Job 14:5
Indeed, their days are determined,
You decreed the number of their months,
Set bounds they cannot pass.
Today was water polo media day. I had no idea what that was when I first heard it. I would have called it fun picture day. The important thing is that we are not still there.
‘Days’ was once ‘years’ and ‘determined’ was once ‘decreed’, but the majority agreed.
‘Decreed’ was also ‘know’, ‘have’, ‘control’, and ‘fixed’. There was a push to leave the possibility that God might have them, but this does not fit.
‘Set’ was also ‘appointed’ and ‘fixed’. ‘Bounds’ was also ‘limits’.
I am having issues with this mouse. I assume operator error. Since I am the operator, it makes sense. This verse touches on one of the big questions: Free will or Predetermined. At first blush, this verse probably reenforces the pre-determined argument (based on my word choice). But at the same time, it talks about limits that cannot be passed; this implies some freedom within the bounds. I believe God has given us free will to say no, but He knows who will. Some will quarrel over Him knowing vs Him predetermining. From our Bible study this week, if it is not a matter of salvation, then we do not need to waste time worrying about it. You either accept Christ or you don’t. Whether God allowed it to happen or made it happen, you still have to do it to be saved.
The novel I just finished reading had a character who ‘lived’ out the principles of ‘life is not worth living just because it is easy’. So much of the American culture is chasing after bigger and better that it is hard to align this with the Christian value of ‘being alive is joy enough to live’ that we should have founded this country on. I have this paradigm of Ralph Waldo Emerson wondering the woods with a small bag of necessities loving life. As soon as I try to unpack this, I know that ideal is marred by mosquitoes, snakes, thorn bushes, and poison plants. ‘Man’ learned to use tools to survive, to eat, to drink, to stay dry in storms, and not freeze in winters.
One vision of the future is people living in city size buildings never seeing the light of day. My life is not like that, but some in this world are already like that, especially the working poor in large cities in other parts of the world. The American Dream of everyone with a house of their own is not functional outside small towns as the bulk of the workers can’t afford one nor the cars required to get back and forth to work. This last novel I read played out in a super small town where everyone knew everyone else since they were born, and those above poverty got there by selling drugs. Not the dream that the idealized Christian community brings to mind.
2 Tim 2:14-16 includes the admonition to do your best to submit your life to the Will of God for you on a moment by moment basis. Plans to be rich like Bill Gates or powerful like Elon Musk or poor like orphans begging and stealing in the streets (as if anyone ever had that plan) are maybe not sinful, but we are to have plans to do good. Missing moments to love are just as sinful as doing harm. There is a balance between ‘planning and going off plan’ that is to be the life we are to lead. So do not ignore the drive to strive for something big, but also do not ignore the drive to strive for something now.
Written 8/~10/24, Posted 9/2/24, Job 316