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OUR PLANS, GOD'S PLANS!
What are your plans for tomorrow? Next week? Or,
with this summer nearly spent maybe you're already thinking about next summer. If
so, what plans are you making for the summer of 2007?
This past week I called a friend on Wednesday
evening and made arrangements for he and I to go see someone in the hospital. We
decided that I would pick him up about noontime as I planned to spend the morning
hours doing yard work. That was the plan, I'd do yard work in the morning
and pick him up around noon.
The next morning I woke up at 5:30, dressed, had
breakfast, and by 6:15 was outside doing yard work. By 7:15 I was finished
with yard work for the day! Oh, I wasn't finished with yard work; not by
a long shot. But by 7:15 it had started raining. It rained, thundered,
and continued to rain until about 10:00. My plans to do yard work were
literally rained out!
Someone has said, "If you want to make God
laugh, tell him your plans." So I suspect as I told my friend what
my plans were for Thursday morning that God just sort of chuckled and said "I
don't think so."
James, who was a pretty serious fellow, warns
us against making plans as if we knew what tomorrow would bring our way. In
James 4: 13 - 16 we read:
Look here, you people who say, "Today or
tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do
business there and make a profit." 14 How do you know what will happen
tomorrow? For your life is like the morning fog-it's here a little while, then
it's gone. 15 What you ought to say is, "If the Lord wants us to,
we will live and do this or that." 16 Otherwise you will be boasting
about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil.
It's not that James was opposed to the idea of
planning ahead. He's concerned about those who see themselves as the sole
authority in their life and act like it. He imagines someone who lives
by the following rules:1
Rule # 1: Selfishly
chooses their own time and schedule.
Rule # 2: Selects
the location that pleases them.
Rule # 3: Limits
their stay to suit themselves.
Rule # 4: Arranges
their activities so as to enhance the bottom-line.
Rule # 5: Never
hesitates to pat themselves on the back.
If anyone lives by these five (5) rules
I guarantee you that they will make God laugh; or at least snicker. But
the foolishness of man also grieves his heart. For James pictures those
who are playing a very foolish game - they are playing God.
This is a game they cannot win for at least three
reasons. First, they don't know what tomorrow will bring their way. An
unexpected injury, the loss of a job, or a host of other surprises, good or bad,
can instantly change their lives. Second, they have no assurance of a
long life. Like fog in San Francisco they may be here one moment and gone
the next. Third, it's a game they will lose for they are acting like they
can see tomorrow as if it were today. They are guaranteed to lose because
they are arrogant.2
But suppose we make plans the right way. We
say, "If the Lord wants us to, we will do this or that tomorrow, next week,
or next summer." We plan for tomorrow and then hold on to those plans
lightly knowing full well that God may have something else, something better,
in mind for us. It is this sort of planning, the planning of those who
desire to walk in step with the Spirit, that truly makes God laugh.
It is not that he is laughing at us as much as
with us. He interrupts our plans with plans of his own, knowing full well
what is best for us and what is best for his kingdom. He also knows that,
given time, we too will see how good his change of plans are for us. It
is this, our joy in Him, that prompts God to laugh with those he loves. He
laughs, or so I figure, because he takes delight in us.
As noted above, we can make God laugh simply by
telling him our plans. But how does he make us laugh? Scripture tells
us in plain Hebrew that if God wants to make us laugh, he tells us His plans. We
see this early on, and best, in the story of Abram and Sarai. Their story
begins in Genesis 11:26 - 32. We read:
When Terah was 70 years old, he became the father
of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
This is the history of Terah's family. Terah was
the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran had a son named Lot. 28
But while Haran was still young, he died in Ur of the Chaldeans, the place of
his birth. He was survived by Terah, his father. 29 Meanwhile, Abram married
Sarai, and his brother Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of their brother Haran.
(Milcah had a sister named Iscah.) 30 Now Sarai was not able to have any
children.
