The Bible teaches principles in different ways. Sometimes things are explicitly stated. Other times they are implicit in the writing themselves. This is a good example:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 

a time to be born, and a time to die; 

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 

a time to kill, and a time to heal; 

a time to break down, and a time to build up; 

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; 

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose; 

a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 

a time to tear, and a time to sew; 

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 

a time to love, and a time to hate; 

a time for war, and a time for peace (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV).

Are you singing this in your head?! I know I did! I am SO glad my Bible reading plan had me read Ecclesiastes 3 today!

עֵ֥ת (time) is repeated 29 times in verses 1:8. Estes states, “The principle that lies behind the list of illustrations in 3:2–8 is that God has a plan that embraces all humans and all their actions at all times” (Handbook on the Wisdom Books and Psalms, 2005, p. 309).

No book of the Bible is more applicable to our world today than Ecclesiastes. God’s sovereignty is being missed in the midst of all the chaos that is occurring in our world. To this point Estes states, “…despite appearances, God’s activity in the world is not arbitrary or haphazard; closer inspection reveals that there is divine order within the apparent chaos of life under the sun” (p. 309).

God’s plan encompasses the most mundane areas and activities of our lives; as well as the whole gamut of human emotions. Believers need to be confident that all of life is under God’s Sovereign and Providential control, not our human control. Our response is to obey God, trusting that He will equip us and see us through.

When I take my eyes off of God and His Sovereignty, I can have a very negative outlook. When Solomon (author) says, “everything is vanity/meaningless” (Ecc 1:2) and there is “nothing under the sun” (Ecc 1:9) he is saying that without God “everything is vanity/meaningless” with “nothing new under the sun.”

Now more than ever do we need to remind ourselves that God is in control. That He knows individuals and He knows and rules over this world. We know that God’s Word brings life and yet we consistently seem to be feeding ourselves with the things of this world. I am NOT suggesting that we should not be informed! God does not call us to bury our heads in the sand! He calls us to be in this world but not of this world.

May we take time today and this weekend to meditate on how God’s Presence has worked in the mundane times of our lives.

https://bluecollartheologian.blog/2021/04/16/gods-sovereignty/

We often miss that some teachings remain behind the themes. God remains behind the trivial things of life and when it all feels pointless it all remains a part of his eternal story.