Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Greetings, dear ones.
Yup! It’s already mid-afternoon. I’ve already been into Portland for supplies, etc. Becki left me last night. My baby-sitter is gone. She’s helping out with a BIAOR Conference near the airport (Brain Injury Alliance of Oregon) and will be engaged there a couple more nights. This is partly to say that she’s not here to critique this devotional…so I don’t feel quite as secure in sending it. But, it’s not the first time I’ve lived close to danger…so here goes.
Now I need to try to knock out some more mill work with the daylight that’s left.
Blessings on your remaining day.
Love, Dad/Ray.
The last sentence of this reading offers a most welcome relief—“Then the land had rest from war.” The massacre of human life recorded in these three chapters is not read with pleasure. The whole spectacle flies against our common notion that human life is sacred. War seems to make it extremely cheap. But one thing is for sure—modern liberals who support the practice of widespread abortion don’t have a legitimate supportive leg to stand on when they condemn this facet of Biblical history. The abortion death toll is in the millions. After all, Israel was simply performing a bunch of post-partum abortions.
My little head staggers. It seems like I’ve been here before. I can’t seem to get it all figured out in a way that clearly justifies all this bloodshed. The positive advice I gave just yesterday seem long ago. My mind wants to argue again. Now a song comes to mind—“My faith has found a resting place—Not in device nor creed: I trust the Ever-living One—His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need no other plea; It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.” Whew! More relief! But what’s the point? Simply this: While history would render human temporal life on a plain of lesser value, the cross of Christ underscores human eternal life with supreme value. Just quote John 3:16 again! I guess I’ve returned once again to the Deuteronomy 29:29 anchor point.
Perhaps it would be stabilizing to review something that is about as mind-boggling as it gets—Jesus’ words in John 11:25-26—“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” The best answer to that question is, “YES.”
Something else is for sure—since questions and difficulties abound, I don’t ever want to stop inquiring “of the LORD.” I have to believe that the One Who knows all also knows best (Proverbs 3:5-6). What security do I really have left if I argue against that?