Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello, dear ones, on this first day of April.

Where did “April Fools Day” come from? Who are “April Fools?” What do they look like? I guess we really don’t need a special day for them. I think many celebrate it all year long.

Becki and I did an early walk/jog. Pleasant overcast morning. She’s in Woodburn at present surrounding the Bible Study she leads. Thano is just leaving now for his work shift at Safeway. And I plan to get into Portland soon to purchase some urgent supplies.

It’s kind of late to wish you a blessed Easter. It’s about over with. Be blessed anyway.

Love. Dad/Ray.

We have to admit again—not everything in this inspired book is very inspiring. The record of so many violent deaths does not really light up my life with praise and rejoicing. These three chapters present more of that kind of ugliness. Chapter 4 reports 3 such deaths—one being murdered in his bed and his head chopped off. Chapter 5 relates battle reports with the Jebusites and Philistines that have to represent hundreds and thousands of deaths. Chapter 6 only contains one death—and that was credited to God Who struck down Uzzah for his breach of touching the holy “ark of God” (6:7). That caused David to get mad at God for “raining on his parade.” But he got over it. Maybe some Levites came to his aid by reminding David of his (and maybe, their) failure to have only Levites in charge of all the Tabernacle furnishings (Numbers 1:47-52).

Perhaps there is a vital lesson here in simply recognizing that the divine value and purpose of the Bible is not just to provide us with wall-to-wall inspiration and cause for rejoicing—all nicely packaged up in neat easy-to-understand trouble-free portions. The intended function of the Bible is confirmed in the well-known statement of 2 Timothy 3:16-17—“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

My reason for selecting the FOCUS VERSE is not because I wish to prompt your sexy imaginations the way Hollywood does, but to give some honest attention to the bi-directional role modeling of David. While he was a positive role model of a HEART AFTER GOD, he’s definitely flawed (like the rest of us humans, in one way or another)—he also presents a negative role model. If you are paying attention to the details of the story and familiar with where it’s going, it’s easy to identify these early indicators of his serious flaw that brought about hellish consequences in his own life and family line. So even David had need for the “teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” qualities of God’s Word. He could have been benefitted by hearing the New Testament teaching of the Apostle Paul who later wrote, “It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8).

PS: WARNING: If this add-on makes you nervous, you don’t have to read it. By giving role model attention to great men of God like David within the Old Testament record, we cannot avoid the issue of polygamy. My quoting the passage from 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 above is not intended to imply that I wish to equate polygamy with “sexual immorality.” There is no evidence that it was ever God’s ideal, but neither is this cultural practice condemned as absolute sin—even though the record shows this arrangement to be almost always hammered by tensions, rivalries, and bitternesses. David seems to be overlooking and violating the specific instructions of Deuteronomy 17:15-17. Anyway, I have to conclude that the cultural practice of polygamy that is framed in marital faithfulness and exclusivity is, in many ways, more Biblically appropriate than the serial polygamy (one after another) that is commonplace in our own culture. Think carefully about it. While gender attractions are here to stay, the need for learning how to manage those attractions “in a way that is holy and honorable” is also here to stay.