THE TIME FOR WAR
by Elder Lin Brown
Eccl 3:1-8&14 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
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; 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 get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, 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 of war, and a time of peace. I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
These verses from the book of Ecclesiastes
remind all of us that man is not in control. No matter what he may want or not want, it has already been purposed by an all wise God. Who else would you want in control? Would you rather have yourself in control of your own destiny? I would certainly hope that you would not want the state to be in control. How about just blind chance; that way nobody gets any blame, things just happen? Maybe you would like to have humanity controlling your life, you know the goodness of man. Then there is always Satan, but no sane person wants Satan to control their life. Well, those are the choices. All of those, but the Lord cause me to shudder in fear. I for one can just not imagine a world with anybody or anything in control other than the Lord. I pray He will never let me be turned over to that hopeless life. No matter how bad things get, we can still rely on the fact that they are not out of control, because our all Wise and Powerful God is controlling everything to workout according to His purpose. Think how the disciples must have felt when the Lord was arrested by the Romans and then the trial and finally the crucifixion of Him who said I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life. It must have seemed like the end of the world to them. The Lord had said that His time had not come many times before the time finally came, when man could have power over Him. Now it was the time for it to happen and the unthinkable happened. It was also ordained that death could not hold the Lord and when the time came He arose. Our verses say there is a time for war. That time for our nation is now. Let us remember that there is a time of peace also. Let us pray we will live to see that time of peace come when the enemy is defeated and is no more.
