Category Archives: Mankind

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 15

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Confusion from not WANTING to believe it!

The kingdom of the saints will last forever

Scripture does say that the kingdom of the saints will last forever. That is not really an idea to contest, unless you have a very distorted view of the Bible or of prophecy. When God was promising a kingdom to David’s Son Jesus the Christ, it was said that,

“Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before you: your throne shall be established forever.”
2Sam 7:16

We are now translated into this kingdom, past tense.

“who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;”
Col 1:13

Heb 1:5 quotes 2 Samuel 7 as being about Jesus! Further, Hebrews says that we are Jesus “house.”

“but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house; whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the end.”
Heb 3:6

And Revelation talks of Jesus already being on His throne.

“He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
Rev 3:21

And that throne is forever, per Daniel 2 and many, many verses.

But the beast “conquers” the kingdom?

Huh? What? It is amazing the number of verses which we gloss over and fail to get the messages we desperately need.

There is someone called the “beast” in Revelation 13, and the “man of lawlessness,” in 2Thessalonians 2, and the foolish shepherd, or the idol shepherd in Zechariah 11, and it does indicate that for a while, it does look like, he has had the final victory over the saints, the house of God, the kingdom of God. The entire world will worship this man.

“that they all might be judged who didn’t believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
2Thes 2:12

It says the same thing in Rev 13:4-5. Further it says,

“It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him.”
Rev 13:7

No it couldn’t be, I have heard it argued. NO ONE can overcome the church, so they said, and they rejected the clear meaning of Revelation 13.

Of course ultimately, the church will NOT be overcome.

The beast thinks he has won, but it is only for a short 3-1/2 years. Then at the last the faithful saints are delivered and the beast is thrown alive into hell, Revelation 19. Still the Savior says,

“… Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Lk 18:8

In other words, even our Lord questions whether there will be any faithful at the end.

Our incomplete understanding of Scripture sometimes prevents us
from seeing God’s warning to us.

We should always remember that Scripture is NOT a pick and choose buffet, but that it is all true. The challenge is to see how all the parts fit together.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 13

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Misunderstandings can cause confusion.

Now saints and the holy ones are a big subject in Scripture. The main Hebrew word is qodesh. It has the idea of setting something apart, dedicating it to a special service, or work. It can refer to special day that is set aside, as the Sabbath day, Ex 20:8. It can refer to a spirit, the living God, of whom it is said,

“Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders? ”
Ex 15:11 WEB

It can refer to an assembly for a holy purpose (Ex 12:16), or a holy place (Ex 3:5), or even a holy nation, the people of God (Ex 19:6). It is the Old Testament word for the saints, those purified by the Lord,

“As for the saints who are in the earth,
They are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.”
Psa 16:3 WEB

And there is the phrase “holy ones.”

It might refer to a place or a thing that is holy, or even a person or an angel that is holy. The New Testament word is hagios, and it has the same range of meanings.

And certain beings come with God, both in history,
and at the Second Coming.

It is clearly angels which are spoken of iater times.

“ …Yahweh came from Sinai, …
He came from the ten thousands of holy ones:”
Deut 33:2 WEB

It is clearly not talking about men. There are “holy angels,” and one appeared to Cornelius in Acts 10:22.

But who does Jesus come with at the end of our age?

And there are some startling passages.

“… Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, ”
Jude 14 KJV

The Lord is coming with His “saints”? How does this come to be? When Paul discusses this he says that those who are alive will arise to meet Jesus in the air, 1Thes 4:17, preceded by the resurrected saints of old, 1Thes 4:16. But in Jude 14 KJV it has Jesus coming with saints! What is going on here? How can this be? I never stopped to study it out as a young man, but this greatly mystified me.

Qodesh or hagios can mean EITHER a holy person
(a saint), OR a holy angel, OR
a holy thing or place.

The phrase is often just the word “holy” by itself, with the context left to determine if it is a holy thing, or person, or angel. Sometimes translations simply say “holy ones,” as many translations have it Jude 14.

