Image: "Firm Reference For Navigation," 2009, Battery Point Lighthouse. Photographer: Stephen Van Devender
Proverbs 16:4 The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.
Proverbs 17:3 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests the hearts.
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I came of age attending a small Methodist church in Glendale (unincorporated), Ms. My pastor, Bro. Ernest Swartz, was very important to me during the very tough teenage years and probably did more than anyone else to keep me from going crazy. So, I have a great affection for the old Wesleyan Evangelicalism of that day. I still honor Wesley for his contributions and insistence on "heart knowledge that leads to servant obedience."
However my constant text was an old, now dilapidated, Scofield Bible. I was one of those bible-thumping, rapture hoping, revival loving young men who snarled at any idea of actual "predestination" or "election." The idea of God's sovereign decree governing "what so ever comes to pass" made no sense to me. What I learned much later in life was that the real reason those things didn't make sense to me had far more to do with my pride and argumentative spirit than it did with what was actually taught by the King James verses themselves rather than Scofield's notes in my Bible. It was not an easy thing for me to embrace. It came down to the dawning realization that the overwhelming evidence in Scripture pointed toward the sovereignty of God being the controlling factor in all of history. Not every verse is as easy nor as clear as others, but the inclusive testimony of Scripture, as I understand it, is that the Reformed insistence on God's sovereignty in election and predestination is essential to its Gospel proclamation.
But... I still recognize that it is a truth not easily loved... at first. I came to love it when I repented of my pride and gave myself over to it, but not before.
Proverbs 16 today, along with multitudes of other scriptures, illustrate the Scriptures' clear teaching and also how, for many, it is not easily loved.
Take for example: Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD. Now substitute "dice" for "lot" in order to fit modern vocabulary and we see that there is nothing that is truly "chance." God controls every throw of the dice even though it is man who tosses it. There is not one truly random event in all of nature nor in all of history. That makes God one BIG God. Everything that happens in this world, including those things that flow from the "free" will of man, are not only foreknown by God but determined by Him. That takes some attitude adjustment on our part.
This last point is fully expressed in Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. Here we have a significant mystery... that is it is a mystery to us but not to God. A man's "heart" empowers and formulates his "plans." In other words, each person chooses how they are going to go about life and what things they are going to accomplish. But here we see the mysterious power of God surrounding the man such that the man's life is directed along the paths God has laid out for him. At no point along that journey was the man doing things against his will. Rather, at each point as the individual had to adjust to circumstances, he choose to act, do or say as God had decreed that He so do. Thus man's free will and God's sovereignty was fully present. Each decision that the individual made flowed from his "heart", that is, his human nature. Confronted with the truth of God manifested in the free offer of the Gospel of Christ, a man who has not been given a new heart to love God will act and choose as his old fallen heart dictates. He will not choose God, nor, until he is born again, can he. Thus his will is free to act and choose as his heart dictates. A changed heart will act one way, an unchanged heart will act differently. That which ties it altogether is the sovereign power of God. Only He can change a heart.
This then brings Proverbs 17:3 The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the LORD tests the hearts. into play. The progress of our individual history, governed by God, is a journey of "testing", of being put into God's refining furnace, such that the end result is that the nature of our heart will be revealed. Judgment starts in this life. Our daily walk determines the testimony of our lives and bears witness to the state of our heart. Whether we are dominated by a heart of essential evil or whether we have submissive hearts of flesh that love God and His laws, will be clearly established by the conduct of our lives. God will so determine our steps that the final verdict on each of us will be undeniably clear. We will have no excuse for our sin... we will have no claim on eternal reward except by grace.
Thus we see in Proverbs 16:4 The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom. that all of history is unto the end of God's sovereign intent to glorify Himself in His Grace and in His Judgment. Both are related to each other. God is glorified in both and both are necessary to the fullness of His manifested glory. If we love the Lord and our desire is that He glorify Himself then we begin to love these things. When we embrace the truth that He is in charge... of all things... then we can rest in His purposes.
He is an amazing, electing, pre-destinating God... and He is worthy to be loved as such.
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