At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

The mouth of strange women is a deep pit:
He that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein

Proverbs 22:14

The beating heart of the essential sinful attitude is the conviction that somehow, some way, God is not in charge. The standard and natural assumption does try to give God His due, and acknowledges that there is this thing called the Last Judgment. Okay, we say, at the end of the whole program God will come in, break out His grade book and tell everybody how they did. He is in control at the very last, when He tells us how sinful we were being. In short, we think we control events by sinning, and then God seizes control at the very last moment by judging us for that sinning.

But there is another sense in which God’s control is much more profound than this. For example, in Romans 1, homosexual deviance is not simply a sin for which God will execute wrath. Paul goes even farther and says that the sinning itself, the rebellion itself, is an instance of the wrath of God. Because men did not honor God as God, and because they would not give Him thanks, therefore God has given them up to disgraceful passions (Rom. 1:24). This judicial action of giving them up to their passions is described as the wrath of God (Rom. 1:18). Homosexual behavior will certainly incur the wrath of God, but it must also be seen as the wrath of God.

We find something very similar here—a heterosexual version of the same thing. The mouth of a seductive woman is a deep pit, it says. But notice that it does not say that if someone falls into it, then as a consequence God will abhor them. Rather it says that if God abhors them, then as a consequence they will fall into that deep pit. An adulterer ought certainly to be concerned about the judgment God will bring down upon the adultery. People who live in that way will not inherit the kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:19-21). But it is also important for someone who has fallen into that pit to examine himself to determine what sins he was committing beforehand that brought about the judgment of adultery.  

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

The horse is prepared against the day of battle:
But safety is of the Lord.

Proverbs 21:31

When it comes to how the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man relate to one another, it doesn’t take much to get our little pea-brains to overload and blow a couple of fuses. Does God do it, or do we? Does God do 99% and then look at us to throw in our 1%? Are we to work as though it all depends on us, and then pray as though it all depends on us? This last question is closest to the truth, but we have to be careful, even here.

The relationship of God to man does not have any strict parallels. We are taught by Scripture to use analogical comparisons, but there are no exact comparisons. Remember the old joke about the test in a philosophy class—“Define the universe. Give three examples.” We are taught to compare God to a Father, but our fathers are not exactly right. We are taught to compare Him to a king, but He is much more than that. We are taught that He is a Rock, and His works are perfect, the analogy does break down.

But we don’t get to abandon the task of reasoning this way. It is mandatory. Hypocrisy is certainly present when someone is living in a way opposite to what they profess, but Jesus teaches us that it is hypocrisy to refuse to apply our knowledge of the natural world to the spiritual world. Hypocrites can discern the signs of the sky but not the signs of the times (Matt. 16:3).

And so God wants us to be prepared for the battle (Prov. 21:31). He wants us to measure our resources before undertaking the building of a tower (Luke 14:28). A prudent man thinks ahead (Prov. 14:8). Unless the Lord builds the house, the one who labors does so in vain (Ps. 127:1). If God is not guarding the city, the watchman can stay awake all he wants, and it will do no good (Ps. 127:1). Rather, we ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will go to thus and such a place, do business, and make money (Jas. 4:15). It really is true that man proposes, and God disposes.

The eye of faith is what enables us to prepare for contingencies as best we know how, knowing that this is what God expects of us, while at the same time understanding that apart from the blessing of God all our preparations are nothing but a loose bale of hay in a tornado. A cynical version of this can be seen in Woody Allen’s comment, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”

Looking for that blessing from God needs to include diligent planning on our part. The trick is to plan diligently without trusting in diligent plans. The plans themselves are worthless. As Dwight Eisenhower put it once, “plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” So as we make our plans, remember that they may or may not come to fruition. But the same moments are encompassed by God’s plans for us (Eph. 2:10), which always come to fruition. Nothing misfires.

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