And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And He said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Daniel 12:8-9
Baseball players are among the most superstitious people in the world. Rarely will you see a baseball player step on one of the foul lines on the diamond; that is considered to be bad luck. Most players have little procedures they go through when preparing to bat or to pitch, because they think those procedures bring them good luck. Actually, many other people have little ‘good luck’ things as part of their lives, such as knocking on wood when speaking about something bad that has not happened to them yet. And many others go to fortune tellers to find out what the future holds for them. Fortune-telling in the United States alone is a multi-billion-dollar business, despite the fact that fortune telling is based on one of three things: pure guessing, showmanship, and demonic activity. So why do people have superstitions or waste their money on fortune-telling? They want to know what’s going to happen to them and to those around them, and they want to be able to do something to affect the course of the future. Daniel had a slightly different situation: God had told him what was going to happen, but had not told him when.
Just as Daniel wanted to know the end, so too do we. God has laid out clearly in the Bible what is going to happen to this world, but he has carefully kept from us the timing of His scheduled events. We need to heed the words that God had for Daniel: Go thy way. God had work for Daniel to do and a plan for Daniel’s life that was to be carried out regardless of what happened in the big plan for this world.
God’s plan and purpose for us to go our way through our life is effective only if we leave the timing of events to him. Just imagine what life would be like if you knew what day that you and every one of your loved ones would die, if you knew about the great blessings (weddings, births, etc.) and the great calamities (accidents, diseases, deaths, etc.) that lay in your future. You simply could not function normally with that information at hand.
Faith tells us to go our way and life our lives for the Lord, leaving tomorrow in His hands, trusting Him to unfold our tomorrows as His omnipotent mind has designed, not as our little imagination might wish. -Jim MacIntosh