Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello, dear ones.

Light rain is falling. It was foretold. So if it’s foretold, we have no reason to be surprised when it’s fulfilled. Right?

Thano went to work about 9am. Becki and I pulled off a walk/jog. Lots on the agenda for the rest of the day. An evening plan is to pick up Thano’s little boys to spend the weekend. We’ll have our hands full—fuller than usual since Thano will be working much of the time.

Request: If it appears that my cynicism is getting out of hand, please offer some feedback to straighten me out.

May your day go well.

Love. Dad/Ray.

Within these three chapters, David’s house is now enjoying happy peace and unity—NOT! Nothing could be further from the truth! It has turned into an absolute ugly mess! Duh! Are we surprised? We shouldn’t be. After all, this very consequence was pronounced and predicted by God (2 Samuel 12). Yes—God forgave David, but He did not intervene to exclude the consequences of his willful sin. What’s at the root of all this consequence?—OUT-OF-CONTROL SEX! And the root of that root?—neglect or absence of a HEART AFTER GOD—even though the whole fiasco was surrounded by piles of religion. Is it not worth noting that these very same roots are at the root of all our personal, family, community, national, and international problems that we face in our own day?

Let’s be reminded that David was “God’s man.” He was chosen of God to be blessed and representative of His righteousness. And Israel was “God’s people.” They were chosen of God to be blessed and representative of His righteousness. But this is where these origins end up? Good grief! Look at all the lust, sexual immorality, secrecy, hate, deception, trickery, vengeance, bitterness, treachery, espionage, etc. We could make a list of corruption a mile long! We can find all these ugly elements compressed into the three chapters of today’s reading. It adds support to the absolute hopelessness of human nature as a solution to human need. It confirms that the chances of humans joining together to establish anything even close to a lasting utopia comes in at ZERO! There is no way I can train my dog to behave like a chicken. And it’s impossible to train a chicken to act like a dog. And nothing short of transformation will ever prevent sinners from behaving like sinners. That possibility is a Biblical Gospel fact that offers the only hope I can find for rescue from my unavoidable cynicism. So my Savior/Rescuer comes down to none other than Jesus—by God’s grace—the very One that was promised through the family line of David—with all its contaminated ugliness.

Little wonder that illuminated Gospel “insiders” have proclaimed for years that “JESUS IS THE ANSWER!” It’s true! I hope you agree. But is it not heart-rending to behold how few ever get things sorted out so as to ASK THE QUESTION that leads to THE ANSWER? Have we not just identified our own job description?