So who does Jesus come with at the end?

He comes with his holy angels, and can be easily proved from verse after verse.

“… the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Mk 8:38 WEB

And when Jesus comes again He will send out his angels to gather His elect, Mtt 24:31. When even some translators confuse the issues, it can muddle the thinking of many.

KJV is the King James Version, 1611.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 12

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Trying to make the Word justify what we already
believe or are doing.

Let’s face it. Sometimes we may have an agenda. Even the most sophisticated of students may do this at times, including preachers and politicians, and world renown scholars. As human beings we often seem to be a self justifying breed. We may have already taken a stand, a perhaps ill advised one, that we never should have made. Now we want to justify that stand, and even deny the truth if that is “necessary” to uphold “our” word.

Adam did this in the Garden of Eden.

They were living in a garden. The Hebrew word in Genesis is gan. It seems to imply an enclosed place. The Greek equivalent is paradeisos, a paradise is a transliteration in English, a word for a garden or a park. They were very innocent, our first ancestors. They were naked but did not realize it. Further the constant temperatures in the garden were such that the absence of clothing was not noticed. God Himself had “planted” it, Gen 2:8. It was watered, like the whole earth in those early and plentiful days, by a mist arising from the ground (Gen 2:6), and also by a river which then split into four rivers, the best known to us Westerners being the Euphrates river (Gen 2:14). So all of this occurred in what is now northwestern Iraq or eastern Turkey. Food seemingly was there for the taking, and although man did have to tend it (Gen 2:15), man’s work was not cursed as it is now. Entropy. A perfect set up.

Some think that all knowledge is good.

They think it is shameful to destroy any knowledge, but knowing somethings can just be a snare to us, to cause us to do what is wrong. And so came the fall, when first the woman and then the man ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You know the story. And so it has been.

When God questioned Adam,

he tried even to shift the blame back to God!

“The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.””
Gen 3:12

How very much like us as humans.

Remember that admitting the truth will NEVER commit
your grandparents, for instance, to hell.

You do not have that power, nor do I. We need to take hold of the truth no matter what, and leave judgment to God. The Solution is to be ready to believe WHATEVER is said, and hold to it, and further,

being willing to admit WHATEVER
proves to be wrong.

Just go ahead and admit it, and accept the consequences, and beg the Lord for mercy. There is no sin that is unforgivable, other than bad mouthing the Holy Spirit of God (Lk 12:10). Make your life one of continual learning, repenting, picking yourself up again, forgetting what is behind (Phil 3:13-14), and always trekking on.

As men, we cannot avoid being wrong at times, but we can avoid staying there.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 11

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We have False Expectations about what will happen,
or what God will do.

Such things are all over the map, depending on what your particular beliefs are. Quite often our personal beliefs about God and the Bible are not really from Scripture but from popular summaries or narratives about Scripture. Even among Christians these things are often so. Or to put it another way, our faith is often in the doctrines and commandments of men (compare Mtt 15:9). Our faith is often not genuine Biblical faith. We are often NOT like the noble Bereans (Acts 17:11), we are not searching the Scriptures to see if these things are so. Often we need to not merely confirm what an individual verse says, but also need to see how the impressions we initially receive fit with the rest of Scripture.

Sometimes we are merely unnecessarily dogmatic about what God does or doesn’t do, without really searching for possible exceptions from what we might read in one place.

These sorts of things can dumb us down in our reactions to what we hear.

The Sadducees had a “this is all about this
present world” view of Scripture.

“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these.”
Acts 23:8

That means they had an tremendous amount of Scripture to explain away or to deny it authenticity. These were very dark lenses through which they were reading the Bible. Hopefully you and I are not making such gross mistakes in perspective, but still, even without realizing it, we may almost unconsciously put on light blocking shades when we read certain passages, or study certain subjects, and these things often make it hard for us to see certain Bible subjects clearly.

