He hath made everything beautiful in its time; also he hath set the world in their heart, so that man findeth not out from the beginning to the end the work that God doeth.
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The Verse in Context
Ecclesiastes 3:11 stands at the heart of Solomon's meditation on time, where man — bound to seasons and cycles — is given a glimpse of something larger than himself, yet cannot pierce through to see God's full design. The verse holds two great truths in tension: God's making of "everything beautiful in its time," and the placing of "the world" (or "eternity") in the human heart.
Man Set in a Time-State
The Preacher shows man as a creature confined to time, yet conscious that something beyond it presses on his heart.
Concise Bible DictionaryMan is shown that he is in a time state: there is a time for everything 'under the heaven,' but only 'a time.' God made everything beautiful in its time: He has set 'the age' in man's heart. Ecc. 3:11. (The word rendered 'world' in the A.V. in this verse is olam, often translated 'ever' and 'everlasting.' Some translate 'he hath set eternity in their heart,' but the sense doubtless is that man's heart can only naturally embrace the age characterised by time.) "No man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." God is working out His own end during this time state: man lives in time, but what God does shall be for ever.
Eternity Set in the Heart, Yet Beyond Reach
There is a haunting quality to man's nature — he feels what he cannot grasp. Death stands across every path, and conscience whispers of what lies past it.
Frederick W GrantAnd God has fixed the place and time of all in this cycle of things that pass and return, among the generations which yet do not return. Eternity, too, is set in man's heart, surrounded as he is by that which is for the moment; but eternity no wisdom of his can pierce: it is the wisdom of which death is the price paid, and it cannot escape or look beyond it. Death brings down all to its level — wise and fool, and man and beast: what difference? save that the beast can fill his place for a time with no regrets and no looking ahead, and man cannot. Death he hates and dreads, and conscience forebodes judgment.
"Beautiful in Its Time" — God's Original Order
The phrase reaches back to creation itself. Whatever ruin has since followed, God's hand made all things in perfect order.
James BoydAt once, and at the word of God, everything came into being in the most perfect order and beauty: "He has made everything beautiful in its time" (Eccl. 3:11). If we find the earth at some later time of its history in a state of ruin, every man that knows God knows He never made it thus, but perfect. We can truthfully say of its waste condition, "An enemy has done this."
The Time-State as Divine Parenthesis
The "world" placed in man's heart is the present age — a parenthesis between two eternities. God uses its labour to exercise the sons of men until the moment when His mystery is finished.
MagazinesIt has been said of this time-state, that it is "a divine parenthesis in the midst of eternity." The eye of man naturally can only look at the state of things in which as a creature he is set. Hence we read, in Ecc. 3:11, "He hath set the world in their hearts," that is, this time epoch... God in His goodness uses the travail which belongs to such a state to exercise the sons of men in it; but there is a moment coming when the mystery of God, which from beginning to end He has been working out through this time-state, will be finished. "What God doeth it shall be for ever," and the words, "It is done" (Rev. 21:6), tell us that time is no more.
The Wholesome Limit of Man's Knowledge
It is good for man to be humbled by this boundary. Solomon turns from the search to a simple recipe for living: rejoice, do good, receive God's gifts, and trust the Maker.
William KellyIt is wholesome for man to feel how little he can find out from the beginning to the end the working that God works. Of Himself we can only receive what God reveals... The Preacher accordingly speaks his conviction that there is nothing better for them — nothing good in them — but to rejoice and to do good... Man should in Him trust, gifted as he is, yet in a scene altogether beyond him; and then what must the Maker be? As man, he is to receive what his nature needs, provided ungrudgingly for him to see or enjoy good in all his labour.
Summary
- Two states: Man lives bound to "a time" for everything, while God works toward an end that endures "for ever."
- Eternity in the heart: The Hebrew olam means man carries a sense of the age — even of eternity — which his natural wisdom cannot pierce, with death standing as the barrier.
- Beautiful by design: Creation came forth perfect from God's hand; ruin in the world is the enemy's work, not the Maker's.
- Divine parenthesis: The present time-state is a span God uses to exercise the sons of men, until His mystery is finished and "it is done."
- Wholesome ignorance: Not being able to trace God's work end-to-end is meant to humble man into trust — to rejoice, do good, eat, drink, and fear before Him.