Proverbs 16:33 - Homiletics

The lottery of life

I. LIFE APPEARS TO BE A LOTTERY . "The lot is cast into the lap." We seem to depend largely on chance.

1 . We are ignorant of important facts. We are obliged to grope our way through many dark places. Life comes to us veiled in mystery. It may be that certain material considerations would greatly modify our action if only we knew them, yet we must act without regard to them, from sheer ignorance.

2 . We cannot, predict the future. Even when we do grasp the essential points of our situation in the present, we cannot tell what new possibilities may emerge. A sudden turn of the kaleidoscope may give an entirely novel complexion to life.

3 . We are unable to master our circumstances. We find ourselves surrounded by innumerable influences which we may understand, more or less, but which we cannot alter. Sometimes it appears as though we were no more free agents than the driftwood that is cast up on the beach by the angry surf. Circumstances are too strong for us, and we must let circumstances take their course.

4 . We cannot control the course of events. Many things happen quite outside the range of our lives, yet their results will strike across the path of our own actions. Other people are busy planning and working, and we do not all consult together and work in harmony. When many hands throw the shuttle it is impossible to bring out and sure design.

II. GOD DISPOSES OF THE LOTTERY OF LIES . Voltaire says, "Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause." It is but a name for our ignorance of the course of events, Nevertheless, if there were no mind behind the apparent confusion of life, universal causation would but give us a blind and purposeless fate—no better, surely, than a wild and chaotic chance. But to one who believes in God the terrible uncertainty of the lottery of life is a great reason for prayer and trust.

1 . God knows all. He knows every fact, and he foresees the whole future. Herein we have a grand reason fir faith. One who knows so much more than we do must needs often act in a way that we do not understand. But his infinite knowledge is a reason for our unlimited trust in him.

2 . God controls all. Events seem to be tossed about in the lap of chance. Yet just as surely as laws of motion govern the slightest movement of all the leaves that are blown by an autumn wind, Divine purposes control all human events, in the midst of their seeming confusion . This runs; be so if God is God.

"He maketh kings to sit in sovereignty;

He maketh subjects to their power obey;

He pulleth down, he setteth up on high;

He gives to this, from that he takes away;

For all we have is his; what he will do, he may."

(Spenser.)