her walls than are now in some one kingdom, is at this day become a sepulture of itself, a little town of small trade, where the patriarch of the Nestorians keeps his seat at the devotion of the Turks. “ Roma diu titubans variis erroribus acta Corruet, et mundi definet esse caput.” Ab utero ab urnam. Frid. secund. Imper.
Ver. 3. A time to kill,] viz., To cut off corrupt members by the sword of justice or of war, ne pars sincera trahatur: There is a cruel mercy, saith one; There is a pious cruelty, saith another. “But cursed is he that doth the Lord’s work negligently; and cursed is he that (in a good cause, and upon a good calling) keepeth back his sword from blood.” (Jeremiah 48:10) But that soldier can never answer it before God, that striketh not more as a justice of peace than as a soldier of fortune. A time to break down, and a time to build up.] This and the rest, though every one knows to be so in common experience, yet one and the same thing (in effect) is oft repeated, that it may be once remembered—viz., that this whole world is nothing else but a mass of mutabilities; that every man, every state, everything is a planet, whose spherical revolutions are some of longer, some of shorter continuance. Omnia versantur in perpetuo ascensu et descendu, there is a perpetual ascending and descending of life and state.