As you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
– Ecclesiastes 11:5
I love this verse. It’s a sobering, humbling reminder that there are so many things in the world that are mysterious, that we don’t understand, that we don’t know. As you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, like so much mystery.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 teaches us that God’s ways are mysterious.
No matter how much science we know about what God is doing in the formation of a child in the womb, no matter how much knowledge we gain about how that amazing miraculous process takes place, there’s still a mystery to it all. And specifically not just how a body is formed, but how a spirit is formed and wed together with that body.
So the author of Ecclesiastes writes, you do not know the work of God who makes everything. I remember reading this verse specifically at a time when I was walking through challenges… Walking through trials, things that just didn’t understand why this or that was happening. And I remember reading this verse and being reminded by God through his Spirit that I don’t understand all that he is doing. And in my finite mind, I could never understand all that he is doing in my life, in others’ lives in the world around me.
But praise God. He is all-wise. He is good. And he is working all the details of my life and everything around us in the world ultimately for the good of those who love him and trust him and follow him. So the takeaway of Ecclesiastes 11:5 is to humbly remember and realize that you don’t know and will never be able to understand everything, but you can trust in the God who knows all things and who is always working all things together for the good of those who love him.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 reminds us God has perfect knowledge of all things.
And so we pray God, we praise you for your infinite knowledge. We praise you for your omniscience, for your perfect knowledge of all things. We praise you that you never learn anything and that nothing is mysterious to you. And we praise you that you are wise… You not only know all things, but you know how to work all things together in our lives and in the world around us that seems so chaotic and is so fallen in so many ways. God, we praise you for your wisdom and how you working all things together for the good of those who love you and are called according to your purpose, to draw us closer to you and more into the image of Jesus and eventually to lead us to yourself. So God, we say today, we trust in you. We place all our trust in you.
We confess there are so many things we don’t understand, but we are trusting that you see all things. You know all things, and you’re working all things together for our good. So we say we trust in you. We pray that you would help us to lead others to trust in you… To point to your wisdom and your knowledge… To encourage others today with who you are and how you can be trusted.
And God, we know this is true for us… That you’re working all things together for our good because of the salvation we have in Jesus.
Prayer for the Embera-Baudo People
God help us to lead others to salvation in Jesus so that they might know this promise in their lives. And God, we pray for people around the world who’ve never heard the good news of Jesus. For the Embera-Baudo people of Colombia, a small people group in a remote region of Colombia.
God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Embera-Baudo people that they would be reached. God, none of them know the good news of your love in Jesus. None of them know the confidence that’s found in knowing you’re working all things together for their good God. We pray, work things together to lead them to salvation. We pray to lead them to hear the gospel. God cause your church to go so that the Embera-Baudo people might be reached with the good news of your love and might know you. The God who makes everything. We pray all this according to your word in Ecclesiastes 11:5. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
