Ecclesiastes 3:14

My Notes

What Does Ecclesiastes 3:14 Mean?

"I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." Solomon declares three certainties about God's work: it's permanent (forever), it's complete (nothing can be added or removed), and it's purposeful (it produces reverence). The work of God is untouchable by human modification. What God does, STAYS done.

The phrase "it shall be for ever" (hu yihyeh le'olam — it will be forever) contrasts divine permanence with human transience: everything Solomon has observed about human life is temporary (season after season, generation after generation). But God's work is PERMANENT. The impermanence that characterizes everything under the sun does not characterize what God does.

The "nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it" (eyn lehosif alav ume'in ligro'a mimmennu) declares divine work as complete and sealed: you can't improve it (nothing added) and you can't diminish it (nothing removed). Human efforts to modify God's work fail in both directions. You can't enhance what God made perfect. You can't reduce what God made permanent.

Reflection Questions

• 1.What work of God in your life is permanent and unchangeable — and does it produce awe?
• 2.How does God's permanent work contrast with the impermanence of everything 'under the sun'?
• 3.What does 'nothing can be added or taken' teach about the completeness of divine action?
• 4.How does the inability to modify God's work produce reverence rather than frustration?

Devotional

What God does lasts forever. You can't add to it. You can't take from it. And God does it this way so that people will FEAR Him. The permanence of God's work is deliberate — designed to produce awe in the people who observe it.

The 'for ever' is the contrast with everything else in Ecclesiastes: Solomon has spent chapters observing impermanence — seasons change, generations pass, nothing new under the sun. But HERE, he finds permanence: what GOD does. The divine work is the exception to the universal rule of transience. Everything human is temporary. Everything divine is forever. The one permanent thing in a world of impermanence is what God has done.

The 'nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it' makes God's work tamper-proof: you can't improve it (it's already complete) and you can't diminish it (it's already sealed). Human beings who constantly modify, upgrade, revise, and edit their own work cannot touch God's. The divine work is finished in a way that human work never is. The completeness itself is a rebuke to human restlessness.

The 'God doeth it, that men should fear before him' reveals the PURPOSE of the permanence: the unmodifiable nature of God's work is designed to produce reverence. When you encounter something you can't change — something permanent, complete, and sealed — the appropriate response is awe. The fear before God is the natural response to work that nothing can alter.

What work of God in your life is permanent, complete, and unchangeable — and does it produce fear/awe in you?

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture