Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear people.

It’s late. And you will probably discern at least part of the reason why…this devotional was a particularly tough one. Nevertheless, Becki and I did get in our walk/jog…with the new dog. I have even been letting him off the leash at times. He’s been doing surprisingly well.

There is plowing to do in other fields. May the LORD help us to plow well.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Ouch! Double ouch! How in the world do we squeeze any devotional juice out of this one? The whole situation is offensive—from two guys fighting to the woman’s punishment. Rather than avoid this difficult passage because it’s difficult, I’m feeling obligated to invest some effort at processing it in the light of an overview of Scripture.

Perhaps I will attempt to list some thoughts and ideas as they come to mind:

1. A good starting point is to agree that brothers who are united by family and Biblical faith have no legitimate basis for engaging in physical combat.
2. While it is quite understandable that a supportive wife would want to see her husband win a fight, she is warned against impulsive win-at-any-cost dirty “street-fighting” as it risks violations of modesty and doing the right thing in the wrong way. She could also be jumping in to support the wrong side of a moral conflict. How would she know whether her husband was the one who started the fight—and kind of deserved getting his ____ kicked?
3. Grabbing someone’s _________ has overtones of sexual misconduct. The distinctive parts that make for gender are to be regarded as “God things” and exercised with respect to standards prescribed by their Maker/Designer (Now there’s a revolutionary idea! Romans 6:11-14).
4. Jesus may be building on this Old Testament standard when He orders drastic action toward maintaining a higher priority and declares, “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:30).
5. There is clearly something of greater importance implied in all of this—something bigger than these specific hypothetical aberrant situations—and here is where I risk being a broken record. I see again the imperative of a HEART AFTER GOD. How so? It just makes a lot of sense that without a HEART AFTER GOD, life becomes a free-for-all of self-centered chaos—where behavior is entirely taken into one’s own hands without consideration of the Creator/Designer/moral law Giver. Such a heart condition will result in fighting, making wrong judgments, and grabbing the wrong stuff—not to mention the consequence of going to hell. All this kind of thing is curtailed with a prayer and disposition like that of David’s—“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart (factors that dictate behavior) be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).