The Eternal Mystery

“yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning to the end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

Will not find out – There is a road block on the purpose driven life. It’s called “Horizon”. You and I cannot see what God is doing behind the scenes of our lives. We cannot see how God is shaping history, maneuvering events and weaving relationships. We see only the human horizon and it is severely limited. Who could have predicted today’s state of mind prior to September 11th . . . or to any significant historical event? Man is not made to know the future. Solomon says that God hides His work in mystery on purpose.

Solomon uses lo-masah, a verb about finding, seeking and attaining. According to Solomon, the future is really impenetrable to human inquiry. His words stand in opposition to all our human efforts to discover what comes next.

Why does Solomon give us this somber news? Is he saying that God doesn’t want us to be curious about the future? No, Solomon has something else in mind. He is describing the deeply held belief of the Hebrew worldview. God is the only sovereign being in existence. Only God sees the whole picture. In other words, God is the Lord of time too.

If you really believed this were true, how would it change your behavior? Would you suddenly realize that the only sure way to know what to do next must come from submission to the Lord who knows the whole picture? Would you recognize that planning, projecting, prognosticating and all the other efforts to get a handle on tomorrow are under God’s control? Would you stop making decisions on the basis of guesses and start living on the basis of God’s certainty? Would you focus on alignment with the Father today and stop worrying about tomorrow?

If God were clever, He would engineer life so that it was filled with dependent relationships. He would make sure that I couldn’t make it on my own, even with sophisticated projections of coming events. And why would He do that? Because He would know that the very best thing for me would be utter reliance on Him. After all, He knows, doesn’t He?

So, do you think God is that clever or are you still relying on the weatherman?