The Sadducees approached Jesus with a question
about eternity in Matthew 22.

Seven men had at one time or another married one particular woman, but none of them had a child by the woman. One by one they all died, and lastly the woman died (Mtt 22:23-27). Then they at last sprang what they thought was a foolproof trap to show the absurdity of believing in a resurrection from the dead.

“In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”
Mtt 22:28

Jesus said they were “mistaken, not knowing the
Scriptures, nor the power of God.” Mtt 22:29

Although they probably read the Scriptures everyday, they were so blinded by their own overviews of Scripture that they came to not really know the Scriptures. Their strange glasses distorted everything that they read in the Bible.

And they did not know or understand the power of God. If an almighty God can take mere dirt and turn it into something as complex as a human being, how small a thing would it be for Him to raise them from death? He went on to say that in the resurrection people neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven, Mtt 22:30.

We need to really listen to whatever God says,

and not push our own expectations off on God.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Common Pitfalls in Interpretation, Part 9

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Walking in the Dark

The opposite of being alert and watchful is being in the dark, either mentally or spiritually.

“5 You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, 6 so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep in the night, and those who are drunken are drunken in the night.”
1Thes 5:5-7 WEB

If you are in the dark, you won’t see what you need to see.

“Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the darkness doesn’t know where he is going.”
Jn 12:35 WEB

Sin, doing what is wrong, blinds us,
hobbles us, changes how we see things.

“You shall not twist justice: you shall not respect persons; neither shall you take a bribe; for a bribe does blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.”
Deut 16:19 nf

You don’t have to be ignorant or ruined for wrong things to affect you, and to affect your judgment! You can be wise and righteous, and these things can affect you. We can be very sophisticated and learned people and end up darkened in our sins.

“Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding. ”
Hos 4:11 WEB

Rejecting the commandments puts
blinders on us.

The commandments do test us and sort us out. When we hesitate and halt at doing what God says, it places limits on what we can see and comprehend and experience in those directions. Sometimes it is simple things of mercy and compassion for others that we reject, so we end up going around in mental and spiritual circles which lead nowhere.

“But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
1Jn 2:11 WEB

In their distorted logic on oaths, Jesus said to the leaders of the scribes and Pharisees,

“You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?”
Mtt 23:17 WEB

Satan will deliberately blind us if we will let him.

“in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.”
2Cor 4:4 WEB

Jesus can give us relief from our darkness

“ Again, therefore, Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.” ”
Jn 8:12 WEB

But sometimes we know our deeds are evil,
so we don’t want the light.

“This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.”
Jn 3:19 WEB

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

nf is my own translation based on the WEB.

Not everyone has Protection. Even from Covid-19.

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There is protection from overwhelming temptation.

“No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
1Cor 10:13

However you can lose that protection, so Paul says,

“Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;”
Rom 1:24

You can have protection and lose it, and be turned over to your sins. So how should we think about these things? If we need protection, we should ask for it, however,

First, if you ask, not believing, you won’t get it!

“6 But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. 7 For let that man not think that he will receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
Jas 1:6-8

Also at times all of us need correction.

Hard things may come to wake us up, to make us whole at last.

“It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline?”
Heb 12:7

Plainly we can throw away God’s protection!

In Abram’s day, the sins of the Canaanites were still being tolerated by the Lord. Only later would their land be given to others, Gen 15:16. Later Joshua argued with Israel.

“8 If Yahweh delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; … 9 … for they are bread for us: their defense is removed from over them, and Yahweh is with us: don’t fear them.”
Num 14:8-9

Further, if God does not protect us, everything
else is for nothing.

“1 Unless Yahweh builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it.
Unless Yahweh watches over the city,
The watchman guards it in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early,
To stay up late, Eating the bread of toil;
For he gives sleep to his loved ones.”
Psa 127:1-2

And when the righteous are protected
in Psalm 91, who is it that dies?

