"He has made everything beautiful ('appropriate') in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
The NIV says, "yet also placed ignorance in the human heart, so that no one can fathom what God has done...." Here was my thought today: You can know God, but not, "find out the work which God has done....(NASB)." Job learned this.
Knowing Jesus Christ does not mean knowing all the answers. Many confessing Christians have difficulty with this reality. They have, or think they have by their life and talk, all answers for the unbelievers. There is no shortage of seminars, books, etc., on how to answer the questions, or less cordial, argue with your family and co-workers. Sometimes the attempts to "prove" Darwinism and "creationism" reflects an attempt to argue our text.
One thing about our text for me is that when people say, "Well, what about all those people who never heard." First: How do they know "they never heard?" Second: "....He has put eternity in their hearts...." Yes, we do evangelism and missions. But never think that when we talk with someone about "the things of God," viz., the Good News of Jesus Christ, His shed Blood, Death, and Resurrection, that we are talking with someone who "has no clue." They may act like that, but, "The Word of God," says otherwise.
Maybe one thing which can help us in today's text is that when we speak with those who are "agnostic" or even claim atheist status, we can speak with them differently, not as someone who "has no clue," but someone who, by virtue of the Living Triune God in Jesus Christ, "has eternity in their heart." This just might be the greatest "clue" ever given to man.
Father, in Jesus' Name, this passage of Your Words mean so much to me because I am one person who cannot, "fathom what [You have] done from the beginning to end." Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
