Eclesiastes 3

Eclesiastes 3

Meyer - “God made man in his own image; and nothing more surely attests to the greatness of our origin that those faculties of the soul which are capable of yearning for, conceiving, and enjoying the Infinite, the Immortal, and the Divine. . . . Every appetite in nature and grace has its appropriate satisfaction.” The missionary and author Don Richardson used the phrase eternity in their hearts to describe the phenomenon of redemptive analogies in most ancient cultures. Almost every culture has traditions, customs, or ways of thinking that reflect basic Biblical truth, and these can be used by missionaries to explain the gospel. This book makes for fascinating reading! Borrow Eternity in their hearts. Yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. - AMP = "yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end." NLT - "people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end." The "work which God has done" refers to His unfolding plan — in creation, history, human lives, and eternity. This includes both the large-scale purposes of God and the minute details of individual events. Even though God has put a sense of eternity in our hearts (Eccl 3:11a), He has not given us full access to His infinite plan. The phrase “will not find out” (Hebrew: לֹא יִמְצָא – lo yimtzaʾ) means we cannot grasp, discover, or comprehend the whole. From the beginning to the end refers to the total scope of God’s sovereign work — from creation to culmination, encompassing all of time, history, and human experience — past, present, and future. This time phrase refers to God’s ongoing, active role in orchestrating everything that happens in the world. This recalls Jesus' declaration that “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (And He is everything in between!).” (Rev 22:13+) As creatures in time, we only see small snapshots of God's plan, while God sees and controls the full timeline. God’s plans are perfect and purposeful, but He has chosen not to reveal the entire design to us. This revelation should leads us to faith rather than presumption, to humility rather than control. If God is sovereign, and He is, we can trust that He has everything in His hands from the beginning even to the end and can sing along with the (trusting) children "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands." This great truth reminds me of Isaiah 55:8-9 in which God says “My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." The exhortation of Scripture is always that we must trust the revelation of a Father's wisdom in areas we cannot understand. Ray Stedman on man will not find out the work which God has done - We are growing in our knowledge, but we discover that the more we know the more we know we do not know. The increase of knowledge only increases the depth of wonder and of delight. In the sovereign wisdom of God we cannot solve all mysteries. As the Apostle Paul put it, "we see through a glass darkly," (1 Corinthians 13:12KJV+); we are looking forward to the day when we shall see face-to-face. We cannot know all the answers to all the conundrums and enigmas of life. That is why the exhortation of Scripture is always that we must trust the revelation of a Father's wisdom in areas we cannot understand. Jesus said over and over that the life of faith is like that of a child. A little child in his father's arms is unaware of many things that his father has learned. But, resting in the father's arms, he is quite content to let those enigmas unfold as he grows, trusting in the wisdom of his father. That is the life of faith, and that is what we are to do in our experience. We are not able to discern any plan or pattern to all of this. God's purposes are outside our realm of control or investigation Duane Garrett on man will not find out the work which God has done means "we cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end. That is, we are not able to discern any plan or pattern to all of this. God's purposes are outside our realm of control or investigation. We thus have a sense of alienation and bewilderment in time." (See Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs - Volume 14 - Page 299) David Guzik on man will not find out the work which God has done - Though God has given man a longing for and awareness of eternity, God has not revealed very much about His eternal work. This keeps the yearning for eternity alive in the heart of man as a yet-to-be-fulfilled longing. John Stevenson - What does it mean that God has set eternity in our heart? It means that God has given to us a sense of eternity - a sense of thinking of and imagining life beyond our own short lives. It also means that man desires this eternal life. It means that man has a desire to understand God's entire program. This is why man has pursued science and philosophy as well as theology. We have been gifted with a desire to understand all of creation. It also means that man has a hunger for God Himself. "Our Heavenly Father has provided many delightful inns for us along our journey, but he takes great care to see that we do not mistake any of them for home." (C.S. Lewis). There is a longing for home - a call deep in the human spirit for more than life can provide. This itch which we cannot scratch is part of God's plan. 🙏 THOUGHT - Ecclesiastes 3:11 teaches that God rules all time with wisdom, places a longing for eternity in our hearts, and calls us to live humbly within the mystery of His greater purpose. How can we apply the beautiful, mysterious truth to our lives? Let me suggest three approaches: (1) Trust in God’s timing — even when life seems chaotic, His plan is unfolding (that's like "Ripley's Believe it or Not.") and build this trust by staying in His Word daily and allowint His Word to transform your thinking and grow your faith (Ro 10:17+) (2) Embrace mystery — not everything is meant to be figured out so don’t demand full answers; walk by faith, not by sight (2Co 5:7+); (3) Live for eternity — your soul was made for more than this moment. Cultivate values that transcend time. Above all Redeem the Time you have because is precious and is all the time you will ever have. Read Redeem the Time. Everything (always, entire, every, everyone, etc) (03605) kōl is a particle used almost 5000 times in the OT and conveys the meanings each, every, all, everything, the whole, entire. The root kalal from which kol is derived means to be complete or whole. Kol can be used alone, meaning "the entirety," "whole," or "all," as in: "you shall