“7 A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it will not come near you.
8 You will only look with your eyes,
And see the recompense of the wicked. ”
Psa 91:7-8

Or what would happen if the Jews abandoned God?

“20 Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, … because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. 21 Yahweh will make the pestilence cleave to you, until he have consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.”
Deut 28:20-21

“Pestilence”! Like a corona-virus!

Ah! We can indeed lose our protection!

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

You Cannot Die by “Accident.” Even from Covid-19!

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The prophet David says.

“5 I laid myself down and slept.
I awakened; for Yahweh sustains me.
6 I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me on every side.”
Psa 3:5-6

Again he says,

“1 Yahweh is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
Yahweh is the strength of my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evil-doers came at me to eat up my flesh,
Even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though a host should encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear.
Though war should rise against me,
Even then I will be confident. ”
Psa 27:1-3

Not even a bird can die apart from
the Father’s will.

Jesus argues we should not fear those who can kill the body, but after that can do nothing. Rather, fear God who can kill the body and after that throw us into hell itself. Sparrows are sold for next to nothing, yet,

“… Not one of them falls on the ground apart from your Father’s will, 30 but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.”
Mtt 10:29-31

It is NOT that you cannot die.

Jesus spoke of many things, including that special time of persecution just before the end of the age, which will be worse than all persecutions up to that point. Some will be put to death.

“16 You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you they will cause to be put to death. 17 You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake.”
Lk 21:16-17

Now “hated by all men” has never happened so far. Many have had compassion for the sufferings of Christians throughout history. At times the saying was that “the blood of the saints was the seed of the church.” But not at that end time! However even of those special persecutions at the end, even if you die … Jesus says of those who even suffer death in verse 17,

“18 And not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will win your lives.”
Lk 21:18

You will be saved entirely, wholly! God’s protection is beyond even the grave. Like Jesus we will be saved, not FROM death, but IN SPITE OF death!

Jesus was “protected,” but yet he died. How is that? Peter put it this way:

“27 For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.”
Acts 4:27-28

So this was all planned by God. Things may be out of your control or my control, but they are not out of God’s control. No one or thing can snatch you out of God’s hands, Jn 10:29. Do not walk in constant fear! Not even for a corona-virus.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Keys to Prophecy: Trust God, Not Your Own Insight

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King Zedekiah about halfway trusted
the prophecies of God.

There were several encounters recorded in Jeremiah. He finally approached Jeremiah privately in Jeremiah 38 while Jerusalem was under siege from the Babylonians. He wanted to hear what he had to say. Jeremiah told him what God said would happen.

“Then said Jeremiah to Zedekiah, Thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and you shall live, and your house..”
Jer 38:17

He was willing to think it might be right, but still had reservations about counsel of the Lord, and expressed these reservations.

“… I am afraid of the Jews who are fallen away to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.”
Jer 38:19

Jeremiah assured him these fears were without foundation.

“ … They shall not deliver you. Obey, I beg you, the voice of Yahweh, in that which I speak to you: so it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live.”
Jer 38:20

Then Jeremiah told him, again accurately, what would happen if he did not do what God told, Jer 38:23. King Zedekiah was not all powerful, but he did have important decisions to make. But he was not fully persuaded. So the terrible alternative came upon him.

“They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon.”
2Kgs 25:7.

So the last sight Zedekiah saw was his sons being slaughtered before his eyes. And he went to Babylon as a blind man.

This is not to say that we do not have great potential.

Ah! Human potential. But the greatest of this is in the Lord. As Jesus said,

“5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.”
Jn 15:5-7 WEB

We should trust His advice, His foresight

even if we think it violates what we are “sure” is “right” or “safe.”

