As I read this verse in my reading plan one day, several thoughts ran through my head. I've spoken about it a lot. Most commonly, I've used it in apologetics to show atheists that, as bad as Hell is, it wasn't even designed for human beings.
But today, another point came to mind. At the time, I was looking into Calvinism. Calvinism is one extreme end of the predestination spectrum. It posits that man has no choice in our salvation: God has chosen ahead of time who will be saved, and by extension, God has actively decided who will go to Hell.
To many people, this seems to be a repugnant doctrine contrary to the character of God. After all, God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and wants no one to perish, preferring everyone to repent and be saved (Ezekiel 18:32; 33:11; 2 Peter 3:9). But here we see that Hell was not designed with man in mind. At least, not primarily. When God made Hell, He knew full well that many human beings would go there. Our rebellion certainly didn't take Him by surprise. Nevertheless, we see that although God knew humans would go there, Hell was specifically designed for the devil and his angels, not the devil, his angels, and the unelect.
This shows us just how merciful God is. In His sovereignty, He could save everyone, just as He could save no one. In this sense, God does, in fact, choose who will be saved. Exactly how, we do not know. That's His business, and personally I'm not going to complain about how or why He chose me. I only thank Him that He did. But the fact that Hell was designed for the devil and his angels shows that man was never specifically intended to go there.
Nevertheless, it is a fact that man does go there. A tragically large portion of our kind, in fact. Jesus even goes so far as to say that the road leading to destruction is broad, and many go in by it (Matthew 7:13). But the evidence shows that this is our choice. It is not that God designed Hell for man, or man for Hell, but that Hell was designed for the angels who rebelled, and that man, who continues in his rebellion even being given a chance to repent, a chance that was never extended to those angels (2 Peter 2:4), will be treated as those angels were.
With all of this in mind, I think it is fair to reject Calvinism. Mankind ought to fear the existence of Hell, but no man, so long as he breathes, need ever fear being chosen specifically to go to Hell. Repentance is an option, one which all men are not only free to take, but that all men everywhere are commanded to take (Acts 17:30). Those who refuse are not doing so by the will of God, but in rebellion to the will of God (Luke 7:30). In His infinite wisdom, the Lord merely respects that rejection, for His own glory. Tragic though this may be, it is far less troubling than the idea that God would dangle the offer of salvation before mankind, but intentionally deny him the ability to take it.