In the Book of Genesis 1:14, God declared the establishment of time – signs and seasons. He created the day and the night. Subsequently in the book of Genesis 8:22, God said “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall never cease”. If you consider those words; then, you will notice that God created and ordained different times and seasons on earth.
The word ‘proper’ therefore brings to mind the accurate or judicious use of times and seasons. The first obvious truth is that each time and season declared by God in the book of Genesis 8:22 is different from the other and what is expected of you in the different seasons also differs. Proper time is therefore peculiar to times and seasons: for what is right to be done in the seedtime, may not be required in the time of harvest.
The Law of Proper time therefore states that “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The undoing of many people is their disregard of seasonal responsibilities or expectations and their unconsciousness of the time they are in. Everything, surely, has its proper time – there is a season for everything. There is a time to be born, and a time to die. There is a time to eat and a time to work; there is a time to keep, there is a time to give up(or out). The understanding of what is expected of us as a person per time is what separates the great from not so-great.
“Woe to you, O Land,
when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning!
Blessed are you, O Land, when your king is the one of nobles
and your princes’ feast at the proper time- for strength and not for drunkenness”.
Ecclesiastics 10:16-17
Feasting isn’t a sin; however, there is a time for every purpose. Going into courtship or marriage now may not be wrong for you; however, you must ask, “Is now the proper time for courtship or marriage?”.
Every time you are contemplating on whether to start a project or business or not; instead of calculating the ROI (Return of Investment) alone; ask yourself the question of the proper time. There is usually a proper time for every idea, business or counsel- knowing times and seasons and their requirements will surely spare you of regrets and pain in life.
And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’
Matthew 22:1-4
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
“And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
“Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
Matthew25:1-13
