Time and Chance

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

Really? Time and chance happen to all? Is the preacher saying we are all at the mercy of fate? That we are victims of some cosmic kismet that has power and control over our present and future?

Rest assured. Nothing random happens. Ever. There is no unexpected event or crossing of stars or planets aligning that create a mystical force which influences our lives in unexpected ways.

Our course does not deviate because of unknown causes. Events do not just “happen”. If this were possible, then there would be times when God was unaware, unknowing, not in control and powerless. This cannot happen for if it did, then God would not, and could not, be God.

“The Gentile notion of “mere chance,” or “blind fate,” is never once contemplated by the writer of this book, and it would be inconsistent with his tenets of the unlimited power and activity of God.” (Albert Barnes)

Thomas Aquinas touches on the realm of God and His all-encompassing domain in his book, “Summa Contra Gentiles”. Space would allow for a complete listing of the many points Aquinas makes about God knowledge, control and in control of everything and why.

Book 2, Chapter 22

2. For, if God alone can create, then anything that can be brought into being only by creative causality must necessarily be produced by Him.

3. Now, God’s power is through itself the cause of being, and the act of being is His proper effect, as was made clear above.

7. God needs no matter, because He brings a thing into being where nothing whatever existed before; hence, His action cannot be hindered from producing its effect because of any lack of matter.

8. We therefore conclude that God’s power is not limited to some particular effect, but that He is able to do absolutely all things; in other words, He is omnipotent.

Book 2, Chapter 23

6. That God acts for an end can also be evident from the fact that the universe is not the result of chance, but is ordered to a good.

What Aquinas says above may be summed up like this. God is the creator and author of everything. As a result, nothing unexpected can happen, nothing is outside of His preview, and there is nothing unknown to God. God is the first cause of everything. There is not an effect, motion or creation in which God was not the instigator or creator of it.

“Time and chance”. We think of chance in terms of an accident. Chance is thought to be the effect of two causes inadvertently and unexpectedly intersecting and interacting with each other producing an unintended result.

But here’s the thing, although man, “knoweth not his time” (Ecclesiastes 9:12), God certainly does. In fact, “My times are in thy hand” (Psalm 31:15).

Job highlights the fact that we don’t necessarily see God or recognize His presence, but God is here none the less and involved in our daily doings.

“On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:9-10).

Job also makes clear that “times are not hidden from the Almighty” (Job 24:1). Time and chance maybe unexpected to us, but they are not for God.

We might not know or see, but God certainly does. Time and chance may appear random to us, but they are not. “Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:5).

The swift, the strong, the wise, the rich and the men of skill are the safe bets. But they are not a sure bet. Time and chance or better put, what man does not know, understand or foresee, happens to all. And sometimes this alters what we thought was to be.

God has foreknowledge and foresight. God has called each of His children down a particular path. We just have to hearken unto His voice. We do not need to know what is ahead, of what’s around the bend or over the hill. God asks us to have faith and trust in Him, to follow His lead, to lean not unto our own understanding and in all our ways to acknowledge Him. When we do, God will direct our way.

Bill Hitchcock