Also he has given the world into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
This is a confirmation of the preceding. “Although God has given the world into the hearts of men,” he says, “they still cannot govern it by their own counsels.” “To give into the heart” or “to speak into the heart” is a Hebraism for giving or speaking in a sweet and flattering way. He wants to say: God not only gives the world into the hand of men, so that they can use the things that are present, but also into their heart, so that they can use them joyfully and with pleasure and so that they have fun and delight from it. Nevertheless, man cannot know what the beginning or the end of the work is, when or for how long he is to have these things. Therefore man should be content that he has the world for his use. Paul speaks in similar terms in Acts 14:17: “Yet He did not leave Himself without witness, for He did good and gave from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with food and gladness.” And elsewhere (1 Tim. 6:17): “Who richly furnishes everything.” This happiness the Christian has, and everyone else would have it also if he could be content with the things that are present. St. Jerome says correctly in his preface to the Bible: “The believer has a world of riches, but the unbeliever does not have a penny; as the proverb says, ‘the miser lacks not only what he does not have but also what he does have.’” (Luther’s Works, v.15 p.53)