An Awareness of Eternity

[GospelS]

He has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (CJB)

What is God speaking to you about this verse?

 

[Theophilus2019]

I think it means that deep down in every person there is an awareness that there is more to life than the merely material, the conviction that death is not the end, and that there is a God out there. This is one reason why mankind has never been without religion. But also that awareness is now distorted, blurred and incomplete.

 

[joymercy]

this immediately came to me:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known...

 

[Tom 1]

He has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (CJB)

What is God speaking to you about this verse?

A yearning for something that can't easily be expressed.

 

[Carl Emerson]

He has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (CJB)

What is God speaking to you about this verse?

This is a key verse for understanding the presence of God within us.

The NASB reads "He has put eternity in the heart of man that they may never know the beginning from the end." This is more accurate to the Greek text.

As I have been used in the ministry of deliverance, the following has become important to understand.

Jesus created within us all, a 'timeless space' within which only He can dwell. That is His special place in the deepest part of our being, reserved for Him alone.

A non-believer has this special, timeless place, vacant.

A believer has Jesus there in His fullness.

It is common for new believers to testify the they had a 'void' in their lives that was filled when they were born again.

As angels are created mortal beings they have no access to this timeless place. It follows nor do demons.

Once Jesus resides there, He has full authority and control as owner of your soul.

This is why Christians cannot be possessed but only oppressed - that is, they can be influenced by demon spirits but never taken over in full blown possession as a non-believer can.

The scripture is rich in meaning and has many layers of truth - much more than technical exegesis presents. Others may challenge this insight but I stand by the truth and assurance that it brings.

 

[Dave-W]

The NASB reads "He has put eternity in the heart of man that they may never know the beginning from the end." This is more accurate to the Greek text.

Ecclesiastes is in Hebrew, not Greek. (unless you are reading from the LXX)

But yes, the NASB is closer to the Hebrew. TLV renders it this way:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Moreover, He has set eternity in their heart—yet without the possibility that humankind can ever discover the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.​

 

[Dave-W]

Jesus created within us all, a 'timeless space' within which only He can dwell. That is His special place in the deepest part of our being, reserved for Him alone.

Interesting concept. I remember one of the pioneers of the Catholic Charismatic renewal back in the very early 1970s theorizing that deja vu was due to something similar, a part of us living outside of time/space.

 

[Radagast]

He has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (CJB)

Good translations of the Hebrew would be:

ESV: He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

NIV: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

It makes me think of what Job 9:8-10 says about God
... who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;
+ who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
+ who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.

And about Romans 11:33: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

 

[J Daniel]

What is God speaking to you about this verse?

I'm not God tired of trying to figure out what he wants for me or what he is saying.

 

[Radagast]

It makes me think of what Job 9:8-10 says about God
... who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;
+ who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
+ who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.

And about Romans 11:33: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

In terms of interpreting the passage, it's important to realise that Ecclesiastes 3:11 is a response to Ecclesiastes 3:1-10.

There is indeed "a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal" and all of those things fit into God's beautiful pattern, even though we cannot grasp what the pattern is.

Therefore (Matthew 6:31-33) do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

He has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (CJB)

What is God speaking to you about this verse?

I tend to see this as the God shaped hole verse. (so we'll seek God)

The way it is phrased in your translation however, speaks that eternity (with no beginning or end) was placed in people (who have beginning and end), and this is why they cannot understand.

In terms of being born again, maybe the born again person can comprehend this, since it is still within them. (but the new creation has no end)

 

[Carl Emerson]

Ecclesiastes is in Hebrew, not Greek. (unless you are reading from the LXX)

But yes, the NASB is closer to the Hebrew. TLV renders it this way:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Moreover, He has set eternity in their heart—yet without the possibility that humankind can ever discover the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.​

Dave thanks for the correction - it was Hebrew of course - sorry.

 

[DamianWarS]

I'm not God tired of trying to figure out what he wants for me or what he is saying.

ironically this is pretty much the meaning of the verse, I'm not sure if that was the intent, but it is the most honest.

 

[GospelS]

I'm not God tired of trying to figure out what he wants for me or what he is saying.

Well, i guess the verse i quoted from Ecclesiastes 3:11 answers that. We have been given this sense of longing and we will keep trying and hoping to figure out something or the other for all eternity, and still we would never be able to comprehend it all. And God wants that from us -to connect with Him, to pursue Him, to keep seeking Him, to depend on on Him, to know Him, to need Him, to keep us occupied with Him.

 

[Aabbie James]

He has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (CJB)

What is God speaking to you about this verse?

We have an innate knowledge there is something more to life than what we can see and experience in the present. We live in the here and now, God lives outside of time in eternity.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." The next seven verses list a series of contrasts: love and hate, scattering and gathering, tearing and mending, weeping and laughter.

Then comes verse 11, which begins, "He has made everything beautiful in its time." Life is comprised of opposite experiences in balance; God has appointed each to its season. Each season is to be considered as part of a whole.

Ecclesiastes 1:2 says, "Seasons come and go, but does anything in this life truly satisfy?" The answer in Ecclesiastes is, no, all is vanity.

The world is not our home. Only two possibilities exist for man following the final destruction of the world. The day of the Lord will come like a thief. (2 Peter 3:10) We can either spend eternity with the LORD in heaven, or be cast into the hell and burn forever.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The only satisfaction we can find is in God, in salvation through Christ Jesus, the redemption for all believers' sin that Christ Jesus paid on the cross; to rejoice that by faith in Christ, believing in the everlasting love of God, who sacrificed His only begotten Son, that we may spend eternity in heaven.

 

[DamianWarS]

He has given human beings an awareness of eternity; but in such a way that they can’t fully comprehend, from beginning to end, the things God does. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (CJB)

What is God speaking to you about this verse?

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay..."