Kismet

Have you ever seen little girls playing, running around with no reservation. They will often begin to twirl, full throttle, no music needed, especially when they have a flowing skirt on. There is just something about this that makes them feel like little princesses. As you watch them, you realize they are ‘dancing as if no one is watching’ as the saying goes, without inhibitions that we develop as adults. These words are attributed to a variety of people including Mark Twain, Satchel Paige, and William Purkey: “Sing like no one is listening. Love like you have never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching and live like its heaven on earth.”  When low and behold, as they circle around for the tenth time, they grab their skirts and lift them high, up over their heads! It is extremely cute, and we all get tickled at it. The giggles and laughter that it brings is delightful; however, in our society this is not considered appropriate behavior.

If the child is noticeably young, this is not something that they should be scolded for. They will have to be taught what is acceptable and what is not, at an early age, so that as they get older, they do not continue to do the same things they did as toddlers. If she were to continue to do this, you guessed it, the chuckles would cease, and heads will begin to wag, because this has now become a shameful action, not thought of as ‘cute’ anymore. In 1 Corinthians 13:11 Paul stated, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”  This principle has not changed since the beginning of time.

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  The entire Creation account can be read in the Book of Genesis. Once God had created the earth, sky, universe, and all living things, He made a man, then a woman, whom He called Adam and Eve. He gave them instructions on what their purpose was, what their tasks would be, and all that they could have for their own enjoyment and sustenance. There was only one specific directive as to what they ‘should not do,’ which came with a consequence of death if they were to disobey.

Genesis 2:10-17 says it this way, “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, the tree of life also amid the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is, it which compasses the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compassed the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is, it which goes toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eat thereof thou shalt surely die.”

All was well with the world, and they were pure and innocent, until the day they decided to disobey God’s directives. Though Eve was deceived and beguiled by Satan, who approached her in the garden as a serpent, she made the decision to look upon the fruit of the forbidden tree, touch it, partake of it, and then persuade Adam to do the same, after which their eyes were opened, and all innocence was gone. They realized that they were naked, and they felt ashamed. Their conscience of knowing good and evil became activated, and they began to die from that day forward, physically, and spiritually as God said they would. Consequences for actions are a reality. Even though you may think you have gotten away with something, we will reap what we have sown, whether to evil or whether to righteousness. The woman, Eve, the man, Adam, the earth, the serpent, and Satan, and all mankind, thereafter, suffered consequences because of their disobedience.

We find a few verses of scripture that tell us what will happen to us after we die, that should encourage us; however, they should not bring false hope to those who continue to sin willfully. Psalm 104:29 says, “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust.” Job 34:15 tells us, “All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.” Ecclesiastes 3:20 says, “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.”  And in Ecclesiastes 12:7 we read, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”  These are encouraging, but they are not the end. Hebrews 9:27 tells us, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

Numbers 32:23 says, “But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.”  1 Corinthians 4:5 states, “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”  Nothing can be hidden from God. When the Lord returns, we will all rise again to be judged and rewarded or punished according to the life we have lived and the things we have done, whether they be in accordance with His word. There will be consequences to our actions. Thankfully, we have been given the opportunity through the blood that Jesus shed, to repent and to be baptized in His name, and have those sins expunged from our record. Hebrews 9:28 continues, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

The dictionary definition of Kismet is, “a hypothetical force or personified power that determines the course of future events: fate, or destiny, an inevitable and often bad outcome, a condition, or end that a particular person or thing will experience.” We borrowed the word kismet from Turkish literature first seen in the 1800s, but it ultimately comes from the Arabic word ‘qisma’, meaning “portion” or “lot.” Synonyms are circumstance, destiny, doom, fate, fortune, lot, portion, and synchronicity. Some use the word Karma interchangeably with Kismet. The definition of which is, “the force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence.”

