Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear people.

Becki is off to her Bible Study with seniors in Woodburn. I see Thano out this window going to collect eggs from his chickens. It’s a gorgeous morning out there.

Well, this has been kind of tough devotional composition. I could have taken an easy course…but I didn’t. Read at your own risk. Suffice it to say that “the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations” in ways we still do not fully understand.

May your day be blessed.

Love, Dad/Ray

To be honest, I am processing some of this material with a sense of hopelessness. My little bald head lusts for answers to some difficult questions—solutions to some ideological struggles. I have no hope (it’s hopeless) that all of my questions and struggles will be resolved this side of glory (Isaiah 55:6-9; Romans 11:32-36, etc.). As Paul affirms, I reaffirm—“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

So what are some big difficult questions that arise for me out of this reading?

• Well, why would God order war when the historical record confirms that it achieves nothing of permanent value (14:23; 15:2)?
• Exactly how does God manipulate human psychology on a large scale so as to inflict a panic attack as a tool of war (14:15)?
• Why would God hold such a grudge against the Amalakites for an infraction against Israel over a hundred years previous and order a completely different generation to be punished by complete destruction (15:2-3)?
• What kind of psycho-spiritual gymnastics would I have to perform if I were an Israeli soldier so as to embrace a mindset to kill “men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys” (15:3)?
• How do I reconcile our New Testament understanding of the sanctity of life with these Old Testament accounts of so much God-ordered killing?
• How do I reconcile God sending the Holy Spirit with His sending “an evil spirit” (16:14)?

Whew! I could continue. In my quest for honesty and balance, I don’t wish to have anyone legitimately condemn me for adopting a casual flippant faith—one that only subscribes to the easy stuff and ignores the hard stuff. What about you?

This is supposed to be devotional and edifying, so let’s get on with that. A good place to begin is with a truth we’ve quoted before: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Let’s sing, “Trust and Obey.”

Please give ear to this passage again from Romans—as I believe it offers bottom-line adequate answers to these questions: “For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable (beyond research) his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out (it’s hopeless to know)! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 11:32-12:2).

To be sure, “his good, pleasing and perfect will” can only be established within a HEART AFTER GOD. Without that essential, along with its accompanying “Spirit of the LORD,” all that’s left is confusion, emptiness, and accompanying evil spirits.