D. Scott Meadows

Boast not thyself of tomorrow;
For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth (Prov 27.1).

Wisdom is, among other things, an awareness of reality, and acting consistently with it. Fools fantasize things as they wish and eventually discover by painful experience that this has been dangerous for them. “The way of transgressors is hard” (Prov 13.15). Believing you can fly from a skyscraper’s perch will not insure a soft landing. An old preacher once said, “You cannot really break God’s commandments; if you violate them, they will break you.” That is because the God who gave them is the Governor of all creation.

One conspicuous example of folly in our society is the many who attempt to foretell the outcome of future events with the confidence which rightly belongs only to divinely-inspired prophets of the Lord. They are not wise, because the future is known only to God, except as He should be pleased to reveal it to us. He alone is the almighty and omniscient Sovereign from whose eternal decree the future unfolds and who causes all to occur by His Providence, in which He governs “all His creatures, and all their actions” (Westminster Shorter Catechism, 11).

This proverb before us has two lines, and that is a typical trait of the biblical wisdom literature. Hebrew poetic parallelism is a great aid to the interpreter when the relationship between the lines is properly discerned. Here the first line is a divine prohibition; the second is a compelling reason for the prohibition. More specifically, it says, “Do not talk in a certain way, because that way would not be consistent with a certain reality you ought to recognize.”

The talk prohibited here is forecasting future events with unwarranted confidence. The reason we must not do that is that we do not know the future. To talk so is foolishly sinful because it suggests an unreality.

Don’t Boast of Tomorrow

A very literal translation of the verse from Hebrew would be, “You shall not boast about the day, for tomorrow, you know not what it will bring forth,” almost identical to the KJV rendering. A loose paraphrase says, “Don’t brag about tomorrow! Each day brings its own surprises” (CEV).

A subtlety is here implied by the word “boast” or “brag.” Wise people make forecasts for the sake of planning, but they recognize that things may turn out very differently than they expect. “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished” (Prov 22.3). This applies both to buying car insurance and trusting in Christ before Judgment Day Even ants exercise foresight for self-preservation. They furnish a good example (Prov 6.6–11). Meteorologists do good work so long as they practice forecasting humility.

When we act as if we know when we are only guessing, and brag about our future acts or other unknowable eventualities, we sin against God and our own souls. We ought to say “if the Lord will” and practice humility in our forecasting (Jas 4.13–17).

You Don’t Know What Will Happen Tomorrow

Except for things we know by revelation from the all-knowing God, we all should recognize we are agnostics about the future. We just do not know what a day may bring, whether of trial and tribulation, or of peace and prosperity. To admit our ignorance is to recognize our creatureliness and to act consistently with it. A certain knowledge of the future is characteristic of God alone (Isa 46.9–10; cf. 41.22–23). This is part of the reason that fortune-telling is so offensive to God, and such a great sin.

More than any public event in my remembrance, the election yesterday of Mr. Donald Trump as US President illustrates how unreliable merely human predictions can be. Countless fools had been jabbering endlessly about what was going to happen, and some of them went far beyond offering reasonable guesses to boasting about what could and could not happen. Almost everyone was wrong. Only about six hours before the election was called did they begin to grasp their shame.

They were either ignorant of, or forgot, this biblical proverb. They acted as if they were gods themselves, and the true God has exposed and judged them publicly. Their “prophecies” were no more reliable because they were offered by a host of commentators.

This biblical wisdom has the most practical implications for us, and faithfully applied, can spare us a world of heartache and misery.

For one thing, some suffer debilitating worry because they feel quite sure that their “tomorrow” is bound to perpetuate their woe, or even to grow progressively worse. You never know that, and to act as if you do is foolish and wrong. “Do not be anxious for tomorrow,” Jesus counsels you, “for tomorrow will be anxious for itself” (Matt 6.34 ESV). God’s anger endures but a moment. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Psa 30.5).

On the other hand, we must wisely prepare for contingencies, because however well we may be doing now, unforeseen trouble may come suddenly (Psa 30.6–8). We must practice prayer and Bible intake and resisting temptation and devoting ourselves to good works as spiritual disciplines, because, among other reasons, these will fortify us against distress later. Let us wisely plan for the worst, cheerfully hope for the best, and reverently entrust everything to the Lord. Ω