At several points in the Book of Proverbs, you can hear a hint of the New Testament coming through. There's a great example of this connection between the Testaments in chapter 27.
"Do not boast about tomorrow," Solomon says in Proverbs, "for you do not know what a day may bring" (vs. 1).
Turning to the Book of James, we read this reinforcement: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.' Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil" (James 4:13-15).
Both Solomon and James, separated by a thousand years, are making the same biblical point: we must always plan with humility, offering our intentions to the Lord rather than presuming (or boasting) about what great things we intend to do. Leaving God out of our plans is a recipe for disaster.
Consider dates that changed history, and then think about how people were blissfully unaware on the day before those days that a massive transition was in the air. December 6, 1941 - the day before the day that lives in infamy. November 21, 1963 - President Kennedy and our nation had no idea that would be his last full day on earth. September 10, 2001 - many in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on that Monday made plans for the next day, plans that would never be realized. Some day we will add another date to this list - but we won't know it until we get there. We never know what the next day might bring.
None of us knows what the future holds - that's the point! But we do know that God holds the future. So we should always willingly submit and surrender our plans to Him. That's the wisdom of BOTH Testaments!
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