Ecclesiastes 3:14 Commentary and Bible Study

There is a time for every purpose and that time is set by God. It is he who works all things according the counsel of his will. From before the creation of the world, he has formed his plan, and history has never deviated from that plan in the smallest degree, for he knows the beginning from the end and all things serve his eternal purpose. What he does therefore cannot be undone: nothing can come along afterwards to throw his plan off course. What he does is done with a perfect knowledge of the future, with all possibilities and all contingencies taken into account, so that every act of God precisely accomplishes what he intends it to accomplish. From man’s point of view, the unexpected may arise and events may go off in an unpredicted direction, but from God’s point of view the future is fixed even when it seems to hang from a thread.Man can therefore add nothing to God’s work and take nothing from it, for whatever he attempts to change has already been foreseen by God. To truly add to God’s work would involve a new act which God did not foresee. It would threaten God’s sovereign government of the world and would imply that man had broken free from the knowledge and control of God. Since therefore we always operate within God’s plan, which incorporates both good and evil acts, we should tremble before the Lord. If he permits us to do evil, it is so that he may demonstrate his justice and impose his righteous judgments on us; but if we humble ourselves before him and obey his commandments, it is because our good works have been prepared in advance by God for us to do. Man’s life is predestined whether he realises it or not and circumstances not only drive him but he cannot change those circumstances.