“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet, so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
– Ecclesiastes 3:11
I could actually keep going, the verses after this that help us understand verse 11, but I just want us to reflect on this phrase and pray according to this phrase, that God, one, “has made everything beautiful in its time.” So, here’s the perspective of God who sees all of time, eternity past, and eternity future. He sees it all. That, in and of itself, is mind boggling and deeply encouraging.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 Helps Us Walk Through Challenges
I think about when we walk through challenges, some of us walking through challenges right now in our lives, and we don’t understand why this is happening or where this is going, to know that God sees it all, that he knows it all, that God sees things we don’t see about what has led to this point and what will come from this point.
We can trust in the God who sees all time, and sees our circumstances in the context of all of eternity, which leads to the next phrase. “He has put eternity into man’s heart.” What a picture, that God has put in all of us a sense that this world is not all there is, that there is more beyond what we see, both in the past and in the present, that lasts forever.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 Reminds Us Jesus Conquered the Enemy
And what a verse to reflect on as we prepare to celebrate Easter Sunday, to be reminded that this world, indeed, is not all there is, that sin and suffering and hurt and pain and despair, and even the meaninglessness, the struggles and toils that we experience in this world, that they will not have the last word.
Why? Because God, the Lord over time, has come to us in the person of Jesus. He has lived the life we couldn’t live. He’s died the death we deserve to die, on a cross, and he has conquered the enemy we could not conquer, death itself. He has risen from the grave. He has ascended on high, and he is bringing all who trust in him to be with him for all of eternity.
Praising God for His Sovereignty
We praise you, oh God, for your sovereignty, lordship over time itself. God, we praise you that you see all things from eternity past to eternity future. You see our lives, right now, and as part of a much bigger picture.
God, help us to realize, especially when we walk through hard times, that there’s a much bigger picture, that you have a perspective that is much bigger, greater, and wiser than ours. And so, we pray that you would help us to trust you and your timing. And Jesus, you have given us reason to trust you and your timing, through your death on the cross for us, and your resurrection from the grave.
Praise God for the Hope He Gives Us
We praise you that we have hope, that all creation, Romans 8, will one day be liberated from its present bondage to decay, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God, that we have an inheritance waiting for us in Heaven to enjoy with you for all of eternity. And so God, we pray, help us to share this good news with other people around us today, with the nations of the world, with 7,000 people groups that have not been reached with this good news.
You’ve put eternity in their hearts and the hearts of people right around us and far from us. God, we pray that you would help us, then, to point them to Jesus, to proclaim Jesus, that they might experience eternal joy, eternal satisfaction, with you, the Lord over time. We pray all these things in Jesus’ name, according to Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse 11. 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.
