A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to break down, and a time to build up;
Commentaire de ce verset
The Setting of the Verse
Ecclesiastes 3:3 — "a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up" — sits inside the Preacher's famous catalogue of contrasted seasons (verses 1–8). It marks man's powerlessness over the providential ordering of life, and presses him to bow before the One who alone makes everything beautiful in its time.
The Frame: Man Under a Providential System
The Preacher has just exposed how exposed and sensitive man is to sorrow. Now he turns to show that, however miserable he may be, his life is governed by a wise hand outside himself.
William KellyWhatever be the misery of man as such, and no creature under the heavens is so exposed or so sensitive to sorrow, with the awful dawning on his guilty conscience of what may and must be after death, he cannot but also perceive that he is under a system that orders providentially all that affects most nearly the changing life that now is.
Verse 3 belongs to the great list which sets this out:
William Kelly"To all is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up..."
Killing and Healing, Breaking Down and Building Up
The verse pairs two opposites that man cannot reverse or hurry. Killing and healing, tearing down and putting up, all happen in their season — and no anxious effort can shift God's appointed moment. The lesson is submission, not striving.
William KellyMan's anxious toil can alter none of the facts. God's hand arranges; man's place is to bow. Cain rebelled and gained nothing but bitter loss; and many another has taken the way of Cain with the same issue invariably, no doubt. Man likes to rule, and none the less since he is fallen, sinful, and wilful; but as creatures, none can rule aright, who does not serve One Who is over him, over all persons and all things. To fear Him is the beginning of wisdom; to forget and above all to deny Him is folly, ruinous now and evermore.
A Spiritual Application: Pulling Down Before Building Up
The same paired image of breaking down and building up reaches into gospel work. Souls must be cut down from their lofty places in this world before they can become living material for God's house — destructive tools used outside the temple to provide for what is built inside.
George DavisonThere have been famous men in our own day who, by the gospel, cut men down from their lofty places in this world, and were thus instrumental in producing spiritual material for the house of God. But Asaph goes on to say that the axes and hammers were now being used inside the temple — not outside — and the skilled work of others was being destroyed.
The principle holds at the wider level too. While the Lord is taking apart what man has corrupted, man busies himself trying to put it together again — yet the future belongs to God's restoring hand.
J. G. BellettThe Lord is breaking up in these days, and man is building up. But His ruined waste places shall sing like a garden by and bye.
The Beauty God Sets in Each Season
The Preacher's conclusion to this list (vv. 9–11) is that God has made everything beautiful in its time, and man cannot trace out His work from beginning to end. The right response to seasons of killing and healing, breaking and building, is therefore confidence and reverent fear.
William KellyThe Preacher accordingly speaks his conviction that there is nothing better for them — nothing good in them — but to rejoice and to do good; as He had shown in His work (whatever man or Satan had done to the contrary) only what is excellent and appropriate. Man should in Him confide, endowed as he is, yet in a scene altogether beyond him; and then what must the Maker be?
Looking Beyond "Under the Sun"
The Preacher writes of life under the sun, where the veil over death has not yet been lifted. The killing and healing, breaking and building of this world all stand under that shadow — and only Christ, who has brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel, lifts it.
William KellyIf man knows not with certainty, and hence is prone to vain discussion, God not only knows but has revealed fully by and in our Lord Jesus, Who brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel. If man is bad, and he surely is, God is good beyond all creature measure; and as this was always true, so it is now proved perfectly in Christ.
Summary
- Providence rules. Killing and healing, breaking down and building up are seasons God appoints; man cannot alter the facts but must bow.
- Fear of God. To fear Him is the beginning of wisdom; to deny Him is folly, ruinous now and forever.
- Gospel pattern. God uses His servants to cut souls down from their lofty places so they may become spiritual material for His house.
- Present hour. The Lord is breaking up what man is busy building up; His ruined waste places will yet sing like a garden.
- Beyond the sun. The Preacher's view is "under the sun"; full light on these seasons of life and death comes only in Christ, who brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.