Saturday - Jeremiah 10 - The Way of Man is Not in Himself

I

don't know what lies ahead. Maybe I'll die today. Maybe I'll lose everything on this earth that matters to me.  Maybe I'll live to 100 and die wealthy, famous and powerful (not likely, but I'm attempting to establish a broad spectrum of possibilities). But the truth is, I'm not the maker of my own future.  Oh, I know that I'll make decisions that will greatly impact my future, but even in those decision, I'm at God's mercy and dependent upon His sovereign grace. This is taught plainly here in Jeremiah 10:23 where Jeremiah wrote, "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps.” My journey has so much less to do with me than I could ever comprehend.

Now, Israel was certainly on the wrong path. God explicitly condemned their pattern of choices. Idolatry was their great infraction, but it was only one of many. The wisdom and discretion of God certainly stands in stark contrast to the foolishness and indiscretion of His people. His strength reveals our weakness to be that much more pitiful. The greatness of His name towers over the infinitesimal minuteness of our name. His eternality eclipses our finiteness. His leadership is perfect, ours (in the words of Jeremiah) is brutish; beastly. And, herein is the great significance of the humility that God is pushing to create in us. The dependence that we have on Him is not fatalistic. There is a precise phrase in Jeremiah 10:21 that returns all culpability and responsibility to our shoulders. Those who do not prosper, fail because they do not seek after God. The way of man is not in himself, it is in God. We have neither the intelligence nor the energy to go the right way. We need God.