- What gain has the worker from his toil?
That is, unless the appointed time, or καιρός, is here, he achieves nothing. The worker has nothing else except his own appointed time. If this does not come, he can achieve nothing. But if the appointed time is right, then he is right, too.
- I have seen the travail, which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
This is a clarification of everything that has preceded it. “In all those labors,” he says, “I have seen that men cannot achieve anything by themselves unless their appointed time is here.” But those who want to anticipate their appointed time prematurely have travail, care, and anxieties; this is intended to make them learn from their experience and to refrain from care about future things, but to use the things that are present.
- He has made everything beautiful in its time.
Now this is the second part. Those who do not expect their appointed time are afflicted, while those who do expect it are delighted. For everything that God makes or that happens through the gift of God in its appointed time is pleasant. That is to say, when the heart is empty of cares and yet something happens to it that is pleasant or some interesting sight comes along, this is very delightful. Therefore such people have pleasure where others have affliction, because they do things at the time which has been appointed by God. (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.52-53)