What does it mean that there is a time to be silent and a time to speak (Ecclesiastes 3:7)?

The Lord alone can give you wisdom and grace to act in the painful circumstances you describe. If you really wait on Him, He will teach you when to speak and when to keep silence. There is danger of speaking in haste of temper rather than in a spirit of love, when replying to the godless remarks of the unconverted. This is to be guarded against. Further, we must remember there is very often far more powerful testimony in solemn and dignified silence than in talking for talking's sake. But the Lord will guide the lowly dependent heart. He will tell you when to speak and when to be silent. Then, you may rest assured, the speaking and the silence will each be fruitful in its season.

Before Pilate, the Lord is again challenged as to the truth, for at once Pilate asks, "Art Thou the King of the Jews?" The Lord replies, "Thou sayest it." As one has said, "Whether it was before the high priest or before Pilate, it was the truth He confessed and for the truth He was condemned by man" (W. K.). To the accusations of the Jews, He answered nothing. In the perfection of His way, He knows when to speak and when to keep silence. For the truth He will speak, but when it is a question of meeting personal malice against Himself, He is silent. Good for us to profit by His perfect example, and follow in the steps of the One who, when He was reviled, reviled not again. There is a time when silence will produce a far greater effect upon the conscience than any word that van be uttered. Nevertheless, such silence is entirely foreign to our fallen nature. Thus, Pilate marvelled at His silence.

The first instance of guilt concerns one who, forgetting that there is a "time to be silent," forgets also that there is a "time to speak," and has failed to divulge that which he was responsible to make known. It is not unknown among the people of God that those who could have borne witness have maintained a reprehensible silence so as to shelter an evildoer. This is a serious matter, especially in relation to the things of God, for it is said of such, "If he do not give information, then he shall bear his iniquity."

The wise man tells us "there is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak" (Ecc. 3:7). Elijah had delivered his message in Ahab's court, and in due course be would speak for God to the nation and its idolatrous priests; in the meantime there was nothing to be said — the time of silence had come. The prophet's experience during his period of inactivity is as instructive to us as all his movements in public service; and we doubt not that Elijah reaped as much blessing in retirement by the brook Cherith as Moses did when he led Jethro's flock to the backside of the desert of Sinai (Ex. 3:1). Moses had been too hasty in his desire to deliver God's people Israel (Ex. 2:11-14). Doubtless during his forty years of quiet shepherd-service he learned the great lesson of dependence upon the wisdom and power of God. Forty years in God's school taught him that God has no use for fleshy energy in the carrying out of His purposes of love. Elijah had not been hasty; but, like Moses, his life was in peril. Both men must be divinely preserved for important services yet to be rendered.

Ver. 62. The Lord Jesus was always right. There is a time to speak, and a time to be silent. He knew the time. So with us there is a time to be silent when it is a question of ourselves. But there is a time when it would be treason to be silent — when it is a question of the glory of God.

The passionate or time-serving concession to unjust clamour had now passed away, and word was dispatched next morning to dismiss the abused prisoners of the day before. The jailer naturally repeated his orders, glad doubtless to release them. But Paul was now as firm in a dignified way for the vindication of the gospel, and even of the law, of which they were the unworthy administrators, as he and his companion before in uncomplaining meekness had borne their lawless violence. If there is a time to keep silent, there is a time to speak; and the Spirit alone can guide as to either, for which the word alone suffices, for it warrants both, each in its due season. Here we see the two injunctions carried out in the same transaction, and both turning to the glory of the Lord.

Next, we are told where silence is golden, both by contrast and directly: "He that despises his neighbour is void of heart." Where is his sense, where is propriety, to say nothing of the love and fear of God? It is certain that the Highest despises not any. What can a creature's state be who forgets either the body made of dust, or the soul from the inbreathing of Jehovah Elohim? Least of all does it suit Him who died to save the lost. "A man of understanding holds his peace" in such a case, unless there be a divine obligation to speak out. "He that is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter; whereas he that goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets." To receive nothing so said, and to reprove the talebearer, will soon check and put such to shame; to repeat slanderous tales is to share the guilt and the mischief.

At this point we are to be reminded afresh of the past. A retrospect is often profitable. Israel were never to forget the wilderness journey, so the different stages of it were carefully recorded, and places that we cannot now recognise are thus embalmed in the Word as of imperishable remembrance (Num. 33). Nor were commotions of created things, caused of old by the presence of Jehovah, to pass into oblivion (Ps. 114). Idols could never have made them. The presence of the true God can, and did. Both sea and land have shown it. They will be moved afresh, rejoicing at the Lord's return (96, 98); He who is Jehovah will come back in power, and He is the God of Jacob (114:7). Hence follow two Psalms (115; 116), which tell by the mouth of saints of Jacob's race who is their God, and what He has done for them. Would the nations still ask where is their God? — repeating that taunt hurled at them in past days (42:3, 10; 79:10), a taunt hard to bear, as it must have been, whilst waiting for deliverance, and when the godly one had been driven from his home. But now, as the Lord has returned to Jerusalem, the faithful can reply to it; for there is a time to suffer reproach and a time to repel it, or, as we read in Ecclesiastes, "A time to keep silence, and a time to speak" (3: 7). The time for silence is regarded as past. Now they can reply. Their God is the true God, the God of heaven, and that is His dwelling-place. The gods of the heathen were visible objects indeed, but senseless, helpless, lifeless things, unable to speak, to see, to hear, to smell, to handle anything, or to walk. Their votaries are like them.

"T." We believe the key to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, and indeed to the entire book, will be found in the expression, "under the sun." The Spirit of God has furnished us, in this interesting book, with a commentary upon all under the sun — a glowing picture of the old creation, and of man in the midst of it. "Under the sun" there is time for everything. God has set one thing over against another. If there is a birth, there is a death; if there is a smile, there is a tear; the sorrow stands over against the joy. Thus it is "under the sun." This is the law of the old creation. But look at Paul in Phil. 3. Had he "a time for everything?" No. "One thing I do," he says. And why? Because he had found his life, his sphere, and his object, "above the sun" — in that "new creation" of which Christ is the Head and the Centre, and wherein "all things are of God." We have frequently heard Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 abused in the way you allude to; but it has invariably been by those whose hearts are in this present evil world, and who are bold enough to quote Scripture in defence of their worldliness. Alas, for all such!

Let me speak to you tonight about the Saviour’s time to keep silence, and His time to speak; the sinner’s time to keep silence, and his time to speak. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the Creator of this world in which we live; “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast;” He said, “Let there be light: and there was light.” By the mere fiat of His word this world of ours was sent rolling upon its appointed course. He spake, but there was a time when the blessed Son of God had to keep silence.