The fact of the matter is that though we did not begin to use the expression, “What goes around comes around”, until in the mid-twentieth century, the principle of sowing and reaping, and consequences to one’s actions, has been around since the creation that we read about in Genesis. There is nothing that just happens, ‘just because,’ as people may state, “Oh, it was just fate.” There is always ‘a cause and effect’ that comes into play. Matthew 7:12 gives us what we have dubbed “The Golden Rule.” “Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” This is taught to our children in kindergarten, so they can learn good citizenship, manners, kindness, civility, and social skills. How quickly we are to forget the basics when we become a little older, more independent and puffed up in our own minds. The principle is immutable and should be even more important as time goes on.

The expression ‘cast or casting lots’ shows up twenty-two times in the scripture. One story in the Old Testament that may be familiar to you where this was used, was in Jonah. The Lord called him to go and preach to the people in the ‘large city’ of Ninevah. The bottom line was that he was a scaredy cat. So, he decided to run the opposite direction, as if God would not know, but of course this did not work. He boarded a ship going to Tarshish which we read about in  Jonah 1:3, “But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was likely to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah went down into the sides of the ship; and he lay and was fast asleep. So, the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, what meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so, be that God will think upon us, that we perish not. And they said to each his fellow, “Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him. Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then they said unto him, what shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so, shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.” Though it mentioned that they ‘cast lots,’ it was obvious who was guilty of bring the wrath of God upon the ship.

In John 19:24 we read, “They said therefore among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, they parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.”  The soldiers were not there to worship him, or reverence him as the Holy One of Isreal, but out for selfish gain. Imagine reducing the precious things of God down to such common status as the prized wager at a gambling table. We gasp at that; however, how often do we do this in a spiritual sense, calling it, “Oh, well, I guess it wasn’t meant to be,” or the French expression, “Comme ci. Comme ca,” meaning “Whatever,” “It is just so, so,” “Who cares,” or “What does it matter.”

We read a story in the book of Jeremiah where King Jehoiakim burned the scrolls that the word of God had been written on, just because he did not like what had been written. However, God commanded Jeremiah to write every word again with the help of the scribe Baruch. The punishment pronounced upon Jehoiakim’s kingdom because of his evil ways, did not change, and were in fact added to, just because he thought he had gotten rid of the ‘evidence.’ Those witnessing the king’s actions were afraid and begged him not to do it, but he had no regard for the One true God of Israel. There were consequences to his actions, which was that the throne of David would no longer have any of his offspring to sit upon it, and it did come to pass. There are many like stories in the Bible, which show us the consequences of the actions of disobedience and pride, yet with each comes a pleading for the perpetrators to humble themselves and repent. In Jeremiah 13:25 – 26 God told his people, “This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the Lord; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. Therefore, will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear.”  They needed to grow up, put away their childish, reckless, disobedient behavior, so that their shame would not be exposed like a child twirling with her dress above her head. We need to learn that lesson too.

The New Testament warns us in 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”  And James tells us in James 1:13-15, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”  A mistake is a mistake, but a decision to disobey Gods commands is considered ‘sin,’ which will separate us from Him. Kismet is not in the equation.

Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, we are now unfortunately all born with the sinful nature, as seen in the verse we just read. That is why we need to be born again of water and the Spirit. Romans 3:23-25 tells us, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Kismet is not in the equation.Hebrews 6:1-6 tells us, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame.” Jesus took our shame on the cross of Calvary for us, this is grace and mercy, not Kismet. However, if we keep disobeying instead of changing our ways, we sadly continue to put shame upon Jesus, for all to see. We need to grow up and put away our childish behavior and stop blaming anyone and everyone else for our own actions. The blood has already been shed, if we do not accept it, and we ‘burn the scroll,’ so to speak, reject the Word of God and his promise, there is no other sacrifice or way for us to make things right. We will be the ones with our skirts over our heads, revealing our shame.

God’s way of dealing with mankind is through covenants. He told Adam and Eve what they needed to do and not do, and what to expect if they did or did not obey. He is immutable and therefore deals with us in the same fashion and gives us the same opportunity of eternal life that Adam and Eve had, yet through the New Covenant. Romans 8:1-4 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” If we are to find redemption and be able to rid ourselves of the consequences of sin, it will not be because of Kismet, but because of our own intentional actions. Act today and let him take your shame away! He is waiting for you! Your action of repentance will bring forth a harvest of righteousness and eternal life.