Walking with the Wise #234: Sure to Come

“Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord;

be assured, he will not go unpunished.”

—Proverbs 16:5

In William Ernest Henley’s (1849-1902) poem, “Invictus,” he captured the essence of man’s self-centeredness, his sense of self-sufficiency and rebellion toward God:

“Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.



In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.



Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.



It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.”

At his sinful core, man is self-centered and wanting that which is unattainable by sinful flesh—to be like God. It has been our pursuit from the moment Satan presented the question to Eve, “God surely did not say…” We are guilty of the same sin as Satan—wanting glory for ourselves. It is at the heart of every sin—the misguided belief that we deserve glory, that we deserve what God has deemed wrong or that He is keeping something good from us.

Henley wrote about the “night that covers me” which is most likely referring to the difficult circumstances he finds himself in. Though it might be dark and despairing, he thanks “whatever gods” there may be for his “unconquerable soul.” He is proud, and no matter what comes at him, he will not be conquered. He feels the pain of life (clutch of circumstance) and even as he is going through terrible suffering, he will not bow. No matter what happens as death looms (Horror of the shade)—wrath and tears, and menace of the years, he still goes on unafraid. It doesn’t matter how difficult things are (strait the gate) or the punishments that await him in eternity (punishments the scroll), he still considers himself the master of his own fate and the captain of his soul.

"Invictus" captures the sinful and proud core at the heart of man. Man wants what he wants and will do anything to get it, because at man’s center, he is in rebellion toward God.

Man may continue to rail against God, clinging to his pride as if it were a badge of honor, not realizing it will be the haunting symbol of shame in hell. Man may think that choosing hell is good, in fact, desirable, because it means he chose it. He still foolishly thinks that he has somehow “won” in the sight of God by choosing eternity apart from Him, by refusing to bow in adoration or submit in obedience, but man has misunderstood what evil, pride and self really are. Man has not understood what hell will really be like. There will not be any remembrance of the pride he had, or his self-sufficiency, but he will be haunted by the dreadful regret and the full awareness that the greatest choice ever to have been made was squandered.

We might consider ourselves to be “unconquerable” and “unbowed” and perhaps imagine ourselves to be the masters of our fate or captains of our own soul, but the truth is that we are slaves to sin (cf. John 8:34; Romans 6:16). We are...

“…darkened in [our] understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in [us], due to [our] hardness of heart. [We] have become callous and have given [ourselves] up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity”—Ephesians 4:18-19.

You can easily stay in your rebellion, holding onto your pride, but if you do so you will discover that you are “arrogant in heart” and are “an abomination to the Lord” and “will not go unpunished.”

Give up your pride, surrender to the Savior who humbled Himself by putting on the flesh of His creation, becoming like us in His death so that by faith in Him we might join Him in His death and His resurrection life. If we try and become like God by our flesh, we will fail, but if we humble ourselves, we will become like God in His resurrection life. Amen.