Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good good morning to you, special ones.

It’s nice out there. Becki and I did our little walk/jog routine.

Hey…that’s good to see. I just saw Thano walk past my window view carrying a 100-pound bag of chicken feed on his shoulder. The last couple months he has been hammered by a bad back…which kind of messes up some of my plans to use Thano. Both of us need pretty good backs to do the work we do.

I not only gave some serious exercise to my back yesterday, but to the rest of my frame as well. I did a portable mill jog near the home of a fellow I’ve milled for before in the Beaverton area. When I finished that 3-hour mill job, I stopped by this other guy’s place to see if he wanted me to put a particular standing dead fir tree on the ground in his front yard that threatens their power line…at no cost. I know they have limited income, that he has physical disabilities, and he is a vet of Viet Nam. I told him I was happy to do it…just to kind of honor him for his service to our country. I climbed the tree, topped it, then dropped it in chunks. I did a little wild spider-man trick at one point. I was happy to spend my time that way for a couple hours, rather than get tangled up in that horrendous Beaverton/Tigard/I-5 rush-hour traffic. I noticed later that his wife set one of her recent water-color paintings in the cab of the truck. I took that as a gesture of THANK YOU.

Blessings on your day…or is it HIS day?

Love, Dad/Ray.

Why does God tolerate this dirty devil? Why does He allow Satan to run around tempting people to do bad stuff and to oppose God and His will? Why doesn’t God just snuff him out with one blow of His mighty power and rid the earth of him forever—and return His creation to an Eden-like condition of purity and perfection? He could do that if He wanted, you know—but for reasons I cannot fully explain, He does not want to…yet. But He will. That impending fact is clearly disclosed in Scripture. For now, I can only conclude that Satan actually exists and functions as God’s adversary and antagonist by God’s intention—offering mankind the option of seeking and serving God by their own God-like and God-given freedom of intelligent choice as opposed to robotic programmed automation. While we may never completely comprehend all these things this side of eternity, we do know that God not only tolerates the devil, but uses him. How else could we explain the first two verses of this reading—“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil” (vv. 1-2). So not only does God permit Satan to interfere with and influence men’s minds, but He actually allows him to have a go at attacking His own Son. I’m reminded here of the description of Jesus in Hebrews 5:8-9—“Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” Hmm. Please pay careful attention to this lesson: If these things are so, you can rest assured that this dirty deceptive devil will not pass you by—especially if you are closely associated with the Son.

Be reminded that there is no means of protection against this enemy that can substitute for the powerful influence of the Word of God wielded from the heart of a true believer. You will do well to hide it in your heart and develop competence in its use and application. Take note that in each temptation launched by the devil, Jesus defeated them by His use of the “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17).

And be reminded that the devil’s ministry of temptation is not a one-time deal. Verse 13 says, “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” Don’t be caught by surprise. You can bank on it—he’ll be back. Be ready! (1 Peter 5:8-9; 2 Timothy 2:15; Ephesians 6:10-18)