Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary

spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin

and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Welcome to a new week of the Daily Blade, and how about Derwin Gray from last week, huh? I mean, the dude is a straight killer. Joby and I are very, very thankful to be brothers in Christ and brothers in ministry with him. But this week, we will focus on a passage from chapter three of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. So the book of Ecclesiastes is traditionally attributed to King Solomon, the son of King David, and it was likely written in the late 10th century B.C. and Solomon wrote it towards the end of his life. So you can tell as you read it, as you read through really all of Ecclesiastes, that it seemed like Solomon is reflecting on his life and the lessons that he's learned over his life. And, you know, there were clearly some hard lessons and some that weren't so hard. But the audience was God's

covenant people, Israel. And broadly, the writing tackles subjects like the futility of life and

the folly of pursuing worldly things apart from God. And the passage that we are going to focus on

this week is from Ecclesiastes

3 verses 1 through 8. I'll read it here. 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 loose. A time to keep and a time to cast away. And a time to seek and a time to loose a time to keep and a time to cast away

and a time to tear and a time to sew and 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 so to start solomon says that for everything there is a season and a time for

every matter under heaven. So the key doctrine of what follows is God's providence. Okay. So essentially

God's sovereignty is applicable in all seasons and his involvement in the affairs of this world

never ceases. But let's key in today on

verse two, a time to be born and a time to die. So I want to emphasize this, that God is the Lord

of life and death. So the beginning of our lives are not random and the ending of our lives

are not random. Everything and everyone

lives and dies in the purview of the sovereign will of our creator. So that may seem a little

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