MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 27:1
DIVINE PROPERTY
I. A possession exclusively Divine. Both the distant and the immediate future belong to God alone; not only does He possess the exclusive control of what shall be in a hundred years to come, but to-morrow, and even the next hour and minute, are exclusively His. There is, doubtless, an existence beyond time where God’s creatures can look forward to the future with more certainty than can man in his present condition, but it does not belong to even the highest archangel to say what shall be in the far-off or even the near time to come. This is the prerogative of Him alone with whom all is one eternal present.
II. A possession to which men often lay claim. If we were to hear a man making definite plans as to how he would spend a fortune which it was only probable he would possess, we should wonder at his tone of certainty, and perhaps attribute it to weakness or presumption. But we all dispose of our days, and sometimes of our months and years, long before they are ours, and while our own past experience and that of others around us admonish us of the great uncertainties that surround our future, we are prone to lay our plans as if to-morrow and many years to come were ours. It is doubtless necessary and right to forecast to a certain extent—we must look forward to what will probably or may be on the morrow, or be guilty of another form of presumption. But we are not forbidden by the wise man to do this—all that the proverb warns us against is that boastful certainty in relation to the future which so ill becomes creatures so limited in their knowledge and so straitened in their resources—that definite laying of our plans which leaves God entirely outside of them, and that confident disposal of ourselves which forgets to say, “If the Lord will we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:15). It would be foolish for a raw recruit to pretend to map out the plan of his general’s campaign, or for an unlettered peasant to prophecy what line of policy would be adopted by the prime minister of the land; but he who boasts himself of to-morrow is more foolish, and is also wicked.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
The day is said to bring forth because time travaileth with the Lord’s decrees, and in their season bringeth them forth, even as a woman with child doth her little babes. Indeed, time properly worketh not, but, because God’s works are done in time, it is said to do those things which are done therein.—Muffett.
I. This ignorance of the morrow is necessary to the prosecution of our duties on earth. Could we draw aside the veil of the future and look at the things which are coming to us, our energies would be so paralysed as to incapacitate us for the ordinary avocations of life; mercy has woven the web of concealment. II. This ignorance of to-morrow is our incentive to the preparation for the future. Christ used this argument: “Be ye, therefore, ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.”—Dr. David Thomas.
The same reason that should check our boasting of to-morrow may preserve us from desponding fears. It may be stormy weather to-day; but storms do not last all the year. We are filled and tormented with fears of some impending evil, but we often give ourselves real pain by the prospect of calamities that never were appointed to us by the providence of God.—Lawson.
How awfully has this boasting been put to shame! In the days of Noah “they married wives, and were given in marriage, until the very day when the flood came and destroyed them all.” Abner promised a kingdom, but could not ensure his life for an hour. Haman plumed himself upon the prospect of the queen’s banquet, but was hanged like a dog before night. The fool’s soul was required of him “on the very night” of his worldly projects “for many years” to come. “Serious affairs to-morrow,” was the laughing reply of Archias, warned of a conspiracy which hurried him into eternity the next hour. The infidel Gibbon calculated upon fifteen years of life, and died within a few months, at a day’s warning.—Bridges.
To count on to-morrow so as to neglect the duty of to-day is in many respects the greatest practical error among men. None have a wider range, and none are charged with more dreadful consequences. Whether the work in hand pertain to small matters or great—to the sowing of a field or the redemption of a soul—for every one who resolves deliberately not to do it, a hundred tread the same path, and suffer the same loss at last, who only postpone the work of to-day with the intention of performing it tomorrow. The proverb contains only the negative side of the precept, but it is made hollow for the very purpose of holding the positive promise in its bosom. The Old Testament sweeps away the wide-spread indurated error; the New Testament then deposits its saving truth upon the spot.… Solomon warns us to distrust the future, and Paul persuades us to accept the present hour. “Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.” “To-morrow,” is the devil’s great ally, the very Goliath in whom he trusts for victory. “Now,” is the stripling whom God sends forth against him. A great significance lies in that little word. It marks the points on which life’s battle turns. That spot is the Hougomont of Waterloo. There the victory is lost or won.… An artist solicited permission to paint a portrait of the Queen. The favour was granted—and the favour was great, for probably it would make the fortune of the man. A place was fixed, and a time. At the fixed place and time the Queen appeared; but the artist was not there—he was not ready yet. When he did arrive, a message was communicated to him that her Majesty had departed, and would not return. Such is the tale. We have no means of verifying its history, but its moral is not dependent on its truth. If it is not a history, let it serve as a parable. Translate it from the temporal into the eternal. Employ the earthly type to print a heavenly lesson.—Arnot.