put all these (WHAT? Ex 29:23) in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons" (Ex. 29:24+). "Kōl can signify everything in a given unit whose members have been selected from others of their kind: "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose" (Ge 6:2+)." (Vine) John Oswalt in the Theological Wordbook of the OT (page 440) writes kol means "every, any, whole, none. A very common particle, occurring about 5400 times. Of these all but about 800 are in a genitive relation with the following word, signifying thus, "the whole of something." It is commonly translated "all" if the following word is plural, and "every" if the word is singular and without the article. It can also have a suffix attached to it: "the whole of it, all of it." This particular formation may then follow a given noun, stressing the aspect of totality (2 Samuel 2:9). It can also be used in this way with the noun understood, as does Isaiah when he expressed the corruption of the entire people by saying, "All of it loves a bribe" (Isaiah 1:23; cf. also Isaiah 9:17 [H 16]). In some contexts it denotes "all kinds of," "of all sorts." Thus Eliezer took with him "all of the good thing of his master" i e. "a great variety of good things" (Genesis 24:10; cf. Leviticus 19:23). Kōl can also stand by itself, or absolutely, to express "everything." The sense in which "all" is to be taken must be gathered from the context (cf. Jeremiah 9:3). When used with the article it refers to something just mentioned (Leviticus 1:9; etc.), or, in a wider sense, to the whole of creation. Such passages as Psalm 103:19; Psalm 145:9 and Jeremiah 51:19 use this construction when expressing the idea of God's lordship over all things. Appropriate (beautiful) (03303) yapheh is an adjective meaning lovely, beautiful, describing beauty of women (Ge 12:11, 14, 2Sa 13:1, Esther 2:7). Good looking or handsome men (2Sa 14:25). Jerusalem was described as "beautiful in elevation." Note that 11/38 uses of yapheh are in the Song of Solomon = Song 1:8, 15, 16; 2:10, 13; 4:1, 7; 5:9; 6:1, 4, 10. Yapheh can describe a beautiful voice (Ezek 33:32). Lxx translates yapheh in Eccl 3:11 with the Greek adjective kalos which describes that which is inherently excellent or intrinsically good, providing some special or superior benefit. Kalos is good with emphasis on that which is beautiful, handsome, excellent, surpassing, precious, commendable, admirable. In classical Greek kalos was originally used to describe that which outwardly beautiful. Other secular uses of kalos referred to the usefulness of something such as a fair haven, a fair wind or that which was auspicious such as sacrifices. YAPHEH - 38V - appropriate(1), beautiful(28), beautiful one(2), fair(1), fitting(1), handsome(4), sleek(3). Gen. 12:11; Gen. 12:14; Gen. 29:17; Gen. 39:6; Gen. 41:2; Gen. 41:4; Gen. 41:18; Deut. 21:11; 1 Sam. 16:12; 1 Sam. 17:42; 1 Sam. 25:3; 2 Sam. 13:1; 2 Sam. 14:25; 2 Sam. 14:27; 1 Ki. 1:3; 1 Ki. 1:4; Est. 2:7; Job 42:15; Ps. 48:2; Prov. 11:22; Eccl. 3:11; Eccl. 5:18; Cant. 1:8; Cant. 1:15; Cant. 1:16; Cant. 2:10; Cant. 2:13; Cant. 4:1; Cant. 4:7; Cant. 5:9; Cant. 6:1; Cant. 6:4; Cant. 6:10; Jer. 11:16; Ezek. 31:3; Ezek. 31:9; Ezek. 33:32; Amos 8:13 F B Meyer - He hath set eternity in their heart. - Ecclesiastes 3:11- Our Daily Homily The Preacher has been enumerating the various extremes and alternatives of existence, and the natural conclusion might seem to be that since each neutralizes the other, it might be as well for a man to do nothing at all. But a deeper thought is suggested. Man is greater than the changes around him; he has eternity in his heart, and therefore all the varied circumstances of human life resemble the wheels of some great machine, the cogs of which turn in different directions, but the effect is a forward motion, and the manufacture of a fabric that will outlive the machinery that made it. We are greater than circum stance, or change, or things. We have the capacity for the Eternal and Infinite. As the sea-shell sighs for the ocean, so our hearts cry out, though sometimes inarticulately, for God, for the living God. Christ said that foxes have holes and the birds their nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head; and this is true in another sense. The noblest men are those least able to rest anywhere short of God. God made man in his own image; and nothing more surely attests the greatness of our origin than those faculties of the soul which are capable of yearning for, conceiving, and enjoying the Infinite, the Immortal, and the Divine. And every appetite in nature and grace has its appropriate satisfaction. Let us come to Him who has the words of eternal life, who is Himself the Bread that endureth unto eternal life. He that cometh to Him shall never hunger; he that believeth in Him shall never thirst. “Here would we end our quest; Alone are found in Thee The life of perfect bliss — the rest Of immortality.” J R Miller - When men travel in stage coaches in grand mountain countries, some ride in the inside with the curtains fastened down. They see nothing of the beauty of the scenes through which they pass. Others ride outside, and see every grand thing by the way. This illustrates the way different persons go through God’s world. Many pass through shut up inside a dark, dismal coach, with all the curtains drawn tight, themselves shut in, and all of God’s joy and beauty shut out; others ride outside, and catch a glimpse of every fair and lovely thing by the way. They breathe the fresh air, hear the joyous songs of the birds, see the fields, brooks, rivers, mountains and skies, and quaff delight everywhere. Phillips Brooks - Everything in the world must be in its true place and time, or it is not beautiful.… You lay your own stumbling-block in your own way. God made the block indeed, but He made it for a part of the strength and beauty of the walls. It was you who dragged it down to the floor and insisted upon laying it where you could stumble over it. Ray Pritchard - - Something New Under the Sun A GOD-SHAPED VACUUM He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 Ecclesiastes 3:11 contains good news and bad news. The good news is that everything has a purpose in God's plan. The bad news is that no one can figure out the good news, that is, what the actual purpose is. To make matter worse—from a human perspective—God has put "eternity" inside every human heart. That means there is something inside each of us that yearns to understand what life is all about. Commentator James