Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

It’s way too late for a jog…and I have way too much work upon me to make it fit right…but I’m going to do it anyway! I’ll be stubborn this time. I think it’s been 4 days or so without that activity.

I guess I’m kind of stubborn about this course I’m on to jog through the Old Testament too…and record my thoughts. I guess it’s part of a resolve to prioritize including something important along with all the urgent. If all I do is the urgent to the neglect of the important, then am I not a slave…maybe even bowing before an idol? Anyway, I can’t presume this is important to anyone else…but it is to me.

The little boys are here again…altering the whole range of life around here. That’s life!

Blessings on your day.

Love. Dad/Ray.

“They were happy.” That is quite the description! If you had the opportunity to choose a time and place in history to live, Israel under the reign of King Solomon would be a good choice. As far as I can tell from the descriptions given, it was about as close to UTOPIA that anything in human history has ever produced. There was prevailing “peace on all sides” (4:24). Everyone “lived in safety, each man under his own vine and fig tree” (4:25). A thriving economy based on pride of ownership and free enterprise fueled an effective and equitable government with a balanced budget. King Solomon offers a “State of the Union” message to King Hiram by saying, “The LORD has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster” (5:4). National unity seems to have been stimulated further by the highly organized seven-year building project—“the temple of the LORD” (6:1).

Besides Solomon’s incredible capacity for study, research, and knowledge within a broad range of fields (4:29-34), his creative organizational, design, and engineering skills are particularly impressive. It had to be a point of individual and national pride to take part in the temple building project. It was magnificent. The planning and skill was so finely tuned that “no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built” (6:7). I can hardly comprehend such a feat without any sound from heavy equipment and power tools.

But herein is a serious danger. What? Why raise the topic of danger at a time like this? Because this kind of success and achievement can tempt humans with a NATURAL SIN NATURE (remember its deceptive qualities—Jeremiah 17:9) to think that all this craft, design, creativity and beauty comes from them and their own self-made brilliance—and fail to honor the One Who gave those gifts. One governed by this raw human pride and arrogance does not recognize the Creator. All he can see is the part he is allowed to play in the chain of cause and effect—becoming so enamored with the effect that he thinks he is the cause.

Can you imagine anyone much more proud and pompous than Pilate? He asked Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” (John 19:10) Jesus’ reply is noteworthy—even though its truth and meaning went right over Pilate’s head—“You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11). Do you get the big point that speaks to the big picture? None of us have ANYTHING that was not given us from above—power, creativity, skill, imagination, etc.—not to mention breathing, digesting, circulating, procreating, and life itself. Please get it! When you do, I guarantee that you will be totally on board with the following exclamation and question: Can you imagine anything more absurd, ridiculous, and tragic than for a wimpy frail dependent created human to be so proud and pompous before his Sovereign Holy Creator so as to declare (or assume) his independence?

So, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10). The converse is true too—“Be arrogant before the Lord, and He will put you down.”