Terah took his son Abram, his daughter-in-law
Sarai, and his grandson Lot (his son Haran's child) and left Ur of the Chaldeans
to go to the land of Canaan. But they stopped instead at the village of Haran
and settled there. 32 Terah lived for 205 years and died while still at
Haran.3
We know from Acts 7:2 - 5 that Abram was told
to "get out of Ur" before he and his family moved to Haran. Scholars
calculate that he lived in Haran for about 15 years prior to actually packing
up his bags and moving south to Canaan. Scripture suggest that this delay
may have been due to his father's poor health. Sarai will tell you that
they were stuck in Haran for fifteen years because Abram refused to ask for directions.
Whatever the case, after his father died, the
Lord spoke to Abram once again and told him to head south. In Genesis 12:1
- 7 we read:
Then the LORD told Abram, "Leave your country,
your relatives, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show
you. 2 I will cause you to become the father of a great nation. I will
bless you and make you famous, and I will make you a blessing to others. 3
I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families
of the earth will be blessed through you."
So Abram departed as the LORD had instructed him,
and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. 5
He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth-his livestock and
all the people who had joined his household at Haran-and finally arrived in Canaan. 6
Traveling through Canaan, they came to a place near Shechem and set up camp beside
the oak at Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "I
am going to give this land to your offspring." And Abram built an altar
there to commemorate the LORD's visit. 8 After that, Abram traveled southward
and set up camp in the hill country between Bethel on the west and Ai on the
east. There he built an altar and worshiped the LORD. 9 Then Abram traveled
south by stages toward the Negev.
God promised an incredible heritage to a trusting
couple if they would simply listen and obey. The Lord told this seventy-five-year-old
man and his sixty-five-year-old wife to "get out of here" and so they
packed up their station wagon and left. When they arrived, God specifically
promised Abram that his seed would inherit all the land they had passed through.
But God, to whom one day is as a thousand years,
took his dear, sweet time. Year after year he made them wait. Abram
and Sarai wondered as they wandered and year after year their hopes of ever having
a child dwindled. In her spare time Sarai put together a family album that
had no pictures except for Terah, Abram, Lot, and a few sheep and camels.
She wished her family was larger but so far the
sheep were the closest thing she and Abram had to children. And the lambs
were the closest thing they had to grandchildren. They had waited for the
promise of a child to be fulfilled, but despite her years of expectancy, Sarai
was not expecting. In the meantime, she spent her life studying Abram and
making baby quilts for friends.
As they wandered and wondered she knew when Abram
had given up all hope of having a child of his own. He hadn't said anything,
but Sarai was savvy and she knew his hope had evaborated so she decided to execute
plan B.
As Abram had done in the past she turned to Egypt
for salvation. She gave her Egyptian maidservant, Hagar, to Abram. The
two of them could have a child for her. After all, Hagar was a girl who
couldn't say "no," especially in this case and it got her into a lot
of trouble. In Genesis 16:1 - 4a we read:
Sarai, Abram's wife, had no children. So Sarai
took her servant, an Egyptian woman named Hagar, 2 and gave her to Abram
so she could bear his children. "The LORD has kept me from having any children," Sarai
said to Abram. "Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children
through her." And Abram agreed. 3 So Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar
the Egyptian servant and gave her to Abram as a wife. (This happened ten years
after Abram first arrived in the land of Canaan.)
So Abram . . .
So Abram said, "No, I can understand your
frustration but God promised . . ." Here is where Abram should have
stepped up to the plate and reassured Sarai that surely the seed would come through
the two of them. In fact, Sarai was secretly hoping that Abram would hesitate,
rethink God's promises, and stick to plan A. But no! Abram readily
stepped into Hagar's tent and soon she was pregnant.
And as with most pregnant women, well maybe not
most, her personality changed overnight. In Genesis 16: 4 - 5 we read:
So Abram slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant.
When Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai with
contempt. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, "It's all your fault! Now this
servant of mine is pregnant, and she despises me, though I myself gave her the
privilege of sleeping with you. The LORD will make you pay for doing this to
me!"
Hagar was carrying a "wild child" and
she lorded her new status over the lady of the house at every opportunity. Sarai
reacted like an out-of-control nuclear reactor, unleashing all the fury of a
neglected woman. And it wasn't long before Abram suffered the catastrophic
fallout of a man who had actually listened to his wife.4
It was a hard lesson, but it was simply the prologue
to real fall-down-on-the-ground laughter. God had plans for this couple,
but first he reintroduced himself and changed their names. In Genesis
17:1 - 6
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD
appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; serve me faithfully and live
a blameless life. 2 I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee
to make you into a mighty nation." 3 At this, Abram fell face down
in the dust. Then God said to him, 4 "This is my covenant with you:
I will make you the father of not just one nation, but a multitude of nations! 5
What's more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram; now you will
be known as Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. 6 I will
give you millions of descendants who will represent many nations. Kings will
be among them!
Then dropping down
to vv. 15 - 20a we read:
Then God added, "Regarding Sarai, your wife-her
name will no longer be Sarai; from now on you will call her Sarah. 16 And
I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and
she will become the mother of many nations. Kings will be among her descendants!"
Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he
laughed to himself in disbelief. "How could I become a father at the age
of one hundred?" he wondered. "Besides, Sarah is ninety; how could
she have a baby?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "Yes, may Ishmael
enjoy your special blessing!"
But God replied, "Sarah, your wife, will
bear you a son. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my everlasting covenant
with him and his descendants. 20 As for Ishmael, I will bless him also,
just as you have asked.
Ninety-nine-year-old Abram, Hebrew for "exalted
father" became Abraham, "father of a multitude." The promise,
now clarified, was enough to make Abraham drop to his face in laughter. Why? Because
he knew what was required of him. And at his age he wasn't fully
convinced he was up for the task. Which is precisely why God introduced
himself as El Shaddai; the one who is powerful enough to cause nature to do what
is against itself.
For days Abraham laughed intermittently. Then,
after regaining his composure and his sense of well-being after God had asked
him for some skin, he shared the good news with his wife.
"Sarah!" he called, "God told me again that we are going
to have a baby."
"Sarah?" he called a second time, "did you hear me? It's
going to be a boy!"
A third time he shouted from the flap of the tent: "Sarah, are you
deaf? We need to get the nursery ready."
Finally, he walked over to his wife, stood in front of her, and repeated
loudly, "Sarah, did you hear what I said?"
For a moment she just looked at him. "Yes," she yelled
in his good ear, "for the fourth time. And why do you keep calling
me Sarah?"
To which Abraham replied, "Because you are no longer simply 'my princess'
but a 'princess' of many nations."
Sarah smiled, but she had yet to laugh. After
all, she had been expecting for so long that she was now beyond any hopes of
expecting. But Abraham was singing a new song about God Almighty and he
was laughing once again so maybe, just maybe, she would indeed be the mother
of nations. Now that would be funny! Unbelievably funny. Especially
at the grand old age of ninety!
1 We know from Proverbs 18:9 and Ephesians 5:15 - 16 that
God is not opposed to planning ahead. In fact, he encourages us to live
wisely and to make the most of our opportunities.
2 I'm thankful for Charles R. Swindoll and his book on James. He
didn't look at this paragraph on planning in terms of laughter, but his insights
into this passage of Scripture were helpful.
3 See Acts 7:2 - 5.
4 At the time Abram was 85 years old and Sarai was 75. In
their day they were probably classified as getting-there old. After all,
Abram's father lived until he was 205 years old. So at 85 Abram probably
felt he was closing in on middle age. But regardless of how they felt
about their ages, it's clear that Sarai was beyond her childbearing years.
THE JOY OF LAUGHTER 8/27/06
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