Ecclesiastes 3:1; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Psalm 104:24
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): God has made everything; as all things in creation are made by Him, for His pleasure and glory, and all well and wisely, there is a beauty in them all; so are all things in providence—He upholds all things; He governs and orders all things according to the counsel of His will. Some things are done immediately by Him, others by instruments, and some are only permitted by Him; some He does Himself, some He wills to be done by others, and some He suffers to be done; but in all there is a beauty and harmony; and all are ordered, disposed, and overruled, to answer the wisest and greatest purposes.
J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): It is too vast for our human minds to trace the Divine purposes in passing events; we can see but in part, and even that little which we do notice is seldom the cause, but merely the effect. We view the great and momentous fruit come to harvest, but see not the seed. We do not discern the connection between the smallest, seemingly insignificant event that may, in God’s infinite wisdom, in the space of two hundred years hence, bring forth a mighty fruit as a consequence. Nor can we know His perfect timings, nor His instruments, nor His methods in advance.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): We must wait with patience for the full discovery of that which to us seems intricate and perplexed, acknowledging that we “cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end,” and therefore must judge nothing before the time…Every thing is done well, as in creation, so in providence, and we shall see it when the end comes, but till then we are incompetent judges of it—but we must wait till the veil be rent, and not arraign God’s proceedings nor pretend to pass judgment on them.
J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ: And so it is in history. Only in looking back upon the vast, and infinitely complex ocean of passing events, and only at those rare times when God is pleased to lift a small corner of the veil, may we be privileged to glimpse a trace of His hidden hand, governing and guiding the affairs of men.
GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): “Put your hope in God,” Psalm 43:5. Please remember there is never a time when we cannot hope in God, whatever our need or however great our difficulty may be. Even when our situation appears to be impossible, our work is to “hope in God.” Our hope will not be in vain, and in the Lord’s own timing help will come. Oh, the hundreds, even the thousands, of times I have found this to be true in the past seventy years and four months of my life! When it seemed impossible for help to come, it did come, for God has His own unlimited resources. In ten thousand different ways, and at ten thousand different times, God’s help may come to us.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Not only the mercy, but the timing of it, is in the hands of God; therefore are we bidden, “Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for Him,” Psalm 37:7. Alas, how sadly do we fail at this point. How easily we become discouraged if our Jericho does not fall the first or second time we encompass it: “the vision is yet for an appointed time…though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come,” Habakkuk 2:3. But Oh! how impatient is the flesh.
JAMES DURHAM (1622-1658): Folks should not limit God in His way and timing of things to them, but wait upon and submit to His carved out time.
GEORGE MÜLLER: Our work is to lay our petitions before the Lord, and in childlike simplicity to pour out our hearts before Him, saying, “I do not deserve that Thou should hear me and answer my requests, but for the sake of my precious Lord Jesus; for His sake, answer my prayer. And give me grace to wait patiently until it pleases Thee to grant my petition. For I believe Thou will do it in Thine own time and way.”
STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): The timing of affairs is an eminent part of the wisdom of God.
JOHN GILL: Everything is done in the time in which He wills it shall be done, and done in the time most fit and suitable for it to be done.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): The sovereignty of God appears in the timing.
A. W. PINK: The natural world illustrates the spiritual world—as there is a continual alternation between spring and autumn, summer and winter—so there is in the history of the soul. He who gives rain and sunshine, also sends droughts and biting frosts; likewise does He grant fresh supplies of grace—and then withholds the same; and also sends grievous afflictions and sore tribulations. Herein is His high sovereignty conspicuously displayed; as there are some lands which enjoy far more sunshine than others—so some of His elect experience more of joy than sorrow. And as there are parts of the earth where there is far more cold than heat, so there are some of God’s children who are called on to suffer more of adversity—both inward and outward—than of prosperity. Unless this is clearly recognized, we shall be without the principle key which unlocks the profoundest mysteries of life.
JOHN GILL: Things in summer, winter, spring, and autumn; frost and snow in winter, and heat in summer; darkness and dews in the night, and light and brightness in the day; and so in ten thousand other things: all afflictive dispensations of Providence; times of plucking up and breaking down of weeping and mourning, of losing and casting away are all necessary, and seasonable and beautiful, in their issue and consequences: prosperity and adversity, in their turns, make a beautiful checker work, and work together for good.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): We are in autumn now, and very likely, instead of prizing the peculiar treasures of autumn, some will mournfully compare yon fading leaves to funeral sermons replete with sadness.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The fervid suns of autumn and the biting blasts of November equally tend to the production of the harvest.
C. H. SPURGEON: Some will contrast summer and autumn, and exalt one above another. Now, whoever shall claim precedence for any season shall have me for an opponent! They are all beautiful in their season, and each excels after its kind. Even thus it is wrong to compare the early zeal of the young Christian with the mature and mellow experience of the older Believer and make preferences. Each is beautiful according to its time.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): In things of nature, providence, and grace, we may well cry out, as we contemplate them—“in wisdom hast thou made them all.”
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): God’s works are well done; there is order, harmony, and beauty in them all.