“5 Trust in Yahweh with all your heart,
And don’t lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
And he will direct your paths.
7 Don’t be wise in your own eyes.
Fear Yahweh, and depart from evil.
8 It will be health to your body,
And nourishment to your bones.”
Prov 3:5-8 WEB

“One who trusts in himself is a fool;
But one who walks in wisdom, he is kept safe. ”
Prov 28:26 WEB

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Keys to Prophecy: God Can And Does Often Direct Our Thinking

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We are but creatures and are by no means omnipotent. I have heard many preachers say that God would never violate our “free will” as they put it. He will never “make us” do something. What foolishness. The truth is that He makes us do or say or think things everyday, that we had no intention of doing or saying. God often overrules us.

Actually many may manipulate our thinking.

Including moms and dads, and “friends,” and announcers and ads. Because of the limitations on our earthly life and our knowledge, we from time to time become the victims of counsel that at best misguided, or at worst is manipulative. Sometimes even from those we love, and who also love us. And Satan! He can do such things,

“After supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,”
Jn 13:2

And of Mystery Babylon the Great, it says

“… for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived.”
Rev 18:23

So here is a human entity, which by “sorcery,” can alter the thinking, manipulate/deceive the entire world at some future time. (You don’t suppose God actually foresaw modern mass media do you? I jest!).

So do you suppose that “many” can and do “manipulate” our thinking: mom, dad, friend, announcer, ad, movie, Satan … and God could not, would not?

God can and does influence the thinking of men.

It is both and little things and big things. God speaks of what He will do to His people in foreign lands, if they are not faithful to Him.

““‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they will fall when no one pursues.””
Lev 26:36

God can help us, or if we oppose God, He can harden us in bad thinking.

“But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as at this day.”
Deut 2:30

And so it will be even with God’s enemies
(Rev 17:13-14) near the end.

Mystery Babylon the Great has near the end deceived the nations and come to commercially dominate the world, ruining the nations with wars and sexual immorality in order to better exploit men (Revelation 18). She deserves to be punished, but she is too powerful to resist.

So God puts together a coalition of ten kings (“horns,” see for instance Dan 8:20-21), who for “one hour” had the resources to destroy Mystery Babylon all the way down the ground.

“For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, and to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished.”
Rev 17:17

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Keys to Prophecy: Human Insight is Very Limited

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Jeremiah knows full well to weakness and insufficiency of man on his own. He comments on these things in various places.

“Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.”
Jer 10:23

Or again, from Proverbs.

“A man’s steps are from Yahweh;
How then can man understand his way?”
Prov 20:24

Jeremiah knows that evil men need to be
brought to account.

For those who do not, will not, call on His name, and ruin the righteous, Jeremiah knows they deserve to be punished and calls on God to do it,

“Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.”
Jer 10:25

But also Jeremiah knows that we need much instruction and mercy to even survive. Jeremiah is an inspired prophet of God, following in faith, and tenaciously holding to the Lord even when none will follow him. Still he is aware of how vulnerable he is.

“Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.”
Jer 10:24

James, the half-brother of Jesus, likewise
knows these things.

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit.””
Jas 4:13

He goes on to say that we do not even know what our very lives will be like tomorrow! If we have any insight, and foresight, it is not of ourselves but of God. James goes on to say that we are but vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. He does NOT say we are LIKE a vapor! He says WE ARE A VAPOR! We need to listen to God.

Yes, we can plan and think and “want” and ”will”
to do things.

“The plans of the heart belong to man,
But the answer of the tongue is from Yahweh.”
Prov 16:1

But we are not omnipotent, all powerful.

So often we cannot always carry out what we “will.” We are often overcome in even our day to day intentions to do or to seek.

“There are many plans in a man’s heart,
But Yahweh’s counsel will prevail.”
Prov 19:21

“For you ought to say, “If the Lord wills,

“we will both live, and do this or that.””
Jas 4:15

He is the One who is really in control. That is the sober truth of the matter. Though we may strut and swagger and boast, at the end of the day, Yahweh, He is God, and you and I are merely men. Men who very much need the support and advice and the foresight of the One and Only Living God, and who should never put our own understanding before that of God’s.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901