Posted on 07/28/2015 5:39:33 AM PDT by Gamecock
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” - Proverbs 27:1
Knowing that the Jews in exile would have a hard time believing that God was willing and able to keep His promises of restoration and return them from Babylon, Isaiah the prophet wrote to the exilic community about the character and attributes of the Lord in comparison to those of the pagan idols. In describing what set Yahweh, the covenant Lord of Israel, apart from the gods of the other nations, Isaiah emphasized God’s knowledge of the future. He is the One who declares “the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isa. 46:10). Such knowledge is confirmed by the very era in which Isaiah wrote, for he lived hundreds of years before the postexilic community, and his foreseeing what they would need to hear demonstrates for us the Creator’s full awareness of future events. Because He knows exhaustively the days yet to come, He could give the prophet the very message that the future generation of Israel would need to hear.
Understanding that God knows what is yet to come is at the same time confidence-inducing and humbling. On the one hand, we are confident that the Lord can handle anything that comes our way, for nothing that occurs can ever surprise Him. At the same time, God’s knowledge of the future should humble us. It should remind us that we do not know enough to declare with certainty what the outcome of our plans will be. We dare not boast about future success, for we do not know whether we will find it.
Proverbs 27:1 makes this essential point as it exhorts us not to boast about tomorrow. This exhortation goes against many of the actions and attitudes of human beings. Political campaigns are waged based on promises of what the future will turn out to be if a particular candidate gets elected. Doomsday scenarios related to pollution, the ascendancy of foreign powers, or other troubles are presented as unavoidable realities. Even in the Christian church, where people should know better, there is a tendency to think that we know more than we do about what lies ahead. End-time scenarios that prescribe a particular order of last-days events fill books, websites, and so forth.
As believers, we are to temper our confidence that we know what lies ahead, remembering that only God knows the future. It is good and right to plan for the days ahead, but if our plans succeed, it is not because of our wisdom or because we were certain that they would. Our plans succeed only if that success is ordained by our heavenly Father.
Coram Deo
Many times, we make plans for the future and experience an inordinate degree of sadness when they do not turn out. Disappointment when things do not turn out our way may not be completely avoidable in this life, but understanding that only God knows the future and holds it in His hands can help us put things in proper perspective when things do not work out as we had hoped. We are not to put our hope in the future but in the One who holds the future in His hands.
Passages for Further Study
Matthew 6: 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?7 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Acts 18:21 But on taking leave of them he said, “I will return to you if God wills,” and he set sail from Ephesus.
1 Corinthians 4:19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.
James 4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin
Morning All!
Good morning.
Thanks for the reminder.
Good morning and thanks!
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