TOMORROW, TOMORROW

 Little Orphan Annie sings in the musical “Annie” the words: “Tomorrow, tomorrow! I love ya tomorrow! You're always a day away!” as an expression of eternal hope that things will eventually get better. But this is not exactly what the authors of the Bible had in mind when they talked about “tomorrow” in passages such as Proverbs 27:1; Luke 12:16-21; and James 4:13-14. In fact, you might say that the teachings of the Bible and Annie's words were quite at odds when it came to that subject, at least in in regard to those particular verses.

Proverbs 27:1

“Do not flatter yourself about tomorrow for you never know what a day will bring forth.” (NEB) Other translations substitute “boast” in place of “flatter yourself.”

“If the most immediate and most visible future is not under human control and is uncertain, how much less the distant future. A wise person, says McKane, 'must not speak nor plan as if he himself had full disposal of his destiny and power over his future [cf. 1 K. 20:11].' Other proverbs and Scriptures identify God as the Father who 'gives birth' to future events. He has the final word, and no human counsel can thwart it. The wise live day by day, trusting the outcome to God and being grateful to God for whatever he grants...This proverb, however, must be held in tension with those that advise one to make plans for the future (11:14; 15:22; 20:18; 21:5; 24:6,27).” (Waltke)

Waltke's last statement provides a valuable caveat to the reader.

Luke 12:16-21

This is the familiar parable of Jesus concerning a rich farmer who plans to tear down his old barns and build new ones to house his bumper crop. But he is called a fool because God announces that he will die before he has a chance to carry out his plans.

Snodgrass says regarding the context of this parable, “The whole section from 12:4-59 is artfully arranged to deal with issues of fear, anxiety, and security.” He adds that this is the only one of Jesus' parables in which God Himself appears as an actor.

After rejecting several earlier meanings proposed for this story, Snodgrass states, “Whether this parable is about the death of the individual or a warning about eschatological judgment is debated, but I see nothing to support the idea the parable was originally about the approaching eschatological catastrophe. The parable is about the death of an individual, and judgment is implicit at best, other than God's verdict that the man is a fool. The consequences of God's judgment are not specified, nor is death itself viewed as the judgment. The parable points to the uncertainty and fragility of life, but it is concerned most with God's verdict on those who trust in wealth.”

He adds, “The parable emphasizes how little control the man actually has over his life, despite what he thinks. His prosperity does not result from his effort; the land prospers (v. 16), not his work. Even what he thinks is most intimately his own – his soul – is only on loan and can be demanded at any time.”

And Ellis warns the reader that the parable is “not to show the sinfulness of greed but the futility of it.”

In a similar vein, Craddock says, “The preacher will want to be careful not to caricature the farmer and thus rob the story of the power of its realism. There is nothing here of graft or theft; there is no mistreatment of workers or any criminal act. Sun, soil, and rain join to make him wealthy. He is careful and conservative. If he is not unjust, then what is he? He is a fool, says the parable. He lives completely for himself, he talks to himself, he plans for himself, he congratulates himself. His sudden death proves him to have lived as a fool. 'For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?' (9:25).”

James 4:13-14a

The startling admonition here is also one that should make each of us sit up and listen: “Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain'; whereas you do not know about tomorrow.” (RSV)

Tasker puts it best when he states that this is a warning for Christians “of the worldliness which causes its victims to neglect God and to arrange their lives as though He did not exist and as if they alone were masters of their destiny.”

Tasker feels these people were “self-confident traveling traders, probably Jews, with whom his readers would be familiar...The following words, which James puts into the mouth of an imaginary group of itinerant merchants as they draw up their plans for the immediate future express their unqualified confidence that that future is in their own keeping. The exact day of their departure..., the precise time the contemplated journey will take, the particular city they will visit, such a city (perhaps pointing it out to one another on the map); the length of their proposed stay in it, a year; the business that they intend to transact; and the profit they assume will result from their bargaining – all these matters, they take it for granted, are their concern and no one else's.”

I had the unfortunate experience years ago of following behind a couple of young businessmen walking on their way from Sunday school to church services. All they could talk about were their grandiose plans for making a pile of money before they were in their 40's. And at my first attendance at one of the evening Bible studies at that same church, the men there were gathered around in a circle trying to top one another with stories of the great business opportunities they envisioned for themselves. When I managed to shoehorn my way into the circle, one of the men asked what business was in. When I replied that I was employed as a research chemist for a company in town, one of the men (who became an elder of that church a few years later) sneered and said to the group sarcastically, “A chemist, just what we need in this group!” In other words, the only value in his eyes to meeting another acquaintance was as a future business contact.

And I wasn't at all surprised when years later, a former associate pastor at that church told me that at a leadership meetings with the elders (all but one of whom were independent businessmen chosen for their supposed status in the community), one of them made it a habit to refer to the parishioners as “giving units,” not human beings made in the image of God but instead those whose main utility was to bring more money into the church coffers