God Has Made Everything Beautiful “In Its Time”
(Ecclesiastes 3:11)
What does “its time” mean?
– Hymn #361 –
11-20-11
Solomon writes, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also he has put eternity intheir hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” Solomon writes in verses 1-7 that there is a time for things to happen. When the time comes for those things to come about, Solomon states they are beautiful at that time.
Solomon is here referring to the providence of God. We need to view God’s providence in its entire scheme. God sometimes accomplishes His providence over a period of time. His providence is accomplished by a number of events that span a number of years. These events must bear proportion to one another. So, when we look back on God’s entire scheme, when the time comes for it to be fulfilled; it is said to be beautiful in its time.
We may look at one event through God’s word concerning His plan for man’s salvation. For example, we can look at Noah and Abraham, and the stories that relate to them, and they are beautiful stories. But they are just one scheme in God’s plan for man’s redemption. But the beauty of God’s plan for man is seen, not from these individual stories, but in the overall plan shown through the years that came to an end when Christ came into the world. Gal. 4:4 states that, “...when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son…” Everything is made beautiful in its time. We can now relate to the world what God’s plan was in its entirety.
A single tree in the fall, when it changes colors is beautiful, but when seen with other trees, it is even more beautiful. This was God’s design. They are beautiful in their time, but not before. We need to view things in their end, and then we can make correct judgment of things and see the beauty of those things.
God set us a pattern for this in the creation. He views the creatures as they come into being, pronouncing they are good. After all is created and put in their frame as they will be upon the earth, he then says this is very good. When looking at the end result of his creation, God made everything very beautiful.
When we look back at God’s divine plan for man’s salvation, we understand God’s eternal purpose and how this was brought about ‘in its time’. We can now tell those who are lost about God’s great love for us and how this was shown throughout history in all the stories prior to the “fulness of time”. We can tell them about heaven and God’s desire for us to spend eternity with Him. All the stories that are recorded for us paints one beautiful picture now that the plan of redemption has come.
As Paul relates in Romans 10:15, “...how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things.” What they preached was beautiful.
C. L. Bruner