Ecclesiastes 3:11 - Meaning and Application

We have seen how many changes happen in the world, and we must not expect life here to be steadier for us than it has been for others. Solomon now shows God’s hand in all these changes. God has made every creature what it is for us, so we must always keep our eyes on him.

We must make the best of what is happening now and believe that, for the present time, it is best. We should fit ourselves to it. “He has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11), so while a thing lasts, we should make peace with it. More than that, we should find some comfort in its beauty. Everything is exactly as God has made it, and it is truly as he has planned it, not always as it seems to us. What seems unpleasant to us can still be fitting when its proper time comes. Cold fits winter as well as heat fits summer. Night, in its place, has its own dark beauty, just as day has its bright one.

There is a wonderful order in God’s providence, meaning his wise rule over all things. When his acts are seen in relation to each other, and in the times when they come, they appear very beautiful. This brings glory to God and comfort to those who trust him. Even if we do not yet see the full beauty of providence, we will see it one day, and it will be a glorious sight when God’s mystery is finished. Then everything will be seen to have been done at exactly the right time, and it will amaze all eternity (Deuteronomy 32:4; Ezekiel 1:18).

We must also wait patiently for a full understanding of what now seems tangled and hard to follow. We cannot find out God’s work from beginning to end, so we must not judge too quickly. We are to believe that God has made all things beautiful. Everything is done well, in creation as well as in providence, and we will see that clearly when the end comes. But until then, we are not fit judges of it.

While a picture is still being painted, or a house is still being built, we do not yet see its full beauty. But when the artist finishes it, everything looks very good. We see only the middle of God’s works, not their beginning, where we would see how wisely the plan was laid in God’s counsel, and not their end, where we would see the glorious result. So we must wait until the veil is lifted. We must not put God on trial or claim to pass judgment on his ways. Secret things do not belong to us.

The words, “He has set the world in their hearts,” are understood in different ways. Some take them to mean that we can know more of God’s works than we usually do. As Mr. Pemble said, God has not left himself without witness of his fair, wise, and just ordering of things. He has set it before us in the book of the world. He has also placed in human hearts a large desire, and some ability, to understand the history of nature and the course of human affairs. If people would only observe carefully, they could in many things see a wonderful order and design.

Others take the words to mean that we know less of God’s works than we might, because the world fills our hearts so much. Bishop Reynolds said that we are so taken up with thoughts and worries about worldly things, and so busy with them, that we have neither time nor spirit to look for God’s hand in them. The world has not only taken hold of the heart, it has also formed wrong ideas there against the beauty of God’s works.

We must also be content with our lot in this world and gladly accept God’s will for us. We should fit ourselves to it. There is no lasting good in earthly things. What good there is in them is described here, and we are to use it well (Ecclesiastes 3:12, 3:13). We must use these things for the good of others, for our families, neighbors, the poor, and the public good, including both civil and religious life. Why do we have our lives, abilities, and property, except to serve our generation in some way? We are wrong if we think we were born only for ourselves. Our business is to do good.

That is where the truest pleasure is found. What is used that way is best stored up and will bring the best return. Notice that this good is to be done in this life, which is short and uncertain. We have only a little time to do good, so we must make the most of it. This life is our time of testing and preparation for the life to come. A person’s life is his chance to do what will matter for eternity.

We must also use God’s gifts for our own comfort. Let us be at peace, rejoice, and enjoy the good of our work as God’s gift. In that way, we enjoy God in it, taste his love, thank him, and make him the center of our joy. We should eat and drink to his glory and serve him gladly, even when we have plenty. Since earthly things are so uncertain, it is foolish to pinch and save in a mean way, only to hoard for later. It is better to live cheerfully and usefully with what we have, and let tomorrow worry about itself. The grace and wisdom to do this are God’s gifts, and they are precious gifts that crown all his providential goodness.

We must also be fully satisfied with all the arrangements of divine providence, both in our private lives and in public matters. We should bring our minds into agreement with them, because God, in all things, does what he has appointed for us and works according to his own will. His purpose cannot be changed, and that is why wisdom tells us to accept what cannot be avoided. It must be as God wills. “I know, and everyone who knows anything about God knows, that whatever God does will last forever” (Ecclesiastes 3:14). He is of one mind, and who can turn him? His plans are never broken. He is never forced into new advice. What he has decided will come to pass, and the whole world cannot stop it or cancel it. So we should say, “Let it be as God wills,” for however hard his will may seem to our plans or our interests, his will is his wisdom.

This counsel does not need to be changed, because there is nothing wrong in it, nothing that can be improved. If we could see it all at once, we would see that it is so perfect that nothing can be added, and nothing can be taken away. There is no lack in it, and nothing unnecessary in it either. As with God’s word, so with God’s works, every one of them is perfect in its kind, and it is presumption for us to add to them or take away from them (Deuteronomy 4:2). It is therefore as much for our good as for our duty to bring our wills into agreement with God’s will.

We must also seek to answer God’s purpose in all his providences, which is, in general, to make us religious.

God does all this so that people will fear him. He wants to show them that there is a God above them, with complete authority over their lives. Their times and every event in their lives are in his hands. So they should keep their eyes fixed on him, worship and honor him, recognize him in all their ways, work carefully to please him in everything, and be afraid to offend him in anything.

God changes the way he orders events, yet his purposes never change. He does this, not to confuse us, and much less to drive us to despair, but to teach us our duty to him and lead us to do it. What God aims at in ruling the world is the support and growth of true religion among people.

Whatever changes we see or feel in this world, we must still admit the steady firmness of God’s rule. The sun rises and sets, and the moon grows and shrinks, yet both remain in their appointed course. Their movement has gone on in the same way from the beginning, according to heaven’s order. It is the same with the events of providence, God’s wise care and rule over all things (Ecclesiastes 3:15). “What has been is now.” God did not only recently start using this way of governing.

No, things have always been as changeable and uncertain as they are now, and they always will be. “What is to be has already been.” So we speak carelessly when we say, “Surely the world was never as bad as it is now,” or, “No one has ever faced such disappointments as we do,” or, “Things will never improve.” They may improve for us, and after a time of sorrow there may be a time of joy, but that joy will still be subject to the same common pattern and the same common troubles. The world, as it has been, is and will be constant in its inconstancy.

God requires what is past, that is, he repeats what he has done before and deals with us as he has usually dealt with good people. And shall the earth be left for our sake, or the rock moved from its place? No. Nothing has happened to us, and no temptation has come upon us, except what is common to people. Let us not grow proud and careless in prosperity, because God may bring back a former trouble and send it to disturb our joy (Psalm 30:7). And let us not lose heart in hardship, because God may call back old comforts, as he did for Job. We can also apply this to our own past actions and to how we have behaved under the changes that have come upon us. God will call us to account for what is past. So when we enter a new season of life, we should examine ourselves for the sins of our former season, whether it was a time of ease or a time of suffering.