What Does it Mean to Have Eternity in The Human Heart?

Ecclesiastes 3

⁹What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰I have thought about this in connection with the various kinds of work God has given people to do. ¹¹God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹²So I concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they can. ¹³And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. (Ecclesiastes 3:9-13, NLT)

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The Daily DAVEotional

In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon contemplates the meaning and purpose of work by asking the question, “what do people really get for all their hard work?”

Solomon’s answer is interesting as he states that “people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”

Basically, people are too limited in their comprehension and their perspective to fully know and understand God and His purposes.

But in his response, Solomon uses an interesting phrase to make his point about meaning and purpose. He says that God “has planted eternity in the human heart,..”

What exactly does that mean?

I think it means that God has placed within people this innate understanding that we are eternal beings and that we have been created with purpose and meaning.

Think about it. Just the fact that Solomon is able to contemplate the purpose and meaning of work, as all humans are, is something that sets us apart from animals. We may not completely understand everything around us, like the purpose and meaning of our work, but we DO understand that there is something that sets us apart and gives us meaning and value.

Don Richardson, a famous missionary and author, takes this phrase even deeper. In his book “Eternity in their Hearts”, Richardson argues that within every people group and culture, God has placed a redemptive analogy that will enable them to understand and accept the gospel more readily.

In the book, he supports his premise with many stories of how the gospel has been communicated to various peoples and tribes.

In one story, he tells about the Sawi tribe of Indonesia. They were one of only a few tribes globally that practiced both head-hunting and cannibalism.

When they were approached by missionaries and the gospel story was communicated to them, there was a very unexpected response. The Sawi actually thought that Judas was the hero.

This was because the Sawi admired the characteristic of treachery. They would often deceive people into a friendship all the while they were only fattening their future victims.

The Sawi had an interesting tradition, however, to avoid acts of treachery from being performed on them. A Sawi chief would offer his child to another chief as a “peace child.” Acts of war and aggression would be avoided in the future because to attack that tribe might result in the death of your own son.

When the missionaries learned of this tradition, they had their redemptive analogy in hand. They then re-explained the gospel message,  presenting Jesus as the ultimate Peace Child. This time, the Sawi understood and they did not look at Judas as the hero, for to betray a Peace Child was considered the ultimate offense.

With this new understanding of Jesus, it wasn’t long before the Sawi accepted Jesus as their Peace Child.

So what does it mean that God has placed eternity in the human heart? At minimum, it means that people have an inner sense that we are not finite creatures and that we have been created by someone greater than us for a greater purpose.

This inner “understanding” means that the gospel message can be explained and understood by people around the world in a way that uniquely helps them understand the person and nature of Jesus as their Creator and Savior.

Reflection

What do you think it means that God has placed eternity in the human heart?

Author Don Richardson contends that God has placed a redemptive analogy within each people group to make the gospel more readily understandable and acceptable to them. Do you agree with Richardson’s assertion? Why or why not? How do you think this view lines up with other Biblical passages?

How would you answer Solomon’s initial question – what do people really get for all their hard work? What do you think is the purpose of work?

Solomon says that even though God has placed eternity with the human heart, “people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” What do you think he means by this statement? How would you explain its meaning to someone else?

 

Photo by Chang Duong on Unsplash

Photo – Text added by Dave Lowe