◄ What Does Ecclesiastes 3:11 Mean? ►

When God created the world, it was good. Indeed, God saw that all that He had made was very good. And although we can truly say that He made everything with resplendent beauty, everything He made was fitting and just right. We read in this verse that God "has made everything appropriate in its time." God made everything suitable for purpose at its appointed time.

God's entire creation unites together in a wonderful symmetry while exercising harmony of purpose. Everything He made was timely and expedient. Everything God made was for His greater glory and justifiably demands our admiration and praise. And although man fell at the beginning, causing sin to enter the world, the Lord set eternity deep within the heart of man: "He has also set eternity in their heart." However, despite our longing for the eternal "we cannot discover all the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end." Humankind will never find out the work which God has done.

Man, who is made in the image and likeness of God, has a desire, deep within his inner being for the eternal. God created us with a yearning for the eternal; a desire to discover all the answers of time and eternity. We are born with a human restlessness deep within our mortal spirit. As one writer described it: "There is a God-shaped hole within the heart of every man," a longing for what is eternal, which Christ alone can fill.

Throughout the course of history, humanity continues its endless search for something that is beyond human knowledge. The human race marches on, seeking answers that are beyond our comprehension because our infinite, unfathomable, God has designed us with a hunger for more - a hunger that nothing but He Himself can suffice.  

Solomon, who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes, was the wisest person who ever lived, and yet he realised the works of God and the wisdom of God are beyond the limitations of the human mind for after he wrote, "God has made everything appropriate in its time He has also set eternity in their heart," he finished by acknowledging, "Yet so, man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end."

It is when we are willing to surrender to the sovereignty of God and acknowledge that He is the omniscient, all-powerful God Whose ways are past finding out, and that we are His dependent creatures, that our inner restlessness is stilled. Indeed, the more we understand that the Lord is in control, that He alone can solve the mysteries of the universe, that He is the Author and Finisher of our faith, and our future times are in His hands, that we are enabled to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not lean on our own, limited understanding or attempt to find answers from our own, inadequate imagination.

God has done all things appropriately and well, and He has set eternity in the heart of all men so that those who seek Him with all their heart will find rest for their soul in Him and receive the gift of eternal life through faith in Christ. For He has promised that whosoever will, may come.

Heavenly Father, I truly worship and praise You, that You are our great Creator Who has made everything beautiful in its time and appropriate to complete Your plans and purposes. Thank You that You made us in Your image and likeness and that in Your grace have set eternity in the hearts of all people. Help me to surrender to Your sovereign will, to establish You on the throne of my life, and to trust You to fulfil Your perfect plan and purposes in each of our lives. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.