20 Bible Verses About Seasons

Genesis 1:14-15

“And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.’ And it was so.”

Reflection: On the fourth day of creation God makes lights in the sky with two tasks: to separate day from night, and to mark “sacred times, and days and years.” The Hebrew for sacred times is moed, an appointed time or feast. The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon, as printed on Bible Hub, judges it most probable that it means here the sacred seasons fixed by the appearance of the moon, and notes that many lexicons read it as the seasons of the year.

Genesis 8:22

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Reflection: God speaks these words “in his heart” after Noah leaves the ark and offers burnt offerings. The verse before holds a parallel promise with a concession: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.” Verse 22 adds that seedtime and harvest, summer and winter will continue for as long as the earth endures.

Psalm 74:17

“It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.”

Reflection: Psalm 74, a maskil of Asaph, laments an enemy that “burned your sanctuary to the ground” (verse 7) and asks why God has rejected his people. In verses 12-17 the psalmist turns to what God has done from long ago: split the sea, opened springs, established the sun and moon, and made summer and winter. The next verse returns to the plea, “Remember how the enemy has mocked you, LORD.”

Psalm 104:19

“He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.”

Reflection: Psalm 104 praises God as the maker and keeper of the created world. The moon marks the seasons and the sun “knows when to go down,” and the verses that follow divide the day between the lions that hunt at night and the people who “go out to their work” when the sun rises. The word for seasons is moed, the same as in Genesis 1:14, and Brown-Driver-Briggs reads it the same way here.

Acts 14:17

“Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Reflection: At Lystra, Paul heals a man lame from birth, the crowd calls Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, and the priest of Zeus brings bulls and wreaths to the city gates so that he and the crowd can sacrifice to them. Paul and Barnabas tear their clothes and tell the crowd to turn to “the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea.” The evidence Paul gives these listeners is rain and “crops in their seasons,” food and joy.

Daniel 2:21

“He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”

Reflection: Daniel says these words in praise after the mystery of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is revealed to him in a vision at night. “He changes times and seasons” stands beside “he deposes kings and raises up others,” and the dream Daniel then interprets is about kingdoms: a head of gold for Nebuchadnezzar, followed by kingdoms of silver, bronze and iron (Daniel 2:36-40).

Acts 1:7

“He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.’”

Reflection: On the Mount of Olives, just before he is taken up, the disciples ask Jesus whether he will now restore the kingdom to Israel. He does not give them a date; the times are set by the Father’s authority. In the next verse he tells them what they will receive instead: power when the Holy Spirit comes, to be his witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot.”

Reflection: The Teacher opens a list of paired opposites that runs to verse 8, from being born and dying to war and peace. Verse 2 pairs being born and dying with planting and uprooting, and later lines include “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (verse 4). After the list comes the question “What do workers gain from their toil?” (verse 9).

Ecclesiastes 3:11

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

Reflection: Having listed the seasons of life, the Teacher says God has made everything beautiful “in its time,” and has also set eternity in the human heart, yet “no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” His conclusion in verses 12-13 is that there is nothing better than to be happy, do good, and find satisfaction in one’s toil, which is “the gift of God.”

Jeremiah 8:7

“Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.”

Reflection: The LORD, through Jeremiah, sets migrating birds beside Judah. The stork knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush keep the time of their migration, “but my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.” The verses before describe a people who “refuse to return” and pursue their own course “like a horse charging into battle.”

Proverbs 20:4

“Sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing.”

Reflection: The proverb follows the order of the farm year: a field not plowed in its season has nothing to give at harvest. The sluggard still goes to look at harvest time, and finds nothing.

James 5:7

“Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.”

Reflection: James tells believers to be patient until the Lord’s coming and points to a farmer, who cannot hurry the crop and waits for the autumn and spring rains. The next verse applies it: “You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

Galatians 6:9

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Reflection: Paul has just written, “A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7), contrasting sowing to please the flesh with sowing to please the Spirit. The harvest comes “at the proper time,” and the condition is not giving up. Verse 10 draws the practical point: “as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Psalm 1:3

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.”

Reflection: The person who delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on it “day and night” is compared to a tree beside streams of water. The tree yields its fruit “in season,” at its proper time, and its leaf does not wither. The next verse gives the contrast: “Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Reflection: These verses are the second half of a pair. The one who trusts in man is “like a bush in the wastelands” that will not see prosperity when it comes (verses 5-6). The one who trusts in the LORD still meets the hot season and “a year of drought,” but a tree whose roots reach the stream keeps its leaves and bears fruit through both.

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

“See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.”

Reflection: In this love poem, the beloved comes “leaping across the mountains” and calls the woman to come away with him. His reason is the season: winter and the rains are over, flowers appear, doves are heard, and in the next verse the fig tree forms its early fruit and the vines blossom. The invitation opens with “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me” (verse 10) and repeats it in verse 13.

Jeremiah 8:20

“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”

Reflection: This line stands in a lament where the people ask, “Is the LORD not in Zion?” (verse 19). The harvest and the summer, the seasons when food is gathered, have passed without rescue. Jeremiah answers with his own grief: “Since my people are crushed, I am crushed,” and then, “Is there no balm in Gilead?” (verses 21-22).

Habakkuk 3:17-18

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

Reflection: The closing lines of “a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet” (3:1) come after he says he will “wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us” (3:16). He imagines the failure of fig, vine, olive, field, flock and herd, each line opening with “though,” and says that even then “I will rejoice in the LORD.” The chapter ends with a note for the director of music, so the prayer was set to be sung.

Psalm 126:5-6

“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.”

Reflection: Psalm 126 is a song of ascents that remembers when the LORD “restored the fortunes of Zion” and then asks, “Restore our fortunes, LORD.” The image that follows comes from the sowing season: the sower goes out weeping with seed and comes back singing with sheaves.

Joel 2:25

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you.”

Reflection: Joel’s book opens with a locust plague in which each swarm eats what the last one left (Joel 1:4). Here the LORD promises to repay those years and calls the locusts “my great army that I sent among you.” Two verses earlier the promise is tied to the seasons: God has given “both autumn and spring rains, as before,” and the threshing floors will be filled with grain (Joel 2:23-24).