Boast not thyself of tomorrow
Or, "of tomorrow day" F20. Either of having a tomorrow, or of
any future time; no man can assure himself of more than the
present time; for, however desirable long life is, none can be
certain of it; so says the poet F21: for though there is a
common term of man's life, threescore years and ten, yet no one
can be sure of arriving to it; and, though there may be a human
probability of long life, in some persons of hale and strong
constitutions, yet there is no certainty, since life is so frail
a thing; the breath of man is in his nostrils, which is soon and
easily stopped; his life is but as a vapour, which appears for a
little while, and then vanishes away; all flesh is as grass,
which in the morning flourishes, in the evening is cut down, and
on the morrow is cast into the oven: man is like a flower, gay
and beautiful for a season, but a wind, an easterly blasting
wind, passes over it, and it is gone; his days are as a shadow
that declineth towards the evening; they are as a hand's breadth;
yea, his age is as nothing before the Lord. Death is certain to
all men, as the fruit of sin, by the appointment of God; and
there is a certain time fixed for it, which cannot be exceeded;
but of that day and hour no man knows; and therefore cannot boast
of a moment of future time, or of a tomorrow, nor of what he
shall enjoy on the morrow F23; for, what he has today he
cannot be certain he shall have the next; he cannot assure
himself of health and honour, of pleasures, riches, and friends;
he may have health today, and sickness tomorrow; be in honour
today, and in disgrace on the morrow: he may bid his soul eat,
drink, and be merry, seeing he has much goods laid up for many
years, and vainly say, tomorrow shall be as this day, and much
more abundant, when this night his soul may be required of him;
he may have his wife and children, friends and relations, about
him now, and before another day comes be stripped of them all; he
may be in great affluence, and gave great substance for the
present, and in a short time all may be taken from him, as Job's
was; riches are uncertain things, they make themselves wings and
flee away. Nor should a man boast of what he will do on the
morrow; either in civil things, in trade and business; to which
the Apostle James applies this passage, ( James
4:13-16 ) ; or in acts of charity, so Aben Ezra explains it,
boast not of an alms deed to be done tomorrow; whatever a man
finds to be his duty to do in this respect, he should do it at
once, while he has an opportunity: or in things religious; as
that he will repent of his sins, and amend his life on the
morrow; that he will attend the means of grace, hear the Gospel,
the voice of Christ; all which should be to day, and not be put
off till tomorrow. Nor should true believers procrastinate the
profession of their faith; nor should any duty, or exercise of
religion, be postponed to another season; but men should work
while it is day, and always abound in the work of the Lord, and
be found so doing; see ( Isaiah 56:12
) ( Luke
12:19 Luke 12:20 ) ;
for thou knowest not what a day may bring
forth;
time is like a teeming woman, to which the allusion is, big with
something; but what that is is not known till brought forth: as a
woman, big with child, knows not what she shall bring forth till
the time comes, whether a son or a daughter, a dead or a living
child; so the events of time, or what is in the womb of time, are
not known till brought forth; these are the secret things which
belong to God, which he keeps in his own breast; the times and
seasons of things are only in his power, ( Acts 1:6 ) . We know not
what the present day, as the Targum renders it, will bring forth;
and still less what tomorrow will do, what changes it will
produce in our circumstances, in our bodies and in our minds; so
that we cannot be certain what we shall be, what we shall have,
or what we shall do, on the morrow, even provided we have one.